With St. Pete/Clearwater undergoing a cultural renaissance, the culinary scene is certainly not to be overlooked on your next visit. From an ATM-turned-taco stand to an acrobatic pizza-maker to a Roaring ‘20s nightclub, here’s a handful of unexpected eateries to keep you fed in the Sunshine City and beyond.
Gastro Obscura’s Guide to St. Pete/Clearwater

Calling Alesia a “family-run restaurant” may be an understatement. Inspired by the meals of their childhood in Paris, chefs (and sisters) Erika Ly-Hsu and Sandra Ly-Flores opened the St. Petersburg restaurant in 2012 with their spouses, tapping their father as the head chef and their mother as the pastry chef. The results are as wholesome as they are flavorful. 

The restaurant is now a local staple, with diners gravitating toward Mr. Ly’s 24-hour beef pho and fatty grilled pork buns, or Mrs. Ly’s traditional flan and house brownies. If you’re dining in, try to grab a table on the charming outdoor patio. If you’re on the go, Alesia offers robust take-out options, as well as an on-site market selling specially curated goods. 

St. Pete may be the last city in which you’d expect to find a slice of the United Kingdom, but happily—at the long-standing burger joint, The Chattaway, you can enjoy a proper afternoon tea served by “Lady Chattaway” herself in a room outfitted with enough British paraphernalia to flatter the King.  

London-born owner Jillian Frers took over the restaurant (a grocery store built in the 1920s) from her late husband in the early 2000s and slowly converted the dingy game room into an “English Tea Room.” While the (cash only) restaurant’s main menu leans traditional pub fare and fried seafood (headlined by an award-winning burger), the reservations-only afternoon tea is the big draw, served with finger sandwiches, scones, and assorted pastries. For all the British effects, a series of clawfoot bathtubs housing tropical plants lining the outdoor patio retain some signature Florida flair.

Reflecting the ever-changing nature of the region at large, the building housing the Floridian Social Club has served as a bank, a movie theater, and a live music venue since its construction in 1924. Today, it’s a centerpiece of St. Pete’s downtown nightlife scene, calling on the past to keep the party going. 

A real estate agent raised in St. Petersburg bought the then-abandoned space in 2018, gutted it, and consulted with local historians to return the structure to its former glory. Renovations revealed the original hand-crafted floor tiles, staircases with thick gold railings, and laid out a checkered dance floor, stocked with era-appropriate furniture.  The Art Deco space now boasts other ‘20s accents like antique furniture and heavy velvet drapes, and flapper girl statuettes.

Night owls out for a taste of the past can enjoy live music and entertainment Thursday to Sunday weekly.

Throughout their marriage, St. Pete’s power couple Mary and Tom James amassed so much artwork focused on the American West that in 2018, they opened a museum to showcase it. The wondrously designed, eight-gallery space (a continuous two-story installation evoking a sandstone canyon) is now one of downtown’s premier museums. The regional and historical homage extends to the museum’s eatery, The Canyon, as well. 

The space is anchored by an early 1900s mahogany bar salvaged from a San Francisco hotel saloon (if you look closely, you can find a bullet hole from a century-old disagreement). While the café offers modern comforts like a full espresso bar and freshly baked pastries, the Old West calls out in dishes like house-made cornbread, the Three Sisters Bowl (charred corn, roasted squash, black beans), and the Bison Burger (white cheddar, fried onions, butter lettuce). Wash it all down with a sarsaparilla soda, and have some s’mores for dessert. 

Salvador Dalí once said “beauty should be edible, or not at all.” While none of the work on display at The Dalí—an art museum home to an unparalleled collection of Salvador Dali's works —is edible, the café therein boasts plenty of food that is more than simply edible. 

Just as the museum emphasizes the man’s artistic prowess, Café Gala (named for his wife and muse) highlights the artist’s heritage. Tried-and-true Spanish classics like gazpacho and tortilla give way to dishes flecked with Catalan-specific ingredients like a beef carpaccio with idiazábal cheese and black olive emulsion, or a caprese salad with arugula almond pesto and citrus balsamic glaze. The dessert menu shines with sweet bites like a Crema Catalana (a Catalunian crème brûlée alternative), magdalenas (Spanish lemon cupcakes), and a truffle-stuffed pear poached in Gala’s signature Spanish rose champagne. 

