{"id":266985,"date":"2026-05-11T19:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266985\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T19:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:07:09","slug":"michelin-recommended-tampa-sandwich-shop-plans-fl-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266985\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelin-Recommended Tampa Sandwich Shop Plans FL Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new location is expected to open by the end of the year, St. Pete Rising reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cOpening a second location in St. Pete seems like the natural progression of a restaurant that starts in Tampa\u2026but we recognize that it\u2019s a completely different market,\u201d co-founder AJ DeSimone told the news outlet. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to \u2018Tampa their St. Pete,\u2019 but we want to be a part of their community and bring a type of cuisine that might not be available to them all of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cousin Vinny\u2019s menu is centered around chicken cutlets, which are featured in various sandwiches. <\/p>\n

It started out as a ghost kitchen in Seminole Heights, the Tampa Bay Times said<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As its popularity grew, its owners, DeSimone, Vinny Andriotti (also the chef) and Russell Leone and Jacke Schmidt launched Cousin Vinny\u2019s first brick-and-mortar location at 1331 W. Cass Street in January 2025. <\/p>\n

It was added to the Florida Michelin Guide<\/a> as a \u201crecommended\u201d restaurant in March 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s usually a line and rarely a seat at this casual sandwich shop in Tampa’s NoHo neighborhood. It’s Italian to the bone (note the flag out front for further proof) and the name is both a nod to the movie of the same name, as well as one of the co-owners \u2026 they’re bringing New York Italian-American flavor to Tampa,\u201d the Michelin listing for Cousin Vinny<\/a> reads. \u201cAny sandwich aficionado knows it’s all about the bread and the fillings, and both are top notch here. Tomato and mozzarella on their house-made schiacciata (think focaccia, only thinner and crispier) is a knockout, but the Tony Piccante, a crispy chicken cutlet with vodka sauce, cheese, and roasted red peppers on an Italian sub is another winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s expanding across the state, planning to bring to the Grand Central District \u201cjust great food, great hospitality, a true connection to what we\u2019re making and traditions that we grew up on,\u201d Andriotti told the Times, \u201cand sharing them with everybody else, especially a place like St. Pete that values a community and local operator. That\u2019s something that we\u2019d like to be very much a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

See Also: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new location is expected to open by the end of the year, St. Pete Rising reported. \u201cOpening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-266985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266985","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=266985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}