Reverie Room, a new bookstore and lounge with themed rooms, reading nooks, and much more, is expected to open in the Warehouse Arts District later this month.

Owner Nichole Coronado is bringing the concept to 655 31st Street South, where she hopes visitors will come not only to find a book, but to stay awhile.

The 2,200-square-foot shop will share a building with FYI Dance Co. and a parking lot with Beech Kombucha. The space previously housed House of Vegano and The Body Electric Athletic Company.

Reverie Room is named for the idea of being pleasantly lost in thought. Inside, Coronado has divided the bookstore into four rooms, each with its own personality.

A children’s room leans into a whimsical mix of dragons, princes, princesses, bean bags, and a unicorn rug. The romance room has vintage furniture, floral touches, and darker, gothic-inspired decor. Coronado gave the nonfiction and adventure room a nautical feel inspired by the Tampa Bay area.

A separate lounge will host private events and smaller gatherings.

Coronado has spent the last several months painting and decorating the space, mixing new furniture with pieces sourced from vintage stores, Facebook Marketplace, and even her mother’s home.

“It was all just cosmetic stuff,” Coronado said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “Really, just paint and decorations, and just trying to figure out how I wanted to set everything up.”

The new bookstore is a significant career change for Coronado. Originally from Chicago, she moved to the Tampa area while in high school, attended the University of South Florida, and moved to St. Pete in 2021.

She studied to become a high school math teacher before deciding that path was not for her. Instead, she began working for a local construction company and worked her way up to chief financial officer.

Books, however, had been part of her life since childhood.

“My mom was like, ‘You would either be napping or reading. If we couldn’t find you, it was one of those two things,’” Coronado said.

Last year, Coronado left her CFO role and began considering whether to pursue a longtime dream of opening a small café. She wanted a place where friends could gather and people felt like they knew one another, but she did not want to get into food.

“So I was like, I love books. I will take a little turn there,” she said.

Coronado started looking for a location last fall. She initially imagined a small house with a porch, perhaps closer to Central Avenue, but the spaces she found were either too small or did not feel right. She also wanted to be a little farther from St. Pete’s existing bookstores.

Then a real estate agent showed her the Warehouse Arts District space.

 “I walked in and I was like, ‘Yep, this is it,’” Coronado said.

The bookstore will carry books across genres, from romance, mysteries, fantasy, and science fiction to cookbooks, self-help, philosophy, graphic novels, and children’s titles.

Coronado said romance will make up a meaningful part of the opening inventory because of the genre’s recent resurgence.

She expects the selection to evolve as readers make requests and show her what they want to buy.

Beyond books, Reverie Room will have candles, greeting cards, stationery, stickers, bookmarks, stuffed animals, squishies, and other gift items.

Coronado is also open to eventually selling physical media like vinyl, CDs, and DVDs if customers show interest.

A large U-shaped bar anchors the bookstore’s main lobby, where Coronado plans to serve drinks and light snacks.

Reverie Room will initially open without its beer and wine license, serving sodas and other nonalcoholic drinks, including options for children. Once the license is approved, Coronado plans to add wine and local craft beer.

She is also considering prepackaged snacks such as chips and olives, with the possibility of expanding the food offerings later.

Reverie Room will host local author events and book signings, as well as bookish crafts, writing nights, reading clubs, silent reading nights, and audio walks along the nearby Pinellas Trail.

“I want to have local authors come and be able to showcase and sell their books here,” Coronado said. “I wanted to do audio walks or silent reading nights, just things that incorporate books and help people also build community.”

For Coronado, reading is both an escape and a way to learn.

“I always like to have a nonfiction book and a fiction book going at the same time, so that way I’m learning a little bit of everything,” she said.

She also hopes Reverie Room can encourage people who have fallen out of the habit of reading. Her suggestion: start with an audiobook, a graphic novel, or a book you once loved.

Reverie Room is expected to soft open in late September.

Initially, the shop will be open Tuesday through Saturday from around 1 or 2 p.m. until 8 p.m., with shorter Sunday hours. The shop will be closed Mondays, although its schedule may change as she learns what customers want.

Be sure to follow Reverie Room on Facebook and Instagram for opening updates, new book releases, events, and more.

What began with bouquets at Tampa Bay markets is becoming a place designed to carry people through the day, from morning coffee and flower arranging to wine and small plates in the evening.

Florafête Bouquet Bar, a floral design business founded by Lucy Watkins, plans to open this fall at 400 Beach Drive in downtown St. Pete.

The shop will bring custom arrangements, a build-your-own bouquet bar, retail goods, and a nine-seat wine and coffee bar together under one roof.

The space was previously occupied by Savory Spice Shop, which permanently closed in 2024.

Watkins, a Miami native with decades of hospitality experience, said the concept grew out of an encounter with flower carts while visiting her hometown in 2021.

“At the time, I was just visiting Miami when I saw flower carts not only selling single-stem flowers but also creating full bouquets for people on the street,” Watkins said.

Flower carts are a familiar sight in Miami, which serves as the country’s primary air gateway for imported flowers. Miami International Airport says it handled 91% of U.S. flower imports arriving by air in 2025, with many cut blooms coming from production centers in Colombia and Ecuador.

Watkins began showcasing and designing bouquets at markets across Tampa Bay in 2022. Demand grew quickly, and Florafête became a full-service floral design business creating arrangements for weddings, corporate events, and special occasions.

A storefront was always part of the plan, although Watkins initially expected it to be on St. Pete Beach.

She had been working toward a location at Dolphin Village when a 2025 fire destroyed buildings in the Publix-anchored shopping center and halted those plans.

Her cousin, a commercial real estate agent, later found the Beach Drive space.

Florafête is now undergoing an interior buildout led by Talica Design.

The shop will include a public-facing retail area and a workshop where the Florafête team can prepare arrangements.

One side of the space will feature tiered flower displays and a rotating weekly selection of blooms that customers can have professionally arranged and wrapped on-site.

Shelves will also carry candles and other artisan goods.

Chef Emily Ferrari, a friend of Watkins who formerly worked at Maritana at the Don CeSar on St. Pete Beach, created the food menu.

The menu will include light bites such as Caviar Crêpe Bites with crème fraîche, chive, and caviar; Pickled Strawberry Waffle Bites with whipped chèvre, hot honey, and thyme; Pink Whipped Chèvre; Spicy Dill Pickle Dip; and Rainbow Crudités with a choice of dips.

There will also be a selection of salads including Hibiscus & Burrata, Grapefruit Gem, and Raspberry Beet.

Sandwiches will include a Grilled Peach & Prosciutto baguette, an Apricot & Lavender Croissant with chorizo, and a Creamy Pesto Burrata sandwich.

Florafête will also offer build-your-own boards for four or six people, with a selection of meats, cheeses, sweet accompaniments, and savory additions.

With indoor tables and outdoor seating in addition to the bar, the shop is expected to accommodate about 40 guests.

“I’m beyond excited to finally have a store that is in a beautiful, walkable area and hope that the surrounding businesses will continue to bring activity and support each other,” Watkins said.

Florafête Bouquet Bar is expected to open in October.

While renovations continue, flower deliveries and subscriptions are available through the Florafête website.

After opening, Florafête plans to operate from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

When Jeff and Jody Musselman opened Salty Pup Coffeehouse and Wine Bar in Gulfport, the business was meant to be a new chapter.

The couple had moved back to the area after years in Atlanta, where they sold their home and said goodbye to Hampton, their 14-year-old labradoodle. They named the café after him.

Hampton was their “salty dog,” Jody told St. Pete Rising at the time, because he had a little attitude.

Nearly two years later, the Gulfport community that embraced their small coffee shop is helping make room for an even bigger idea.

The Musselmans plan to relocate The Salty Pup from 5004 Tangerine Avenue South to 4700 22nd Avenue South, a 5,348 square-foot warehouse that will also house Electric Flamingo, a new vintage marketplace with vendor booths, art displays, and space for up to 29 local sellers.

The couple is targeting a December opening, pending construction and permitting.

For Jody, Electric Flamingo connects to work he loved before Salty Pup. While living in Atlanta, he owned a business that bought, refurbished, and sold mid-century furniture. He also spent several years directing a large art festival in central Virginia.

Over the past year, the Musselmans began talking more seriously about combining those interests with the community they had built through the coffee shop.

