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.

Introducing Historically St. Pete, a new monthly column on St. Pete Rising written by Rui Farias, Executive Director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History, which will cover 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 downtown St. Petersburg's Open Air Post Office, one of the first of its kind in the United States.

A new jewelry and lifestyle shop is coming to the EDGE District of downtown St. Pete.

August Mae will open at 907 Central Avenue in a 736-square-foot storefront between Fusillo Pasta and Sunshine City Paint. The space previously housed vintage shop Now and Then, which closed in 2021.

The new shop, which hopes to open by the end of the year, will specialize in water- and tarnish-proof, demi-fine jewelry made with 14-karat gold-filled and sterling-silver materials. Demi-fine jewelry uses higher-quality metals while remaining more accessible than fine jewelry.

Customers can also choose from permanent bracelets and necklaces, create their own charm jewelry, or order personalized pieces through August Mae’s in-house engraving service.

Additionally, the shop will carry a curated selection of apparel, accessories, beauty and self-care products, candles, glassware, gifts, and small home items.

“The store is actually going to be more of a lifestyle shop,” owner Cory Lawler said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “I want it to be an experience. You can come in and get custom-fitted jewelry, make jewelry, buy something for whatever you’re looking for, whatever the occasion is.”

A new Italian breakfast and coffee café is coming to the EDGE District of downtown St. Pete.

Café Bavaro will debut on Friday, October 16th, inside Bavaro’s at 945 Central Avenue.

The café will serve espresso drinks, breakfast plates, bagels, and sandwiches from 8 to 11:30 a.m., before Bavaro’s regular lunch service begins at noon.

“This has been in the works for a while, and we are excited about finally executing it,” Kaleigh DeSousa, manager of Bavaro’s St. Pete location, said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

Café Bavaro first opened at Bavaro’s Clearwater Beach location last year, giving the family a chance to build out the breakfast-and-coffee concept before bringing it to St. Pete.

The menu will include the usual espresso-based coffee drinks, from cappuccinos and flat whites to cortados, lattes, and Americanos. It will also offer specialty drinks including cannoli and tiramisu lattes, along with matcha, a limoncello refresher, and mimosas.

St. Petersburg will test a new plant-based approach to managing stormwater as part of a $7 million project coming to one of the city’s most flood-prone areas.

The city will install eight HydroPlanters, which are modular rain gardens designed to slow and filter rain runoff before it enters the city’s stormwater system.

Each rain garden is about five feet long, three feet wide, and two-and-a-half feet deep.

Filled with specially designed soil, grasses, shrubs, and small trees, the boxes will be installed in an L-shaped configuration along a city-owned grassy area near the intersection of 50th Avenue North and 7th Street North.

During heavy rain, water from the street will flow into the planters and filter through the soil and vegetation. It will then drain into the city’s stormwater system and eventually the 54th Avenue Canal.

A familiar Pinellas County doughnut shop is coming to South Pasadena.

Fray’s Donut House will open at 1200 Pasadena Avenue South, taking over the former Dunkin’ location just down the street from Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish.

The shop is expected to open in January 2027.

Serey Siev, who will co-own and operate the shop with his wife, Phiny Long, purchased the building for $925,000, according to Pinellas County property records.

The building will receive mostly cosmetic updates before reopening, including the installation of Fray’s familiar white sign with red and black lettering.

The South Pasadena location will serve more than 30 types of doughnuts, from glazed, chocolate frosted, cinnamon sugar, Boston cream, rainbow sprinkle, and old fashioned varieties to cronuts, apple fritters, and éclairs.

The shop will also serve muffins, cinnamon rolls, breakfast sandwiches, espresso drinks, and drip coffee.

Shake Shack and Dutch Bros Coffee are headed to Pinellas Park.

Plans filed with the city show the two chains proposed for neighboring lots at 6994 U.S. Highway 19 North, across from The Shoppes at Park Place and next to a future EōS Fitness Center.

The 1.83-acre property is currently home to a Walgreens, which would be demolished to make way for the two new buildings.

Shake Shack would occupy a 3,493-square-foot restaurant at the corner of 70th Avenue North and U.S. Highway 19 North, while Dutch Bros would open a 1,025-square-foot coffee shop directly across from it.

