Southern Luv BBQ
Southern Luv BBQ smokes over pecan wood on Citrus Park Drive in northwest Tampa, run by founder and pitmaster Chef Essi Tadrus. His own story on the site starts with a plate of ribs at a gas station in Fort Hood, Texas at age five, where his father was stationed; he opened his first restaurant at nineteen and later brought it home to Tampa. The kitchen took second place for World's Best Cuban Sandwich at the International Cuban Sandwich Festival in Tampa, and it bottles its own Carolina gold and sweet heat sauces and bags its own kettle-cooked chips in small batches. When Hurricane Milton knocked out power, the restaurant fired the pit back up and handed out free pulled pork and mac and cheese to neighbours.
- Address
- 8019 Citrus Park Dr, Tampa, FL
- Phone
- (813) 945-2443
- Website
- southernluvbbq.com
- Cuisine
- bbq, southern, cuban
- Good to know
- Family Owned, Owner Operated, Founder Story, Gives Back, Community Partner
- Verification
- Details researched September 19, 2026. Hours and offerings change, so confirm with the venue before visiting.
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Good for
What people come here for, beyond what is on the menu.
Community submissions
No community submissions for Southern Luv BBQ yet.
Discovery profile 16 of 17 readable
For whoever runs Southern Luv BBQ. This is what a search engine or an AI assistant can currently read about the place. It is free, it is here whether the venue joins in or not, and it can be corrected any time.
- Street address on file: yes
- Neighborhood assigned: yes
- Phone number published: yes
- Website on file: yes
- Hours published: no Hours drive the most time-sensitive question in local search.
- Cuisine or specialty described: yes
- Photography on file: yes
- Website reachable: pass HTTP 200
- Served over HTTPS: pass
- Structured data present: pass Declared: Organization, ContactPoint, WebSite, SearchAction, EntryPoint, Restaurant
- Declares a business type: pass Restaurant
- Page description written: pass
- Menu linked from the homepage: pass
- Hours published on site: pass
- Address published on site: pass
- Social profiles linked: pass instagram.com, facebook.com
- Open to AI crawlers: pass No AI crawler is blocked in robots.txt.
Website checks last run October 11, 2026 against the venue's own site.
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