{"id":307834,"date":"2026-06-15T12:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/307834\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T12:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:22:06","slug":"the-chattaway-will-stay-open-as-fergs-owner-joins-new-ownership-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/307834\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chattaway will stay open as Ferg&#8217;s owner joins new ownership group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The 0.70-acre property could have just as easily ended up in the hands of a developer, putting the restaurant at risk of demolition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Instead, Mahoney put the site under contract in March and began looking for partners who shared his vision of keeping the restaurant intact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">&#8220;The Chattaway stays The Chattaway,&#8221; Mahoney said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Founded in 1933 by British immigrant Jillian Fricker, The Chattaway began as a tea room before evolving into one of St. Petersburg&#8217;s most well-known restaurants. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Over the decades, the restaurant became a local institution, drawing generations of residents and visitors with its burgers, eclectic d\u00e9cor, afternoon tea service, and lush garden seating area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">For Ferguson, preserving the restaurant is a chance to protect a piece of local history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cI grew up in Lakewood Estates in south St. Pete,\u201d Ferguson said to St. Pete Rising. \u201cWhen I was a kid, we&#8217;d ride our bikes to The Chattaway, then head down to 3rd Street, go over Thrill Hill, and skate at the Bayfront Center during the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Ferguson also spent 18 years teaching P.E. and health at Southside Fundamental Middle School, located about a mile from The Chattaway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 0.70-acre property could have just as easily ended up in the hands of a developer, putting the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-307834","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\/307834","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=307834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}