The blocks between the bay and the stadium, with Central Avenue running through the middle. This is where the city keeps its concert courtyard, its food hall, three of its five MICHELIN Recommended restaurants and most of its late bars. You can park once and walk to all of it.
Chef Jason Ruhe and Hope Montgomery, husband and wife, spent years catering and consulting before opening what they call 'a true brick and mortar' of their own on the 500 block. The couple went on to open Seaworthy Fish + Bar in Tierra Verde in 2020 and Pulpo Kitchen + Lounge on Central in late 2024. I Love the Burg's staff wrote in June 2026 that its burger is perhaps the best in the city.
A Cuban-inspired rooftop bar on top of the AC Hotel downtown, built around rum cocktails. There is an indoor lounge and an open-air terrace, and a boozy brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 10:30am to 3pm.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
A five-story, 27,700-square-foot food hall from Tampa Bay's Hi Hospitality Group, built on the old Dome Grill site after construction that began in late 2021. It opened in phases from 19 February 2026, starting with Palm Avenue Deli and Constellation Burger. The ground floor now also holds Don Ricardo's Taqueria, Park Pie, Speaks Pasta, Kojo Wok and Strawberry Fields, with the Meadows dessert cafe on the mezzanine and The Winfield cocktail parlor in the basement. The fourth-floor Kojo restaurant and rooftop Bar Hana were still marked as opening soon on the site.
A wine bar with self-serve wine machines, so you can sample before committing to a glass or a bottle. The food is charcuterie, flatbreads, crepes and paninis, and the room runs tastings and wine classes. Mondays are kept for private events.
A St. Pete-born bakery and cafe that says it is 'dedicated to creating the ultimate bakery experience without the use of gluten'. The downtown shop is one of two, with the other at 6653 Central Ave, and St. Pete Rising reported in September 2026 that a third cafe and production kitchen was due in the Skyway Marina District in October. The menu marks vegan dishes, including a daily vegan soup and Ed's Vegan Burger.
The newest Irish bar downtown. I Love the Burg's 2026 World Cup guide calls it probably the largest room in the city given over to soccer, rowdy on match days, with beer and shot specials and Irish food.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Opened 24 June 2026 on the second floor of Sundial, in the large space Sea Salt left when it closed on 31 December 2024. It is the first St. Pete restaurant from Next Level Brands and restaurateur Jeff Gigante, whose original Forbici is in Tampa's Hyde Park Village. The kitchen is known for Roman-style pizza on dough fermented for 72 hours.
Fortu opened in late November 2023 on the ground floor of the Ponce de Leon Hotel, in the space Ceviche Tapas Bar had held since 1997 before it moved to Beach Drive in 2021. It was founded by Shan Bakrac and is run through Benson Hospitality Group, with Nathan Howey as executive chef and managing partner. The kitchen is pan-Asian and built for sharing, with Japanese A5 wagyu, wagyu gyoza and Australian wagyu picanha on the menu and a bar that leans on Japanese whisky and sake. MICHELIN's inspectors call it an attractive, high-energy dining room with handsome wood finishes. It has been listed in both years Pinellas County has been eligible.
Owners Domenic D'Angelo and Tony Mangiafico met in 1992 at a restaurant in Punta Gorda. Domenic started at the old Gratzzi Ristorante in BayWalk in 2001, where Tony was executive chef. When that restaurant closed in 2009, the two reopened it in 2010 as Gratzzi Italian Grille on 2nd Street South.
An English-style pub and brewery that took over the old Cycle Brewing taproom in July 2025. Husband and wife Todd and Colleen pour cask ale through hand-pulled beer engines ... I Love the Burg says it is one of only a few breweries in the Southeast doing real ale. It opens early on weekends for Premier League and NFL games, and the resident dog is named Dolly.
Owner and executive chef David Benstock grew up in St. Petersburg, cooked elsewhere, and came home to open this room ... the name means 'The Return' in Italian. Local press says he has led it from downtown for more than a decade. Sheridan Scott is chef de cuisine. The kitchen is open, and the Chef's Bar beside it serves 8 to 9 courses that are not on the dining room menu for $275 a person before drinks and tax. A private dining room seats up to 14 at one custom wooden table. MICHELIN's inspectors singled out the pastas, and the DMO quotes the guide praising its 'boldness and flavor in spades'.
Isu sits in the basement of Fortu with its own entrance on Beach Drive, and shares Fortu's owners and management. St. Petersburg Foodies describes the menu as three things at once ... Japanese fusion, izakaya small plates for sharing, and Nikkei, the Japanese-Peruvian cooking that began with Japanese immigrants in Peru. The reviewer wrote that there is nothing else like it in the city.