Both locations are planned with two-lane drive-thrus. Shake Shack would include indoor seating, while Dutch Bros would operate solely through its drive-thru and walk-up window.

Drive-thrus are a newer addition to Shake Shack’s business model; the company started adding them to new locations in 2021. As of last year, the company only had 39 locations with drive-thru lanes.

In late January, pottery artist Beth Miranda woke up before sunrise to a devastating call from her business partner, Ethan Fielder.

Their community studio, St. Pete Ceramics, was engulfed in flames.

The fire tore through much of the interior, including walls, shelving, tables, stools, and other equipment. Two rabbits that lived at the studio also died.

Miranda arrived at the studio, which is located at 593 22nd Street South in the Warehouse Arts District, around 5:15 a.m. after calling her husband in Philadelphia and taking a moment to process what she had just learned.

“I got here and dealt with everything. Then I sent a text to friends in the local clay community and said, ‘Guys, I just need prayer. This is happening,’” Miranda said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

Fellow artists arrived with bagels, coffee, pizza, gloves, and a willingness to help however they could. Within roughly 36 hours, volunteers had helped empty and clean out the fire-damaged studio.

The Florida Holocaust Museum in downtown St. Pete is planning a $15 million renovation that will create an immersive theater for interactive Holocaust survivor testimonies and expanded exhibition space.

Located at 55 5th Street South, the museum will renovate existing first- and third-floor spaces rather than expand the museum’s physical footprint.

The new first-floor Immersive Theater will become a larger home for Dimensions in Testimony, a digital experience that allows visitors to ask questions of Holocaust survivors and receive answers drawn from pre-recorded interviews.

Developed by the USC Shoah Foundation, the technology uses voice activation and natural-language processing to match visitors’ questions with relevant recorded responses.

“Each survivor has been asked over 1,000 questions,” Museum President and CEO Eric Stillman said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “When a viewer asks a question, the technology picks up certain words and responds with the survivor’s recorded response from the earlier questioning. It becomes like a real in-person dialogue.”

After a sudden opportunity arose just four blocks from its current shop, Pete’s Bagels is preparing to move into a new space twice the size of its current location in the Grand Central District.

The local bagel company will relocate from 2361 1st Avenue South to 1900 1st Avenue South, a 4,200-square-foot repurposed Quonset hut that most recently housed the vegan restaurant Good Intentions, which closed earlier this summer after four years in business.

Pete’s plans to close its current shop for one day on Monday, October 5th, while its team moves equipment and furnishings overnight. The new location is expected to open Tuesday, October 6th.

Owner Steven Peterman said Pete’s was not actively searching for a larger space, but its current landlord planned work to the property that would have required the business to close temporarily.

The owners of the Good Intentions building, who also own Pete’s former production kitchen, reached out about the available space.

After nearly three years in the EDGE District, The Sourdough Co. is preparing to relocate to one of downtown St. Pete’s most recognizable historic buildings.

The bakery and café will move from 1113 Central Avenue to the former Union Trust bank building at 895 Central Avenue.

The 1926 building has remained vacant since its last bank tenant left in 1996.

The Sourdough Co. will occupy nearly 11,000 square feet across the building’s ground floor, mezzanine, and basement.

Owner Ariana Duksa announced the move on social media Monday.

“From baking inside our home to filling a historic building in the heart of St. Pete… we can hardly believe we get to say that,” Duksa wrote. “Thank you to every person who has ever purchased a loaf, pastry, coffee or meal from us. From a cottage bakery, to our first storefront, to this beautiful historic bank.”

Before opening its first storefront in 2023, The Sourdough Co. operated as a cottage bakery out of Duksa’s Seminole home.

Construction is underway on Azalea Cay, a planned 1,000-unit apartment community on the former Raytheon property in west St. Pete.

Tampa-based Metro Development Group, St. Pete-based Porter Development, and local elected officials broke ground Monday morning on the first phase of the project at 1501 72nd Street North, near Azalea Park and Tyrone Square Mall.

The $109.8 million first phase will bring 341 apartments, including 102 income-restricted homes.

