Indian street food spot Mowgli’s Tiffin opens in St. Petersburg
Nearly four years after it was first announced, new Indian street food concept Mowgli’s Tiffin has finally debuted in St. Petersburg. Located in the former Chi-Town Beefs location at 165 Dr. MLK St. N, just on the edge of the Edge District, Mowgli’s quietly opened on Dec. 31. In a previous interview with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, owner and Tampa Bay native, Amita Mukherjee, said Mowgli’s is inspired by her frequent trips to India with her parents in her early years, which helped blossom a love for Indian street food. “I would crave that street food,” said Mukherjee. “But when I went to Indian places around here I noticed that you don’t get those options. Most Indian places seem to center around curries.” The 16-seat, 526-square-foot restaurant centers around Indian fusion dishes like kaati rolls, pani puri, and its signature Kolkati Roll, which is essentially a roti wrapped around a kebab. There’s also butter chicken rice bowls, grilled cheese naan, potato bhaji, paneer curds, and more.
South Tampa’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen closes original location this weekend
This weekend, nearly 34 years after opening, Wilton Morley’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen is closing its doors—then opening new ones less than a mile away soon after. Morley, founder of the storied South Tampa pub and restaurant, told CL that the Mad Dogs at 4115 S MacDill Ave. will close after Sunday. He was in the car with longtime business partner and co-owner of Mad Dogs, Rick “The Colonel” Craig, and both of them were in their feelings about the next chapter, albeit in different ways. “It’s very bittersweet for me. I’m definitely more emotional about it than Wilton is,” Craig told CL. “I mean, my customers are my friends, and it’s where all my friends meet. We’ve had discussions like, ‘Where are we going to go in the two weeks between?’” – Ray Roa
Popular Japanese bargain store chain Daiso will open first Florida location in Tampa next month
Last summer, popular Japanese bargain store chain Daiso announced plans to open Florida’s first location in Tampa, and now we have an opening date. The new outpost, located at 15702 N Dale Mabry Hwy. (within the Northdale Promenade shopping plaza), celebrates its grand opening on Feb. 1, according to the company’s social media. “We will be giving away an exclusive goodie bag to the first 100 customers who make a $30 purchase at this location each day,” reads the post. For the unfamiliar, Daiso stores carry thousands of products, including Japanese-inspired home decor, stationery, asian-style snacks and various types of quirky knick knacks. The store claims to sell primarily “100-yen” ($0.65) products, but many items are typically closer to $1.75, and some as high as $15.25. Prices are also marked in yen to provide customers with a more immersive Japanese shopping experience.
Guy Fieri’s new Chicken Guy location in Wesley Chapel is now open
Celebrity chef and “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” host Guy Fieri has finally debuted his latest chicken tender chain location in Wesley Chapel. The new Chicken Guy outpost, located at 25769 Sierra Center Blvd., was officially announced back in August as the first in the Tampa Bay region, and opened its door on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 10 a.m. Co-founded in 2018 with Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl, the chain’s menu primarily focuses on chicken tenders and Guy’s “Big Bite” chicken sandwiches, which are both served either grilled or “crispy fried.” There are also shakes, fries, mac and cheese, salads and more up for grabs. The chain currently has 13 locations across the country, with more on the way. The closest outpost in Winter Park faced eviction last March over $38K in unpaid rent, and a location in Livonia, Michigan shuttered abruptly last June.