“We’ve had this concept kind of in our mind and dreaming and planning about it,” Jody said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “It was finding the right space for it.”

They looked at locations in south St. Pete, downtown, and Tyrone. But the couple wanted to remain close to Gulfport, where customers have turned Salty Pup into more than a place for coffee and baked goods.

The café serves espresso-based beverages, teas, and smoothies. Its breakfast menu includes croissant and bagel sandwiches, omelets, waffles, and French toast.

For lunch, customers can choose from chicken salad and chickpea salad sandwiches, veggie wraps, soup, and grilled cheese with herbed caramelized onions and three cheeses.

The café also hosts book clubs, crossword groups, and open-mic nights that bring together poets, writers, and performers from Gulfport, St. Pete, Tierra Verde, and South Pasadena. Those events have often outgrown the current shop.

“By 5:30, we have people who come in and there’s nowhere to sit, so they have to end up leaving,” Jody said of the open-mic nights.

The new Salty Pup will offer more seating and longer hours, creating room for those gatherings and a new weekend brunch menu.

The café will also expand its beer and wine offerings, allowing customers to order a mimosa on Sunday or stay a little longer after lunch.

Next door, Electric Flamingo will have vendor booths ranging from roughly 8-by-8 to 10-by-10 feet. Vendors with larger furniture or displays will be able to combine spaces, while local artists, jewelry makers, and collage artists can lease gallery wall space.

The Musselmans expect the marketplace to carry a curated mix of vintage merchandise from the 1950s through the early 2000s, including furniture, clothing, vinyl, collectibles, and other finds.

They will review vendor applications with an eye toward keeping the selection varied.

“We don’t want six vinyl record dealers,” Jody said.

Additionally, Electric Flamingo will be entirely vendor-operated. The Musselmans will provide the building, utilities, and point-of-sale system, while vendors focus on sourcing merchandise or making their work.

“We want to give people an opportunity in a very tough current economic state to have a brick-and-mortar building without the traditional brick-and-mortar cost,” Jody said.

The two businesses will have separate exterior entrances but connect inside, allowing customers to move easily between the café and marketplace.

Salty Pup will keep its familiar coastal, Polynesian-inspired look, while Electric Flamingo will lean into a colorful ’80s Miami Vice aesthetic.

The former warehouse requires a full buildout, including a kitchen, lighting, landscaping, and murals. The Musselmans are speaking with muralists about painting the front and side of the building, and they hope to create a community mural that residents can help paint.

The couple also plans to grow the art markets it has hosted at Salty Pup, using the larger space for future events.

For the Musselmans, the project is not just about opening another business. It is a chance to build a place where people can gather, shop, share their art, and return often enough to find something new.

“We can only do this because of the love we get from the community,” Jody said.

Be sure to follow Salty Pup and Electric Flamingo on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest happenings.

Artists and vintage vendors interested in Electric Flamingo can apply through electricflamingo.market.

A new Pan-Asian quick-service restaurant has opened in Pinellas Park, but this one comes with a unique feature: a drive thru.

That’s right, hungry diners can now get ramen, rice bowls, and boba straight from a drive thru window on their way home.

Ninja Ramen quietly opened about two weeks ago at 11180 66th Street North in Pinellas Park, in a space formerly home to Subway.

The menu includes six noodle dishes and eight rice bowls.

The ramen offerings include a seafood oden ramen, a roast pork ramen, a Chongqing spicy ramen, a braised beef tomato ramen, and the Sumo Teriyaki Chicken, which features chicken katsu with teriyaki glaze, fried rice, and stir-fried noodles.

Customers can also choose from chicken stir-fried udon or gluten-free soba with chicken, mushrooms, edamame, and greens.

The rice bowl selection includes braised pork rice topped with a marinated egg, cabbage, scallions, and pickled radish, along with curry chicken rice served with potatoes and carrots in a Chongqing-style curry sauce.

Owner David Chen said some ingredients are imported from Taiwan, while others are sourced from local Asian markets.

Four boba tea options are available: red bean, black tiger brown sugar, classic milk, and matcha.

For dessert, Ninja Ramen serves a Shave Ice Trio topped with sweetened condensed milk.

“We are truly authentic and created this to introduce people in the Pinellas Park community and beyond to Asian culinary culture,” Chen said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

Chen is a longtime veteran of the food and franchise industry whose background includes ownership and franchise leadership roles with brands such as Hooters, IHOP, Arby’s, Subway, Nathan’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins.

Chen said Ninja Ramen plans to open a second location in Bradenton, with additional locations planned in Fort Myers, Orlando, and the University Town Center area in Sarasota.

Ninja Ramen is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Follow the restaurant on Facebook for grand-opening details and menu updates.

A permanent ferry dock at the St. Pete Pier moved closer to reality Friday, as the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority celebrated $850,000 in newly secured federal funding for the future Tampa Bay Ferry terminal.

PSTA leaders joined U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, and representatives from Hubbard’s Marina at the Pier to announce the funding, which will help support a new dock near the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

The permanent facility is planned to include a security gate, ticket booth, and ADA-compliant access. It is expected to accommodate two ferry vessels at once, according to Captain Dylan Hubbard of Hubbard’s Marina.

“This is a key piece in the puzzle,” PSTA CEO Brad Miller said during the event.

The federal funding, secured by Castor through the Fiscal Year 2026 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, comes as PSTA prepares to relaunch passenger ferry service between downtown St. Pete and Tampa later this year.

Miller said the agency’s effort to restart the route began about two years ago, when Castor asked whether PSTA could use a soon-to-expire federal grant she had previously secured for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit.

“Fast forward to this morning, where we now have two ferry boats being spiffed up in Tarpon Springs, with potentially a third ferry boat on the way,” Miller said. “And now we are here celebrating the construction of a permanent ferry dock here at the St. Pete Pier that will support seven-day-a-week, year-round ferry service in a sustainable way.”

The City of St. Petersburg has previously committed roughly $450,000 from its general fund for a location analysis and preliminary design work. Early engineering estimates have placed the total dock project cost between $2.64 million and just over $3 million.

PSTA representatives said they are working with the U.S. Coast Guard on the exact dock location and remain in the design phase.

Until the permanent terminal is designed and constructed, the Tampa Bay Ferry will use a temporary dock near The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club. PSTA expects to establish that location in the coming weeks.

The Tampa terminal will remain in front of the Tampa Convention Center.

The service will replace the former Cross Bay Ferry, which first launched in 2016 with a leased vessel and generally operated seasonally before expanding to year-round service during its final season.

The route ended in 2025 after Hillsborough County commissioners voted to terminate their agreement with former operator HMS Ferries.

PSTA selected Hubbard’s Ferry last year to operate the new service.

Unlike the previous ferry, the Tampa Bay Ferry will begin with vessels owned by PSTA, a change officials believe will provide more dependable service.

The agency used a $4.8 million Federal Transit Administration grant, originally awarded in 2021, to purchase two vessels with guidance from the Hubbard family.

The 250-passenger Bay Breeze has arrived at Tarpon Marine Services in Tarpon Springs for inspections and refurbishment. A second vessel, the 149-passenger Bay Clipper, formerly known as the San Juan Clipper, is also being refurbished there.

PSTA is also pursuing a third, 249-passenger vessel through a recently announced $16.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Once service resumes, the trip between downtown St. Pete and downtown Tampa is expected to take about 45 to 50 minutes.

One-way fares are expected to be $10, down from $12 during the Cross Bay Ferry’s final season, with discounted fares planned for seniors and riders with disabilities.

For Hubbard’s Marina, the St. Pete-to-Tampa route could be the first step toward a larger network of waterborne transit connections across Tampa Bay, potentially linking destinations such as Apollo Beach, MacDill Air Force Base, Gulfport, Bradenton and Clearwater.

As St. Petersburg adds apartments, condos, and offices, the City is trying a new approach to help ensure the artists and galleries that helped shape downtown are not priced out of it.

City Council unanimously approved an arts funding development bonus on August 27th, creating a new way for developers to support local artists and arts organizations while pursuing additional building space for their projects.

For local arts advocates, the vote brought the City one step closer to creating a dependable source of funding for artists and arts organizations.

“The holy grail for the arts community in St. Pete has been to find a sustainable funding source to support the arts,” said Paul Carter, a downtown resident and member of the City’s Arts Advisory Committee.

