{"id":313248,"date":"2026-06-19T16:42:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/313248\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T16:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:42:24","slug":"st-petes-baba-is-closing-but-will-reopen-as-new-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/313248\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete\u2019s Baba is closing, but will reopen as new concept\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"573\" data-attachment-id=\"362722\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/food-drink\/st-petes-baba-is-closing-but-will-reopen-as-new-concept\/attachment\/471155732_1614624659442672_8840584235184820601_n\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/471155732_1614624659442672_8840584235184820601_n.jpg?fit=2047%2C1503&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2047,1503\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"471155732_1614624659442672_8840584235184820601_n\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Baba &lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/471155732_1614624659442672_8840584235184820601_n.jpg?fit=780%2C573&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/471155732_1614624659442672_8840584235184820601_n.jpg\" alt=\"A busy restaurant patio with customers seated at long wooden tables, rustic exposed wooden beams, white woven pendant lights hanging from the ceiling, and a server in a blue shirt carrying plates of food.\" class=\"wp-image-362722\"  \/>Baba  Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=963898404515304&amp;set=pb.100063612729267.-2207520000&amp;type=3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baba\/Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After seven years in St. Petersburg\u2019s Grand Central District, popular Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eatatbaba.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baba<\/a> is saying \u201cwada\u2019an.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, Baba took to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZu7Vx7AA1m\/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram <\/a>to announce that the concept, as well as its attached tinned fish bar Barbouni, will permanently close on Friday, July 3, adding that \u201cit\u2019s not a goodbye, but the beginning of something new.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The space, located at 2701 Central Ave., will make way for Kaixo, a new dining experience\u00a0inspired by the \u201cfood, wine and cultural traditions of the Iberian Peninsula,\u201d and led by Baba\u2019s Chef Andrew Duncan and Sommelier Danielle McCoy, says the post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The group is also bringing back the popular pintxo pop-up bar Barra Barra, as a full-time fixture in the Barbouni space.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo, yes. This summer, we\u2019ll be closing Baba to remodel, reimagine, and make way for an entirely new chapter,\u201d said owner George Sayegh.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No exact opening date was announced for Kaixo or Barra Barra, though the team promised \u201cmore to share in the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/altnewsfoundation.org\/cl-tampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/tampa-newslettersignup-page\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAiECLjru3gB6BLYKOKFLfkVZsqFAgKIhAi467t4AegS2CjihS35FWb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbreak.com\/@c\/1599764?s=01\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CreativeLoafingTampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cltampabay\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cltampabay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/cltampabay.bsky.social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"collection-link has-small-font-size\">This article appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/collections\/june-18-24-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">June 18 \u2013 24, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baba Credit: Baba\/Facebook After seven years in St. Petersburg\u2019s Grand Central District, popular Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurant&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,14509,199,201,200,8770],"class_list":["post-313248","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-pete-restaurant","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-dining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313248","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=313248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}