Modern Chinese restaurant Hales Blackbrick opens second location in South Tampa
Only a few months after announcing the second location of their Chinese eatery, Chef Richard Hales and his wife/partner Jenny have opened the doors to their new Hyde Park restaurant. Hales Blackbrick’s second location soft-opened on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 1809 W Platt St. in Hyde Park, right around the corner from other concepts like Gasparilla Pizzeria and Don Rigatoni. The newly-opened eatery shares the same Chinese-Floridian hybrid menu as its flagship restaurant at 4812 N Dale Mabry Hwy., which opened out of the former Pop ‘n Sons diner in 2022. While modern iterations of traditional Chinese fare are the star of the menu (think dumplings, char sui, Sichuan-style eggplant, dan dan noodles, steamed tofu), Chef Hales also features techniques and flavors from other Asian cuisines. He also finds culinary inspiration from his own Filipino background, with his family’s 100 year-old lumpia recipe on the menu, too. – Kyla Fields
EVENTS
Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival returns for eighth year this spring
Believe it or not, you don’t have to stew your collard green for hours (sorry, grandma). The beloved Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival (TBCGF) makes its flavorful comeback mid-February, showcasing many of the ways you can prepare the southern staple with global reach (in Brazil, they’re called “couve,” commonly paired with barbeque). The one-day celebration—set for February in St. Petersburg—will include vendors, live music and educational workshops to promote healthier eating habits. The festival and organization started as a joke between church friends. Now, eight seasons later, the festival remains a staple community celebration of Black, brown and African-American heritage and cuisine in the Bay area. The organization also hosts a Youth Entrepreneurship Row Accelerator event on Saturday, to promote vending in future events. Over 13,000 attendees are expected to join the celebration, according to TBCGF. The festival is preceded by a 5K race and fitness extravaganza (Feb. 9) and the “Collards After Dark” fundraiser and community conversation on Valentine’s Day. – Julia Saad
Creative Loafing’s ‘Highball’ cocktail competition returns to St. Pete this spring
The new year just kicked off, and you’re already thinking about having a drink. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay can help with that next month when its Highball cocktail competition returns to St. Petersburg. The event at FloridaRama stylized (“FloridaRAMA”) finds some of the Bay area’s best bartenders presenting their take on the classic, two-ingredient cocktail served on the rocks. Featured liquors at Highball 2025, according to a press release, include Jack Daniel’s, Woodford Reserve, Herradura Tequila, Ford’s Gin, Diplomatico Rum, and Chambord Liqueur. More than a dozen different highball cocktails will be available for sampling, along with bites to help you soak up the booze, plus live music, tarot and other entertainment. Attendees will also vote for their favorite cocktail from each spirit category. Bartenders from American Social, Sonder Social Club, Bar Tiki, Highland House, and The Living Room are some of the first confirmed competitors. A portion of the proceeds from Highball 2025 benefit Current Initiatives of Tampa Bay, a nonprofit whose Laundry Project and Affordable Christmas efforts help families throughout the Bay area. – Ray Roa
Tampa Wine & Food Festival returns for a five-day ‘weekend’
Prepare your stomachs and wallets for a five-day culinary extravaganza coming to both sides of Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay Wine & Food Festival (TBWFF) is back for the third time this spring when it stages a five-day “weekend” with six different events kicking off April 8. The first day is an invite-only evening in the Tampa Club, a 42nd-story venue known for its amazing views of downtown. The public is welcome for the next two days, April 9-10, when tastings take over still-to-be-determined locations in St. Petersburg and Tampa. The main events kick off Friday, April 11 with the chef showdown in Tampa’s Curtis Hixon Park, which also hosts Saturday’s big grand tasting where guests can try more than 40 Tampa Bay restaurants then vote for “Best bite of the day.” Another invite-only “Breaking Bread with Heroes” dinner welcomes first-responders, military and veterans on Friday, April 11. – Julia Saad
Running ‘on love and fumes,’ there’s now a GoFundMe to help Tampa brewery Deviant Libation
Tampa needs more independent places for music, art, and, well, beer. Deviant Libation has unwaveringly fostered all of that and then some since it opened in Ybor Heights in 2023—but now it needs some help. On Tuesday, Tampa songwriter and author Shae Krispinsky launched a GoFundMe page for the venue and community space at 3800 N Nebraska Ave., writing that owner-founder-and-brewer Tim Ogden hasn’t been able to pay himself in nearly six months. “He’s running the business on love and fumes,” she wrote, adding that the brewery “has become an intersectional hub of community for many.” The crowdfunding effort adds that inflation, plus the fallout from last fall’s back-to-back hurricanes, has Ogden—who had to renegotiate his rent after brewery’s neighboring art complex never opened—on the ropes. The GoFundMe blew past its goal of $4,000 dollars yesterday and has a new goal of $7,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. – Ray Roa
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky
This article appears in Jan 9-15, 2025.