Meet the Owner: Country Pumpkin

brought swank upscale dining to East Hillsborough Avenue in June 2011. Three months later Country Pumpkin opened next door as a casual adjunct. Brought to us by chef Ramon Cabron Jr. and Yummy House co-owner John Zhao, the Pumpkin features a simple American diner menu, all day breakfasts, and a business day that ends after the lunch rush.

Country Pumpkin Cafe

2620 E Hillsborough Ave., Suite B

813-237-1818

All day breakfasts: include steak and eggs, pork chop and eggs, omelets, french toast, hash browns, and a fruit plate. For lunch there's also sandwiches like reubens, grilled turkey rachel, burgers, and Cubans, plus soups and salads.

Think along the lines of Village Inn, or IHOP: Only better tasting, according to Cabron. "They cannot compare their food to our food."

Familiar, yet unfamiliar: Cabron likes to put his own stamp on certain comfort food classics. "Some other restaurants boil the potatoes," he said of hash brown preparation. "I bake my potatoes whole, then combine garlic powder, onion powder, basil, paprika, salt and pepper, then sautee the potatoes in it. If you over-boil your potatoes, they can fall apart. The consistency of the potatoes is really nice if you bake them."

Cabron verges on blasphemy with his take on southern fried chicken, but says customers swear by it. He coats the chicken in Cajun spice, butter, salt and pepper, bakes it for 30 minutes, then sautees paprika, Cajun spice, salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders in oil. After baking, he then fries the chicken, then finishes it with his seasoned oil. Ask for it for it by name - it's not on the menu.

Background: Cabron, 47, and his family moved from the Samar province of the Philippines to the U.S., by way of Guam, in 1981. While in Guam, Cabron graduated from high school and studied at the International Business College of Guam for two years. Cabron also started his culinary career, training under German and Austrian chefs at the Pacific Star Hotel.

His family then moved to New Jersey, and then Tampa in 1999. In 2002 Cabron worked as a cook at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay for three years before moving to Raleigh, N.C. There he worked as a cook for Olive Garden, a Hilton hotel, and Vivace Italian restaurant.

Cabron returned to Tampa in 2009, and in 2010 opened J.N.J's International Gourmet to Go in Brandon. That restaurant closed after a year in business. Zhao and Cabron teamed up for Country Pumpkin in 2011.

Coming soon: Cabron said ice cream and boba tea (or bubble tea), a Chinese tapioca drink, will be added to the menu this summer.

Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. everyday