USA: 10 places to eat in downtown St Petersburg, Florida

Where to eat in downtown St Pete, FL

a moody St. Pete waterfront

I happened to be in the States for last year's Independence Day. Specifically Los Angeles, in what was week 28 of mine and the other half's eight month round-the-world travel stint (I've almost been back a year now - boy, that time has flown). I happened to wind up there for this 4th July too, thanks to the lovely folk at Visit The USA.

They asked me if I'd be keen on visiting St. Petersburg in Florida (close to Tampa), to discover the city through the medium of food, and share some intrepid culinary reporting with my readers. The answer was of course, yes. And by pure coincidence, my visit fell over Independence Day.  

I would be going on my own, with no itinerary and no schedule; I'd be free to seek out the best eating spots of my own accord and order what I want; I'd be able to call being a grazing glutton for five days in a new city 'work'; and I could totally make some new pals over street party beer drinking in the name of America's birthday (that's what they do, right?). I was well up for the task. 

It was a fab trip, and I'm really starting to get the draw of solo travel. There's no one to answer to, and it forces you to embrace your surroundings more than you might do with a familiar face in tow.

making new pals in St. Pete

Probably because of this, I ended up in a whisky bar one night, watching an adorably nerdy and simultaneously excellent blues band who were so good, I bought them a round of Jameson, and had one too many myself (I didn't leave the room until 1pm the next day). 

And I met some lovely lads in a café, who invited me to join them watching the July 4th fireworks. We ended the evening guffawing over cocktails and the hilarious differences between the English spoken in our two countries - thanks again guys. 

From my non-stop eating in St. Petersburg, with visits based on recommendations from locals and my own research, here are my favourite picks.

an all American breakfast at The Hangar
Restaurant, St Pete

1) The Hangar Restaurant & Flight Lounge

Some of the best meals I had in St Pete. were the breakfasts. I'm talking big portions of all-American classics; the things Brits will always order whenever we hop over the pond. You just can't find this stuff in the UK.

Get yourself to The Hangar Restaurant at Albert Whitted Airport; it's a very small one right on Tampa Bay for private aircraft. Order the Applewood smoked bacon, stone-ground grits, buttermilk biscuit, an iced tea, and get some biscuit gravy as an extra. What a way to start the day - it was terrific.

The Hangar Restaurant, 540 1st St SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
thehangarstpete.com

hangover-busting brunch at Cassis, St Pete

2) Cassis American Brasserie

This was on the morning after that night of whisky. It was July 4th, I was worried most places would be closed, and I'd figured I'd almost certainly missed any brunch menus that might have been on (remember, I left the room late). 

I did a bit of dazed wandering down Beach Drive, and just before the point of collapse - a horrid hangover with unrelenting humidity is most unpleasant - I found myself in front of a couple eating outside (how?!), with eggs on their plate. Exactly what I wanted.

AC and a great corned beef hash at Cassis Bakery, with two sunny side up eggs. Yeh, that hit the spot.

Cassis American Brasserie, 170 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
cassisab.com

homemade Reuben knish made with love
from Saturday Morning Market, St Pete

3) Saturday Morning Market

If you happen to find yourself in St. Pete over a weekend, I'd recommend the Saturday Morning Market. 

Their mission: to be the heart of St. Petersburg, where people feel a strong sense of 'joyful connectedness and creative community'. 

You'll find real farmers, great food, interesting crafts and lively music, with a range of gourmet ready-to-eat and take-home treats.

Still on UK time, I got there bright and early and had my first breakfast stop of the day: a Reuben knish with home-cured corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and potato. Plus a ginger kombucha over ice because I was already wilting, even at 9am.

Saturday Morning Market, 100 1st Street SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
saturdaymorningmarket.com

all of the legs at 400 Beach
Sunday buffet, St Pete

4) 400 Beach Seafood & Tap House

Another weekend must do is the Sunday buffet brunch at 400 Beach. Buffets are a done thing in America, and done well - very much unlike the UK, where they're generally considered a bit naff.

There are a lot of them in St. Pete, but I didn't find another that offered all you can eat crustacean. Alaskan snow crab legs a plenty, I spent a glorious hour cracking, poking and sucking the hell out of those things like I was on commission.

There's other stuff too, like fresh salads, fry up staples, an omelette station, a carving station, and a whole little room of desserts. But it's the crab that brings the boys and girls to the yard.

400 Beach Seafood & Tap House, 400 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
400beachseafood.com

iced coffee and scone to beat the
FL heat at Banyan Café, St Pete

5) Banyan Café

Banyan Café on Central is a great spot to take some respite from the oppressive summer air. I intercepted a morning's wanderings with their iced Kahwa coffee and one of their fresh homemade scones, with mango and cinnamon.