Fifty-one apartments will be reserved for households earning up to 80% of the area median income (AMI), while another 51 will be available to households earning up to 120% of AMI.

“I look around and I envision someday teachers, nurses, first responders coming home from a tough day at work and calling Azalea Cay home,” Les Porter, president of Porter Development, said during the ceremony. “Maybe one of the big reasons why they’re still able to live in St. Pete is because of the rent associated with their apartment.”

The remaining 239 apartments will rent at market rate. The income-restricted units must remain affordable for at least 50 years.

After 12 years in the EDGE District, Brooklyn South has permanently closed.

Karen Kramer, who has owned the sandwich shop at 1437 Central Avenue with her husband Mark since 2024, told St. Pete Rising they “just couldn’t keep up with rising costs.”

The financial pressure had surfaced before the closure. In a response to an online review last year, Kramer wrote that Central Avenue rent and food costs had become overwhelming and that she had made significant sacrifices to keep Brooklyn South going.

It was work, she said, she did for the joy it brought people rather than for the money.

Brooklyn South opened in July 2014 under founder Matt Bonano, a trained chef whose route to St. Pete ran through the cheese world. Bonano had worked at Atlanta’s Alon’s Bakery & Market and later became wholesale production manager for Murray’s Cheese in New York.

He moved from Brooklyn to Gulfport and named the deli Brooklyn South because St. Pete reminded him of the “Brooklyn of the South.”

For generations of St. Pete residents, The Chattaway has been the kind of place people do not simply visit. They return to it.

They come back for the cheeseburgers, the beer, the photos and plaques crowding the walls, and the leafy courtyard that feels tucked away from the city around it.

Some remember riding bikes there as kids. Others had first dates beneath its trees. Nearly everyone has a story.

Today, that story enters a new chapter.

The Chattaway has reopened at 358 22nd Avenue South after Cullen Mahoney, Ferg’s Sports Bar owner Mark Ferguson, and Shrimpy’s Waterfront owner John John Delladonna purchased both the restaurant and the 0.70-acre property beneath it.

Customers returning today will find the familiar restaurant, with several practical upgrades designed to make it work better day to day.

For years, the second floor of a downtown St. Pete beer and wine bar has been used mostly for private events and overflow seating.

This weekend, Green Bench Brewing will turn that space into a new concept of its own.

Upstairs at Webb’s will begin service Friday, September 25th, at 4 p.m. above Webb’s City Cellar, Green Bench Brewing’s specialty beer and wine bar at 1133 Baum Avenue North.

The new bar and lounge will launch during Green Bench’s 13th anniversary celebration, offering a beverage program built around a somewhat unexpected idea: texture.

“The menu itself is completely built around the concept of texture and how you can use texture to manipulate the experience with products,” Green Bench Brewing owner and brewer Khris Johnson said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “It’s supposed to be exploration-focused, a deep dive into not just products, but service and hospitality centered around beer that you just don’t get anywhere else.”

That idea will shape nearly every drink served upstairs.

A beer poured downstairs or next door at Green Bench may also be available upstairs, but it will not necessarily taste or feel the same.

St. Petersburg’s oldest arts institution is preparing for the most ambitious expansion in its more than 100-year history.

New renderings have been revealed for the first phase of Arts Center Association, Inc.’s $34 million expansion of the Morean Arts Center at 719 Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete.

The redevelopment calls for a new five-story arts center on an existing surface parking lot at the corner of 8th Street and Central Avenue, bringing the Arts Center and the Chihuly Collection, currently located across the street at 720 Central Avenue, under one roof.

Designed by Wannemacher Jensen Architects, the new building would feature a largely white exterior wrapped in slender vertical fins.

At street level, a sweeping, wave-like opening would rise from the ground floor and fold into the façade, creating a sculptural entrance inspired by the fluid forms and luminous colors of Dale Chihuly’s glasswork.

Madeira Beach’s longtime grocery store is reopening this week in a new format.

Aldi will debut this Thursday, September 24th, at 15200 Municipal Drive in Carter Plaza, across from Archibald Beach Park and R.O.C. Park.

The store replaces the former Winn-Dixie, which closed last year after more than 50 years in business. The Municipal Drive store was built in 1975 and had operated as a Winn-Dixie ever since.

