After two years of silence, one of downtown St. Petersburg’s most familiar names is back. Its return says as much about the resilience of small businesses as it does about the city’s evolving restaurant economy.
The Oyster Bar, which closed its Central Avenue location in 2023 after 24 years, reopens Oct. 14 at a new home in the Grand Central District. For owner Josh Cameron, the reopening marks the end of a long stretch of delays and uncertainty and the start of a new chapter in St. Pete’s dining resurgence.
In this post, we look at what happened, why the comeback matters to Tampa Bay’s business community, and what it reveals about the changing landscape of local hospitality investment…