What's the food culture in St. Petersburg?

The grouper sandwich defines St. Petersburg the way the lobster roll defines coastal Maine. Every waterfront bar in Pinellas County sells one. Most are mediocre. The best version in the city is at The Chattaway on 22nd Avenue South, a backyard restaurant that has operated on that corner since the 1920s, where they bread the fillet thin, fry it in peanut oil until the crust goes golden-brown and audibly crisp, and serve it on a potato roll with nothing but pickle and tartar sauce. Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish, technically in South Pasadena but 10 minutes south on Pasadena Avenue, has been smoking mullet and mackerel over red oak since 1951. The smoke reaches you from the parking lot. You eat at picnic tables, $12-15 per plate, and the smoked fish spread, thick with cream cheese and dill, is the version every other restaurant in Pinellas County is trying to replicate.

The Saturday Morning Market runs October through May at the lot near Al Lang Stadium on 1st Avenue SE, 9am to 2pm. Al Lang itself opened in 1947 and the market now fills the surrounding blocks with more than 100 vendors. Skip the prepared-food stalls closest to the entrance. They're priced for the cruise-ship crowd docking at the port 3 blocks north. Walk deeper in, past the produce tables, to find the Jamaican jerk chicken stand with the oil-drum smoker and the empanada cart run by a Venezuelan family that stuffs them with black beans and queso fresco, $4 each. Mazzaro's Italian Market on 22nd Avenue NE is the other essential food stop, open daily. It's a deli, bakery, cheese counter, and wine shop crammed into 10,000 square feet. The muffuletta weighs close to a pound. The olive bar alone is worth the drive from Tampa.

Central Avenue from about 16th Street west to 34th Street is where St. Pete eats after dark. The Grand Central District, centered around the 2700 block, has the strongest concentration of independent restaurants in the city. Bodega on Central does Cuban-American comfort food, ropa vieja and croquetas and a Cubano pressed until the bread shatters, in a space the size of a food truck. Expect to raise your voice past 7pm. The bill runs $15-25 per person. East of there, the Edge District around 9th Street has newer openings. Brick and Mortar on Central serves hand-cut pappardelle with braised short rib that rivals most Italian in Tampa. Beach Drive, the waterfront strip, looks good but charges 30-40% more for the view. Ceviche on Beach Drive is the exception, a tapas restaurant operating there since 2001 that still makes honest patatas bravas and a sangria that tastes like actual fruit, not sugar syrup.

Breakfast in St. Pete starts late, closer to 9am than 7. The Hangar Restaurant at Albert Whitted Airport on 8th Avenue SE serves eggs and pancakes with a view of single-engine Cessnas taxiing 50 feet away, $10-14 plates, open at 7am for the early risers. For Cuban coffee, La Segunda Central Bakery's St. Pete location on Central Avenue pulls cafecitos for $1.50. The bread ships daily from the original Tampa bakery, which has fired Cuban loaves in coal ovens since 1915. Summer humidity, currently around 75% at 29°C, makes outdoor dining sticky and uncomfortable from June through September. Restaurants on Central Avenue know this and keep their dining rooms cold enough that you might want a light layer. St. Pete's food culture is a sit-down affair, not a walk-and-eat one. You won't find much street food compared to Miami or Tampa, but the trade-off is a proper kitchen and air conditioning at nearly every spot.