Winn-Dixie Liquors will remain open.

To mark the grand opening, the first 200 customers in line Thursday will receive a bag of branded items and a “golden ticket,” an Aldi gift card worth up to $100. Employees will also distribute free Aldi shopping totes throughout the day.

The store will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A St. Pete native and former USF basketball star is preparing to open what he calls a love letter to his hometown.

Love Language 727 Restaurant & Lounge will open in October at 3063 Central Avenue in the Grand Central District.

The space was previously home to 31 Grand, a sports bar that closed in late 2024 following back-to-back hurricanes. Before that, it housed Punky’s Bar and Grill, an LGBTQ-friendly establishment that closed in 2022 after nearly seven years in business.

Owner Jimmy Devon Baxter is returning to St. Pete after nearly two decades in Atlanta, where he said he was inspired by the city’s experience-driven restaurant and lounge scene.

After graduating from Boca Ciega High School, he played basketball for the University of South Florida from 2000 to 2004.

During his senior year, Baxter received the NCAA Award of Valor for helping rescue two men trapped inside a vehicle following a violent crash. The City of Tampa also presented him with a key to the city for his efforts.

A popular Venezuelan food concept known for its stuffed arepas and empanadas will soon open its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in St. Pete.

Carúpano Kitchen plans to open by mid-November at 1040 4th Street North, a 1,070-square-foot space previously occupied by a catering kitchen and Urban Canning Company before that.

Andrea Osorio debuted Carúpano Kitchen at Foodie Labs, a commercial kitchen incubator in the Warehouse Arts District, in 2025 with her mother, Diann Cedeño, and wife, Lauren Haley.

The menu centers on arepas, naturally gluten-free Venezuelan corn cakes that are grilled or fried, sliced open, and filled with meats, cheeses, seafood, and vegetables.

Osorio said the new restaurant will keep Carúpano Kitchen’s core recipes while adding new, healthy options for the lunch crowd.

“There’s a lot of changes coming, but overall it’s the same menu and recipes,” Osorio said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “It’ll just be an elevated version that caters to this new location.”

A new family-owned restaurant serving pizzas, burgers, empanadas, and other Argentinian dishes is preparing to open in Pinellas Park.

Pizzardis will open at 7820 49th Street North, near England Brothers Park and the Pinellas Park Performing Arts Center. The building was previously home to Pinellas Park's Fresh Produce.

Owner Victoria Fecarotta said she and her husband expect to welcome their first customers during the last week of September.

For Fecarotta, the restaurant is rooted in memories of food bringing people together in Argentina, from long Sunday lunches to Friday nights spent sharing pizza with family.

She moved to the United States in 2001 and, after years in the restaurant business and previously owning a restaurant with her husband in Chicago, is ready to open a place of her own in Pinellas County.

More than 1,500 panels of white Brazilian granite are now being installed on the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement’s five-story expansion at 355 4th Street North in downtown St. Pete.

The 11,300-square-foot expansion will add four galleries to the 137,000-square-foot museum, which opened five years ago in September 2021.

The Arts and Crafts movement emerged in the late 19th century as a response to mass-produced goods, placing an emphasis on handcrafted objects, natural materials, and simple, functional design.

The St. Pete museum is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to the American Arts and Crafts movement.

The existing five-story museum includes more than 40,000 square feet of gallery space, along with a grand atrium, skylights, and its signature spiral staircase.

Peacock Home, a shop specializing in vintage finds, globally sourced décor, and locally made goods, will open October 1st in St. Petersburg’s Grand Central District.

The 1,100-square-foot store will occupy the second floor of the building at 2635 Central Avenue, home to Hostess, a gift shop and event space.

It is the first brick-and-mortar retail venture from longtime St. Pete resident and interior designer Erika Basher.

Peacock Home grew out of a five-day pop-up Basher held at Hostess six months ago.

She rented a moving truck, brought in a collection of furniture, décor, and other finds, and sold nearly everything within five hours of opening.

“I’ve always been into interior design. It’s 100% a passion of mine,” Basher said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “I’ve made my living doing it, but I’ve never opened up a retail store.”