The policy is not a change that will allow developers to build more densely than they could before. Instead, it adds another option to the City’s existing selection of floor area ratio, or FAR, bonuses.

FAR is a zoning measurement that determines how much total building space can be constructed on a site relative to its land area. In certain zoning districts, such as downtown, the City already allows developers to earn FAR bonuses by providing public benefits that support community priorities.

Existing FAR bonus options include: building workforce housing, preserving historic buildings, adding affordable commercial space, funding streetscape improvements, providing public art, creating ground-level open space, and screening parking garages.

Now, developers can also contribute to the City’s arts funding development bonus fund in exchange for bonus floor area.

The City intends to use the money to help artists and arts organizations acquire or maintain studios, galleries, and other physical spaces.

“This is something that was brought to me originally as an idea from the Warehouse Arts District,” Councilmember Gina Driscoll said before the vote. “I do hope that today is not the end, but just simply the first big step toward creating a new opportunity for our local artists.”

The idea grew from concerns shared by local arts advocates as the cost of doing business downtown has climbed. In its planning analysis, the City documented a steady loss of arts-related spaces in and around downtown.

Downtown had about 15 art galleries in 2014, according to City materials. By October 2025, that number had fallen to seven. Staff also identified 21 art spaces that have closed, moved, or otherwise left downtown since 2002, with rent increases and redevelopment among the contributing factors.

The City’s analysis found that redevelopment of older spaces and rising commercial rents have pushed some artists out of downtown and, in some cases, out of St. Pete altogether. That finding was important because it established the legal connection between new development and the fund’s intended use.

The money will not function as an unrestricted arts grant fund. Instead, it must be used to address the loss of physical space for artists and arts organizations.

While final guidelines have not been created, the City expects the program to help creative professionals acquire or maintain workspace.

The developer’s contribution would equal at least one-quarter of 1% of a project’s total construction cost for each additional half-step of FAR that a developer receives. A developer seeking the maximum arts bonus could contribute at least 0.5% of a project’s construction cost in exchange for up to 1.0 additional FAR.

The new option will be available in the Downtown Center (DC) zoning districts; the EC-2 employment-center district in the Innovation District, including the Orlando Health Bayfront Health Hospital and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital campuses; the RC-3 retail-center district, which includes Echelon City Center in north St. Pete; the SunRunner bus rapid transit overlay; and the SunRunner Target Employment Center (TEC) overlay along 22nd Street South in the Warehouse Arts District.

The approval follows more than a year of discussions by the City’s Economic and Workforce Development Committee, the Development Review Commission, City staff, the Warehouse Arts District Association, and other local arts advocates.

Celeste Davis, the City’s Director of Arts, Culture and Tourism, said the next step is to work with the people most affected by the issue.

“The plan is to reach out and to meet with those in the arts community that were impacted by the nexus to figure out what would be the best outcome,” Davis said. “It does have to have that connection.”

City staff will work with the St. Pete Arts Alliance, the Arts Advisory Committee, and local artists to shape the grant program and decide how it will be administered.

Councilmember Copley Gerdes said the arts funding bonus could establish a framework for future incentives tied to other community priorities.

“I really think this kind of lays the groundwork for future bonuses that could come, whether it be for educators, first responders, you name it, health care workers,” Gerdes said.

For Driscoll and the arts advocates who helped bring the proposal forward, the ordinance is only the beginning.

The eventual impact will depend on how often developers choose the bonus and how the City turns those contributions into space that helps St. Pete’s creative community remain part of its future.

For years, The Joint’s patio had the bones of a great outdoor hangout: space to sit, a neighborhood crowd, and the kind of laid-back setting that feels made for a cold beer and a game on TV.

What it did not have was much protection from Florida’s sun and rain.

That is about to change. The Joint, the longtime Jungle Terrace tavern at 7630 34th Avenue North, has added a covered patio, an outdoor bar, fans, and seven TVs.

Owners Ben Scherlis and Francesco “Fran” Balzano expect to welcome customers into the new space later this month, although an opening date has not yet been finalized.

“We just wanted to open this space up and make it a whole new outdoor concept where people can sit outside, order food and drinks, and watch TV, same as you could inside,” Scherlis said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “It’s just giving people another option.”

Large fans will provide much-needed relief, while the insulated roof should make the space noticeably cooler than the former umbrella-covered patio.

“It’s really going to change the whole vibe of the place,” Scherlis said.

The owners are not increasing The Joint’s overall seating capacity. Instead, they are reorganizing the existing outdoor seating around the new bar and covered area.

“We’re not really adding to the space; we’re just kind of being wiser with it,” Balzano said. “We might end up losing a couple seats in the grand scheme of things, but it’ll be a more accommodating and fun area.”

The project has been in the works for more than three years, dating back to the pandemic.

It was delayed in part by a property issue involving the entrance to The Joint’s parking area, which is owned by the City of St. Petersburg.

The owners ultimately worked with the city to secure use of that portion of the property, though the agreement required landscaping improvements and cost the business three parking spaces.

Parking has long been one of the tavern’s few limitations. Balzano recently reached an agreement with neighboring Arthur Murray Dance Studio that allows Joint customers to use its lot, particularly during evening hours.

Balzano opened The Joint in 2016 with the late Mike Anderson, a longtime local bar owner, before Scherlis later joined the ownership group.

The two had known each other for decades, and they have since partnered on other hospitality ventures, including Dead Bob’s Waterfront Kitchen at the Elk’s Lodge in Madeira Beach.

The Joint was designed to have that easygoing beach-bar feel, even though it’s a few miles from the water.

Its menu includes wings, burgers, Philly cheesesteaks, fish and chips, meatball sandwiches, pot roast sliders, seafood dishes, and weekly specials featuring freshly caught fish from local purveyors.

Local fishermen can also bring in cleaned, scaled, and filleted catches for the restaurant’s “hook and cook” service.

The tavern is also a familiar gathering spot for sports fans and hosts music bingo on Tuesdays and trivia on Wednesdays.

The revamped patio will also occasionally host live music, including solo performers, guitarists, and perhaps duos, though not larger bands.

For its owners, the new patio is ultimately about giving the bar’s loyal customers a better place to spend time.

“There are people who come in here every day,” Scherlis said. “People that are fans of The Joint are pretty much fanatical. They love the place.”

Follow The Joint on Instagram and Facebook for patio opening updates, upcoming events, and live music announcements.

On a busy Friday night, the challenge at Mary Margaret’s Olde Irish Tavern is not finding a good pint of Guinness. It is finding a place to sit, order dinner, or even make it to the restroom.

The downtown St. Pete pub is often filled shoulder to shoulder with live-music fans, soccer supporters, dinner guests, and late-night crowds.

Publican Pete Boland, who also co-owns The Galley and The Ship’s Hold, said the space has become so consistently busy that an expansion next door has shifted from a longtime idea into a necessity.

Mary Margaret’s, at 29 3rd Street North, will expand this winter into the neighboring Top Slice Pizzeria space.

The expansion marks a full-circle moment for Boland, whose grandmother, named Mary Margaret, operated a salon out of the Top Slice Pizzeria space back in the 1970s. 

The Irish pub currently occupies about 1,600 square feet, and the 1,400-square-foot addition will more than double its seating capacity with roughly 50 new seats, a second 12-seat bar, more patio tables, and additional restrooms.

“We’re packed to the gills,” Boland said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “It’s become a logistical challenge. Where do I put empty kegs? Where do I put the beer? Where do I put people?”

Construction is expected to begin in early October, although the original Mary Margaret’s will remain open throughout the work.

Boland hopes to have the new space ready by Christmas, or at least before the pub’s seventh anniversary in February and the rush surrounding St. Patrick’s Day.

Mary Margaret’s will keep its existing bar, live Irish music schedule, and nightly personality. Instead, a hallway door at the back of the pub will lead into a new room built around dining, private events, and an open-air bar facing 3rd Street North.

The new space will also give Boland the ability to separate different experiences that currently compete for space inside one small room.

Mary Margaret’s hosts live Irish music six nights a week and karaoke on the seventh, but it can be difficult to accommodate a big soccer match, a Notre Dame game, and live entertainment at the same time.

The added room will allow the pub to show a game in one space while music continues in the other.

It will also create room for the guests Mary Margaret’s has often had to turn away: families looking for dinner, groups of 10, company parties, wedding receptions and birthday celebrations.