It's also where I bumped into my 4th July pals (see above), and then got chatting to another guy who was visiting from California, to see if he should up and move his business here. Who then joined me for lunch (see Bodega below). Sure, why not.

Those Americans sure are a friendly bunch.

Banyan Café, 701 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 
banyancoffee.com

lunch fuel on Central,
The Cuban from Bodega, St Pete

6) Bodega

There is much online rhapsodising about The Cuban sandwich found at Bodega on Central. 

A shack with a chalkboard menu and paper dinner boxes, the menu at Bodega is inspired by the islands of Latin America, alongside a fresh juice bar to help with that heat (I know I keep going on about it, but it really was so hot).

In your sandwich expect roast pork ham, Swiss, pickles and mayo, and out the front expect a queue. I felt a bit like an extra in the film Chef.

Bodega, 1120 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33705
bodegaoncentral.com

getting those greens in at
The Cider Press Cafe, St Pete

7) The Cider Press Café

Whilst it's tempting to fill your boots on carbs and protein when visiting the States, it's important to get those greens in.

A good spot for this is the Cider Press Café for some sunshine eating in the form of Florida inspired plant-based food.

I ticked off some of my fibre quota with The Cider Press Salad: mixed greens, apple, carrot, berries, smoked pecans and an apple cider, ginger and lemon dressing. And a kale, spinach, banana, mango and pineapple smoothie for good measure.

The Cider Press Café, 601 Central Ave. St Petersburg, FL 33701
ciderpresscafe.com

big ice cream game from Paciugo, St Pete

8) Paciugo

Everything really is bigger in America. This was probably the largest ice cream I've ever been given, and it was only a regular.

A national chain founded in 2000 by Italians who moved to Dallas and missed the flavours of Italy, Paciugo's gelato is made by hand each day and comes in a brain-bending number of flavours

I got scoops of four much-loved classics - a fab chocolate sorbet, pistachio, coffee and salted caramel. It was all over my hand within seconds; I had to upturn the beast into a tub and attack it with a spoon.

Paciugo, 300 Beach Dr, Ste. 120, St Petersburg, FL 33701
paciugo.com

steaming pho for a hot day at La V, St Pete

9) La V

I might have still been acclimatising to the heat and humidity on my first evening, but it didn't stop me chasing a steaming bowl of pho.

I found a lovely bowl at La Vie, with 12 hour stewed beef broth and generous amounts of meat, all paired with a hoppy Tampa Bay Old Elephant Foot IPA.

And then I knocked out by 9pm, as it was 2am in my head.

La V, 441 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
lavfusion.com

seafood-focussed fine dining
at Sea Salt St Pete

10) Sea Salt St. Pete

I was told I wasn't allowed to visit Florida and not eat groupa. I'm all for unwritten rules, so here she be. A glorious blackened groupa fillet from Sea Salt St. Pete, with a very nice Sancerre. 

There are few things more pleasurable than having a fancy pants solo meal with cocktails and wine and small and sweet Kumamoto oysters from British Columbia and great service - it was a pretty sweet evening.

Sea Salt St. Pete, 183 2nd Ave North, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
seasaltstpete.com










This is a sponsored post in partnership with Visit The USA, as part of a campaign to showcase the flavours of the country, one destination at a time. If you end up visiting St. Pete and trying out any of the treats above, I'd love to hear about it!

shake shack, covent garden - review

I do a lot of things ‘as a matter of principle’. Often a guise for what is essentially my unequivocal stubbornness, wave a ‘principle counter’ over me and my reading is click-clicking off the chart. While this may initially sound like a virtuous trait, it really isn’t. 

For example, when driving, I will continue ahead in my correct lane even though I know the cretin next to me in the wrong lane also wants to carry on forwards. By neither of us dropping back, it is inevitable we will bump cars. But I am in the right, he is in the wrong. I am therefore exempt from any bolts of wrath and misfortune from above. And so I don’t move, as a matter of principle. Personal beliefs still upheld, but car bumped (true story). 

At few other points in life do I flex my muscles of principle more than when the latest fad is sweeping the nation. Fifty Shades of Grey, Angry Birds, Harlem shaking, planking are all examples of crap crazes I have refused to entertain, as a matter of principle. If it pleases the masses, the bitter cynic in me makes the immediate assumption it won’t please me. Turns out my theory doesn’t have a 100% success rate; who knew.


The American burger chain Shake Shack opened its first set of doors on UK soil earlier this month, specifically on Covent Garden soil and only a week apart from one of its largest American competitors, Five Guys.

