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Gourmet Coffee, Treats Offered At New Gibsonton Cafe

Tribune photo by YVETTE C. HAMMETT

Martiza and Roderick Sanders are living their dream, having just opened Mari's Café, a gourmet breakfast and lunch spot in the Twin Oaks Plaza on U.S. 41 in Gibsonton.

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 19, 2008

Updated:

GIBSONTON - There's still an hour before work officially starts, but you've got e-mails to read and send and need a quiet spot, a cappuccino and a bit of breakfast.

Cappuccino? In Gibsonton?

It's true. Mari's Cafe, a new gourmet breakfast and lunch spot in the Twin Oaks Plaza at 11130 U.S. 41 offers all of that, including plush couches for a comfortable spot to surf the Web, sip a latte and enjoy a muffin or a European-inspired kolache.

The cafe will soon add wireless Internet and a full-blown coffee center for gourmet sippers.

For Roderick and Maritza Sanders, the small cafe is their dream come to life.

"This has been something in my heart to do for a long time," said Roderick Sanders, who retired from the Marine Corps about 10 years ago and who now serves as a distribution clerk at the nearby post office. "We were just looking for the right moment in time."

When a new extension of Twin Oaks went in right in front of the post office, the couple decided they had the right place at the right time.

"We decided to go for local input, to find out what people around here really wanted," Roderick Sanders said. "We took their ideas and worked with them."

The cafe, which held its grand opening July 19, offers kolaches, which are breakfast or lunch sandwiches made with a soft, sweet bread and filled with pepperoni and mushroom, Philly cheese steak or breakfast favorites.

"They're really good and people really love them," said Maritza Sanders, who recently filled an order for 50 kolache's for a group at , Disciples of Christ Christian Fellowship on Gibsonton Drive.

The spot also offers, among other treats, muffins, croissants, bagels, hot dogs, smoothies and shakes.

"We feel like this was the way God wanted us to go," Roderick Sanders said. "We've done a lot of praying about it."

Although business has started out slowly, word of mouth is helping steer people toward the cafe, the couple said.

Once school begins again, Maritza Sanders said she hopes the teens will take advantage of a comfortable spot to read while sipping an espresso or grabbing a muffin before school.

MARI'S CAFE

OWNERS: Roderick and Maritza Sanders

WHERE: 11130 U.S. 41, Gibsonton

HOURS: 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Saturday

INFORMATION: (813) 677-5256

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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