“We’ll have a dining room, we’ll have a private party room, and it’s going to improve the guest experience,” Boland said.

For Boland, who attended culinary school at the Art Institute of Tampa and began working in restaurants at 14, the extra dining space matters as much as the second bar.

Mary Margaret’s has built a following for fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, and bangers and mash, but its crowded layout does not always make it easy for guests to settle in for a meal.

“I don’t sacrifice the quality of food,” he said. “We buy good ingredients and we treat them right. We take it very seriously, and now we’ll be able to have more of that dining atmosphere.”

The pub’s growth has also created more back-of-house pressure too.

Boland said Mary Margaret’s goes through about 14 to 15 kegs of Guinness each week even during August, with that total increasing to around 20 to 30 kegs in peak season, making Mary Margaret’s one of the largest Guinness purveyors in the state. 

The expanded space will include a second walk-in cooler, allowing the team to move keg storage out of the current cooler and create more room for the restaurant side of the operation.

Fraze Design Inc. is designing the expansion, with Silverwood Designs handling millwork. Boland expects the expansion to add about 10 jobs.

Next door, Top Slice Pizzeria operator Shan Bakrac plans to combine the pizza concept with sister restaurant Black Cattle Burger Co. in the Black Cattle space, which operates on the same block. The result will be a reworked fast-casual concept centered on pizza and smashburgers.

Boland said he and Bakrac began discussing the expansion about two years ago. Now, both businesses are preparing for significant changes on the same block.

“I think we're going to just really blow it out of the water—we're so excited about it,” Boland said. “We’ve had this vision for a long time.”

A popular Indian Rocks Beach seafood restaurant will close Sunday for a complete reconstruction of its waterfront building.

Monstah Lobstah, located at 125 Gulf Boulevard, will serve its final customers on September 6th before closing Monday, September 7th. The existing 5,605-square-foot building will be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up.

The building, which housed JD’s Restaurant & Lounge for nearly 40 years, sustained damage during the back-to-back hurricanes of 2024. Rather than continue repairing the aging building, Monstah Lobstah’s parent company, Crabby Bill’s Family Brands, has decided to replace it.

“The reality is that we are operating in an aging coastal building that continues to need significant repairs and remains vulnerable to flooding, future storms, and additional damage,” ownership wrote in a Facebook post earlier this week.

“After a lot of evaluation and conversations with our contractor and architects, it became clear that continuing to repair and protect the existing structure would keep us in a cycle of temporary fixes without addressing the bigger issue,” the post continued.

The restaurant will hold a four-day send-off celebration from Thursday, September 3rd through Sunday, September 6th. Guests will be invited to share memories, messages, and well wishes on one of the restaurant’s walls. Ownership plans to preserve and incorporate that portion of the building into the new restaurant.

Plans call for a newly constructed, multi-level restaurant designed for its coastal setting, with views of both the beach and the Intracoastal Waterway.

The project will also include JD’s Rooftop Bar, a rooftop venue named for the longtime restaurant that previously occupied the property. The space will host live music, dancing, and piano nights, while including historic photographs and preserved pieces from JD’s Restaurant & Lounge.

Permits and approvals are still needed before construction can begin, and the owners do not yet know how long the rebuild will take. They said they will provide updates as permits are approved, construction starts, and a reopening timeline becomes clearer.

Crabby Bill’s Family Brands, owned by the Loder family, purchased the building in 2022 for $3.2 million.

The original building was constructed in 1949. It operated as O’Neal’s on the Rocks from 1967 through 1985 before JD’s opened the following year.

Following the 2024 hurricane season, the Loder family reopened the property as Monstah Lobstah IRB, a New England-style seafood restaurant specializing in Maine lobster. The menu also includes lobster rolls, New England clam chowder, lobster bisque poutine, crab cakes, and fried seafood platters.

During construction, Monstah Lobstah gift cards, bonus vouchers, and rewards will be honored at the company’s sister restaurants. They can also be saved for use at Monstah Lobstah when it reopens.

The owners said Monstah Lobstah employees will have opportunities to work at other Crabby Bill’s Family Brands restaurants during construction.

“We will not sit by and allow another powerful storm to displace our team and guests or put this property at risk again,” the Loder family wrote. “Instead, we are choosing to make a long-term investment in this location, our team, and the community we have been a part of for nearly 50 years and are proud to continue serving.”

Follow Monstah Lobstah on Facebook and Instagram for updates.

The Manhattan Casino, the historic 22nd Street South venue that once hosted performers including James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Ray Charles, will reopen September 19 following a $4.8 million renovation.

The City of St. Petersburg will operate the two-story building at 642 22nd Street South as an event venue, with a ribbon-cutting and open house planned for 10 a.m. that day.

The reopening returns a major gathering place to The Deuces, the historically Black commercial and cultural district along 22nd Street South. The venue will be available for weddings, corporate events, conferences, family gatherings and live performances.

The renovations include new flooring and air conditioning, along with a new lobby, conference room, green room, catering kitchen, and stage for live bands.

The first floor will house the 2,232-square-foot Legacy Room and an entry foyer with a bar, while the second floor will feature the 4,152-square-foot Jordan Ballroom, named for Elder Jordan Sr.

Rental inquiries are already being accepted, and tours are available by appointment through the Manhattan Casino’s website. Six-hour rentals start at $1,000, while short-term rentals begin at $250 per hour. Nonprofits will receive discounted rates.

The Manhattan Casino was commissioned in 1925 by Elder Jordan Sr., a prominent Black businessman and community leader. Over the following decades, it became a centerpiece of entertainment and social life for St. Petersburg’s Black community.

The venue hosted weddings, dances, graduation ceremonies, community celebrations and gospel programs. During segregation, it also became a stop on the Chitlin’ Circuit, welcoming Black performers who were often barred from appearing at white-owned venues.

“The Manhattan Casino deserves the respect and recognition that comes with its extraordinary legacy,” Councilmember Deborah Figgs-Sanders wrote to St. Pete Rising. “For generations, African American musicians and entertainers graced its ballroom, creating unforgettable experiences while providing a welcoming and safe gathering place for our residents.”

“From elegant social events and dances to live performances and community celebrations, the Manhattan Casino has earned the historic place it holds in the hearts of so many,” she continued.

The building closed in 1968 and later operated as a pool hall and bar. In the 1980s, its former dance hall was used as storage space for a local sign and trucking company.

The city designated the Manhattan Casino a historic landmark in 1994 and purchased the property in 2002. Beginning in 2011, city officials partnered with several outside operators in efforts to reactivate the building, including a short-lived food hall in 2021.

The final operator, The Urban Collective, left after its lease expired in late 2022.

Rather than seek another private operator, city officials decided to run the Manhattan Casino as an event venue.

The reopening comes as new housing is starting to take shape around the historic venue.

The Deuces Rising Townhomes across the street are now complete, and Mayor Ken Welch recently selected Magellan Housing as the preferred developer for the nearby Commerce Park site. Magellan’s proposal calls for 126 affordable residences and ground-floor retail.

For generations, the Manhattan Casino served as a place where St. Petersburg’s Black community gathered, celebrated, and made history. On September 19th, it will again open its doors to the public.

Construction crews have completed demolition of the former UPC Insurance headquarters in downtown St. Pete, clearing the three-acre site for two 31-story apartment towers with 824 apartments and more than 30,000 square feet of retail space.

The 40,000-square-foot office building at 800 2nd Avenue South most recently served as a temporary office for the Tampa Bay Rays after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field.

UPC Insurance, which once occupied the building as its corporate headquarters, was placed into liquidation in 2023.

St. Pete-based Echelon, in partnership with Third Lake Partners, will develop the $225 million project, which will span more than 1.7 million square feet.

While shorter than the 46-story Residences at 400 Central, the two-tower development will contain more total floor area. At 343 feet, the towers will become the tallest buildings west of 5th Street and rank among downtown St. Pete’s 15 tallest structures.

In 2021, the site was part of a larger proposal that would have included a 75,000-square-foot Moffitt Cancer Center, a 30-story apartment tower, a 14-story hotel, and a future development pad for UPC Insurance’s expansion.

Mayor Ken Welch rejected that proposal in 2022, citing a lack of affordable housing.

Third Lake Partners acquired the eastern portion of the property from UPC Insurance in November 2022 for $10.5 million and purchased the western portion from the City of St. Petersburg in January 2025 for $10 million.

