St. Pete’s Chattaway restaurant will close this summer: ‘It’s definitely bittersweet’

The exterior of The Chattaway, a historic restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida. The pink wooden building features a mural of pink flamingos and green palm fronds. A white sign reading 'Chattaway Drive-In' sits atop a gabled roof, surrounded by lush tropical plants, succulents, and a large oak tree under a clear sky. The Chattaway in St. Petersburg, Florida on Aug. 5, 2016. Credit: cityofstpete/Flickr

The Chattaway, St. Petersburg’s longest-running-restaurant, will close this summer.

Reached by phone at the restaurant, Greg Kitto, son of Chattaway matriarch Jillian Frers, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the closing is “definitely bittersweet.” He promised to elaborate after dinner service on Tuesday night.

The restaurant has operated at 358 22nd Ave. S since 1951 and is famous for its friendly service, outdoor dining, tea service, and Best of the Bay-winning burger “with an old Florida vibe.”

The spot even interjected itself into pop culture in 2019 when it became a haunt for the cast of MTV’s “Floribama Shore.”

In 2011 for CL, Florida’s former poet laureate Peter Meinke paid homage to the “watering hole” near the family home he moved into in the late-’60s. His wife, Jeanne, was famous for occasionally being persuaded to do gymnastics at the Chattaway bar.

“Just thinking about the Chattaway in those days brings a smile, and then a sad shaking of the head. We had no thoughts of diets then — Chattaburgers, French fries, fried onion rings, pitchers of beer littered our tables. We smoked! We stayed up late, playing loud games of shuffleboard inside until closing time,” he added. “One of Eckerd’s professors, may he rest in peace, became more and more accurate the more he drank, so that after he defeated us all, we’d have to drive him home.”

St. Pete Rising says a yard sale will happen at some point before the closing, adding that, “The property, which has been owned by the family for decades, is now under contract and expected to transfer to a new owner in early August.”

The Chattaway in St. Petersburg, Florida on Aug. 5, 2016. Credit: cityofstpete/Flickr