CASA Pinellas, the county’s certified domestic violence nonprofit, has purchased the former Cellarmasters wine bar and bottle shop at 1005 1st Avenue North in the EDGE District for $1.75 million, creating room to expand its neighboring thrift store and generate additional funding for survivor services.

The 2,190-square-foot building, which CellarMasters vacated after closing in November 2025, sits next to CASA’s 17,000-square-foot building at 1011 1st Avenue North, which houses the nonprofit’s thrift store on the first floor and Family Justice Center on the second.

CASA, which stands for Community Action Stops Abuse, will turn the newly acquired building into a donation-receiving, sorting, and processing center, relocating back-of-house functions now housed within the thrift store.

The move will allow the nonprofit to expand the thrift store’s sales floor by about 20%.

CASA CEO Lariana Forsythe said housewares are the store’s biggest seller and generate its highest margins. The additional sales floor will allow CASA to carry more merchandise, particularly in that category.

The thrift store generates about $1 million annually in unrestricted revenue for CASA, according to Forsythe. The organization estimates the additional retail space could produce roughly $200,000 more each year.

Demolition is expected to begin in October at the James B. Sanderlin Neighborhood Family Center in south St. Pete, clearing the way for a $25 million, 40,000-square-foot building designed to expand the nonprofit’s education and family-support services.

The new facility at 2335 22nd Avenue South will replace the aging, 25,000-square-foot building, which was never designed to accommodate the center’s current programs.

The organization offers pre-kindergarten, after-school tutoring, job training, weekly food distribution, and financial-literacy programs for students and their parents.

At a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, Executive Director Celeste Collins said the project is personal to her. Before leading the organization, she brought her own children to the center as a parent.

“When we talk about creating a space for families, I know what we are talking about because I’ve been on the other side of the fence as a parent,” Collins said.

Bocelli Modern Italian, the South Tampa restaurant known for its housemade pastas, live music, and Utica-style chicken riggies, is opening a second location in downtown Largo.

The restaurant is planned for 40 West Bay Drive at Horizon West Bay, Largo’s new mixed-use development anchored by City Hall.

Managing Partner Michael Mythack said Bocelli hopes to open between March and April 2027.

The 6,400-square-foot restaurant will include a full-liquor bar, private dining room, outdoor seating, and a larger kitchen than the South Tampa location.

Mythack said the Largo location, which is currently in the design and permitting phase, will carry forward the feel of Bocelli’s South Tampa restaurant, which he describes as an approachable, family-oriented neighborhood restaurant rather than a white-tablecloth fine-dining destination.

“We’re not upscale. We’re mid-scale,” Mythack said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “We’re a neighborhood restaurant in South Tampa. It’s nice inside. The aesthetic is beautiful. We have live music three days a week.”

STORM, a Tampa-born drink shop whose colorful, clean energy drinks regularly go viral on social media, is coming to St. Pete.

The shop is known for 32-ounce electrolyte drinks available in more than 20 flavors, with options for carbonation, extra flavor, creatine, collagen, and varying caffeine levels. It also serves plant-based protein shakes all made with their unique protein formula.

STORM is expected to open before November 1st at 2600 4th Street North, replacing Grand Kitchen and Bath, which is relocating to the other side of the building.

For STORM founder Molly Mills, the opening is a return home.

Mills grew up in St. Pete and initially hoped to open the company’s first location here. But as a new business, she and her fiancé, Cole Schaller, could not find a space they could afford near downtown.

After years of planning, Craft Kafe is targeting an early October opening for a new cafe and commissary kitchen in St. Pete’s Skyway Marina District.

The homegrown eatery and bakery, known for specialty coffee and a scratch-made gluten-free menu, is putting the finishing touches on its third St. Pete cafe at 4725 34th Street South in the Marina Village shopping plaza, just south of the Marina Walk Apartments.

The 4,700-square-foot space will include a 1,000-square-foot cafe and a large production kitchen designed to supply Craft’s existing stores and support future expansion, according to the owners.

“We’ve planned this one month after opening our first store in St. Pete. Because of the pandemic, issues in logistics, and losing my home from the hurricanes, this has taken so long to open,” founder and owner Teddy Skiadiotis told St. Pete Rising during a private tour.

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.

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.