City Council, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, unanimously approved the current project in May 2025.

Designed by ARC3 Architecture, the project’s amenity deck will sit between the towers and include two pools, cabanas, fitness centers, social lounges, and outdoor sports and gaming courts.

ARC3 Architecture

ARC3 Architecture

ARC3 Architecture

ARC3 Architecture

ARC3 Architecture

ARC3 Architecture

ARC3 Architecture

A seven-story parking podium will provide 1,550 parking spaces and 828 bicycle spaces.

The L-shaped towers will rise from the eighth through the 31st floors. Apartments will range from studios to three-bedroom units.

More than 400 apartments will measure under 750 square feet, while penthouses will occupy the uppermost levels. Each unit will include a private balcony.

The first tower is expected to be completed in spring 2029, with the second expected to follow in 2031.

Echelon and Third Lake Partners are also working together on the 33-story 3rd & 3rd apartment tower at 235 3rd Street South in downtown St. Pete.

Echelon is also leading the 20.5-acre Echelon City Center project in north St. Pete’s Carillon Office Park, while the two groups recently acquired Tampa’s WestShore Plaza for redevelopment.

Mayor Ken Welch has selected Magellan Housing as the preferred developer for Commerce Park, a 3.03-acre, city-owned site near 22nd Street South and 7th Avenue South across from the Manhattan Casino in south St. Pete.

Magellan, through its local affiliate Deuces Rising, LLC, was one of seven teams that responded to the city’s April request for proposals.

Its plan, called The Deuces at Commerce Park, includes an eight-story, 120-unit affordable apartment building, about 6,000 square feet of retail space along 22nd Street South, and six for-sale townhomes in a second phase.

The selection gives the Texas-based affordable-housing developer the opportunity to negotiate a deal with the city. Any final agreement must return to City Council for a separate vote, and the council is not likely to approve an agreement before November’s mayoral election.

All 120 apartments would be income-restricted, meaning residents would have to meet income limits to qualify. The proposal calls for 24 apartments reserved for households earning up to 30% of the area median income, 60 for households earning up to 60% of AMI, and 36 for households earning up to 80% of AMI.

The six townhomes would be set aside for income-qualified buyers, creating a homeownership option alongside the rental apartments.

According to the published RFP, the city sought a mixed-use project with commercial space along 22nd Street South, rental and homeownership opportunities, and a design that recognizes the area’s history.

That history is central to the decision. Known as The Deuces, 22nd Street South was once the commercial and cultural center of St. Petersburg’s Black community, with businesses, restaurants, and entertainment venues serving residents during segregation.

Decades of disinvestment and the construction of I-275 later took a heavy toll on the corridor.

The Commerce Park site has been the subject of several redevelopment efforts since the city began assembling the land in 2007.

Plans for an industrial employment center, a manufacturing facility, and a new home for the Woodson African American Museum of Florida did not materialize.

The property later became part of the city’s Deuces Rising initiative, which has focused on housing, retail, and neighborhood investment. The recently completed Deuces Rising townhomes are part of that effort.

Welch’s selection puts Magellan’s proposal ahead of six other submissions, including a boutique hotel with co-living units, larger mixed-income apartment projects, a workforce-focused development with an innovation center, and other affordable-housing proposals.

In an August 27th letter to City Council, which was obtained by St. Pete Rising, City Development Administrator James Corbett wrote that Magellan’s proposal would create new opportunities for housing, homeownership, local businesses, and investment while incorporating public art and community gathering spaces intended to recognize the Deuces’ cultural identity.

Magellan’s proposal says Tampa-based Blind Tiger Coffee Roasters is in discussions to become an initial retail tenant.

It also calls for the retail spaces to be offered to local businesses at near-cost rents, a landscaped courtyard that could accommodate markets and festivals, and a public-art installation on the building’s south-facing facade.

Magellan estimates the full proposal would bring more than $43 million in investment to the corridor.

For the apartment phase, the developer proposes a 99-year ground lease rather than purchasing the land. In plain terms, the city would keep ownership of the land while leasing it to the developer for the apartment building.

Magellan has proposed starting annual rent of $55,000, increasing 1% each year for the entire 99-year term.

The townhome land would be handled separately so the homes could be sold to individual buyers.

The proposal also seeks $200,000 from the city for each townhome unit.

The project’s financing plan relies largely on competitive Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Those credits are a common source of funding for affordable-housing projects, but the timeline depends on whether Magellan receives an award.

If the project moves forward, Magellan expects construction to begin after financing is secured. The developer estimates an 18- to 24-month construction period and completion around 2029.

For now, the next step is negotiation. City staff will work with Magellan on the terms of a potential agreement, including the ground lease, the land for the townhomes, financing commitments, and project requirements. City Council will then decide whether to approve the deal.

A long-delayed project that will deliver 24 affordable homes for working families is nearing completion and preparing to welcome its first residents.

The bright white-and-blue, two-story townhomes line 6th and 7th avenues South near 22nd Street South, directly across from the Manhattan Casino.

The City of St. Petersburg purchased the land in 2007 for $2.2 million using a federal grant. However, the project was not announced until 2019 under former Mayor Rick Kriseman as part of the broader Deuces Rising initiative, which aims to revitalize the Deuces, the historic African American entertainment and business district along the 22nd Street South corridor.

Built by Tampa-based Horus Construction Services, the development includes twelve 1,780-square-foot townhomes with three bedrooms and twelve 1,525-square-foot townhomes with two bedrooms.

Each home will be offered for sale and include two parking spaces and front and rear yards.

Maurice “Mo” Franklin of Franklin & Associates Realty will market the homes to first-time homebuyers.

Twelve homes will be reserved for households earning 80% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI), equivalent to an annual income of up to $82,600 for a three-person household.

The remaining 12 homes will be available to households earning 120% or less of the AMI, equivalent to an annual income of up to $123,840 for a three-person household, as defined by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program.

Down payment assistance will be available, and the homes will carry a minimum 30-year affordability period. Future resales will be subject to affordability restrictions, an equity-sharing plan, or both.

Franklin is awaiting approval of a sales agreement with the city and final pricing for the townhomes, both of which will require City Council approval.

Because the development sits on city-owned land, the city issued a notice of intent to sell the property as required by its standard procedures, although the homes will be sold directly to residents rather than to a developer.

Pricing is still being determined and will account for several factors, including current housing prices, interest rates, insurance costs, and homeowners association fees, Franklin told St. Pete Rising.

In the meantime, interested residents can sign up online for updates and join the waiting list.

To qualify, buyers must not have owned property within the past three years. Priority will be given to residents of the South St. Pete Community Redevelopment Area.

The original vision for the 2.7-acre site included a commercial park and residential development led by the Sankofa Vision Group. However, rising construction costs and delays related to soil contamination remediation stalled the project in 2023.

The city administration ultimately paused the commercial component to prioritize construction of the townhomes.

In January 2024, City Council approved a $19 million contribution to the project, including a $6 million loan from the city’s Economic Stability Fund. Proceeds from the sale of the townhomes will be used to repay the loan.

The Deuces Rising townhomes are among several developments proposed or taking shape in the surrounding area.

In March, the Pinellas County Urban League submitted an unsolicited proposal to the city for a two-story, 28,000-square-foot mixed-use building called the Sankofa Empowerment Center between 6th Avenue South and Fairfield Avenue South.

The Pinellas County Urban League would serve as the building’s anchor tenant and operator. The remaining space would include a mix of offices, retail, food service, and co-working space, along with an incubator-style environment designed to support small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Because the proposal involved the development of city-owned land, St. Petersburg issued a request for proposals (RFP), allowing other developers to submit competing bids.

However, no other proposals were submitted, and the city has not yet moved forward with the Urban League’s plan.

Just south of the Deuces Townhomes, another development is being considered for city-owned land. In April, St. Petersburg issued an RFP for a three-acre site adjacent to I-275 known as Commerce Park.

The RFP called for a mixed-use development with ground-floor commercial space, new housing, and a design that activates 22nd Street South while reflecting the area’s cultural history.

Seven development teams submitted proposals, with concepts ranging from mixed-income apartments and retail space to hotels.

After a preliminary review, city administration selected the Magellan Housing proposal.

The plan includes a total of 126 residential units, with affordability levels ranging from 30% to 80% of area median income. The proposal also includes six for-sale townhomes, intended to provide a path to homeownership for moderate-income households.

