WESTCHASE — Eddie's Bar & Grill is open at 12217 W. Linebaugh Ave., in the plaza at Linebaugh and Countryway. The Pinellas sports-bar chain took over the old Surf Shack Coastal Kitchen space and made it the first Eddie's in Hillsborough County.
This was not a coat of paint. The room has been fully reworked, with a new layout and a lot more seats. The old games room is mostly gone, folded into dining, and the place already feels like a neighborhood spot.
We went on the third night after opening. At 5 p.m. on a Wednesday, it was packed, which is about as good a welcome as Westchase can give. Eddie's runs a sit-anywhere system, so the door got a little messy when five or six parties stacked up. People were just eager to sit. A small opening-week wrinkle, not the story.
The food is the story. We started with the potato skins: crispy, loaded, and gone fast. I ordered the Stockyard Burger. I always get a burger on an opening week if the menu has one. It is the easiest way to stack a new kitchen against the rest of the bay, and this one landed with the better local burgers I have had. My wife got the Grouper BLT Wrap. Solid, fresh, and one sauce away from being a regular order.
Service kept up as well as you could ask on a slam-packed Wednesday. The card machine went down, the kitchen ran a little behind, and the drinks list had not made it to the tables yet. Classic first-week stuff. I have been to a lot of opening weeks a couple of nights in, and I have never seen a room this full at 5:30 p.m. on a Wednesday. Westchase wanted a new place. Mother's next door closed and never got a replacement. That hunger is real, and Eddie's walked into it.
The menu is wide and the portions are big: wings, burgers, grouper, the usual sports-bar spread plus a happy hour that runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, all day Monday. For to-go, the Westchase shop lists 813-475-5916.
A really good add for the area. The room is better than what was there, the kitchen already has a burger worth coming back for, and opening week looks like the start of a regular.
