Bandit St. Pete What to get: Chorizo breakfast burrito 2662 Central Ave., St. Petersburg Pack your bag and get work done at Bandit St. Pete while enjoying one of their seven signature coffees, beer, natural wines and a mouth watering selection of meals and baked goods. Photo via Bandit St. Pete/Facebook Credit: Photo via Bandit Coffee

OPENINGS/CLOSINGS

Motorworks Brewing opens third Florida location on Tampa’s Harbour Island
Just when you think that Tampa Bay doesn’t have any room for more breweries, another one pops up. In this case, it is an expansion of territory for Bradenton-favorite Motorworks Brewing, which is settling into its newest space on Harbour Island in downtown Tampa. The brewery’s third location, Motorworks Brewing Taproom Tampa, is now open at 707 Harbour Post Dr. and advertised as the “ultimate destination for craft beer enthusiasts and sports fans.” With strong ties in Manatee County as its first production brewery, Motorworks was established in 2014 by Frank Tschida, former sprint car builder, liquor store owner and excavating contractor. The name of the brewery is a tribute to the 1920s Hudson Motors car dealership that was the previous occupant of the Bradenton space. Its Bradenton, Orlando and now Tampa locations pour a “core beer lineup” that includes IPAs, lagers, pale ales and even coffee beers — two of them being award winning as first and second place in the chili category in the 2023 Best Florida Beer competition — the Mango Habanero IPA and Tequila BA Datil Imperial Porter. However, it also serves liquor and wine to appeal to a wider audience. Harbour Island’s location also offers pub grub, like pizza, salads and “Italian specialties” to pair with the chosen sips.—Sofía García Vargas

EVENTS

Bandit Coffee Co., a staple of the St. Petersburg food and drink scene, celebrates ninth anniversary
Bandit Coffee Co. is ready to blow out nine candles. Combining two of its major events into one weekend, the party is a two-day bash celebrating nine years in St. Petersburg. And yes, the bandit crunchwraps will also make an appearance. The Bandit Coffee Co. anniversary will take place all-day on Saturday Feb.1 and Sunday Feb. 2 in St. Petersburg, with a series of events and special returns, according to a social media post. On Saturday, Bandit will serve cake by the slice, a returning tradition for the coffee spot, while offering t-shirts live screen printed for guests from 10 a.m.- noon. Cake and shirts are limited and will be served while it lasts. A pop-up for all members of the family, along with more merch and raffles, happens from 5 p.m.-8 p.m., with live music and Cipolla Rossa pizzas. After that, Bandit says leave those kids at home, their Small Bar event is for legal drinkers, from 5 p.m.- midnight. Bandit will serve wine and open its kitchen, including the famous layered cake trifle. —Julia Saad

The Jewish Food Festival is back in Clearwater
Go ahead and park that car. After four years of drive-thru events, the Jewish Food Festival is back to its original in-person grounds event this February. Vendors and live music will fill out Clearwater’s Temple B’nai Israel lot, located at 1685 S Belcher Rd. All the staple Jewish delights, like potato knishes, noodle kugel, Israeli falafel pitas and the fan-favorite matzoh ball soup, are on the menu. For those who need a sweet treat as a Sunday reward, vendors will offer their staple sweets—cheesecakes, cinnamon babkas, cookies and other traditional desserts. The event is open to the public, whether you are Jewish, Jew-ish or non-Jewish. Admission for the rain-or-shine event—which runs from 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23—is free, but event organizers ask guests to bring at least one non-perishable canned food to be donated to local food pantries in Clearwater.—Julia Saad

Interview: Before Tampa show, chef and ‘Good Eats’ host Alton Brown explains why he’s ready to take a break
Alton Brown doesn’t need a break, but at 62 years old, he’s thinking about the arc of his career. “I’m entering last chapter territory, and I want to know what that looks like,” he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, adding that the media world is changing quickly and in a way he doesn’t necessarily enjoy. “Where am I going to put my energies for whatever time I’ve got left?” For now, that energy goes onstage for what Brown—the cook and chef who rose to prominence for his scientific and wildly entertaining show “Good Eats”—is calling his final tour. The “Last Bite” tour kicks off in Melbourne just before Valentine’s Day and criss-crosses the country for 89 days, and it stops in Tampa in February. Brown said that if he lived in the Sunshine State, he’d call our city home. But this show takes him to towns with names that he can’t pronounce, which is one of the reasons he wanted to hit the road one last time, just like Steinbeck in “Travels In Charley.” “I feel that our country is very disconnected from itself. I love getting out. And I guess I want to see just one more time, the country that I think I live in, I want to see if it’s still real. I want to feel connectivity with things besides media generated by a handful of coastal communities—so I kind of need the realness of that,” he said. Onstage, he’ll look to keep connecting with people, who energize him even on bad nights. “This show, I hope, is kind of the culmination of that evolution of theatrical form,” he added. The presentation will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Brown in-person, but it’s more cinematic and more personal. And it’s more like “Good Eats” onstage than anything else he’s presented. —Wesley Roderick

FEATURES

The 20 most romantic restaurants in Tampa Bay, according to Yelp
Whether it’s for Valentines Day, or just a special night out, Tampa Bay has plenty of dimly-lit, romantic restaurants to choose from. To help come up with this list, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay turned to Yelp for a rundown of the “most romantic” spots across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. So, if you haven’t made and any RSVPs yet, here are a few spots to try.