Massive Five Story Food Hall Coming To Downtown St. Pete

Get excited because a new huge food hall opening downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. This new food hall will be located on Central Avenue making it the perfect location. It's going to offer a ton of different bars, restaurants and casual dining.

According to StPeteRising, "Hi Hospitality Group has been working on transforming the nearly 28,000-square-foot space at 551 Central Avenue, formerly the Dome Grill. The highly anticipated venue will feature a variety of cuisines, price points, experiences and live events that will offer the community endless possibilities within the space." Natalia Levey the founder at Hi Hospitality Group is very excited about the project. She said they are creating all different concepts internally with Culinary Director Chef Hart Lowry who is in charge of recipe development. The food hall is expected to debut later this year making residents happy.

The ground floor will feature seven different concepts including New York style delicatessen called Palm Avenue Deli. It'll be the perfect place to hang out with multiple large televisions with restaurants and bars on each level to ensure guests have a fabulous experience. On the 4th level Kojo announced their second location which is a popular restaurant that features cuisine from China, Japan, Taiwan and more.

There's also another Italian market and a food hall opening at the same time! Perfect for you get to taste delicious treats while walking around. This building is over 12,000 square feat and is located behind trophy. Fish seafood restaurant, which will be extremely convenient. The founder of the big city group. And big city hospitality, Julius Nassau announced the plans and named it San Valentino. Italian market.

It’s the perfect time for this Italian market to make its debut. It will be located at 2063 first avenue south St. Petersburg, Florida and is The Big City Hospitalities first concept in the downtown area. They will offer a variety of restaurants, bakeries, food and beverage counters plus an all-new cooking school. Sounds like this concept could be a game changer for the Tampa Bay area and make the residents extremely happy.

You’ll be able to walk around and taste test different foods. Try homemade pastas in all different types of shapes and colors. Try several different desserts including cannoli and cakes from recipes passed down decades. Freshly made breads in varying shapes and sizes. Real pizza you can only find in Italy that tastes and smells like it was shipped overseas. This market sounds like any foodie’s fantasy and the perfect place you can take your family or on a date night.

We ranked our favorite Tampa pizza places that Dave Portnoy missed out on. Everybody knows the rules. Dave has one (1) bite to judge an authentic cheese pizza. We were all surprised by Dave Portnoy's visit to the Tampa Bay area. He was here in early March for another round of his One Bite Pizza series. Dave visited about 18 local pizza places and since then their business has been BOOMING! But what were some of the places he missed?

Although Dave Portnoy may not be everybody's favorite internet personality. The Barstool CEO does help support a lot of local businesses with his One Bite Pizza reviews. Just his appearance alone caused hundreds of people to check out a new Tampa pizza place. Don't believe us? Just try to check out one of the places he visited earlier this year and you'll be met with a huge crowd and long wait times. But trust us, the food will be worth it.

We visited a couple places in St. Pete to try to see what the hype was about. First we tried The Violet Stone, who had an awesome 7.9 rating for their pizza and an unreal 9.2 rating for their Philly cheesesteak. Well, it was so busy there that they had to limit the orders to 2 pizzas and 2 cheesesteaks per order. So we ended up trying a pizza from Little Toby's instead, and we were NOT disappointed.

We also spoke with the owner of Piper's Scratch Pizza Shop in Palm Harbor. He told us that the weekend after Dave's visit was the busiest they've ever been since their opening in 2020. Bruce also shared that just a few days after their video was released on YouTube, their sales tripled.

To accommodate all the new business, Bruce has been very open with his customers. They created a disclaimer on their website explaining that cook times may have increased due to volume. Bruce also told us that they had to take some menu items off to focus on pizza, hire more staff, increase their prep items, and tripled the dough prep. If you're ever in the Palm Harbor area, we highly recommend trying the Piperoni or Twisted Marg.

So what about the places Dave missed? We knew he wouldn't be able to make it to all the Tampa pizza places in the area. So we made a list of places you should check out and rate for yourself. And maybe put them on Dave's radar if he comes back to the Tampa Bay area.

We can't believe this spot wasn't on Dave Portnoy's list. It's one of the most iconic pizza places in the Tampa area. Open till 3am in Ybor is one of the reasons why it's so popular. Dave has a rule that "if it's open late, it's not great" so we're very curious to know what he would have rated Due Amici.

Alfonso's is one of the oldest pizzerias in Tampa. We tried them for the first time last year and have been regulars ever since. Everything on the menu is made in-house, including their pasta and meatballs. We think Dave would have gave them a solid score of 7.5-7.8

Even though Dave already reviewed Eddie & Sam's pizza, it was about 5 years ago. So we believe everyone deserves a second try. Dave originally gave them a 7.1 rating, and with Eddie & Sam's being THE pizza spot in Downtown Tampa, they needed a good redemption story.

This recommendation comes from our listeners. When we asked which pizza place Dave should have visited, a lot of people tagged Sardo's Pizza in Largo. Their menu isn't just pizza, you can also try some homemade pasta, hot or cold sandwiches or delicious desserts. 

While he was in Dunedin, Dave should have totally checked out Corvo Bianco Pizza located at 901 Curlew Road, Dunedin. They specialize in authentic Neapolitan style pizza. Their dough is made in house daily and is fermented for 72-96 hours before thrown in an 850-degree Wood-Fired Italian oven. 

Another great Downtown Tampa pizza option is Tampa Pizza Company. They have some of the best specialty pizza's in the downtown area. While pizza is the main dish, their menu also features a variety of appetizers, sandwiches and wraps, gelato, and more.

This was another recommendation from our listeners. With 8 locations in the Tampa Bay area, we're surprised that Dave didn't stop by New York New York pizza.