![\"Chef](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/6BD62731ED867AE7025F937445911CEB.jpg\")
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Chef-owner LaVante Pope has been an integral part of the St. Petersburg food scene for the past five or six years, managing restaurants and building connections. Observing St. Pete’s recent explosion in culinary reputation\u2014from an unknown city to a recognized food destination\u2014he felt it was the perfect time to branch out and launch his own concept, El Campo.<\/p>\n
The restaurant is born out of a lifelong love for his cultural food, particularly his Jamaican-Indian heritage, which instilled in him a deep appreciation for curries and traditional dishes. Pope emphasizes that what sets El Campo apart is its approach to Caribbean cuisine:\u00a0<\/p>\n
The backstory:<\/p>\n
“I’m bringing the entire diaspora together and blending it into one whole,” Pope said.<\/p>\n
This fusion honors his background and elevates the regional flavors of the Caribbean. The joy for him is simple: serving a plate and “seeing the smiles on their faces… after they’re enjoying the [food].<\/p>\n
Dig deeper:<\/p>\n
Chef Pope’s deep connection to food goes beyond the restaurant. He grew up in a family environment where cooking was a central, fun and even competitive part of every holiday gathering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He recalls, “We make competition out of it… like who’s allowed to make this and who like, who can bring this and who can make it better than they did last year.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
This passion and commitment to constantly improving and sharing his palate is the foundation of El Campo. Launching El Campo is the culmination of a “dream, being able to share my food and share my palate with the city.” By operating as a one-man show, Pope ensures every plate served meets his exacting standards for flavor and authenticity.<\/p>\n
Visit El Campo:<\/p>\n
Address: Located inside Foodie Labs\u00a0515 22nd St S, St. Petersburg, FL 33712.<\/p>\n
Hours of Operation:<\/p>\n
Monday: ClosedTuesday: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PMWednesday: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PMThursday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PMFriday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PMSaturday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PMSunday: Closed <\/p>\n
The Source: FOX 13’s Corey Beckman gathered information from Chef LaVante Pope, owner of the El Campo restaurant, for this story.<\/p>\n
Made in Tampa Bay<\/a>Hillsborough County<\/a>Restaurants<\/a>St. Petersburg<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Chef-owner LaVante Pope has been an integral part of the St. Petersburg food scene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,4451,629,555,7104,115,1157,687,405,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-34966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-food-drink","tag-hillsborough","tag-lifestyle","tag-made-in-tampa-bay","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-restaurants","tag-series","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\/34966","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=34966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}