Wright’s Gourmet House

Wright’s Gourmet House opened on April 20, 1963, when Marjorie and Pete Wright identified a gap in Tampa’s market for a proper gourmet food shop. They started in a modest storefront furnished with secondhand fixtures, stocking imported and domestic delicacies, fresh coffees and teas, exotic spices, cheeses, roasted meats, and the substantial made to order sandwiches that would eventually define the business. Marjorie’s philosophy was simple: sampling sells, and the Wrights committed early on to being the first in Tampa to offer whatever customers asked for, an approach that shaped the store’s identity for decades to come. Those sandwiches went on to earn a reputation as some of the most decorated in the city, a distinction that traces directly back to that original commitment to quality ingredients and made to order preparation.

That responsiveness led to a few genuine innovations. When a customer caught the aroma of Marjorie’s homemade Chicken Tetrazzini and asked to buy a portion to take home, the Wrights obliged, effectively launching a frozen entree business well ahead of the broader industry trend toward prepared frozen meals. Around the same time, the Wrights commissioned a German baker to develop a distinctive round loaf, since known as Bucket Bread, which became the base for nearly every sandwich on the menu and remains largely unimitated by other Tampa sandwich shops decades later. A rum cake recipe gifted by a loyal customer who believed in the fledgling business became another signature item, and both the bread and the cake are still baked fresh daily, the same way they were when the store first introduced them.

Ownership passed to Jeff Mount, grandson of the founders, in 1981, when the business operated as a takeout only counter with eight employees. Since then, Wright’s has grown considerably, now employing roughly 60 people and operating a 225 seat dining room, the fourth physical iteration of the store since it opened in 1963, along with private event space, catering services, and delivery. A second location inside Tampa General Hospital serves the hospital community with extended daily hours, extending the Wright’s name well beyond the original South Tampa storefront. In 2024, ownership transferred again, this time to Caspers Company, the Tampa based family business led by siblings Blake Casper and Allison Casper Adams, who also operate Oxford Exchange and several other locally rooted concepts around the city, keeping the business under local, family ownership even as the name changed hands.

The South Tampa flagship on Dale Mabry Highway remains closed on Sundays and holidays, open weekday mornings through late afternoon and Saturday mornings through midafternoon, a schedule geared toward the lunch crowd the store has served since the 1960s. Prices sit in the moderate range for a sandwich shop of this caliber, reflecting the made to order preparation and quality ingredients rather than a fast food style menu. More than 60 years after Marjorie and Pete Wright first opened their doors, the business still bakes fresh daily and still leans on the same Bucket Bread recipe that made it distinctive from the start.