The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club’s newest retaurant Elliott Aster offers upscale Italian-inspired food and high-end wines. Credit: Anthony Tahlier
Located inside the recently renovated Vinoy Resort & Golf Club lies a shiny new restaurant from an award-winning chef.

Elliott Aster, the new fine dining concept from the Chicago-based Boka Hospitality Group, opens today in downtown St. Pete.

Reservations for Elliott Aster at 501 5th Ave. NE are now live at Opentable.com, although it’s booked out for the rest of the month.

While the restaurant is described as Italian and Mediterranean in nature, it offers a variety of upscale entrees—from wood-fired steaks and fresh pastas to roasted prawns, grilled sea bream and local red grouper served with brown butter, cauliflower and Castletreveno olives.

Smaller plates include a handful of salads—like the endive and beets salad with Florida citrus, lemon poppyseed vinaigrette, feta and candied walnuts—meatballs, housemade focaccia with cheese and sunflower honey, grilled octopus, beef tartare, tuna crudo and fried seafood appetizer with prawns, calamari and a Calabrian chili aioli.

In addition to its massive dining room, the kitchen at Elliott Aster will also provide eats to the hotel’s waterfront patio. Its lounge menu offers most of the snacks and appetizers from its dinner menu, with dishes like a daily salumi platter, marinated olives, roasted eggplant spread and an artichoke dip.

For dessert, a few Italian favorites like olive oil torta and tiramisu are offered, as well as a variety of gelato and sorbettos. Its expansive beverage program offers a range of Italian, French, Spanish and American wines, champagnes, and craft cocktails.  

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Elliott Aster is Boka Restaurant Group’s first foray into Florida, with a majority of its upscale concepts residing in Chicago, Los Angeles and Brooklyn. Award-winning Chef Wolen partnered with the restaurant group in 2014 and has opened several eateries since then, including Boka—which retained a Michelin star from 2011 to 2024—Italian spot Alla Vita, GG’s Chicken Shop and pizza shop Zarella.

Head to @elliottasterstpete on Instagram for the latest updates on the new restaurant’s menu, reservations, and more.

After its highly-anticipated debut this week, Elliott Aster will be open from 4 p.m.-midnight Tuesday-Sunday—and reservations are strongly recommended. 

Credit: c/o Elliot Aster

Elliott Aster

501 5th Ave NE, St. Petersburg, FL

website

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This article appears in May 15-21, 2025.

Kyla Fields is the food critic and former managing editor of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay who started their journey at CL as summer 2019 intern. They are the proud owner of a charming, sausage-shaped, eight-year-old...