While the iconic art collection and award-winning architecture that houses it are worthy of visits on their own, visitors don’t need a museum ticket to eat at the café (we won’t blame you for going straight to the desserts).

What do you get when you mix the business ambitions of a home decor professional with a private investigator who spent 10 years interviewing people in coffee shops? Apparently, one of the best-designed cafés on the continent. 

Located two blocks from the St. Pete Pier on a bustling palm-lined avenue, Paradeco Coffee Roasters is the brainchild of a millennial couple escaping N.Y.C. during the pandemic for a brighter life in the Sunshine City (a common theme in recent history). Noting that many of the existing cafés in town had a minimal, industrial aesthetic, they went the opposite route, creating a sun-soaked, plant-filled café bursting with pinks, turquoises, and golds, echoing a distinct 1920s Floridian Art Deco look. The result won them a nomination for Best Designed Café in the Americas by the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards. 

Paradeco roasts all their beans in-house and offers a range of food items from egg sandwiches to avocado toast to chia puddings and a hearty kimchi potato hash. There are certainly worse places to sit than beneath a living plant wall, dappled in Florida sunlight, sipping freshly brewed coffee amidst award-worthy design.

This Safety Harbor pizza spot isn’t anchored by just any pizza acrobat. Winning gold in Freestyle Acrobatics at the 2016 World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy, veteran pizzaiolo Jamie Culliton is a world-champion pizzathlete. And while he does spin dough for diners at The NONA Slice House, it’s not all show—his margherita pizza also won best pizza in the country in 2011.

NONA (named after his children Noah and Naomi) is a family-friendly, open-air pizza joint with red-and-white checkered tables and live music nightly. Pizzas come in three different styles, each with its own small menu. The crowd favorite among the Olde World Style (crunchy, less flexible) is the award-winning margherita; the best of the New York Style (hand-tossed, chewy) is the Pistach-i-Dew, with pistachios, peppadew peppers, ricotta, and hot honey; and the most popular Detroit Style (thick-crust, served in tall squares) is Death By Pepperoni, with three different kinds of pepperoni and smoked provolone. Come for the dough-tossing, stay for the pizza. 

True to its name, Taco Baby is a tiny taco stand. Not to be confused with a stand that serves tiny tacos, this is a taqueria operating out of what was once a Chase ATM in Dunedin. 

Despite the 8’ x 8’ kitchen—max occupancy two people—Taco Baby manages to serve up delicious tacos made entirely on-site with fresh ingredients. There are three taco options—Tinga (chipotle chicken with pickled corn), Al Pastor (rotisserie pork with pineapple salsa), and Jackfruit Pibil (with pibil seeds and queso seca)—in addition to nachos and a range of cold drinks (including, of course, Jarritos). Customers can order from the screen next to the window and pick up their tacos to go in minutes. Don’t forget napkins—these are some juicy tacos. 

St. Pete Social is a cluster of food-trucks in a small parking lot that—with the help of some astro-turf, picnic tables, string-lights—offers a bit more ambience than you’d expect from food truck dining. The trucks themselves boast some rather offbeat options, as well.

Gourmet Toast Sandwiches makes a fried soft-shell crab sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and black pepper aioli. Smokin’ Me Crazy’s “The Tower” is a bed of french fries smothered in smoked mac n’ cheese and topped with your choice of brisket, pulled pork, or chopped chicken. You could also Try Taco Junkies’ signature Junkie Bag, essentially a deconstructed taco in a bag of Doritos.

The OCC Roadhouse defies easy categorization. Owned by Paul Teutul Sr. of Orange County Choppers fame, it’s part motorcycle museum packed with 30 years of motorcycles and memorabilia from the show. It’s also part entertainment venue, full of foosball and pool tables, shuffleboards, and a stage for live music. It’s a sports bar, stocked with local beer and lined with big-screen TVs, and last but not least, it’s a roadhouse-style restaurant serving up some of Florida's most delectable food.

Start with cornmeal-fried frogs legs served with roasted garlic tartar, or fried gator tail served with remoulade. Move onto crawfish tacos topped with jicama slaw and tequila horseradish salsa. Finish with the bison meatloaf or, if you’re feeling up to the task, take on the Ghost Rider Burger Challenge—eating a one-pound flaming hot burger to get your name on the Wall of Flame.