{"id":176437,"date":"2026-03-03T15:57:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176437\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T15:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:57:35","slug":"hot-spot-diner-owned-by-a-pennsylvania-restaurateur-opens-in-st-petersburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176437\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Spot Diner, owned by a Pennsylvania restaurateur, opens in St. Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 John Hazakis ran his first diner when he was just 18 years old.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is my business,&#8221; says the Greek man \u2014 a true diner prodigy! \u2014 about serving comfort food to all walks of life.<\/p>\n<p>In Pennsylvania, especially around the Philadelphia area, John would eventually own nine diners, a way of life very much in his family&#8217;s blood.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH: Hot Spot Diner, owned by a Pennsylvania restaurateur, opens in St. Petersburg<\/p>\n<p>Hot Spot Diner, owned by a Pennsylvania restaurateur, opens in St. Petersburg<\/p>\n<p>John&#8217;s latest diner, however, just opened in a much different climate, right here in Tampa Bay. On Tyrone Boulevard in St. Petersburg, to be exact.<\/p>\n<p>Open seven days a week for breakfast (corned beef hash skillet) and lunch, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/hotspotdinerstpete\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Hot Spot Diner (4045 Tyrone Blvd)<\/a> takes over a space previously occupied by a First Watch.<\/p>\n<p>John moved here for two reasons: better weather (&#8220;I love the sun and no snow!&#8221;) and to cook next to his brother Paul (&#8220;We get along sometimes!&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>The Hot Spot Diner serves up large portions of breakfast classics and traditional Greek fare (spinach pie, gyro). <\/p>\n<p>For more delicious Sean Daly stories, follow him on Instagram at <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/seandalytv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@seandalytv.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Share Your Story with Sean<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SeanDaly.png\"\/><br \/>Sean Daly calls himself Tampa Bay 28\u2019s &#8220;resident big kid&#8221;. He puts his boundless energy into sharing stories about people doing good, things for you to do, and of course, theme parks. If you have an idea for Sean\u2019s next adventure or &#8220;Daly Discovery&#8221;, send him a message.<br \/>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/KATIE.LAGRONE.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Florida veteran served in Gulf War loses citizenship fight, fears deportation<\/p>\n<p>A Florida veteran who served in the U.S. Marines during the Persian Gulf War has lost his federal court case in his decade-long fight for U.S. citizenship \u2014 and now faces deportation to a country that may no longer claim him.<\/p>\n<p>Florida veteran served in Gulf War loses citizenship fight, fears deportation<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 John Hazakis ran his first diner when he was just 18 years old. &#8220;This&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[205,56367,83397,8405,83398,83399,83400,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,3670,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-176437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-abc-action-news","9":"tag-abc-tampa-bay-28","10":"tag-best-diner-tampa-bay","11":"tag-daly-discoveries","12":"tag-diner-st-pete","13":"tag-hot-spot-diner","14":"tag-john-hazakis","15":"tag-pinellas-county","16":"tag-st-pete","17":"tag-st-pete-headlines","18":"tag-st-pete-news","19":"tag-st-petersburg","20":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","21":"tag-st-petersburg-news","22":"tag-tampa-bay-local-news","23":"tag-wfts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}