The city must negotiate a term sheet with Magellan Housing and bring it to City Council for review prior to the project moving forward.

A St. Pete developer is planning a 60-unit apartment building in the Grand Central District that could demonstrate a quicker, potentially less expensive way to add housing to the city.

Blake Investment Partners plans to build a five-story apartment building at 3200 First Avenue South, at the corner of 31st Street South and First Avenue South, using a factory-built system from New York-based Vessel Technologies.

The building will be Vessel’s first Florida project and part of Whitney Village, a larger mixed-use development being constructed on the YMCA’s former athletic fields. The project also includes a 325-unit apartment community by Greystar, currently under construction, a future retail village, and 860 parking spaces.

The Vessel building is not being constructed through the traditional, site-built process used for most apartment projects.

Instead, Vessel will manufacture large steel-framed panels and other components in the Northeast, transport them to St. Petersburg, and assemble the completed building on-site.

The system includes the building’s steel structure, interior and exterior walls, cabinetry, elevators, stairwells, sprinklers, HVAC, plumbing, electrical systems, lighting, and interior finishes.

The savings come from repetition. Instead of designing a new building from scratch, sourcing materials separately, and resolving construction issues in the field for every project, Vessel uses a standardized design and purchases the same components at scale.

Manufacturing panels in a controlled factory setting also reduces material waste and rework, while a shorter construction schedule can lower labor and construction-interest costs.

Vessel uses fixed-price contracts with no change orders once the project is finalized, giving developers more certainty over the final cost.

For their St. Pete project, Blake Investment Partners will complete the site work, foundation, and utility connections before Vessel takes over the vertical construction and delivers the building ready for occupancy.

Once the foundation is complete, Vessel estimates its vertical construction process will take about six months, faster than a typical conventionally built mid-rise apartment project.

Vessel CEO Neil Rubler said the company was created to address a basic challenge in housing: New apartment buildings have increasingly been designed and priced for the highest end of the market.

“The goal was to create a super-high-quality product that would be attainable to working people,” Rubler said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “How do we develop a building system that can be replicated and reproduced in large quantities?”

Rather than designing every building from scratch, Vessel uses a standardized system that it can continuously refine. The company says the approach reduces material waste, limits change orders, and helps keep schedules more predictable while lowering development costs.

Vessel’s buildings generally range from 30 to 100 apartments, a scale where conventional multifamily construction can be difficult to make financially feasible.

The 60 apartments planned at Whitney Village will include 56 one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units.

Homes will feature nine-foot ceilings, large windows, full kitchens, in-unit washers and dryers, oversized showers, and app-based controls for lighting, climate, and security.

The interiors will also skip a familiar apartment staple: painted drywall.

Vessel uses high-pressure laminate wall panels, a durable, non-combustible material designed to be antimicrobial and easy to clean. Rubler said the panels can be wiped down between residents rather than repainted, potentially reducing turnover time and operating costs.

The building will use steel construction and components engineered for Florida’s wind and coastal conditions. It will be all-electric and solar-compatible.

Vessel’s panels are currently manufactured in Pennsylvania, although Rubler said the company is looking for a Florida facility as it expands in the state.

Vessel has completed two apartment buildings in the Northeast and has several more under construction.

For Blake Investment Partners CEO Thompson Whitney Blake, the project is about more than one building.

The company originally planned to place apartments above the planned retail component at Whitney Village. But after listening to feedback from prospective tenants, Blake’s team reworked the plan, moving the residential component to the corner of 31st Street South and 1st Avenue South, separating it from the future retail village.

The revised plan also avoids directly competing with Greystar’s larger apartment community.

Blake said the new building is intended to create what he calls “achievable” housing: newer apartments that can be offered below the prevailing price of comparable new construction without relying on public subsidies or income-restricted housing programs.

“We’re thinking, ‘How low can we make the rents and still, as a private company, make money?’” Blake said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “That’s actually our goal.”

If successful, Blake said the building could become a model for other smaller sites around St. Petersburg, including parcels owned by churches, community organizations, and other groups with excess land but without the scale to pursue a conventional apartment development.

“This is actually a scalable fix for a real problem,” Blake said. “There’s not a single silver bullet here.”

A groundbreaking date for The Vessel has not yet been set.

Dead Bob’s is heading to Largo with a new name, an outdoor stage, and the late-night hours that helped make the St. Pete neighborhood bar a local favorite.

Owner Ben Scherlis plans to open Live at Dead Bob’s in 2027 at Horizon West Bay, Largo’s new $80 million mixed-use development at 440 West Bay Drive.

The development occupies the northern 400 block of West Bay Drive and combines Largo’s new City Hall with retail and restaurant space, public gathering areas, an outdoor plaza and stage, and a parking garage.

The 2,072-square-foot Live at Dead Bob’s will occupy a space in the parking garage building beside the outdoor stage and public plaza.

It will be the fourth Dead Bob’s-branded location, joining Dead Bob’s in west St. Pete, Dead Bob’s Too in Tampa, and Dead Bob’s Waterfront Kitchen inside the Elks Lodge in Madeira Beach.

Scherlis and his partners also operate Bob’s Side Piece, which opened earlier this year in Dead Bob’s original west St. Pete home.

The Largo location will share the same casual, open-air feel as its sister bars, with indoor and outdoor seating, TVs for sports, affordable drinks, burgers, wings, daily specials, and late-night food.

Its menu will be somewhat smaller than the St. Pete and Tampa locations, Scherlis said, but will retain Dead Bob’s best-known staples.

“Keep the food good and the drinks affordable. That’s the ticket,” Scherlis said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “I’ve always stuck to that, and it’s worked.”

The biggest difference will be live entertainment. The City of Largo built a covered outdoor stage directly in front of the restaurant space, offering Dead Bob’s its first real opportunity to regularly host bands.

Scherlis initially considered calling the concept Dead Bob’s Revival, a name suggested during conversations with city representatives about revitalizing downtown Largo. But he landed on Live at Dead Bob’s to reflect the stage and planned music programming.

“I’ve never been able to do it before because I never had the space,” Scherlis said. “The stage is right in front of where the bar is going to be. That’s what really got me to sink my teeth into it.”

Unlike his existing locations, Scherlis said Live at Dead Bob’s will provide two things he has long lacked: ample parking and a dedicated outdoor stage for regular live music.

He expects live music primarily on weekends, with a mix of Tampa Bay acts and Florida bands traveling through the area. The restaurant will also help schedule programming at the public stage.

Live at Dead Bob’s is expected to keep the brand’s late-night reputation. Scherlis said he is tentatively targeting 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily, with the kitchen open late, while also serving the lunch crowd from nearby City Hall and surrounding offices.

The Largo City Commission approved the Dead Bob’s lease in a 5–1 vote on August 18th, with Commissioner Curtis Holmes casting the lone opposing vote.

Under the approved 10-year lease, the City of Largo will reimburse up to $414,400 in documented construction costs to prepare the space for restaurant use.

Dead Bob’s will pay for costs beyond that allowance, including kitchen equipment, refrigeration, furniture, and other interior needs.

Scherlis said he had previously considered opening in Largo but was unsure whether downtown was ready for a neighborhood bar.

Seeing the completed Horizon West Bay development, the city’s commitment to filling its storefronts, and the residential neighborhoods surrounding the area changed his mind.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, so I’ve seen a lot of places in Tampa and St. Pete go from nothing to becoming booming areas,” Scherlis said. “When I started talking to the property managers, I could really see their vision.”

He believes the area has room to grow as the city brings more restaurants, retail, events, and activity to downtown Largo.

“I think this area is ripe for growth,” Scherlis said. “The more I thought about it, the more excited I got.”

Live at Dead Bob’s will join Louis Pappas Fresh Greek and Bocelli Modern Italian, both under construction or planned at Horizon West Bay, along with Parlor Doughnuts, Strachan’s Ice Cream, and The Tox.

Scherlis does not see the other businesses as competition. Instead, he believes a mix of restaurants and bars will give more people a reason to visit the area.

“I see us being more of a happy-hour spot and maybe a late-night spot for the hospitality industry,” he said. “The more places there are for people to go, the more reason there is for people to come here.”

Live at Dead Bob’s is expected to open sometime in 2027.

At St. Pete Rising, we are constantly providing comprehensive coverage on everything new and coming soon to the Sunshine City, but we think it’s also important to take a look back at our city's rich history.

