Credit: Cinnaholic.South.Tampa / Facebook

Openings

Cinnaholic After over a year of anticipation, one South Tampa dessert hotspot has finally opened its doors. Gourmet vegan bakery Cinnaholic opened at 927 S Howard Ave. on Friday, Oct. 27 to long lines wrapped around the corner. While flavors like the classic Old Skool with vanilla frosting, the cookie dough-topped Cookie Monster and caramel apple pie are a constant on its menu, Cinnaholic’s fall-inspired offerings include cinnamon toasty crunch and pumpkin cheesecake rolls. Besides loaded cinnamon buns, Cinnaholic also offers a variety of plant-based brownies, cookie dough and bite-sized “baby buns,” in addition to cinna-cakes and cookie cakes for parties. According to its website, all of its products are “100% vegan, dairy & lactose free, egg-free and cholesterol-free,” although only a handful of locations offer gluten-friendly baked goods on certain days of the week. After experiencing “unbelievable delays with its construction process,” South Tampa’s Cinnaholic is opening almost two full years after its slated debut date. Its opening was first announced back in April 2021. 927 S Howard Ave., Tampa. cinnaholic.com

Halelife Bistro One of the leading local vegan and gluten-free businesses is continuing its Bay area expansion. Halelife Bakery, a Pinellas-based business, just announced that its new bistro will soon open at 11270 4th St. N in St. Pete. While its Instagram post says its new location will soft open on Oct. 30, Halelife owner Laura McCutcheon tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that an official grand opening will take place on Saturday, Nov. 4. “We will have a very soft opening starting next Monday to continue to offer our Clearwater customers a storefront to access our baked goods while we finish our front of house,” McCutcheon explains. “Our new location has lots of seating in a warm homey atmosphere and a large patio filled with comfy furniture to lounge and relax in.” With the opening of its new St. Pete bistro comes the immediate closure of its flagship Clearwater bakery. If you’ve never stopped into one of Halelife’s many locations throughout Tampa Bay, the bakery specializes in a variety of gluten and allergen-free baked goods, sweet treats, breakfast sandwiches and grab-n-go bites. 11270 4th St. N, St. Petersburg. halelifebakery.com

Lotte Plaza Market After many months of anticipation, a popular Asian grocery store is finally ready to make its Tampa debut—news that we learned from the Lotte Plaza Market watchers on the ultra-popular Tampa Bay Asian Foodies Facebook group. While the grocery store is still listed as “coming soon” on its website, Google has Lotte Plaza Market opening on Friday, Nov. 3 at 17605 Bruce B Downs Blvd. in New Tampa. In addition to its wide spread of produce, seafood, meat, baked goods and other Asian staples like noodles, sauces and marinades, the grocery store also features a food court space called the “Sijang Eatery.” According to its website, Sijang is a traditional Korean market where people spend time together and eat. The only other Florida-based location of Lotte Plaza Market resides in Orlando, although the company plans to rapidly expand across the country over the next decade. 17605 Bruce B Downs Blvd., Tampa. lotteplaza.com

Coming Soon

Sonata Looks like Creative Loafing Tampa Bay will have to update the “Tampa Bay’s best restaurant and bar patios with ridiculously scenic views” dining guide soon, because a popular St. Pete hotspot has plans to open its own waterfront restaurant. Last week, Bill Edwards—who owns that entertainment company that operates the city-owned Mahaffey Theater—told St. Pete’s city council that a new fine dining restaurant called Sonata will soon open out of the popular event space. According to the St. Pete Catalyst, The Mill’s former managing partner and executive chef Ted Dorsey will helm the kitchen of this new restaurant, which will feature “coastal cuisine presented with Southern hospitality in an elegant atmosphere.” Although there’s no slated opening date for Sonata, its social media says the new St. Pete concept will debut at 400 1st St. S sometime this fall. The restaurant’s new Toast page says it will open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday. Head to Sonata’s new Facebook page for the latest news on its upcoming grand opening. 400 1st St. S, St. Petersburg. themahaffey.com

