St. Petersburg sits on the Gulf side of Tampa Bay, and its cooking starts with what comes out of the water: grouper, stone crab in season, shrimp, mullet. The grouper sandwich is close to obligatory.
The city’s downtown has changed substantially over the last fifteen years, and the Central Avenue corridor and the Edge District now hold a dense run of independent restaurants, breweries and coffee roasters. It is compact enough to work through on foot, which is unusual in Florida.
The Saturday Morning Market is among the larger farmers’ markets in the southeast and runs through the cooler months. Stone crab season, from October to May, is the best window for visiting.