If your ideal night out consists of drinks and something to eat in a fun, unexpected setting, stop by St. Petersburg’s Museum of Fine Arts on a Thursday evening.
Art After Dark takes over the downtown museum Thursday nightsthroughoutthe year, filling its galleries with docent-guided tours and its conservatory with special programming and cafe goodies after hours.
Rain rolled in when Tampa Bay Times food and dining editor Michelle Stark and I headed up the MFA’s steps shortly after 5 p.m. to check out a recent installment. And wouldn’t you know it, a party at the museum is the perfect place to escape gloomy weather.
DJ Brian Schanck provided the soundtrack for our visit. Guests noshed on plates of oysters from Lost Coast Oyster Co.’s raw barpop-up. Others lined up at Cafe Clementine for its L’Apero menu. In conjunction with Art After Dark, the museum’s cafe reopens on Thursday evenings to serve organic wines, beers by St. Petersburg brewery Green Bench and rotating sweet and savory snacks.
Once or twice a month, a L’Apero wine tasting also accompanies Art After Dark.
Paola Berejuk of Selections de la Vina, a wine importer that showcases small producers and low-interventionwinemaking,led us through four wines to give us a taste of the experience, from an easy-drinking pet-nat from Uruguay that paired great with oysters to a delicious red blend of mencia, brancellao and espadeiro grapes from Spain.
Wine tastings go down once or twice a month during Cafe Clementine’s L’Apero hours, which coincide with Art After Dark at the Museum of Fine Arts.
This crash course for curious sippers was super approachable, not stuffy at all. Berejuk’s nerd-outs over each wine — its story, characteristics and how it’s produced — only made the tasting more enjoyable.
“It’s fun getting to come here, talk to people, introduce them to this,” she said.
Lost Coast Oyster Co. pops up at local events with its raw bar.
Brian Rosegger, who launched Lost Coast with his wife Lindsay seven years ago, was on site shucking fresh Florida oysters for the crowd. The couple have done a handful of pop-ups at the MFA, and their raw bar travels to other spots in town like Golden Isles Brewing Co., Intermezzo and St. Pete Athletic.
After the Piney Point wastewater disaster in 2021, Lost Coast’s oyster farm in the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve was closed for harvest for five or six months, Brian Rosegger said. The aquaculture operation hadstarted to hit its stride, but he said he wasn’t comfortable enough withMother Nature as his business partner to double down on production. Instead, they pivoted to distribution.
The Roseggers now focus onbringing oysters from farmers across the state to Tampa Bay restaurants and shellfish lovers who purchasea sack for local pickup. The duo keep some of the briny bivalves for their shucking events, too.
“Now we have the risk kind of spread out,” Rosegger said. “I have the ability to change suppliers based on whatever kind of environmental conditions might be happening and area closures or even supply side issues.”
The Lost Coast Oyster Co. pop-up at a recent edition of Art After Dark featured oysters from Indian River Oyster Company in New Smyrna Beach.
Lost Coast mainly buys from New Smyrna Beach’s Indian River Oyster Company, where the oysters for Art After Dark were harvested earlier that day.
We ordered a half-dozen of the petite treasures. Customizing our oysters with Lost Coast’s assortment of hot sauces, freshly shaved horseradish and mignonettes — dabs of this, scoops of that — was quite fun. The strawberry mignonette with champagne vinegar is a popular topping, and the mango jalapeno variety had a nice kick at the end.
Rosegger’s tip for beginners looking to eat oysters like a pro: Don’t just throw ’em back — chew!
“Outside, the mantle is where you get all of the salt and the brine,” he said, guiding us through Oyster Anatomy 101, shucked oyster in hand. “When you chew and you get to that adductor muscle, that’s where you get like that sweet, kind of scallop-like meat.”
Lost Coast Oyster Co.’s raw bar invited guests to dress their oysters with a selection of toppings.
It was fun to get creative with the accoutrements, which included strawberry and mango jalapeno mignonettes.
The Roseggers want to expand the wholesale side of Lost Coast, a move that would allow them to sourcedifferent varieties of Florida-farmed oysters each week.
“Once we have a larger client list and more restaurants that we’re frequenting in a week, we’ll be able to justify being able to go and collect multiple oysters,”Rosegger said.
Drawing groups of all ages, Art After Dark was a cool way to end a weeknight with a little whimsy. The museum got busier throughout the evening, with the DJ tunes adding to the lively vibe.
The MFA is working on a fall lineup of Art After Dark events, including monthly jazz, swing dancing and trivia nights. Lost Coast will return Sept. 3, Sept. 10, Oct. 8, Nov. 12 and Dec. 10, while a L’Apero wine tasting will coincide with the Oct. 22, Oct. 29, Nov. 19 and Dec. 17 installments. Holiday editions are also planned in October and December.
Art After Dark is free for MFA members, and for nonmembers it’s cheaper than regular museum admission.
You can explore the museum’s full calendar at mfastpete.org and follow @cafeclementinestpete and @lostcoastoysters on Instagram for the latest on what they’re up to.
• • •
The Tampa Bay Times Food Hub launched in 2026, a four-person team covering Tampa Bay’s dynamic and expanding food scene. You can contribute to the hub through our journalism fund by clicking here.
Want food news weekly in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter.
Top 50 Restaurants: Check out our food critic’s list of the area’s best spots.
Follow our updates on the local restaurant landscape on Instagram at @tampabaytimesfood.