Steetlight Taco heads to Clearwater, foot-long tortas in Hyde Park, Boozy Pig gets Guy Fieri praise, and more in Tampa Bay food news

Rendering of the interior of Clearwater’s Streetlight Taco location. Credit: Cleveland Street Alliance

OPENINGS/CLOSINGS

Tampa’s Streetlight Taco, a Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient, is expanding to Clearwater

Streetlight Taco, the award-winning Mexican restaurant from the folks at Tastes Pretty Good Hospitality, will open a new location in Clearwater. The Michelin Bib Gourmand-recognized concept will move into the ground floor of downtown’s newly restored Peoples Bank Building, located at 432 Cleveland St., according to a press release.The new location is planning to debut by the end of the year. – Colin Wolf

Byte Burger, which recently opened its first location less than four months ago in the Temple Terrace area, is expanding. Byte (stylized all-caps) will debut a new food truck at 301 Westshore Blvd., in the Citgo gas station parking lot, while a more permanent location for Westshore is currently under construction. Until that location opens, the food truck will open on Monday, Aug. 3 and serve visitors from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., with extended late night hours on Fridays and Saturdays. The locally-owned concept, founded by brothers Ahmed, Ali and Matt Mansour, will serve its signature truffle and falafel smash burgers made with prime angus beef, along with the option of six house made sauces and fries to dip them in. – Liam Oliver

Hyde Park’s new Mexican restaurant Mita’s Cocina Moderna serves a foot-long torta

Tampa now has a torta the size of a full-grown Chihuahua. Mita’s Cocina Moderna, a new family-owned modern Mexican concept, quietly debuted in Tampa’s Hyde Park neighborhood earlier this month. Located at 301 W Platt St. Ste C (the old Yah Mon Caribbean Restaurant), Mita’s soft-opened back on July 11, with a focus on handcrafted tacos, fajitas, and signature tortas, including a 12-inch torta dubbed “La Titan!”, which is “built for sharing.” All tortas, including La Titan!, can come in a variety of ways including steak, pork, roasted veggies shrimp and more. – Colin Wolf

Tampa Bay’s first Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks will open next month near USF

A popular West Philadelphia-style cheese steak chain is coming to Tampa this summer. Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks plans to open a new location in late August in the former Little Greek space at 2548 E Fowler Ave., which is the same plaza as Dave’s Hot Chicken, Chipotle and Mojo Books & Records. So yes, the plaza will now have two Dave’s. This will be the first Tampa Bay outpost for the fast casual chain, which is actually not based in Philly. Big Dave’s currently has a total of seven locations across Georgia and the Carolinas, as well two Florida locations in Oviedo and Orlando. For the unfamiliar, the chain serves up a variety of Halal-certified cheesesteaks served on Amoroso’s rolls. Guests can choose between beef, chicken, salmon or veggie cheesesteaks. There’s also “Cheesesteak Egg Rolls,” “Philly Fries” and banana pudding up for grabs. – Colin Wolf

EVENTS

Jamaican Independence Day is this weekend, and you know Tampa Jerk Hut is celebrating

Most of Florida’s more than 311,000 Jamaicans live south of the Tampa Bay area, but that’s not stopping locals from celebrating Jamaican Independence Day.vFollowing more than three centuries of British rule—and through hard wars, rebellion and movements led by the likes of Paul Bogle and Marcus Garvey (pictured)—green, gold and black became the Caribbean nation’s official colors just 64 years ago. One of Tampa’s most popular and longest-running Jamaican restaurants, Andrew Ashmeade’s Jerk Hut, throws a big party complete with platter specials and live music. It’s $20 to get into the “Jamaica Love” party at Jerk Hut in Tampa on Saturday, Aug. 1. – Ray Roa

Tampa’s Boozy Pig will be featured on Guy Fieri’s ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’

Tampa is apparently the new Flavortown. This summer, Food Network star and celebrity chef Guy Fieri has popped up at a number of local restaurants, and now we can add West Tampa’s Boozy Pig Butchery & Kitchen to the list. The popular butcher shop and sandwich-focused cafe (technically in the Midtown neighborhood) will be featured on an upcoming episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” airing Friday, Aug. 7 at 9 p.m. EST. – Colin Wolf

Ahead of its 100th anniversary, downtown Tampa’s Hotel Flor is hosting ‘Historic Happy Hours’

Construction on downtown Tampa’s Floridan Palace Hotel started 100 years ago. It opened in 1927 and shut down in 1989 before renovation efforts led to a reopening in 2012. It found new owners in 2021 and is now operated by Hilton under a new moniker: Hotel Flor. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1996, the hotel has tapped staff at its restaurant, The Dan, to spend Fridays spotlighting different eras in the venue’s history. Anyone in 1920s garb gets a free dessert as The Dan for this final installment of the “History Happy Hours.” Next month’s theme? Prohibition. – Ray Roa

Tampa Bay’s annual hot sauce festival ‘I Like it Hot!’ returns this September

September will be hotter than normal, because spice heads and pepper connoisseurs can feel the burn at the I Like it Hot! Festival in Pinellas Park. Florida’s longest-running hot sauce festival returns for its 26th year bringing a sizable selection of hot sauces, seasonings, salsas, specialty products and unique retail vendors. The scorching hot sauce festival will move this year from the Largo Event Center to the England Brothers Park located at 5010 Dave McKay Way in Pinellas Park. The fiery weekend starts Saturday, Sept. 12, and Sunday, Sept. 13, at from 10 am to 4 pm. The event has no cover and also free parking. The event is family and pet friendly. – Leif Helland

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This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 05, 2026.

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