More than one year ago, St. Petersburg, the state of Florida, the country and the world shut down as the global COVID-19 pandemic Arts hubs, restaurants, boutiques, markets, and others were faced with growing uncertainty. The very things that gave the Sunshine City its character and charm were stifled for a time.
In spite of the circumstances, the St. Petersburg community banded together to persevere through such adversity. We at I Love the ‘Burg reached out to members of the small business community to see how they’re doing, and how their business has evolved over the past year.
ADVERTISEMENT
An arthouse cinema arrives in St. Pete
Some businesses found themselves figuring out how to open amid a pandemic. St. Pete’s very own indie theatre, Green Light Cinema, has become a sanctuary for film lovers. It’s currently showcasing Oscar favorites, and continues to enliven the ‘Burg’s burgeoning art community. You can find tickets and showtimes online.
We had a wonderful new business like Burg Cookie Co begin serving the St. Pete community with giant, deep dish cookies. Soon, the locally owned and operated concept will pop up in the EDGE District.
Karma After Hours just launched in Baum Avenue Market in the EDGE District, offering a fresh take on Puerto Rican Cuisine. The concept that opened alongside it, Pinoy, has moved over to Match Point Grill.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sauvignon, a wine bar on the 200 Block of Central Avenue that residents have longed for since 2019, is set to finally open its doors this spring.
Indie Flea Supports St. Pete Makers
The Indie Flea has just gotten back into the swing of things. The organizers hosted a wonderful spring market March 20-21 at Coastal Creative, with more events planned for 2021.
Other spots like Urban Brew and BBQ have served as gold standards for how to transition your business. Urban Brew has evolved to serve as a marketplace/grocery store for myriad items (produce, breads, desserts, etc.) in addition to taking advantage of its spacious outdoor seating.
Bandit in the Grand Central District has also taken extensive measures to ensure the safety of its staff and eager customer base.
We have also put together a list of black-owned businesses you can support today and every day here in the Sunshine City.
Don’t forget, the Saturday Morning Market and the Corey Avenue Markets are back in case you’re looking to fill your refrigerator and pantry with local goods.
How Sunstate Yoga stretched through the pandemic
Sunstate Yoga, a brand new woman-owned all-hot power yoga studio outside Historic Uptown, has also found a way to reach St. Pete safely. Owner Carrington Killgroe speaks to her experience operating a business through a pandemic:
“It made me realize how valued our space is to the people in our community, and that people were craving this kind of connection now more than ever. We have some of the most loyal clients in the world, and we couldn’t be more grateful for it.”
Neat Neat Neat, an amazing locally-owned boutique, is also offering something special to St. Pete a few doors down.
Uptown Eats, home of the best grits bowl in the ‘Burg, launched during the pandemic, but, through owner Dan Schmidt’s wonderful connection with his customers, has flourished in Uptown.
St. Pete Ferments arrives on grocery store shelves
St. Pete Ferments is one of my personal favorite businesses in St. Petersburg. The fermentation company creates sensational kombucha, the gingered carrots are phenomenal, and Sarita, the owner, is one of the hardest working people in the ‘Burg.
St. Pete Ferments products can now be found on the shelves of Nature’s Food Patch. Products include Lemon and Dill Turnips, Little Pepper Kraut, and Collard Kimchi. I was recently moved by Sarita’s own post about the weight of owning a business and following your dreams:
“All the times I worked until 4 am, wondering when I would sleep again. All the times I was questioned by others about what I know, and questioned at times if I was even the business owner. All the times I had to tell my friends I couldn’t hang out. The list goes on. But today. Today is a great day. Sometimes I feel like this whole running a business thing gets a little bit easier, and then it gets hard again. It’s a cycle I’ve come to expect by now, so if you can relate just know you aren’t alone. Growth can often feel chaotic. Keep going.”
Kahwa opens new locations, celebrates 15th anniversary
Kahwa Coffee operates more than a dozen cafes across the Tampa Bay region, in addition to an online shop that ships nationwide. Kahwa employs hundreds of locals, and is a wholesale partner for myriad restaurants in St. Pete, Tampa, and Sarasota.
