Aqua Talks returns to Blu Halo for a roundtable (or, as Larry puts it, a “square table”) with managing partner Andy Donato, restaurant relations lead Shannon Ruedt, and PR partner Mary Ellen Collins. The theme: Blu Halo isn’t just a special-occasion spot — with cocktails starting at 11:30, a come-as-you-are no-dress-code vibe, and a location surrounded by offices, hotels, and the airport, it’s built to be an everyday lunch, happy hour, or dinner destination you can visit once or twice a week.

The conversation covers what makes the place distinctive: an all-fresh, no-freezers kitchen (Wagyu even on the kids’ menu), a genuinely substantial “Paw Patio” dog menu where dogs eat free, live music Wednesday through Saturday, and a packed events calendar — monthly Mahjong & Martinis, a private room that seats up to 50, and a steady run of pairing dinners. Andy walks through his passion project, the wine list (old world and new, heavy on France and Italy), and previews upcoming events including a Green Bench beer dinner and an October bourbon dinner featuring Penelope. It’s a warm, community-minded look at a restaurant leaning into being a neighborhood regular spot as it approaches its one-year anniversary.

IN THIS EPISODE:

Chapters:

• 00:44 - Blue Halo: New Participants Join
• 01:30 - Returning to Blue Halo: Dining Philosophy & Offerings
• 07:15 - Events & Community Nights — Pairing Dinners, Mahjong & More
• 09:32 - Wine list, tastings, and pairing events
• 15:25 - Episode Outro — Aqua Talks: Call to Action & Closing

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Not just special occasion. Pricing, menu, and an 11:30 cocktail start are designed for everyday visits — lunch, happy hour, or dinner once or twice a week — not a once-a-year splurge.
• The “Paw Patio” dog menu. Shannon’s idea, born from a “Bark & Brunch” event and tied to a local shelter: dogs eat free, with substantial options (sliced strawberries, hot dog, chicken, scrambled eggs) — a step beyond the usual pup cup.
• All fresh, no freezers. The kitchen literally has no freezers, so everything is fresh — including Wagyu on the kids’ menu (same quality beef the adults get, no frozen patties or chicken).
• Live music four nights a week. Wednesday through Saturday, kept as soft background listening that can turn up later in the night.
• A full events calendar. Monthly Mahjong & Martinis (first Sunday, open play), wine/whiskey/beer pairing dinners coordinated with bar manager Joey, and a private room seating up to 50 (splittable) — now taking holiday reservations.
• Andy’s wine list. A personal passion spanning old world and new, affordable to splurge, with a France- and Italy-heavy old-world selection.
• Pairing dinners with real voices. Andy brings in actual winemakers/winery reps (recently Todd Anderson of Kahn Valley) rather than multi-brand liquor reps; upcoming are a Green Bench (St. Pete) beer dinner and an October Penelope bourbon dinner (wheated, rye, and the new French-oak-finished “Architect”).
• Sunday is chef’s night. Open 4–8 with the Lobster Trap and three rotating chef-only specialty entrées (a pasta, a chicken, and a beef dish).

Welcome to Aqua Talks, where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.

Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.

Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor, or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aqua Talks offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.

Coming back to Blue Halo, I want to have.

We have more participants with us today.

As I mentioned, we want to do more of a roundtable, but again, it's more of a square table.

So I want to introduce the two people that weren't with us on our earlier conversation.

Shannon, you want to introduce yourself?

My name is Shannon Root.

I am the restaurant relations here at the Blue Halo restaurant and I take care of a lot of the community outreach trying to get it out there, the good word out there to everybody.

My name is Mary Ellen Collins and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the Blue Halo team and help spread the word about this fantastic restaurant, their fabulous food and just what a great night out this is.

Whether it's for dinner or coming for lunch, it's really a special secret place for the Tampa Bay area and thrilled to be helping them.

We want to jump back into our conversation about the Blue Halo and Andy or Shannon, please.

Either or jump in.

You said you're not just a special occasion restaurant, so do you want to tell us more about that?

We don't want to be known as the destination for once or twice a year.

We'd rather be known that you can stop in and visit us whether it's a cocktail lunch or a dinner.

But we can accommodate the special occasion also.

But our pricing and our menu definitely affords you to dine in once or twice a week.

Absolutely.

Business meetings constantly.

The hotels and the airports very close.

So a lot of people like to stop in right before they're traveling.

So all types of different people out there to reach.

Yeah, it's, it's a good location and we see that on your patio you have a, a menu for dogs.

I'm a dog owner.

I have a black lab.

Actually, I'm about to have two black labs.

So I would definitely want to, you know, dive into that with.

I'm not sure that you're familiar with labs, but they will introduce themselves to everybody.

The friendliest breed.

I'll let Shannon, I'll let Shayna speak to that because that was her.

That's basically she.

That was her whole idea of the.

The paw to.

