Meet the Tampa chefs who turned a lifelong friendship into the 'Better Together' event series

Any St. Pete resident is used to seeing lines form outside of Bandit Coffee Co. on any given Sunday morning, but this weekend, a Tampa-based event series will keep the party going a bit later than usual.

On Sunday, Better Together—part-food pop-up part-local vendor market—takes over the daytime cafe for a celebration of local food, music, art and more.

Bandit—located at 2662 Central Ave.—closes up shop at 3 p.m. like usual with Better Together bringing its slew of vendors, DJs, small business owners and prized food menu to the popular coffee shop from 6 p.m.-9 p.m.

There’s no cover or ticket needed to attend the Better Together pop-up happening Sunday, July 21 at Bandit Coffee Co.
[event-1] Keeping the event free-to-attend is an intentional decision that taps into the very ethos of the project organized by longtime friends and Tampa natives Guillermo Quezada and Hassan Lewis. As two friends that share a deep appreciation for their hometown, they wanted to create a hyperlocal event series to showcase Tampa’s creative community and help give up-and-coming artists and small business owners a platform.

“Honestly, we just got tired of hearing people say over and over that ‘Tampa isn’t this” and ‘I can’t be truly successful in Tampa’—this city is going to be what it is, and if you keep trying to compare it to these other places, then of course you’re not find to what you’re looking for,” Lewis tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “But when you start to appreciate the city for what it is, and actually take the time to look for the stuff you like and want to do, Tampa can definitely be a great place to live.”

“And then we were like—‘OK…how do we translate all of these feelings into one event?” he continues with a laugh.

Quezada, 28, and 27-year-old Lewis first met at Webb Middle School in Town ‘N Country. But their friendship didn’t really solidify until a few years later, when the two were involved in the culinary program at Leto High School less than two miles away. As teenagers, they quickly discovered their passion for cooking and service—Lewis started washing dishes at the then-newly-opened Rooster & the Till in Seminole Heights and Quezada later joined him as part of his culinary school internship.

While Quezada has spent the last decade traveling back and forth between private chef and catering gigs in NYC and working at Rooster & the Till in Tampa, Lewis stayed in his hometown and witnessed the city’s intense growth over the years. He gained a degree from USF through scholarships associated with the Boys & Girls Club, and eventually returned to the kitchen at Rooster—plus other Proper House Group concepts—right around the time that COVID-19 upended the restaurant industry.

Quezada moved back to Tampa for good last year, and the semi-long distance childhood friends immediately started collaborating on their hyperlocal event series—something they had started conceptualizing years before.
It wasn’t hard to choose the name “Better Together” for their new project, since the duo shared a love for community and collaboration.

“Back when we first started, we were really just trying to get homies plugged in…we realized that we could all essentially help each other out and produce something that not only benefits the people associated with Better Together, but everybody else, too,” Lewis tells CL. “Everyone that’s involved in these events brings their own crowd and demographic. After we got so much love and feedback after our first event, it really gave us the momentum we needed to keep going.”

The duo chose to host their debut Better Together event on 813 Day last year, which represented their “love letter to the city of Tampa.” So far, they’ve only hosted a handful of events at venues like Nebraska Mini-Mart and L.P.C.X. Cafe., but have always wanted to bring their pop-ups across the bridge to St. Petersburg.

After this weekend’s event in St. Pete, the two friends plan to continue hosting Better Together pop-ups on both sides of the bridge in an effort to connect creative communities across Tampa Bay.

In addition to a variety of baked goods, arts and crafts, candle and flower vendors—plus music from Tampa DJ collective Just Some Friends—Sunday’s event will also feature a small food menu from Quezada and Lewis, who will sling their prized sammies out of Bandit’s kitchen.

Drinks can also be purchased from an outside bar or inside of Bandit’s newly-opened Small Bar.

Sandwiches available at this weekend’s Better Together pop-up include the Dominican-inspired “Don Chimi” burger with a chorizo-beef patty, fried cheese, guava, mayo-ketchup, and chimichurri-dressed cabbage and tomato, and a homage to the classic Cuban sammie called “El Comi,” with thick-cut ham, five spiced Szechuan pernil, salami, Swiss cheese and pickles.

Bandit’s head chef Ben Pomales might even lend his old friends a hand in the kitchen, as he, Quezada and Lewis have known each other since their early days at Rooster & the Till.

Since they have a 10-year relationship with the Seminole Heights restaurant and its owners, Quezada and Lewis regard the Proper House owners—Chef Ferrell Alvarez, Ty Rodriguez and Chon Nguyen— longtime mentors in both a culinary and business sense.
“We’re lucky in the fact that we’re able to tap into the people that have created these successful entities, and under their mentorship, we’re now starting to produce things and create spaces that we enjoy,” Quezada explains. “I think that sort of generational connection is what makes us true products of Tampa.”

While things are getting back up and running with Better Together, future goals for the two include a partnership with a local nonprofit and a pivot towards fundraisers, as well as organizing a larger-scale block party one day. And while Quezada and Lewis love to sling their beloved sammies at Better Together parties, they eventually plan to showcase other food pop-ups and trucks, too, so they can start leaning into their roles as event coordinators.

“One of the main messages that we try to convey to everyone is that ‘You can do this too,’ Quezada says. “As long as you have some like minded, creative friends and a space that’s willing to host—anyone can really do it. We’re always encouraging other people to tap into whatever they love to do.”

“And for all of us to be able to come together and learn from each other—I think that’s a really beautiful thing,” Lewis adds.

Despite both working day jobs outside of their Better Together —with Quezada back at Rooster & the Till and Lewis doing IT work with Nguyen’s food safety company FusionPrep—the friends are dedicated to their passion project and hope to one day be able to work on event coordination and other creative projects in a more full-time capacity.

While the duo have always bonded over their shared love for cooking, the creation of their food pop-up under the Better Together umbrella has actually sparked a new-found appreciation for being in the kitchen, slinging their own creations and feeding their friends.

“I think a lot of us that cook professionally have these two different sides of us where we love to be in the kitchen, but then we also need to get paid,” Quezada explains. “And where the complexity comes into that, is sometimes what we get paid to do is not necessarily what we’re passionate about.”

“I never would have imagined that me stepping away from the kitchen would be what helped re-blossom my love for food,” Lewis adds.

Follow @bettertogethertpa on Instagram for the latest updates on Quezada and Lewis’ pop-up and their debut St. Petersburg event.

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