Historically St. Pete, a monthly column on St. Pete Rising written by Executive Director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History Rui Farias, covers everything from the legend of underground mobster tunnels to the buildings and people that created the Sunshine City.

Follow us each month as we explore how these projects shaped St. Pete into the city we know and love today.

This month, we explore the history of First United Methodist Church, a nearly 140-year-old congregation whose 100-year-old Gothic Revival sanctuary at 212 3rd Street North remains one of downtown St. Petersburg’s most recognizable landmarks.

In June 1888, the same month that the “Mattie” chugged down a narrow-gauge Orange Belt Railway and into the lower Pinellas Peninsula, a small group of Methodists gathered in various homes for church services.

St. Petersburg didn’t yet exist, and the hundred or so pioneering residents of this sun-kissed, rattlesnake-infested, orange-grove-filled land took it upon themselves to worship as best they could.

The following year, in 1889, when the Detroit Hotel and Railroad Pier opened, St. Petersburg saw signs of growth. A pastor was appointed, and First United Methodist was born. Two years later, in 1891, the congregation opened its first church on Central Avenue and 7th Street at a cost of $1,100.

The city’s growth continued, as did First United Methodist’s congregation. In 1901, the church structure was physically moved to the corner of 2nd Avenue North and Third Street, at what is now 212 3rd Street North. A new brick church was constructed in 1905. By 1910, the city boasted a population of 1,575 residents.

Then came the Roaring ’20s.

St. Petersburg experienced unprecedented growth in the 1920s, and it wasn’t only hotels, gin joints, and Mediterranean-styled mansions. New churches began rising throughout the city, and established churches such as First United Methodist began considering expansion or new structures altogether.

The congregation hired architect James Baldwin to design an impressive structure in the Late Gothic Revival style that also portrayed a strong English Gothic influence. This was a far cry from the Mediterranean Revival style gripping St. Petersburg.

Construction cost $450,000 and began in 1924. The church was completed under engineer Charles C. Whitaker after sections of three walls collapsed during construction. Red brick walls, a soaring bell tower, pointed arches, stone tracery, stained glass, and a steeply pitched roof created one of the most remarkable buildings in the city.

The bell tower rises 144 feet into the sky, reinforcing the building's Gothic character. The original tower housed a 10-bell carillon. The bronze bells were cast by the Meneely Bell Company of New York, with the largest weighing 2,208 pounds.

Originally played through manual levers, the carillon was converted to an electronic-keyboard version in the mid-1960s. The 1925 Austin organ had 1,541 pipes, which has expanded to 2,979 pipes in the current organ.

Even though leaded stained-glass windows are located on the east and west walls of the church, facing Williams Park to the south is a monumental stained-glass window designed by the George Hardy Payne Studios of Paterson, New Jersey.

Depicting Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, the breathtaking glass is designed in the Tiffany style with multiple layers of opalescent and faceted glass. It remains the sanctuary’s most iconic feature. The light passing through the stained glass creates a multicolored light show in the sanctuary during the day.

St. Petersburg’s economic bust of 1928, followed by the Great Depression, brought financial hardship to the city’s churches. In a city once said to have more churches and banks per capita than any other in the nation, many of both closed their doors within just a few years.

First United Methodist struggled but survived due to generous gifts and the sacrifice of its congregation.

During World War II, when more than 100,000 service members trained in St. Petersburg, the sanctuary became a home away from home for many soldiers.

The 1950s brought a congregation that numbered 3,000, the area’s first televised church service, and finally, air conditioning.

First United Methodist also made it to the big screen in 1985 when Hollywood came knocking and filmed the wedding scene from the movie Cocoon in the sanctuary.

Added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1990, First United Methodist continues a century of song from its historic bells in 2026.

Traditional Yemeni coffee is coming to downtown St. Pete.

Mocha Bay is expected to open before Thanksgiving at 401 1st Avenue North, on the ground floor of the Princess Martha, a historic senior living community.

The nearly 2,000-square-foot space was previously home to Deja Vu Café, which opened in 2016 and closed earlier this year. It is on the same block as Bar Chinchilla and the soon-to-open Sunshine City Comedy Cafe.

Mocha Bay will serve espresso drinks alongside traditional Yemeni coffee preparations, using medium-to-dark roasted beans sourced from Yemen, local businessman Hamdi Ali said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

Traditional Yemeni coffee is often brewed in a decorative metal pot called a dallah, then served strong in small cups. It can be flavored with spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

Another popular drink that will be offered at Mocha Bay is called qishr (pronounced KEESH-er) is made from dried coffee-cherry husks rather than coffee beans and has less caffeine than a standard cup of coffee.

Mocha Bay will also serve matcha lattes, smoothies, juices, and Adeni tea, a Yemeni milk tea typically spiced with cardamom or cloves.

The pastry case is expected to include sweet and savory items, including Dubai chocolate-inspired pastries, cakes, cheesecakes, and potentially small pitas with traditional fillings.

“It’s definitely a good feeling to bring a traditional family culture to our St. Pete community, which we love,” Ali said. “We can’t wait to make memories with our St. Pete community.”

Yemen played a significant role in coffee’s history. While the coffee plant is native to Ethiopia, coffee cultivation and bean roasting can be traced to Yemen in the 15th century.

The café’s name references Yemen’s Mocha port, a major center of the early global coffee trade.

“Yemen actually is known as one of the birthplaces of coffee,” said Tony Baker, a partner in Mocha Bay. “The country is known for growing and brewing some of the best coffees in the world.”

Hours are still being finalized, but Ali said Mocha Bay could open early for morning customers and remain open as late as 2 a.m. or later on weekends.

Mocha Bay will not serve alcohol or offer hookah. Instead, the café is expected to cater to students, remote workers, and others looking for a place to gather or work early in the morning and late at night.

No social media pages have been created for Mocha Bay yet. Updates on its downtown St. Pete buildout will be shared through Arab Tampa Official, a local business directory for Arab residents in the Tampa Bay area run by Baker.

Baker and Ali are also partners in a second Mocha Bay location planned for Tampa’s Temple Terrace neighborhood next year.

For nearly a decade, a tiny sixth-floor walk-up in Hell’s Kitchen became something much bigger than an apartment.

From 2015 to 2024, St. Pete native Nico Leeper lived with roommates in Apartment 34 at 312 West 48th Street in Manhattan, where a rooftop overlooking Midtown gradually became a gathering place for friends, neighbors, and plenty of people they had never met before.

They called it the 312 Roof Club.

On any given night, the rooftop might host a barbecue, piano concert, political rally, Derby Day party, charity fundraiser, inflatable pool party, wedding reception, or just a bunch of friends hanging out over drinks.

Now Leeper is bringing that same energy home.

Apt 34, a new beer and wine bar inspired by Leeper’s former apartment and the community that grew around it, is coming soon to 554 1st Avenue North in downtown St. Pete, next to St. Pete Brewing Company.

“It should feel like you’re coming to a house party in a Hell’s Kitchen apartment,” Leeper said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

Guests will enter through a small “lobby,” complete with a vintage apartment mailbox, before emerging onto the “roof,” an area with soaring ceilings, patio-style furniture, bistro lights, and lighting meant to mimic stars overhead.

From there, guests will enter the “kitchen,” where the main bar will resemble a kitchen island, before moving into a living room outfitted with couches and a mantle. A private booth will serve as the “bedroom,” complete with a daybed.

“We didn’t design a bar,” Leeper recalled his design team telling him. “We designed an apartment.”

For Leeper, the concept is deeply personal.

He was born at Bayfront, grew up in Crescent Heights, and attended Canterbury School before leaving St. Pete to attend Columbia University in New York City.

After college, he joined equity crowdfunding startup SeedInvest, where he worked from 2014 until 2021.

But arguably the more important thing that happened during his time in New York came in 2015, when he moved into Apartment 34.

The apartment wasn't exactly glamorous.

The sixth-floor walk-up had no elevator or central air, but a sliding glass door from Leeper’s bedroom opened onto the roof, which Leeper and his friends gradually turned into their own backyard in the middle of Manhattan.

Over the years, Leeper and his friends added couches, chaise lounges, planters, trees, astroturf, and eventually a neon “312 Roof Club” sign.

At one point, friends occupied 12 of the building’s 36 apartments.

