Old Northeast St. Petersburg: New Restaurants and Coffee Shops

This fall, three of the small storefronts at the edges of Historic Old Northeast are changing hands at the same time. A coffee shop on 4th Street North closed and another coffee company signed for the same room. A small kitchen down the block that once held a canning business, then a caterer, is getting an arepa counter. And the corner of 7th Avenue North and 2nd Street North still has paper over its tavern windows while the owners finish a renovation that has run almost two years.

Taken one at a time, these are ordinary restaurant updates. Taken together, they show how commerce works in a neighborhood made mostly of houses. Old Northeast has very few storefronts, and over the decades each one has stayed close to the job it already had. When a business leaves, the next one usually picks up the same role.

Three Addresses, Three Handoffs

The Coffee Room on 4th Street Stays a Coffee Room

The Blend Coffee & Cocktails opened its 4th Street North cafe in early 2020, a few months after its first local shop opened inside the Tampa Bay Times building downtown in December 2019. After six years, the company decided to consolidate its St. Petersburg operations and close the Old Northeast cafe. Owner Stacha Madsen told St. Pete Rising that "this isn't goodbye." The Blend still runs its Magnolia Heights cafe at 3001 16th Street North and a drive-thru at 2760 34th Street North.

The 2,500-square-foot room went straight to another coffee company. Belleair Coffee Company has operated in Belleair Bluffs for ten years, and 1211 4th Street North will be its third location. The plan calls for house-roasted specialty coffee, baked goods, breakfast and lunch, plus beer and wine. The owners are Chris Whalen and Cammie Griffin, and chef Russell Scott is part of the team.

Whalen told St. Pete Rising he wants "an elevated coffee experience in a really comfortable atmosphere," and said of Old Northeast, "that neighborhood is amazing." When the team took over the space, it was aiming for an early October opening after some cosmetic upgrades. The Gabber's business roundup published September 2 also said October. As of October 5, no specific opening day has been announced, so a walk past the windows is the most reliable way to check.

The coffee shop and the people who come to it will carry over. The tenant changes, and the room keeps its job.

A Small Kitchen That Keeps Feeding Someone

A few blocks south, 1040 Fourth Street North makes the same point on a smaller scale. The 1,070-square-foot space was Urban Canning Company, then a catering kitchen. Next it becomes Carúpano Kitchen, a Venezuelan restaurant that began about a year ago at Foodie Labs, a commercial kitchen and restaurant incubator.

The restaurant is named for owner Andrea Osorio's hometown in Venezuela. She founded it with her mother, Diann Cedeño, and her wife, Lauren Haley. Most of the new space will be kitchen. It will be counter service with limited seating, built for people ordering to go. The arepa stays at the center of the menu, with more breakfast and lunch on the way. St. Pete Rising reported that the core recipes will stay the same and some healthier lunch options will be added.

Osorio told What Now she is cautious about growing the menu:

"We are firm believers that, sometimes, the bigger the menu, the more mediocre the food. It's really hard to do everything well."

The target is November. St. Pete Rising put it at mid-November in its September 21 report, and What Now's October 3 report said simply "in November." For the third time, a small kitchen at this address is going to a small food business. Osorio describes Carúpano as one of "those scrappy, small women-owned businesses."

The Corner With a Century of Tenants

The 201 7th Avenue North building has the longest record of this pattern in Old Northeast. It went up in 1925, when the area was still called North Shore. The Old Northeast name came in the 1970s. Over the decades the corner space was Fender's Pharmacy, Elsie's Market, North Shore Sundries, Nan & Lou's Fountainette, N&L's Restaurant, and Ambrosia, a Mediterranean fusion restaurant, before Old Northeast Tavern opened there in 2006. The businesses changed from pharmacy to market to diner to restaurant, but the corner has served the blocks around it for close to a century.

Robert "Bob" Wareham and Mark Brindle have owned the tavern and Old Northeast Pizza next door since 2008. Both closed for renovation and expansion in late 2024, with a reopening planned for summer 2025. Permitting issues pushed that back. In June 2026, Wareham told St. Pete Rising that both would reopen later this year. When What Now followed up a day later, he declined to comment further. No reopening date has been reported since then.

The renovation shows what the owners plan to keep and what they plan to add. A large dining room will connect the tavern and the pizzeria, so customers can order pizza at the tavern again, but the two will keep separate menus. The tavern now has a liquor license and plans to serve cocktails. Burgers and fries may join the menu, which would be a first for the restaurant. The pizzeria's thin-crust New Jersey-style pies are expected back, including the Del Mar with crab, shrimp and smoked Gouda, and the Wild Mushroom with shiitake, crimini, prosciutto and pesto. The tavern's Reuben and Chicken and Plantain Quesadilla are expected back too.

Black Crow Coffee shares the building, according to St. Pete Rising. Black Crow's own site lists its Historic Old Northeast cafe at 722 2nd Street North. While the tavern side is closed, the coffee side keeps the corner from going fully quiet.

Why the Same Uses Keep Coming Back

Each of these three addresses has one quality its incoming tenant wanted. At 1211 4th Street North, Belleair gets a large cafe room that has served coffee for six years. At 1040 4th Street North, Carúpano gets a compact kitchen that has already worked for food production twice, which fits a counter-service business focused on to-go orders. At 201 7th Avenue North, the owners are spending close to two years and a permitting delay to expand a format the corner already had, keeping the menu favorites and adding cocktails and a connected dining room.

None of these is a chain or an outside group buying its way in. Belleair is a ten-year Pinellas coffee roaster opening its third shop. Carúpano is a family business moving out of an incubator. The tavern is reopening under the same owners who have run it since 2008. The turnover keeps these few storefronts with local operators.

While the Storefronts Settle, the Calendar Fills In

The Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood Association has its fall season posted. These are the next dates:

• Flamingo Friday Block Party, Friday, October 9, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at 106 14th Avenue NE
• Old Northeast Night at the Rowdies, a neighborhood association fundraiser at Al Lang Stadium, Saturday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m.
• Share and Scare Ride, Thursday, October 29, 6:30 to 8 p.m., in the alley behind 116 18th Avenue NE
• "Come as You Aren't" Halloween Porch Party, Friday, October 30, 7:30 to 10 p.m., at 116 18th Avenue NE
• November Porch Party, Friday, November 20, 7:30 to 10 p.m., at 105 17th Avenue NE

By the November porch party, Carúpano Kitchen is due to be serving arepas on 4th Street North. Belleair's coffee is scheduled to arrive sooner. The 7th Avenue corner has had a pharmacy, a market, a fountainette and a tavern over the years, and it is waiting on the owners' next update.

If you live near one of these corners and want to know how a well-loved neighborhood storefront affects the value of the homes around it, James Heeley would be glad to talk it through over coffee at whichever counter opens first. Let's Connect.