An open-air, standing-room concert courtyard downtown ... the venue says it has been running for over 40 years. Touring rock, reggae, hip-hop and electronic acts play under the sky, with balcony views and air-conditioned lounges sold as VIP upgrades.
This is a music venue. It is loud when a show is on.
A Vietnamese room on the 400 block that describes its food as 'where our mother's recipes meet bold, modern flavor', cooked 'as we would for our own family'. It keeps a separate vegetarian menu and is open every day.
Founded by Pete, Kat, Aaron and Ian and named for Pete's grandmother, whose beauty salon once filled this same storefront. Fish and chips and shepherd's pie come with vegan versions, and bands play Irish rebel music. I Love the Burg calls it downtown's number one spot for Premier League and big soccer matches ... it showed all 104 World Cup games with the sound on in 2026 and opens early for Celtic F.C.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Chef Chris Ponte's modern Italian restaurant, the second Olivia after the South Tampa original. I Love the Burg named it among the best St. Pete openings of 2025 and its staff called it 'a quick star' in June 2026.
Opened in February 2025 at the foot of the Pier in the former Hops and Props space, which grew from 1,200 to more than 5,000 square feet with a wraparound porch. It is named for C. Perry Snell, the developer behind Snell Isle. Owner Ryan Griffin, a St. Pete native whose Seed & Feed Hospitality also runs Trophy Fish, Mandarin Hide and El Cap, called it his 'love letter to St. Pete' and trains staff as ambassadors for the city's history. Cocktails carry local names like the Pink Streets Margarita and the Jungle Prada.
A modern steakhouse with a shellfish and raw bar and one of the deeper cellars in the city ... more than 1,280 labels and 4,000 bottles, and a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence nine years running by its own count. Caledon Concepts is named as the developer on the site.
A cocktail and cigar lounge with live music seven nights a week, sets usually starting at 6:30pm, and a Thursday night jazz session hosted by Le Jazz. It is paired with Central Cigars and keeps a temperature-controlled humidor ... smoking is allowed inside. The bar says it has more than 25 years behind it.
This is a music venue. It is loud when a show is on.
A 1960s-styled tiki bar that opened in 2018 in the old LUX space. The front bar is all flickering tiki totems and big murals, and the cocktail list leans on Pacific Rim flavors. Tiki Tuesday means a $7 Mai Tai.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
A wine-focused trattoria on the 200 block serving Italian American dishes and plates to share. Dinner runs Tuesday through Sunday with brunch on weekends.
A food truck that grew into restaurants. The site says its hand-folded gyoza, dirty rice bowls and bao have been made from scratch 'since the food truck days', and I Love the Burg counted the downtown room, with a full kitchen and cocktail bar, among the best openings of 2025. It also has a Central Avenue shop at 1431 Central and one in Tampa. The downtown room stays open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays.
Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.
A downtown taproom that set out to make beer that tastes like St. Petersburg. St. Pete Orange Wheat is the house signature, the Scottish Ale took a silver medal at the 2019 Best Florida Beer Competition, and Grateful Stout is named for brewer Jon's love of the Grateful Dead.
Brothers Arte and Rexley Kwok opened this counter in January 2018 as downtown St. Pete's first omakase restaurant. There are ten seats, each facing the chef, and Rexley Kwok prepares and serves every course himself. It is omakase only, with two choices ... a signature menu with a few more appetizers, or a shorter one focused on nigiri. The DMO says the fish comes direct from Tokyo's Toyosu market. Booking is through Tock only; the restaurant's own site warns that it is not on Google Reserve.
Chef Fabio Viviani's coastal Italian room on the ground floor of 200 Central, serving pastas, pizzas and seafood. The patio has its own dog menu, and a private room called Scappa handles parties.
A locally owned cocktail bar and kitchen downtown with more than 700 spirit labels on the back bar, about 200 of them whiskies, and 14 beer taps. The kitchen sends out shareable plates late.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Tiki drinks, tapas, pool tables and more than 50 sushi rolls on the 600 block. Chef and co-founder Tom Golden opened it in 2016 after renovating a building the restaurant says is 125 years old, one that ran as a bar in the 1930s and 40s and 'even served as a brothel at one point'. The house catchphrase is 'I'm starvin', make me some cold dead fish'. Weekend brunch features Granny Sage's biscuits and gravy.
A downtown cocktail bar on the 200 block of Central that stays open until 3am six nights a week.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
A 22-seat cocktail bar in the basement of Central Park St. Pete, opened in July 2026 by Hi Hospitality Group. It is the second of four bars planned for the building. Dim and close, with about a dozen small plates ... shrimp coctel tostadas, crispy pork rinds with avocado.
A corner bar on the 200 block of Central with indoor and outdoor seating and, by I Love the Burg's count, some of the cheapest drinks downtown ... $2 drafts and $4 wells at happy hour.
