St. Pete dining scene heats up

St. Petersburg has always had great tastes, but this year more than a half dozen new restaurants have opened in the heart of downtown, widening the selections for a sumptuous meal.

Add French crepes to the many types of cuisine you can find just steps from Tampa Bay. Tucked away in a retail courtyard, the cozy L'Olivier Bistro serves to-die-for crepes with a variety of fresh cheeses, beef, seafood, chicken and more. Crepes are thin but portions aren't, so bring a hearty appetite.

Try homemade biscuits and gravy for breakfast, shrimp and grits for lunch and fried catfish for dinner at Grillside Central. Chef-owner Craig Chapman also opened a more upscale kitchen – Chappy's Louisiana Kitchen – serving Creole dishes just a few blocks away on Central Avenue.

With ceiling to floor strings of silver beads, breezy curtain dividers and a sleek couch perched on the sidewalk out front, the Table Restaurant and Mesa Lounge is dressed to impress. But it's the gourmet "Atlantic Rim” cuisine (and the addictive yucca flour and mozzarella rolls) that will keep you coming back.

The De Santo Latin American Bistro serves a Latin menu and unforgettable margaritas in a romantic brick courtyard, while upstairs customers work up an appetite on the dance floor at Push Ultra Lounge.

Dancing and dining are also on the menu at BayWalk's Banbu, which offers a Mongolian-style grill for lunch and dinner, and transforms into a nightclub Wednesday through Saturday. Also in BayWalk, Grille 121 continues the menu of its prior name, Dan Marino's, serving everything from grilled steaks to seared tuna lettuce wraps to meatloaf.

North of downtown, in the Feather Sound area between St. Petersburg and Clearwater, the 27,000-square-foot Venue is an adult playground with eight bars, popular tapas restaurant Viaggio and sushi house Takara. Come prepared to be entertained. Everyone from jazz artist Eric Darius to disco kings the Bee Gees has played there.

If you go

L'Olivier Bistro, 727-821-3846
The Table, 727-823-3700
Chappy's Louisiana Kitchen, 727-896-5118
Grillside Central, 727-820-9200
De Santo Latin American Bistro, 727-895-6400, www.desantorestaurant.com
Banbu, 727-525-8643, www.banbugrill.com
Grille 121, 727-822-4413, www.grille121.com
The Venue, 727-571-2222, www.thevenueclub.com