Events

The Boozy Pig’s half hog demo Whether you’re a wanna-be butcher or just curious about where your food comes from, one popular Tampa business hosts an event that caters to both crowds. On Saturday, Oct. 28 from 7 p.m.-9 p.m., Best of the Bay-winning The Boozy Pig hosts a half-hog butcher demonstration, complete with education about special cuts and cooking tips. In addition to the demo itself, participants can also enjoy light charcuterie bites, wine samples and access to 10% off of all Boozy Pig retail items. This educational event takes place in Boozy Pig’s West Tampa location, although its Davis Island shop boasts the same products and operating hours. The butcher describes this demo as one of its “most loved events,” so we recommend getting your $85 tickets ASAP. Saturday’s half-hog demo is also kid-friendly, as long as they have a ticket (and a non-squeamish stomach.) In addition to hosting a variety of meaty educational classes like this week’s half hog demo, The Tampa-based butcher sells a wide variety of high-quality meats, made-to-order “sangwiches” and a popular weekend brunch featuring dishes like lemon ricotta pancakes, potato and plantain hash and breakfast Cubans. 3255 W Cypress St., Tampa. @theboozypig on Instagram ICYMI

St. Pete opens its first FRESH Pace Healthy Neighborhood Store St. Petersburg just announced the debut of its newest project to help battle food insecurity in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods. The city’s first FRESH Pace Healthy Neighborhood Store is located inside Rajax Food Mart and Meat Market at 2327 Dr. Martin L. King Jr. St. S., adjacent to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve and Bartlett Park. The new health-conscious market will offer nutritious food including fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat proteins, whole grain items, and low-fat dairy products or dairy alternatives. The city of St. Petersburg opened this new market with the goal of “incentivizing neighborhood stores in low-income, low-access areas to expand their healthy food options at an affordable cost to their customers.” This new market opens in collaboration with the St. Pete Free Clinic, which also “assists in subsidizing food costs for the stores and helps business owners navigate the process of accepting EBT and WIC if they do not already do so.” 2327 Dr. Martin L. King Jr. St. S., St. Petersburg. stpete.org

Largo’s Arkane Aleworks releases ‘frightfully fun’, candy-inspired beers for Halloween Adults that like beer but yearn for the nostalgia of trick-or-treating might be the target audience for this exclusive candy-inspired beer release. This Friday-Saturday, Oct. 27-28 is the last weekend that Arkane Aleworks hosts “Hauntoberfest,” a party full of candy-inspired craft beer, food trucks and other holiday festivities. Largo’s Arkane Aleworks recently released almost two dozen candy-inspired beers—from a variety of fruity sours to a few chocolatey stouts—to help local craft beer lovers get in the Halloween spirit. Just a few of the brewery’s Halloween-themed releases include: the green apple-flavored Jolly Green Goose, Sour Batch Kids, Schweetharts, Taste the Rainbow and spread of chocolate stouts infused with coconut, peanut butter, malted milk balls, caramel and shortbread. Select beers like the bubblegum-inspired Watermelon Broomstick and its pumpkin cheesecake-flavored Grandma Fingers will be available in to-go cans, too. And if you don’t have a sweet tooth, don’t fret, because Arkane Aleworks is also pouring “hoppy stuff, beer flavored beer, and Oktoberfest releases” all weekend-long. 2480 E Bay Dr., Largo. arkanebeer.com

Tasting room at Tampa’s Gamblers Bay Distillery is a welcome addition to the local distillery scene There’s something special happening at Gamblers Bay Distillery. The award-winning Tampa based distillery, located near the International Airport just off of the Veterans Expressway, was founded by Mark and Kerri Paun in 2019 and has since gained both national and global recognition. And it’s a welcome addition to Tampa Bay’s emergent distillery scene. The husband and wife team prides itself on using local ingredients and giving special attention to details that many large distillers eschew in the name of profitability. For example, the Pauns never use pre-blends to start any of their small batch liquors, opting instead to create the entire product themselves from beginning to end on-site. Gamblers Bay Distillery—located at 6101 Johns Rd. in Tampa—also uses only around the best 50% of what it collects from the still, leaving behind the extra 30% that major distillers often use to once again increase profitability and lessen quality.—Jourdan Ducat