St. Pete Beach’s Dockside Grill & Bar, located at 4945 Gulf Boulevard, has been sold and will reopen in the first or second week of March as Prima Cantina, a Mexican restaurant with two other locations in Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades, California.

The new owners are a group led by Nando Silvestri, who is a partner in Prima Cantina’s California locations in addition to owner of Matteo Trattoria & Pizzeria in St. Pete and Tampa; Kevin Wojtowicz, a partner in Buya Ramen; and Jon LaBudde, a longtime St. Petersburg restaurateur, investor, promoter, and commercial real estate broker who’s been involved in a litany of local food and beverage concepts over the years.

According to their website, Prima Cantina’s menu “blends elements of the deep culinary heritage of mainland Mexico with the lighter, ocean-inspired, unique coastal cooking of the Baja peninsula, fused with the natural, produce-driven approach of California cuisine.”

A sushi restaurant that specializes in plant-based vegan options is making the move to 1990 Central Avenue, across the street from the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg’s Grand Central District. Jenna Malowany of KW Commercial represented the landlord and Danielle Cash of Somerday Group represented the tenant in the lease transaction.

House of Vegano is currently located at 655 31st Street South, where it shared space with The Body Electric Athletic Company, which shut its doors at the end of 2022. The current location will continue to serve diners until the new Central Avenue spot debuts at the end of the year.

Owner Thalia Tatham opened the sushi bar’s first brick-and-mortar location in March 2022 after initially selling food exclusively at markets and festivals and even delivering orders directly to customers’ homes.

Fans of Mexico’s signature liquors — tequila and mezcal — will want to check out Tequila Daisy, a new craft cocktail bar set to open this summer on the ground floor of ONE St. Petersburg at 120 1st Avenue North, across from the Sundial parking garage.

Tequila Daisy — the name was inspired by the margarita, the classic tequila cocktail whose name means “daisy” in Spanish — is the latest concept from the owners of other downtown St. Petersburg hotspots, including Pour Judgement, Whiskey Exchange, and One Night Stand. They envision it as having an upscale neighborhood bar feel during the week, with DJs and dancing on the weekends.

“We’re going to be a craft cocktail bar,” co-owner Monique Grespan tells St. Pete Rising, “but we’re trying to step away from what you traditionally see in a cocktail bar, such as dim lighting, leather, copper, that kind of thing.”

Five years after walking away from the renowned Z Grille, veteran St. Petersburg restaurateur Zack Gross and his wife, Jennifer Gross, will return to the Tampa Bay culinary scene in early March with the debut of a new eatery, Uncle Funz Provisions, at 6640 Gulf Boulevard in St. Pete Beach.

Gross describes the menu as consisting of “people’s food, which is what I love to do.” He says it will be a small, simple restaurant, only about 800 square feet, and it will be primarily staffed by him and his wife.

“I’m not going to have a bunch of people working there,” he said in an interview with St. Pete Rising. “And I’m not going to be mass producing food. The menu will be ever-changing.”