The Oyster Bar, a longtime Downtown St. Pete favorite, will close the doors of its current home at 249 Central Avenue on August 20, according to recent coverage by I Love the Burg. It’s moving to an as-yet unspecified location uptown.
“The original name was Central Avenue Oyster Bar,” Josh Cameron, Oyster Bar director & principal, told What Now on Thursday. “Being on Central Avenue for twenty-five years, we like the idea of keeping it on Central, but moving down to Grand Central.”
Cameron says the new location will allow the restaurant to operate with a more spacious kitchen and with a raw bar.
“With the existing building being a hundred years old, it was hard to build out a brand-new kitchen and a big raw bar,” Cameron said. “With the move we’ll have a big raw bar happening, and we’re looking to do some exciting things with seafood towers.”
The new location will therefore build on the original menu, giving the brand a culinary update to go with its new space, which will feature approximately 100 seats inside, plus roughly 20 more in its outdoor patio.
“Our extremely talented executive chef is fired up to make a menu that’s going to complement all the flavors people loved Downtown and bring them Uptown.”
There are also plans for the current Oyster Bar spot, with lots of possibilities to host a variety of popup bars. Stay tuned for more on that from What Now in the coming weeks and months.
“We have so much gratitude for the all the people that supported us over the years,” Cameron said.
Follow @oysterbarstpete on Instagram to keep up with the move and other Oyster Bar news.
