{"id":326069,"date":"2026-07-01T15:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326069\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:52:09","slug":"rreal-tacos-acquires-former-red-mesa-cantina-building-in-downtown-st-pete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326069\/","title":{"rendered":"Rreal Tacos acquires former Red Mesa Cantina building in downtown St. Pete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">One of downtown St. Pete&#8217;s most recognizable restaurant properties has a new owner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Atlanta-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rrealtacos.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rreal Tacos<\/a> has purchased the former Red Mesa Cantina building at 128 3rd Street South, where it plans to open three restaurant and bar concepts under the Rreal Tacos brand. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The ground-floor restaurant is expected to open in early 2027, with the remaining concepts opening in phases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Founded in Atlanta in 2015, Rreal Tacos is known for Mexican street food inspired by Mexico City, with a menu centered around tacos served on handmade tortillas pressed to order. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Guests can also expect burritos, quesabirria tacos, tortas, enchiladas, fajitas, ceviche, street corn, loaded fries, and house-made salsas, along with an extensive selection of tequila, mezcal, and craft margaritas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The more than century-old building was originally constructed as St. Petersburg&#8217;s first fire station and <a href=\"https:\/\/stpeterising.com\/home\/red-mesa-cantina-closes-after-16-years-in-downtown-st-pete\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">most recently housed Red Mesa Cantina for 16 years before the restaurant closed in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">&#8220;This building has watched over downtown St. Pete for more than a hundred years. We didn&#8217;t buy it to change what it is. We bought it to honor it and fill it with life and hospitality for the next chapter of its life,&#8221; CEO Damian Otero said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of downtown St. Pete&#8217;s most recognizable restaurant properties has a new owner. Atlanta-based Rreal Tacos has purchased&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-326069","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\/326069","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=326069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}