On Tuesday, WalletHub announced its Best and Worst Foodie Cities for Your Wallet findings, and good news for Tampa residents, the city placed eighth.
WalletHub, an online personal finance tool, analyzed the 150 most populous U.S. cities across two categories — affordability (30 points) and diversity, accessibility and quality (70 points) — to help food lovers find the most bang for their buck.
Though Tampa fell behind Orlando, which got the No. 2 slot, the city received impressive per-capita rankings for its number of gourmet and specialty food stores, ice cream and frozen yogurt shops, and grocery stores. It's ratio of full-service restaurants to fast-food establishments wasn't too bad, either.
Portland topped the list as best wallet-friendly city, followed much later by Moreno Valley, California, which was ranked as the worst. Meanwhile, St. Petersburg finished at 95th.
Here's a full breakdown of Tampa's scores:
Gastronomic Affordability in Tampa (1=best; 75=average)
51st – Cost of groceries
58th – Number of restaurants per capita
15th – Ratio of full-service restaurants to fast-food establishments
8th – Number of gourmet specialty-food stores per capita
27th – Number of craft breweries and wineries per capita
26th – Number of coffee and tea shops per capita
11th – Number of ice cream and frozen yogurt shops per capita
8th – Number of grocery stores per capita
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2015.