They, and others, have been riding the crest of the wave that is the recent and all-encompassing UK burger resurgence. Even the vegans amongst us would have found it difficult to ignore burger joints springing up across the capital like rodents on a Whac-A-Mole arcade game - Dirty Burger, Honest Burgers, Mother Flipper, Meat Liquor, Patty & Bun, to name a few. And people are going crazy for them, rushing to sample with a fervour like they’re on commission. 

With PR machines and social media working overtime to create trending hashtags and an Instagram meltdown prior and during openings, launches of these fast-food-with-finesse joints have seen early adopters queuing for tens of minutes at a time to be one of the first to get their chops around the newest best burger in town.

As a matter of principle, I have refused to be swept up in these initial fanatical flurries of overzealous and disproportional activity, whilst at the same time reading reviews with the simultaneously furrowed and cocked brow of a sceptic. 

However, I did eat in a Shake Shack in NYC a couple of years back. And I do recall it being very good. And on that basis and that basis alone, in the name of objective comparison, I saw it my duty to see what this Covent Garden store had to offer. That was definitely my soul motivation..


Situated in the old Market Building at the centre of Covent Garden, Shake Shack comprises of the premises housing a band of cash registers backed by the kitchen and only al fresco seating (although dining areas are covered by the Market Building roof). 

Along with your name, you give your order to the well trained and smiling till staff and a buzzer you’re handed makes a racket once the food is ready to collect from the pick-up counter. We were a party of three, each ordering the double Smoke Shack - essentially a bacon cheeseburger with two beef patties. I also ordered the Union Shack concrete (ice cream) and there were a couple of portions of crinkle cut chips on the table.

Burgers I’m used to are an assembly of quite separate components. Two halves of a well structured bun with a pattie betwixt and toppings involved somewhere in the gathering. It is easy to separate each piece out to decorate your plate and systematically work your way round the constituent parts if that's your thing (I have actually witnessed this method of eating a burger). 

But at Shake Shack, you are presented with a single soft mass of yielding savoury and juicy wonder. The patties, cheese and bun unite into palate coating mushy magnificence rendering them impossible to dissect. 

In one mouthful you can enjoy an amalgamation of meaty grease from the smashed patty, slight sweetness from the toasted bun, a whisp of heat from chopped cherry pepper, oozing American-style cheese, saltiness from the crisp bacon and tang from the signature Shake Shack sauce (like a piquant mayonnaise); together they send the pleasure receptors into a manic frenzy.

Shake Shack are not quiet about all their ingredients (bar the buns which are flown in from America) being carefully sourced from UK farms and suppliers. The beef is 100% raised Aberdeen Angus, grass fed on Scottish pastures and they refrain from ever using hormones or antibiotics on their cows. 

The meat is ground daily and burgers are cooked to order rather than left drying out under a heat lamp. Each patty consists of 1/4lb of this beef smashed onto the grill for an intensely flavoured and slightly caramalised crust. Yes please.

Bacon is free-range Wiltshire cure smoked. The imported buns are typical of an American burger (as opposed to brioche or posh bread options often found in the UK) and similar to Martin’s potato rolls with the inclusion of potato flour - an excellent choice for absorbing dripping goodness. 

In a moment of madness and excited anticipation, we all completely forgot to request any toppings and in fact failed to even notice them on the menu. The one thing I felt was missing from the burger was only absent due to my lack of attention - pickles. A good enough reason to return for me.

Chips were sturdy and crisp on the outside with fluffy middles and essentially pretty good (I’m not the world’s biggest fries fan). The Union Shack concrete that rounded off my meal consisted of frozen chocolate custard, bites of chocolate and hazelnut brownies, fudge sauce, shrapnel of bitter dark chocolate and a touch of sea salt - a thick, dense and very chocolatey ice cream with lots to bite down on and served in a cardboard drink cup.

My verdict here is that despite the irritating initial fanfare, I really enjoyed this meal. Compared to other burgers I’ve eaten in this country, Shake Shack offers something quite unique - it’s just not like any other I’ve had. In all fairness, I haven’t eaten at enough of the competitors to form an entirely informed opinion based on adequate comparisons, but who the hell cares. 

Shake Shack burgers are so good I could easily eat one for breakfast. No doubt that says more about me than the burger.

Liked lots: burger, chopped cherry pepper, nice staff, location, covered al fresco dining, concretes, a short and quick queue 
Liked less: slightly confusing entrances and exits to the queue and ordering
Good for: a quick bite, al fresco dining, significantly exceeding your daily intake of saturated fat, jumping on the bandwagon

My rating: 5/5

Afiyet olsun.