Instead of turning to a pickup or carry out model like other Tampa Bay restaurants, coffee shops and breweries, The Library in St. Pete is temporarily closing after lunch service wraps at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 16. That means you'll need to find other dinner plans. The Library team sent out a release:
We have made a difficult, yet important and responsible, decision to temporarily close The Library starting today at 4:00pm. With the proximity of our restaurant to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, we feel this is an imperative action to take in order assist in keeping the hospital families, doctors and all of our teams as protected as possible.
We will do everything we can to support our employees through this transition, and we cannot wait to welcome you back to The Library as soon as this is behind us.
Either grab a meal to go, snag a gift card or have one last meal until the concept feels it is safe to reopen and serve the community.
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay called Oxford Exchange—which shares owners with The Library—to see if the restaurant was following suit, and a rep confirmed that for the time being, Oxford Exchange is running business as usual. Hours for Oxford Exchange are 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Sat. and 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Sun.
Here's how to support Tampa Bay's food and drink scene while social distancing.
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This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2020.