When Rick Kriseman was 9, his family moved (or, in his words, “escaped”) from Detroit to the west side of St. Pete. He attended the University of Florida and Stetson Law, went on to serve as a city councilman and a state legislator, and was elected mayor in 2014. The city in which he grew up is no longer the sleepy burg Kriseman, 53, remembers from when he was a kid. On the week we spoke, he had attended or was about to attend grand openings of a restaurant (Souzou), a college campus (SPC Midtown), an entertainment technology institute (Big Noise), and a climbing gym (Vertical Ventures, which he christened by scaling a wall). He’s faced his share of hurdles — the Pier debate, the will-they/won’t-they Rays, a controversy over the dumping of city sewage in next-door Gulfport — but as a pragmatic progressive he’s a good fit for the city’s current expansive mode, seeing the value of development but dedicated to being green, as in his own LEED-certified home in Lake Pasadena Estates, rebuilt after a devastating fire in 2008. He’s promoting the expansion of the urban core west to the Edge District and south to the Skyway Marina District; Jabil Circuit recently leased space in the latter’s Ceridian office complex, where the mayor asked to hold this interview. His wife, Kerry, works as an administrator at Creative Clay; daughter Jordan, 18, is an Irish dance champ, and son Samuel, 12, is in Sanderlin Elementary’s IB progam and an avid golfer. Together, they raise puppies for the Southeastern Guide Dogs program. He’s a man of many talents, among them singing and ventriloquism, and despite his amiable mien he’s a ruthless competitor on the Go-Kart track.
Where he and his son like to golf: “Most of the time we go to city courses like MANGROVE BAY . We can’t wait till TWIN BROOKS reopens.”
Family life: “I tell new employees in the city, ‘Somebody did your job before you, somebody will do it after you, but you only have one family.’ I’ve got one year left with my daughter [before college], so every moment I have with her is precious to me. I’m going to be a mess when she leaves.”
Family pastimes: “We bowl together at TEN PIN LANES . I throw the ball hard… We were at the DALÌ MUSEUM just before the da Vinci exhibit left. It was packed.”
Favorite restaurants? “The number we have to choose from is staggering right now. It’s always dangerous to name favorites.”
But he names some anyway: “ BELLABRAVA has always been a favorite of mine. I love MOSCATO , too. It’s dangerous because it’s so close to City Hall. I can walk over there and get some of their homemade pasta and red sauces, which I love.”
Lunchtime faves? “The tuna melt at LUCKY DILL … CASITA TAQUERIA I love — I get the tacos all the time. I love MID PENINSULA SEAFOOD — the fish sandwich you can’t beat, the blackened snapper, I get that all the time. The CARIBBEAN CAFÉ : I get a turkey Cuban with black beans and rice. I get a Greek salad like every week at LITTLE GREEK . Then you start with all the RED MESA s: those places are awesome. ALESIA is a really great restaurant in west St. Pete — that area’s got potential for facelift and redevelopment.”
His go-to Cuban: BODEGA ON CENTRAL. “Their Cuban sandwich is phenomenal, the best in all of Pinellas County.”
His favorite jambalayas: RICKY P’S or CHIEF’S CREOLE CAFÉ . “It’s different at both places but I like them both.”
A favorite new find: SOUZU . “The food’s fantastic — and the interior is beautiful, done by T2theS , who also did the interior of STILLWATERS TAVERN . They’re a great local company expanding their footprint in the city.”
Hangouts and meetups: “If I’m in a coffee shop I’m in KAHWA or BREW D LICIOUS . The other week I met someone at POM POM’S. SLY BAR is another cool place. We had our “You Are My Sunshine” event there [a city marketing campaign for which local musicians were asked to record versions of the song].”
Date nights: “ THE HIDEAWAY is an incredible place to go for live music. And we like to go to ANNATA and have a glass of wine and some tapas, then PACIUGO for gelato.”
Another mayoral must-do: “The SECOND SATURDAY ART WALK — don’t miss that if you can. Take the shuttle. See some glassblowing at DUNCAN McCLELLAN ’s gallery or the Hot Shop at the MOREAN .”
And on the other side of the bay? “One of the best Italian restaurants in the Tampa Bay area is DONATELLO — that place is dangerous. I like DATZ , the truffle fries, those are dangerous, too. And ULELE — I think Mayor Buckhorn has done a great job with the Riverwalk.”
Staying fit: “I lost 25 pounds on the campaign and I unfortunately have gained some of it back. I go to YouFit down the street from us at 5:30 in the morning. If I don’t get there early, I’m not getting there. We like to go bike riding — we’ve ridden as far as Tarpon Springs on the PINELLAS TRAIL .
Why his family works with SOUTHEASTERN GUIDE DOGS : “When we met the person matched with our first puppy, Jim, she told us, ‘My whole life I’ve been blind, and I’ve always walked with a cane. And when you walk with a cane, the whole time your head is down because you’re listening to the sounds as you move the cane.’ And as she’s telling us the story, tears are coming down her face, and she says, ‘Now that I have my Jim, I can walk with my head held high.’ That’s when we looked at each other, our whole family, and we said, ‘Alright, we can do this.’”
He actually likes the TROP: “The city has a box… but I prefer to sit in the stands. The thing with that stadium, pretty much everywhere you sit you’ve got a great viewline. And it’s always 72 degrees and it never rains. I don’t mind the stadium, I think the seats are great.”
But he worried about throwing out the first pitch: “I was more nervous about doing that than pretty much anything I’ve done. [He got it over the plate.] Because you know if you mess that up, it’s going to live forever on YouTube.”
He wears the yellow and green: He still has the 45 at home of the original Rowdies song. “For the season opener, they grabbed me up on stage at COURIGAN’S to sing it.”
He’s grown to love the new Pier design: “I really like it now. I like the fact that it’s going to be a very accessible design for everyone in the community. I don’t think you could say that about any of the other designs.”
Read his lips: He only has one ventriloquist puppet left in his collection, the others having perished in the house fire. But he can still talk without moving his lips.
He de-stresses with GoKart: “There’s three tracks I’ll race at. One is on 34th just over the hump on 40th — outdoor track, gas-powered cars [ PRO KARTING EXPERIENCE ]. Then TAMPA BAY GRAND PRIX off of 118th — indoor, electric cars — they’re fast. The big track is ANDERSEN RACEPARK — those cars will get to 50 miles an hour on a mile-and-a-half track.”
And he’s competitive: “I usually do pretty well. At two of these three tracks, 118th and Anderson, you’re timed. I take it real seriously. I’m probably more competitive than I should be when I GoKart… That’s how we used to blow off steam up in Tallahassee. We always used to invite our Republican friends to join us, you know, try and bridge the gap.”
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2015.