So I'll let her speak about that.

So I also have a little affiliation with a local shelter here.

And.

And of course, when we first opened, we had a bark and brunch where people could bring their dogs, and we had vendors and so forth.

And it was such a fun hit that we decided to come up with a patio menu where dogs eat for free.

And I think it's a really interesting menu.

I think if you go out to most restaurants, they offer a pup cup.

This is much different than that.

Dogs can get sliced strawberries.

They can get, you know, I believe it's a sliced hot dog, chicken, scrambled eggs.

It's.

It's substantial.

I mean, it's.

It's more than just a little ice cream or a little pup cup that you'll see in most restaurants.

So I think that's really interesting and fun for the dog owners to come try it.

Yes, we're animal lovers here, all of us.

The location here at Blue Halo, it is a walking location for some areas.

So you can walk down from park in Maine.

Yeah, we're right down at the bottom, right at the base, in the corner.

Okay.

And the.

I'm not familiar with park in Maine.

I.

This is a really nice area.

It's newer.

So again, for me, I'm not that familiar.

So do you want to elaborate a little bit on when you say park in May?

So we get.

We want to get more of a specific location.

Absolutely.

Like, it's called the Echelon City Center.

There are four residential towers, and they are going to grow to build two to three more, if not an additional one, to go up to 8.

The location is right off of the Howard Franklin bridge, heading towards St. Pete Beach.

And we are right there in the Publix Plaza, right adjacent to the top Golf that you can see from many miles away.

Okay.

And I think it's important to mention, too, that you're right off of Ulmerton Road, which is a huge thoroughfare for people who were driving in and out of the area.

You're right off of Ulmerton.

You just take a right or a left, depending on which direction you're coming from, and you'll be right here.

Absolutely correct.

From Feather Sound, or that's another.

Another landmark.

Is that you say right across from Feather Sound community, which has been there for many, many years.

That's a.

That's pinpoint.

Thank you for that.

The.

Looking at the menu.

There's something for everyone here.

We have a dog menu, which.

On the Paul Patio.

Is that what it's called the patio.

And we, you know, we have a kids menu, which Andy and I talked about earlier, but we didn't mention is there's wagyu on the kids menu.

Why not chicken fingers?

Well, of course, if we could accommodate that, but that is, we wanted the children to eat the same burger as the adults do.

Yes.

We're not going to downgrade the quality of beef that we serve for children opposed to an adult.

And that's a good idea.

I love wagyu myself and chicken fingers.

I do.

I'm still a chicken finger guy.

Also, no frozen patties, no frozen chicken.

And you don't normally see wagyu on a menu anyway.

So it's unusual to see not only a wagyu steak or wagyu burger, but then on the kids menu as well.

That's a unique idea, actually.

And to even take it a step further, Shannon just mentioned that one unique aspect about our kitchen here is we don't have freezers.

So everything is fresh.

We don't have the ability to take in frozen product or freeze product.

Okay.

And another I think is a great addition is live music.

You have live live music on weekends.

You rotate artists.

Is there a certain way you book?

If someone wanted to book?

What are we listening for?

Well, we have it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Presently, if they need.

They're interested in playing here.

They just need to contact myself or stop by the restaurant.

And typically I usually let them play the piano or demo for me and obviously see if this is the right atmosphere for them to play.

And obviously if they can, you know, entertain us, that's.

That's what we're looking for.

It's.

We kind of keep it more of a soft listening style.

A little bit of light rock or 100.

It's background music.

Background music.

And at the end of the night, if they want to turn it up a notch.

And for the couple people that are still at the bar that absolutely.

So elaborate a little bit more on your events.

I know there was some about mahjong and martinis.

Please hear what you want to talk about when it comes to your events.

Well, we also come up with a lot of great pairing dinners as well.

We do wine dinners, whiskey dinners, beer dinners between chef Andy and our bar manager Joey.

They really coordinate this really great event experience.

Then we also have on the first Sunday of each month, mahjong and martinis, where chef will bring out a selection of food, get a happy hour cocktail, and it's all open play so all the ladies can bring their tiles show off their tiles and just have some fun.

I play mahjong tiles on my phone literally every day.

I have to check that out because I've been doing a lot of research and I need something.

It's a way that one, it helps me, you know, clear my mind, especially early in the morning before I start working.

Helps get my brain moving a little bit.

I hear it's more like poker in a way.

It's, it's digital, it's fun.

It's not the my, it's not as the same as the mahjong tiles that you would play with actual tiles.

So it is a little bit.

It's more of a matching game.

But it, it, the way it's set up, you have to think two or three moves ahead.

I'm excited to see it all at play.

So.

With a little chess in there too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It definitely helps you start thinking, helps you start thinking beyond what you just see on paper.

And so speaking of some of the events like Mahjong Taos and, and dinners on Sunday, there any.

Anything else that you really want to get out to the public, you want.