During the summer, people were constantly upstairs grilling and hanging out. Other nights became full-blown events.

There were Derby Day parties, movie nights, pool parties involving a nine-by-ten-foot inflatable pool filled with a hose snaked up the side of the building, and an annual black-tie Christmas party that could draw 250 to 300 people.

“It was a magical place,” Leeper said.

Pieces of the original apartment will now find a second life in St. Pete. The 312 Roof Club neon sign is coming to Apt 34, along with the actual door from Leeper’s former bedroom.

Leeper’s path from venture capital to hospitality began during the pandemic, when SeedInvest went remote and he realized how much he missed interacting with people.

Despite never having bartended before, Leeper put in his notice and spent nearly two years bartending at his favorite neighborhood “Cheers” bar.

“I absolutely loved it,” Leeper said.

It wasn’t necessarily making drinks that hooked him. It was interacting with people and becoming part of a neighborhood gathering place.

Leeper eventually decided he wanted to open a place of his own and returned home to St. Pete in 2024.

He spent time getting reacquainted with a hospitality scene that had changed dramatically since he left for college.

What surprised him most was how much St. Pete's bars reminded him of his favorite neighborhood spots in New York.

“The hospitality scene here, it felt very homegrown,” Leeper said. “My favorite bars in New York were the ones where you sat down and it felt like you could strike up a conversation with anybody. You walked in and you just felt like it was a place that you belonged.”

Rather than immediately open a bar, he spent time working around the local hospitality scene, including stints at Try Wine and Tampa Bay Drinkery before joining Bar Chinchilla, where he has worked since December 2024.

Now he’s putting those experiences into Apt 34.

The new bar will feature 16 taps, split evenly between beer and wine.

Leeper plans to offer a mix of local and craft beer, while most of the wine will also be served on draft.

Beer will be poured into reusable red Solo-style cups, another nod to the house-party experience.

The bartenders will also be expected to act more like party hosts than traditional bartenders.

“The bartender’s role is host first, bartender second,” Leeper said.

Music will start quieter earlier in the evening and become more energetic as the night progresses, with bartenders reading the room and controlling the playlist.

There won’t be a DJ booth, and the lone television will typically remain off. There also won’t be USB chargers at the bar.

“This is a place to connect with humans,” Leeper said.

Food won’t be available when Apt 34 first opens, but Leeper eventually hopes to introduce cicchetti, small Venetian-style bites typically served with wine. He is also considering collaborations that would allow local chefs to put their own spin on the format.

Apt 34 will host occasional events inspired by the original 312 Roof Club, including Derby Day and Christmas parties, along with potential trivia, bingo, live music, and random theme nights.

The buildout at 554 1st Avenue North is being designed by St. Pete-based Storyn Studio, with Leeper working closely with Evan Vander Ploeg, one of his oldest friends.

The two have known each other since they were two years old, and Vander Ploeg visited Leeper in New York and attended parties at the original Apartment 34.

“He understands what we’re trying to create,” Leeper said.

Leeper hopes to have Apt 34 open in late 2026, ideally in time for the holidays, although the opening could slip into early 2027.

Ultimately, he hopes Apt 34 recreates something he loved about both Hell’s Kitchen and St. Pete: bars where people of different ages and backgrounds can walk in, strike up a conversation, and feel like they belong.

“Come as you are,” Leeper said.

Or, as Apt 34 puts it more simply: Welcome to the best house party in St. Pete.

Choosing between a savory pizza and dessert is not really a problem at Quintal Brasil Pizza.

The new Pinellas Park restaurant serves both as part of its all-you-can-eat Brazilian-style pizza experience.

Quintal Brasil Pizza opened last month at 6119 Park Boulevard, in the plaza shared with Quan Ngon Bistro, Fat Cat Pizza & Dogs, and beangood coffee.

The restaurant is owned by Ray and Kaline Barreto, who also operate Brazilian pub Boteco Bossa Nova and Wildlife Acaí & Café in the same plaza.

Brazilian pizza is known for its thin crust, light layer of sauce, and toppings that may be less familiar to American pizza diners.

Quintal’s menu includes familiar pizzas like a Margherita with mozzarella, basil, and tomato, alongside Brazilian-style options such as the Portuguesa, topped with ham, hard-boiled eggs, onions, bell peppers, and olives.

There is also Sertaneja pizza with onions, coalho cheese, and cured beef, as well as a pie topped with hearts of palm and Catupiry, a creamy, spreadable Brazilian cheese.

Every pie is made with dough that uses beef tallow instead of vegetable oil, which gives the crust a richer, more savory flavor. Gluten-free dough is also available.

And yes, there is dessert pizza. Guests can order pies topped with banana, cinnamon, and Nutella, or the Romeu e Julieta, a sweet-and-savory combination of shredded mozzarella and guava paste.

Quintal Brasil Pizza offers an all-you-can-eat option, where guests pay one fixed price and can try as many savory and sweet flavors as they’d like. The service, known in Brazil as rodízio, is more commonly associated locally with Brazilian steakhouses.

Diners can also order full or half pizzas à la carte, with takeout and delivery available.

The all-you-can-eat experience is $34.90 or $39.90 per person, depending on the day. Kids ages 4 to 6 eat for $15.90, while kids ages 7 to 12 eat for $21.90.

Quintal Brasil Pizza is open from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It is closed Monday and Tuesday.

Follow the restaurant on Instagram and Facebook for updates.

A train is about to pull into downtown St. Petersburg, and it’s taking passengers somewhere unexpected.

Zubrick Magic Theatre is launching Moonlight Express, an immersive new magic show that will transform its theatre at 1211 1st Avenue North into “Zubrick Station.” The 18-and-over experience begins September 10th and will seat just 20 guests at a time.

Operated by award-winning Illusionists Chris and Ryan Zubrick, the 97-seat theater opened in 2021 in the EDGE District. It brought a family-friendly, 70-minute magic show featuring comedy, sleight-of-hand, and large-scale illusions to downtown St. Pete.

Moonlight Express will be held on select nights, while the theater’s main show will continue on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

For Moonlight Express, the theater’s lobby will remain familiar, but once guests enter the auditorium, the Zubricks promise to transport them into an entirely different world.

The regular seats will disappear behind printed backdrops, while a 22-foot façade of a luxury 1940’s train carriage will stretch across the stage. Theatrical lighting, immersive soundscape, a station clock, and other details will complete the setting.

“Returning patrons to the theatre won’t even recognize the space,” co-owner Ryan Zubrick said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “We’ve transformed the whole place, creating the illusion of the Zubrick Station.”

Guests will arrive at 7 p.m. for a complimentary glass of champagne and a sweet confection before the conductor calls for boarding. They will then take their seats inside the train-carriage façade for a 70-minute sleight-of-hand magic performance.

“There’s a lot of themes of travel and time and journey that are woven into the scripting and the experience,” Zubrick said. “It’s super immersive, very experiential, with a lot of sights, sounds, and theatrical elements.”

Although created and produced by Chris & Ryan Zubrick, the Moonlight Express show will be performed by magician Neil Fama, who recently moved to St. Petersburg from Alaska after leaving the military.

Fama, a native of Saipan, had known Ryan and Chris Zubrick for years before moving to the area. He has already become familiar to theatre guests through his pre-show close-up magic performances.

Before moving to St. Petersburg, Chris and Ryan spent 13 years performing in Saipan and Guam, where they staged more than 7,500 shows for over 2 million people.

The theater’s growing base of repeat guests helped inspire the Zubricks to develop a new offering.

“People want miracles that happen in their hands, right in front of their face,” Zubrick said. “We wanted to create something elevated for an audience of adults only, where maybe the kids get a babysitter and stay home.”

The idea for Moonlight Express came together as the couple reflected on train-themed experiences they encountered while traveling and considered what Fama’s close-up magic could bring to the theatre.

For the Zubricks, who said the theatre’s success has surpassed their original expectations, the new show is another way to keep things interesting for themselves and for the locals who return with each new visiting friend or family member.

The theater recently celebrated its fifth anniversary.

“I remember very vividly five years ago staying up at night going, ‘Is anyone going to buy a ticket?’” Zubrick said. “But the local community has supported us in ways beyond imagination.”

Initial Moonlight Express performances are scheduled on select Thursdays through early November, with additional dates expected to be announced at a later date.

Tickets are available through the Moonlight Express website.