Over 50 St. Pete

4th Street North · burgers, american

El Cap is the 4th Street burger bar with the red neon baseball sign. St. Pete Catalyst traces it to 1958, when Louis Joseph Svabek opened it in a 1948 building as one of his 'Cap' beer joints; Steve and Rose Bonfili of Pennsylvania took it over in 1963, and their son Frank turned it into what many call the city's first sports bar. Johnny Johnson has hand-formed the patties since 1992 and once made 2,300 in a day. Mary Jean Bonfili left the place to two longtime servers when she died in 2019, and in January 2023 Seed & Feed Hospitality, run by St. Pete natives, bought half while Cindy Nally kept the other half. The order is the World Champ cheeseburger.

EDGE District

Open since 1992 across the street from Tropicana Field, Ferg's has grown to nearly two city blocks and eleven separate bars and rooms, including Ferg's Dog Park & Grill, a clubhouse with a DJ booth and the St. Pete Axe & Ale axe-throwing room. USA Today readers named it the best sports bar in America in 2025, and it won Best Sports Bar at the 2026 Visit St. Pete-Clearwater Besties. Food trucks such as Vinnie's Pies and Maxi Empanadas park inside, and you can order from your phone.

Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.

4th Street North · american, seafood, burgers

Dan Harvey opened the grill on 1 April 1984 and the third generation of the Harvey family now works there. The room is built from pieces of old St. Pete: decor from the Vinoy, Soreno and Albermarle hotels, and doors from the Sunshine School. The house claims more than two million grouper sandwiches sold, and the Tampa Bay Times named it one of Tampa Bay's 25 most iconic restaurants, per the venue.

Pass-a-Grille · american, seafood, breakfast

Founded in 1938 as one of the area's early drive-ins, the Seahorse was given historic designation by the St. Pete Beach Historic Preservation Board in 2024. Months later Helene and Milton put several feet of water through it and it stayed shut for more than a year. Owners Carlos Calvillo and Anayeri Gomez kept the wooden booths, the memorabilia and the taxidermy when they rebuilt. Breakfast runs to omelets, pancakes and shrimp and grits; lunch to seafood platters, burgers and Cuban-style grilled chicken.

Perry Bayview · breakfast, diner, southern

Jack Thomas started Skyway Jack's in 1976 as a shack at O'Neill's Marina feeding boaters and fishermen near the Skyway, and moved it up 34th Street South about two decades ago. You find it by the giant Humpty Dumpty and the rooster out front. Breakfast runs all day, and the Food Network once picked Jack's scrapple as Florida's best breakfast dish. I Love the Burg later reported a new owner, Darren Forte.

South Pasadena · seafood, smoked fish

Ted Peters has smoked fish on Pasadena Avenue since 1951, and its own site still leads with that line: old Florida flavor served fresh since 1951. The smoked fish spread is the thing people name first. The street address sits in South Pasadena, a small city wedged between St. Petersburg and the beach, and the restaurant itself prints its address as Saint Petersburg.

4th Street South · burgers, american, english tea

Helen Lund opened The Chattaway in 1951 and her family, later Jillian Frers, ran it for 75 years as a burger garden with an English tea room inside. In March 2026 the property went under contract and the restaurant was expected to close for good; it shut in mid-July. Cullen Mahoney, Ferg's owner Mark Ferguson and Shrimpy's Waterfront owner John John Delladonna bought the restaurant and its 0.70 acre lot in August and reopened it on 25 September 2026. The new owners added a second outdoor bar, a canopy with fans over the patio and a full liquor license, and say the burger stays as it was.

Treasure Island · mexican

A walk-in-only Mexican restaurant and lounge that dates its start to 1973. Helene flooded it just before the current owners' 30th anniversary and the room had to be gutted. They sold tacos, wet burritos and margaritas from a borrowed food trailer behind the building, under what they called the 'Shitty Circumstances Menu', and regulars traded donations for the staff against free margaritas. Bay News 9 reported it reopened by September 2025. There is a second VIP in Indian Rocks Beach.