February 7, 2026 – Blake Thompson of Seed & Feed Hospitality, owners of St. Petersburg’s El Cap restaurant, said today that internet rumors of the venerable eatery’s imminent closure and demolition are entirely untrue. The story, apparently AI-created and credited to a non-existent news outlet, inferred that El Cap would be replaced by an In & Out franchise restaurant, and included a bogus comment from St. Pete mayor Ken Welch. “We bought El Cap because of its tremendous legacy in St. Petersburg,” Thompson said, adding that he’d received at least 15 calls before 2 p.m. “We have no intention of either selling it or tearing it down.”<\/p>\n
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