Melting Pot fondue restaurant coming to downtown St. Pete, years after closing on 4th Street
/The Melting Pot fondue restaurant will be located at 695 Central Avenue on the corner of 7th Street and Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete
Nearly three years after The Melting Pot shuttered its long-standing location on 4th Street, the popular fondue restaurant has finally found a new home in the Sunshine City.
Front Burner Brands, the Tampa-based company that manages the Melting Pot brand of fondue restaurants, has confirmed to St. Pete Rising that it has leased 4,900 square feet of space at 695 Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg for a new flagship Melting Pot location.
The two-story, 16,000-square-foot building, which will house the future Melting Pot, is perfectly situated on Central Avenue adjacent to the Morean Arts Center and across the street from the Chihuly Collection.
In July 2021, St. Pete Rising announced major renovation plans for the building, that will add large impact-resistant fold-up windows to the ground floor and New Orleans-style balconies lining the entire second floor along Central Avenue.
The two-story, 16,000-square-foot building, which will house the future Melting Pot, is about to embark on extensive renovations that will add new windows to the ground floor and New Orleans-style balconies to the second floor | PLACE
Additionally, the building will receive a complete interior demolition, installation of a new air conditioning system, construction of a new roof, and relocation of the elevator and stairs.
The Melting Pot is no stranger to St. Pete. The brand had a presence at 2221 4th Street North for more than 32 years until it closed in the spring of 2020, soon after restaurants across the state were ordered to halt operations to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
At the time, Front Burner said the closure was not directly caused by the nascent COVID-19 pandemic, but the Coronavirus accelerated the real estate owner’s decision to sell the property.
“The plan all along was to relocate,” says Dan Stone Front Burner’s chief operating and development officer, “but COVID hit and we thought that would cause a surge in available real estate, and that certainly wasn't how things played out.”
The dining room at the new Melting Pot in St. Pete will look very similar to this shot of the Red Bank, NJ location
Although the new downtown St. Pete space will be significantly smaller than the Melting Pot’s former 4th Street location, Stone says the new layout will be a better fit for the new-look Melting Pot. The restaurant’s former home on 4th Street is an older building that’s currently being converted into a brewpub.
“We’ve evolved the Melting Pot design,” Stone says, “and we wanted to showcase the Melting Pot of the future and all that we build today. It would have been hard to convey that in an old house on 4th Street.”
“The plan is to take the new identity the Melting Pot has taken on over the past few years and introduce that to the St. Pete market,” Stone explains.
The Melting Pot is the original fondue restaurant where guests can enjoy several fondue cooking styles and a variety of unique entrees, salads, and desserts
For those that have never experienced fondue, The Melting Pot allows guests to enjoy several fondue cooking styles and a variety of unique entrees, salads, and desserts.
As an appetizer, diners are served artisan breads, seasonal fruit, and veggies that can be smothered in one of six different cheese blends, including Wisconsin Cheddar, Spinach Artichoke, and French Onion Gruyere.
Next, guests choose the cooking style for their entree fondue. Keep it simple with a seasoned vegetable broth or get fancy with the Coq Au Vin, which consists of Burgundy wine, mushrooms, scallions and garlic. Or ditch the fondue pot altogether and opt for the cast iron grill.
In addition to choosing the cooking style, diners also decide what type of proteins and veggies they'll be cooking. There are five entree fondues to choose from, unless you'd like to create your own. The Classic includes shrimp, Memphis-style dry rub pork, teriyaki-marinated steak, garlic pepper steak, and herb-crusted chicken breast.
The cheese and chocolate station at the new Melting Pot in St. Pete will have a similar design to this photo of the Red Bank, NJ location
Melting Pot even has options for those on a vegan or gluten-free diet. For instance, The Garden Pot contains Impossible meatballs, red onion, asparagus, zucchini, mini sweet peppers, wild mushroom ravioli, and artichoke hearts.
End the night with a pot of warm chocolate accompanied by a variety of sweet treats and fresh fruits. Six options are available, including the Flaming Turtle which has the creamy flavor of milk chocolate melted with caramel, flambéed, and topped with candied pecans.
“We are excited to bring back the historic Melting Pot to anchor our redevelopment of 695 Central with their new fresh and bright concept,” says Michael Connor, President and CEO of Paradise Ventures, the Safety Harbor-based real estate company which owns the property.
According to Connor, the building’s renovations, led by D-Mar Construction, are set to begin in February.
The bar area at the new Melting Pot in St. Pete will be modeled after the Red Bank, NJ location
However, it’s still unclear when diners will be able to enjoy a pot of delicious fondue.
“We're not going to give an exact date because everything is a moving target in the world of construction,” says Stone.
The Melting Pot debuted in 1975 in Maitland, Florida, in the Orlando area and expanded to Tallahassee four years later. In addition to the under-construction St. Pete location, there are Melting Pot restaurants on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa and Ringling Boulevard in Sarasota.
Nearly five decades after the first Melting Pot restaurant opened, the brand has grown to 95 locations in 31 U.S. states and Canada.