To go over booking for events in the back.

So we do have.

Holidays are coming up and we hope to fill the next and to the end of the year all up with reservations.

We do have a private room that fits up to 50 people comfortably.

That room can be split in half if need be.

We have TVs.

We can set it up cocktail style, sit down, dinner tile style.

But we're definitely open to taking reservations for the holidays.

Okay.

And one of the things that really stick out, we've been sitting in front of this wall with a wine selection behind us.

Want to talk a little bit about your wines?

Yeah.

That is.

The wine menu is my creation.

It's my passion.

I enjoy it.

Whether it's old world, new world, whites and reds.

I, I, there's wines that are very affordable, and then there's the special occasion wines that can definitely bring out your wallet there a little bit there.

But everything from Pinot Noirs to Cabernets and the New world.

And we are heavy in France and Italy for the old world.

You know what's really popular?

Wine tastings.

Have you ever done any of those with your foods, wine pairings, Wine?

We did.

Shannon made mention of that.

We just had Todd Anderson from Khan Valley in for a wine dinner.

Typically when we host wine dinners, I usually wait for the winemaker or an actual representative from the winery there.

I would rather have them speak intelligently and knowledgeably.

About the wines instead of just having myself or one of the liquor reps come in that represent multiple brands.

So we look for a representative from the winery.

We do have.

We do have a beer dinner coming up.

And it's.

The date is still to be determined.

And it's going to be Green Bench, which is the brewery in St. Pete.

We do have a bourbon dinner scheduled in October, this coming October.

And the bourbon representative will be Penelope.

And we'll be pouring their bourbon whiskey, their weeded and also their rye.

And then they have a new line out called Architect, which is a straight bourbon whiskey finished with French oak.

And that is scheduled this coming October.

What other tastings have you done in the past or things that you're looking forward to doing in the future?

Just on the different types of additional.

Wine dinners, because that allows you to.

If it's South American, if it's Napa, if it's Old World, if it's New World, you can do a variety of different dishes that pair with those properly.

Those are the ones that I think we have a lot of passion about and that we enjoy doing and we look forward to doing.

And you've had a bourbon dinner before, correct?

Right.

We did have a bourbon dinner prior.

We had Stranahans, and like I said, we have the Penelope upcoming.

I know September is Bourbon month, and unfortunately we couldn't get the Penelope scheduled then, but it is scheduled for October.

So, Andy, tell us a little bit more about your Sunday night dinners.

Sunday night dinners, we are presently open from 4 to 8 on Sunday.

We do offer our lobster trap on that night, but it's one of chef's favorite nights because he has three specialty items that he.

They are entrees that he offers on Sunday night and Sunday night only.

And those are rotating and they've become quite popular.

And typically he'll do a pasta, chicken and a beef dish, and he rotates those throughout the Sundays.

Upcoming Sundays have to come on Sunday.

Yeah.

The only time to get it.

As we finish up, I want to round up full circle.

So starting with Monday, tell us what a week looks like at the Blue Lay Low.

Our happy hour starts then.

We get a lot of business people from all the business offices surrounding us.

Then it tends to get into your families start coming in, sit down in the dining room.

We have booths, seating, table seatings.

We also have oversized booths that fit up to six people comfortably.

Then it turns into date night.

It seems like a lot of people at the end of the night are two tops we do randomly throughout the whole time, from open to close.

Get people out on the patio.

Patio.

So that, that is very unpredictable.

You never know when people are going to want to just sit outside.

And what's nice too is there's no particular dress code.

So it's, it's okay if you come right after work or if you're, if you're coming right from wherever.

It's, you know, we, we don't feel like you need to be all dressed up in the nines just to be.

Here so we can enjoy a comfortable lunch here during the day.

We can stop over with a group of friends for happy hour starting at.

Yeah, absolutely.

For lunch.

Absolutely.

And then the happy hour food starts at 4 o' clock to 6 o'.

Clock.

Monday through Friday.

Monday through Friday.

And then we start to switch over to a dinner menu.

Right around what time?

4 O'.

Clock.

4 O'.

Clock.

We accommodate both lunch and dinner.

So if there is a lunch favorite that you have, we will never say no to you whenever you come in.

Or, or if you would like a rib eye at lunch.

We would never say no to that either.

Yeah.

I talked to the chef and there's a lot of great food.

He's very experienced chef.

He seems really, he's been around, he's worked with a lot of great people.

You can't go wrong with what's going on in the kitchen.

I've eaten here quite a few times and I'm very pleased with the food actually.

And it's a beautiful restaurant, it's a beautiful location, a beautiful space, lots of parking.

You can walk here based off of the locations that you're at.

You can bring business, family, friends, kids, the dog.

It's all here.

And the wine list looks great.

So with all that, I'm impressed.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you for coming forward to seeing everybody stop in.

And happy almost one year anniversary to you too.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Happy one year anniversary.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

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