{"id":293999,"date":"2026-06-03T03:53:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/293999\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T03:53:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:53:56","slug":"red-mesa-cantina-closes-permanently-after-16-years-in-downtown-st-pete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/293999\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Mesa Cantina closes permanently after 16 Years in downtown St. Pete"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Red \"Red Red Mesa Cantina closes abruptly <\/a> <\/p>\n

A downtown St. Petersburg Mexican restaurant has served its last taco. Red Mesa Cantina closed permanently this week after 16 years in business. FOX 13’s Blake DeVine reports.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A staple of the downtown St. Petersburg<\/a> dining scene has served its last taco. Red Mesa Cantina closed permanently this week after 16 years in business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Downtown St. Pete restaurant closure <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

This closure came as a surprise to many customers who stopped by Tuesday night and found a “permanently closed” sign taped to the restaurant\u00a0<\/a>front door.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Rhoda R. and her husband, Michael, were headed to dinner with another couple when they discovered the news.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m always disappointed when I see a business that\u2019s locally owned, that\u2019s not a chain, close down,” Rhoda said.<\/p>\n

This week, Red Mesa Cantina\u2019s parent company filed for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Past wage theft investigation <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

The closure also brought renewed attention to a 2023 U.S. Department of Labor investigation that recovered more than $190,000 after investigators found employees had been denied tips<\/a>. The restaurant later said it terminated the outside firm responsible for handling that portion of its business.<\/p>\n

“All that I heard was that they were skimming some of the tips,” Rhoda said. “We kind of boycotted after that.”<\/p>\n

Employees packed equipment into a Red Mesa van Tuesday night as customers peered through the restaurant\u2019s windows.<\/p>\n

Longtime St. Pete resident Connie Whitehead was headed into the restaurant for a midweek margarita when she found out it had closed.<\/p>\n

Community reacts to loss of local favorite <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“I was disappointed to hear,” Whitehead said. “They\u2019ve been so involved in our downtown charities for years.”<\/p>\n

In a farewell Facebook post, Red Mesa thanked customers for 16 years of support.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“The lovely courtyard and the night lights, and the fun with friends and stuff like that,” Whitehead said.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent to FOX 13, Red Mesa Cantina and Red Mesa Events blamed a tough economy, hurricane impacts and the year-long closure of Tropicana Field for the shutdown.<\/p>\n

“Restaurants and events are luxuries that, for many in the community, have become difficult to prioritize,” the company said.<\/p>\n

“Their costs are rising, just like everybody else\u2019s, so they have to charge for it. People are really watching their spending,” Rhoda said.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The company said the closure applies only to Red Mesa Cantina and Red Mesa Events. Red Mesa Restaurant, Red Mesa Mercado and Red Mesa Mercado West remain open.<\/p>\n

Company officials say they\u2019re working with customers who had weddings, parties and other events scheduled at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story came from statements from Red Mesa Cantina, interviews with customers and St. Petersburg residents, along with previous reporting on FOX 13 News.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg<\/a>Restaurants<\/a>Business<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Mesa Cantina closes abruptly A downtown St. Petersburg Mexican restaurant has served its last taco. Red Mesa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[558,47,4451,555,115,1157,687,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-293999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-business","tag-fl","tag-food-drink","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-restaurants","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293999","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=293999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}