Five years after walking away from the renowned Z Grille, veteran St. Petersburg restaurateur Zack Gross and his wife, Jennifer Gross, will return to the Tampa Bay culinary scene in early March with the debut of a new eatery, Uncle Funz Provisions, at 6640 Gulf Boulevard in St. Pete Beach.

Gross describes the menu as consisting of “people’s food, which is what I love to do.” He says it will be a small, simple restaurant, only about 800 square feet, and it will be primarily staffed by him and his wife.

“I’m not going to have a bunch of people working there,” he said in an interview with St. Pete Rising. “And I’m not going to be mass producing food. The menu will be ever-changing.”

“We really want this place to be an extension of our home,” adds his wife, Jennifer. “It’ll be a warm and welcoming place. Very laid back and beachy, but also elevated, which is something I think St. Pete Beach needs.”

Uncle Funz was destined to open at 6640 Gulf Boulevard. The property has been in Jennifer’s family for decades.

Jennifer’s grandfather, Colonel Michael J. Horan, was the mayor of St. Pete Beach in the late 70s and early 80s. In addition to politics, Horan was also a local entrepreneur and owned property all over St. Pete Beach, including the home of Uncle Funz. 

“When I was a little girl, he had a printing company called Abbey Quick Prints that operated out of the Uncle Funz spot,” said Jennifer. “So, it’s come full circle. It’s the coolest thing ever.”

Gross was born and raised in California but he moved to St. Pete in the early 2000s because his wife was born and raised in St. Pete and they wanted to escape the high cost of living in San Diego. He opened his first restaurant, Z Grille, on Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete in 2005, helping to pave the way for the city’s urban renaissance.

Gross took a bet on St. Pete before many restauranteurs were willing to. In a way, he opened the door for a lot of chefs who came after him and brought national recognition to St. Pete when he was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2009.

Z Grille, which closed in 2017, became known for its unusual, avant-garde menu items, such as Dr. Pepper ribs and Gross’s signature deviled eggs, but don’t expect to find those at Uncle Funz — at least not yet.

“There may be a version of [the ribs] somewhere down the line,” Gross says, adding that he might make the deviled egg dish as more of an egg salad, but right now the inflation-driven high price of eggs is an obstacle.

The menu, he says, “will change depending on what I want to make, because I’m getting old. I’ve been working on smoking different meats for sandwiches, different sauces and flavor profiles, everything from Indian food to more Asian stuff and Florida, bright citrusy stuff.”

The menu will also change out of pure economic necessity.

“We’re in a time when you can’t get certain things,” Gross says. “You never know what you can and can't have. So, by not having a set menu all the time, I'm going to be able to kind of flow through what we have that's available. It's like, ‘What's the freshest thing we can get?’ But also, ‘What's the most cost-effective thing?’ Because what happens is if you stick yourself in a position where you're making something all the time, you can't really go up and down on the price.”

Gross expects to offer items such as smoked fish dip that are good for the beach and boating. “We’re going to do a lot of boat catering,” he adds, “like, ‘Come and pick up all your stuff or we’ll drop it off at your big boat when you’re getting gas.’”

Living up to the word “provisions” in its name, Uncle Funz will also carry a wide array of gifts and items for entertaining guests curated by Gross’s wife, Jennifer, such as serving dishes, cloth napkins, chef’s knives, candles, and flowers from St. Petersburg-based Gypsy Stems.

“I feel like everyone brings a bottle of wine to dinner parties. But I don’t always know what varietal of wine the host likes, or whether they like wine at all,” said Jennifer. “To me, a beautiful serving dish, a set of linen napkins, for example, are much more thoughtful gifts. Most people won’t necessarily buy those items for themselves, but they’ll enjoy them if they have them." 

The restaurant will have very limited seating, less than 10 seats; it’s designed to be mostly take-out.

“It’s more casual, not fast,” Gross says. “It’s not going to be like Subway. I’ll make things like salsa, things I know people always wanted me to make, that you can just take and go.”

Gross says he didn’t want to open another full-service, sit-down restaurant because staffing is such a headache in today’s business environment.

“Bigger doesn’t mean better,” he says. “Rarely do you see big restaurants that do it right anymore. It’s very hard. You either have bad service or bad food. There are only a handful of restaurants that do both well. If I do eventually get back into something that is sit-down, it'll be less than 20 seats, reservation-only, and open only 3-4 days a week.”

After Z Grille closed, Gross and his wife moved back to California, where he says he “did the country club thing.”

He adds, “That was great — don’t get me wrong — but it’s where chefs go to die. You don’t really have to do anything, which is cool — you just have to avoid getting fired. But unfortunately, I had COVID and then a new general manager came in at the same time, and that was the kiss of death.” 

Gross spent the past couple of years as a private chef and menu planner, but with his parents in Florida and his daughter starting high school, a return to St. Pete made sense. 

“I want quality of life,” he says. “My biggest reason for doing this is to allot myself the time I want to have, and the only way to do that is to work for yourself.”

Gross is hoping to open Uncle Funz Provisions in early March at 6640 Gulf Boulevard in St. Pete Beach. Be sure to follow them on Instagram for the latest updates and menu items.