Kahwa found success with its drive-thru locations, and changed its cafe setups to allow for contactless curbside pickup ahead of reopening its floors to the public.
The company too has grown in the pandemic. Owners Raphael and Sara Perrier opened a brand new location in Sarasota, and have another location planned for Dunedin. Kahwa turns 15 in 2021, and to celebrate the coffee concept is giving away a year of free coffee to one lucky winner. Click HERE to learn how to enter.
Love in the Grand Central District
Special shouts as well to Grand Central District neighbors Love Food Central and Squeezed Juice Works. Both women-owned businesses took every precaution necessary at the outset of the pandemic for the health and wellbeing of their respective staff.
Both concepts also integrated comprehensive composting programs to make their wonderful businesses even greener. Also, Love Food Central writes pretty wonderful puns, and adds joyful illustrations to your to-go orders (by requisit).
On the same block as Love Food Central, Sip Shop Hooray officially opened its doors, the marvelous boutique is well worth a visit. It’s owned and operated by the same team behind Central Cycling, which has activated the community through outdoor spin classes on the St. Pete Pier.
I want my BE TV
Speaking of keeping St. Pete fit, The Body Electric Yoga and Athletic pivoted to BETV aka virtual classes at the outset of the pandemic. Owners Katelyn Grady and Jenny Miller are two of the most generous, tenacious, and caring individuals you are ever bound to meet. Their commitment to supporting The BE’s coaches, and their long list of members is remarkable.
In-person classes are back, though sessions are still available to stream. The BE also hosts yoga events at The Pier, in local parks, and at breweries across the ‘Burg.
The Factory transforms St. Pete
One of the biggest art happenings in the Sunshine City took place during the pandemic. That of course is the official debut of The Factory, and of course Fairgrounds. Lucky residents have been able to enjoy glimpses inside the massive arts hub in the Warehouse Arts District.
The Factory also showed off its impressive poetry garden in partnership with Keep St. Pete Lit, one of the anchor office tenants at The Factory.
Dr. Carter G Woodson Museum finds a new future home
Of all the major unveilings, the imminent arrival fo The Dr. Carter G Woodson’s new museum space is one of the most exciting.
At the start of February, The Dr. Carter G Woodson Museum secured $700,000 in funds, completing a $1 million “Deuces Rising” initiative, from the City of St. Petersburg for its new 29,000 square foot facility. The new Dr. Carter G Woodson Museum will take over a 5.5 acre parcel along 22nd Street South just across the street from the Historic Manhattan Casino.
The concept, designed by Wannemacher Jensen Architects, will feature new galleries, a sculpture garden, events space, and a justice center. Its new unique design will have the museum itself be an event driven venue.
In total, the major upgrade from its current 4,000-square-foot space will cost about $20 million. The money will come from grants, donations, and fundraisers.
This is a call for donations to help elevate this exquisite and essential institution in the Sunshine City.
LocalShops1 creates an online marketplace for local vendors
Supporting local makers and small businesses is more important than ever. Local businesses not only help keep more money right here in the Tampa Bay region, by recirculating the money locally, but they add the charm that gives our neighborhoods so much character. They also contribute the most to local charities, and they’re the ones ready to help with fundraisers for neighbors in need. The past year has thrown us all in for a loop, to say the least, and for many small businesses it has been especially tough. I haven’t seen stats on local numbers, but nationwide almost 100,000 small businesses closed due to the pandemic, according to a September 2020 article in Fortune magazine. I expect that number to be much larger now, unfortunately.
Many small businesses rely on festivals, markets, and other pop-up events, and for much of last year, those events were of course on hold. Here at LocalShops1, it was no different. We had to cancel our 2020 events, including Shopapalooza Festival, which is a top-selling event for many local makers and small businesses, and instead collaborated with event organizer SIK Promotions to put on a socially distanced, scaled-back holiday event. The event was very successful, But in the downtime we launched an online community marketplace, BuyLocalTampaBay.com, and offer that as a free service to local makers to sell directly to consumers. Unlike Etsy or Amazon or other marketplaces, we don’t charge any listing fees and we don’t take any cuts from the sales.
