Good Intentions
Good Intentions owners plan to have late night hours to accommodate nighttime baseball games and the local bar crowd, with fun things planned for their late night menu.
Black Radish Grocer, Nah Dogs, and Golden Dinosaurs Deli—all winners and runner-ups of Best of the Bay awards—have been making tasty vegan cuisine accessible to Tampa Bay for years now, and Good Intentions will be their joint venture into the world of envelope-pushing plant-based food.
“We know that St. Pete loves and supports vegan restaurants, and we wanted a place where we could hang out, gather and celebrate,” Jenny Howe, who co-owns Nah Dogs with her husband Jeff, told CL. “We’ve been daydreaming about this for a few years now,” Golden Dinosaur co-owner Audrey Dingeman says. “But we’ve only set hard plans since the beginning of this year.”
After original plans to open on Central Avenue fell through, the group decided to aim for the Grand Central district instead, due to its close proximity to the Pinellas Trail and Tropicana Field. The owners plan to have late night hours to accommodate nighttime baseball games and the local bar crowd, with fun things planned for their late night menu. Other all-vegan restaurants in town like Cider Press Cafe and Love Central typically close by late afternoon, so the owners of Good Intentions predict that their late-night hours will be one of the many aspects setting them apart from their competitors (although they hold good relationships with all of the vegan restaurateurs in St. Petersburg.)
Don’t expect to see any Nah Dogs or Golden Dinosaur best sellers on the Good Intentions menu either as they don’t want to be in competition with their already-existing businesses.
“Some of our menu items don’t exist in a vegan version in this town, so it’s mainly stuff we want to eat ourselves,” Dingeman tells CL. Although its menu is still in its early stages, the one appetizer the owners were excited to talk about was the “trash can” nachos—a tall can layered with cheesy, spicy goodness.
So while elevated American fare is to be expected, the Good Intentions menu won’t be taking itself too seriously.
Not only a restaurant pushing completely vegan cuisine, Good Intentions will also feature an extensive cocktail menu. Once again inspired by the sheer lack of certain plant-based options, its menu will offer vegan versions of drinks like Bloody Marys— typically made with Worcestershire sauce which contains anchovies—as well as sours and fizzes, which are usually made with egg whites. “We want to fulfill your wildest dreams!,” Jenny Howe said with a laugh. “We want to go hard and have a lot of fun with it.”
Its Instagram gives soon-to-be patrons an exciting sneak peek into the restaurant’s warm, vintage contemporary interior. Everyone behind Good Intentions loves second-hand wares, and that love will definitely be translated into the decor of their restaurant. The owners’ first purchase were baby pink vintage school chairs, which will provide roughly 100 seats inside the restaurant. The large U-shaped bar will seat 27 cocktail-sipping patrons.
Even though this restaurant won’t debut until spring or summer of 2022, it’s already anchoring ties with other local businesses, as Indie Flea announced Good Intentions as a sponsor for its upcoming holiday market.
If you’re not familiar with the tasty vegan grub that are all three businesses behind Good Intentions dish out daily, visit Golden Dinosaur in Gulfport, Black Radish Grocer in Tampa (or its St. Petersburg location which opens soon,) and the Nah Dogs cart, which will sling dogs at both upcoming Indie Flea markets in Tampa and St. Petersburg. Follow @goodintentions_fl on Instagram for the latest news and build out progress.
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