By Nanette Wiser
Don your running shoes to attend all the April/May fun in downtown St. Pete: Tampa Bay Blues Festival at Vinoy Waterfront Park, Tampa Bay Rays at bat, Rowdies, WUSF’s The Longest Table, Mermosa’s Bubbles & Brunch Fest at The Pier, American Stage’s al fresco Footloose: The Musical (bring your pets 4/17), “Jamboree at the James” Museum of Western and Wildlife Art fundraiser and Mainsail Arts Festival.
DINE & DRINK
Café Clementine opens at Museum of Fine Arts with a delightful brunch menu Thurs.-Sun. 9am-3pm serving scrumptious pastries, organic teas, local java and farm-fresh salads. Fish taco lovers, Savory Spice sells a honey sriracha lime fish taco seasoning for your mahi, just perfect with Saturday Market’s cucumbers marinated in Kalamazoo’s fig vinegar! Whole Foods is coming to St. Pete, 201 38th Ave. N– woo hoo!
Salad at Café Clementine 
Honey Siracha Lime Seasoning at Savory Spice
Taverna Costale is now serving Saturday and Sunday brunch (smash burger) as well as delectable happy hour with $5 focaccia pizza, $5 Peroni and $6 wines. Book + Bottle hosts a Riesling class 4/12 and April fiction book club 4/28 to sip and discuss The Serial Killer. The Warehouse District’s new vegan sushi spot, House of Vegano ramen and rolls intrigue me. TeBella Tea Company opens its retail store in The Edge District, purveying artisan chocolates, 100 loose leaf teas and accessories, confections and pastries (hoping for the macarons!).
Book + Bottle 
TeBella Tea Company Macaroons 
Taverna Costale Smash Burger
LALA St. Pete is finally open for lunch, brunch and dinner in the garden, rooftop terrace and dining room. You can reserve a private full-service themed karaoke room.
MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE Happy 25th birthday to Central Cigars, home to whiskey, bourbons and fine stogies and sister to Ruby’s Elixir lounge featuring live entertainment and dancing. Mondays feature Latraia Savage, then Shawn Brown, Tues. – Katie Talbert, then Miguel Lantigua, Wed. – Shevonne Philidor, then Branson Welsh, Thurs. – Ella Jet, then Hiram Hazley; check FB for Fri.-Sun. listings.
Jannus Live features Brothers Osborne 4/9, Mike Love & The Full Circle 4/15, Arch Enemy and Behemoth 4/21, The Movement 4/30 and more. Flute & Dram’s happy hour 4-7pm for charcuterie, wine and cocktails is a fave, especially with a 5pm side of live music: 4/13 Samantha Leigh, Thurs. regular Jim Garrett, 4/15 Brandon Marsh, 4/16 Katie Talbert and followed by live music again in the evening when Beach Drive rocks.
FUN ZONE
Enjoy Beer Yoga every 4th Sunday at Grand Central Brewhouse (GCB) with Crystal Kage in an hour-long yoga class 10:30-11:30am, one beer, and 30 minutes of private brewhouse time; $25/person. GCB also hosts movie nights and The Joint Chiefs 2nd and 4th Thurs. in April plus live music Fri. and Sat. You can rent a bike or scooter, and soon an all-electric three-wheeled vehicle through Scoot Rentals.
TIDBITS
Rui Farias is now the St. Petersburg Museum of History’s full-time executive director, a role he handled part-time since 2015 when he retired as a history teacher at St. Petersburg High School. Welcome Leah Biery, Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center’s new director on St. Pete Pier. The elegant Vinoy Renaissance continues renovations, from adding a patisserie to re-imagined patio, pool, lobby and more.