Thanks for making Tampa Bay a better place!
Bright Ice scoops sensational sweets for St. Pete
Like all businesses, the pandemic forced us to think quick on our feet. Being very new and with a limited customer base, we weren’t sure how things would pan out. Once indoor dining was shut down, we immediately created online ordering, and kept the service counter open for take-out orders only. Customers would come in and buy 10 pints of ice cream at a time, to give to friends and family who couldn’t make it out. They would tell us they wanted to make sure that we stayed in business. That was the point when we truly understood that St. Pete doesn’t just say they support local, they really do support local. One year later, we are thrilled with the location we chose for our first store!
READ: Bright Ice opens new ice cream shop in Pinellas Park
The James Museum keeps St. Pete connected through art
Malynda Washington, The James Museum
The museum is very excited about getting back to normal, whatever “normal” really means. It’s been a year of learning, adapting, adopting, and incredible growth for everyone. We’ve done (and will continue to do) some meaningful work with our collection, exhibitions, and programs.
The closure was an opportunity for us to develop our digital platform. The James Museum From Home offers numerous ways to stay engaged and enriched with digital content available for free online. We wanted to keep our virtual visitors engaged with stories of the Western Frontier and Native-American cultures right up to present day. The James Museum from Home allows you to experience the museum in a whole new way.
In addition to the pandemic in 2020, we also had to pay close attention to the social unrest that was highlighting the inequities in our community. My community. We recognize our role as a museum and believe in being a place of open dialogue in our community, exploring topics of interest and discomfort that push us to grow. And we believe that art is a powerful agent for change. Art is engaging. Art can be painful. Art can be inspiring.
Our next couple of years of exhibitions are going to be exciting and powerful. Our vision is to be an influential and thought-provoking art museum that inspires every visitor. Our exhibitions will continue to do just that!
Beans & Barlour continues to make the ‘Burg delicious
We’ve focused on becoming a product in addition to an experience to keep business growing. We are still encouraging outside dining and takeaway and have continued to increase our offerings and keep our staff comfortable and safe! 
#welovetheburg
Roll it, bowl it, grow it — Pacific Counter creates jobs in St. Pete
Tanner Loebel, Pacific Counter
March 18th was the one year anniversary of our dining room being closed. We really never imagined having our dining room closed to guests for any period of time, let alone an entire year, which is still pretty mind-boggling to me. The safety of our team & community has been a top priority of ours and the support from our community has allowed us to survive during these trying times. We are so thankful for everyone who has continued to order from us through takeout & delivery over the past year, as it has kept us on our feet! We look forward to opening our dining room again soon, but want to make sure we can do so in the safest way possible!
Coastal Canines cares for pups in the ‘Burg
Our pets may love us being home all the time, but the pandemic has hit our local pet sitters and dog walkers hard. It was almost spring break last year and Coastal Canines Fl was overbooked with walks and vacation sitting plans. Then in an instant everything was cancelled. Many clients who traveled for work are now working from home and there have been vacation sitting requests, but nothing like before. I kept in touch with my clients, texting the pet parents to say hello to their pets for me and sending handmade cards in the mail. I’ve even shifted focus to painting pet portraits and other creative projects. Coastal Canines Fl client base is mostly through word of mouth and I am so grateful for the amazing people and pets I get to work with. I am optimistic things will get better in time and that our St.Pete small business owners will continue supporting each other because that’s one of the elements that makes our city so unique.
There’s more on the horizon here in the Sunshine City:
Crumb Factory, Two Graces plan debuts in West St. Pete
La Croisette plans debut on St. Pete Beach
Burnt Ends Tiki Bar opens in the EDGE District of St. Pete
‘Burg Built: How Sara Fludd created the perfect waffle food truck in St. Petersburg
Cocktail St. Pete, a new bar from the owner of Zazoo’d, opening in the Grand Central District
The Nosh Pit serving up NY Deli favorites in the ‘Burg
Salty’s Sandwich bar brings massive sandwiches to Gulfport
Mammamia Gelato Italiano plans summer debut on Central Avenue
ADVERTISEMENT
