Restaurants

Tampa and Pinellas County restaurateurs left the 2025 Michelin ceremony with no new star or Bib Gourmand awards — but eight local eateries made the 'recommended' list.

Steve Phelps of Indigenous Restaurant in Sarasota explains the biggest threats to ocean life, shares questions to ask at restaurants and fish markets, and suggests under-the-radar seafoods you should try.

No restaurants are slated to close. Hooters of America said franchisees or licensing partners would continue to operate all locations. Those franchisees include the Clearwater founders, who own locations in Tampa Bay.

When restaurants charge a premium for Gulf-caught shrimp — and pocket the extra profit by serving farm-raised imported shrimp — they're denying local shrimpers a fair income.

For many restaurateurs in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, it means the end of a long period of “feeling left out in the cold,” said Tampa Bay Times restaurant critic Helen Freund.

According to SeaD Consulting COO Erin Williams, “the domestic shrimping industry is hanging on by a thread at this point due to missed market opportunities.”