{"id":388841,"date":"2026-09-03T01:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388841\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T01:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:36:14","slug":"tampa-bay-restaurants-adapt-as-glp-1-meds-and-sober-curious-diners-shift-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388841\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay restaurants adapt as GLP-1 meds and \u2018sober curious\u2019 diners shift habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Restaurants \"Restaurants Restaurants adapting menus<\/a> <\/p>\n

GLP-1 medications slow down digestion and help people suppress cravings longer. Local restaurants are saying they are reevaluating their menus based on the ever-changing needs of customers on weight loss medication. FOX 13’s Ariel Plasencia reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Some Tampa Bay<\/a> restaurant owners say they are adjusting menus and adding more non-alcoholic options and smaller portions to adapt to changing diner habits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One reason why could be the rise in GLP-1 medications. Because these medications slow digestion and suppress cravings for sugary and high-fat foods, many diners are pulling back on booze and big entr\u00e9es.<\/p>\n

Smaller plates <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

At Willa\u2019s in Tampa, co-founder Nate Siegel says adapting to evolving preferences has been key to keeping dining rooms full.<\/p>\n

“These days, the big news are GLP-1s and sober curious, which we see a lot of,” Siegel said. “Those really provide different opportunities to find new menu items and portion sizes and proteins to serve, as well as a really great zero-proof cocktail menu that we launched at Willa\u2019s when we first opened back in 2021. That has been huge for us.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fewer drinks, too <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Jeff Gigante, CEO of Next Level Brands Hospitality \u2014 which operates Forbici Modern Italian, Boulon Brasserie and Bakery, and Union New American \u2014 says food, takeout, and catering sales are up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

But, beer sales are down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gigante said they cut the beer selection down by roughly a half at Forbici.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So you’ll start to see our mocktail sections of our cocktail beverage and menus starting to boost up,” Gigante said. “We’re doing a lot of the non-alcoholic beers as well. Again, trying to add some good flavored teas to our beverage program \u2014 just to kind of stem the tide, if you will.”<\/p>\n

Dining \u2013 just differently\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Business owners told FOX 13 diners are still eating out \u2014 they\u2019re just dining differently these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As we get into the season here \u2014 October, November, December, all through May \u2014 I think we’re going to see a little bit of a lift in alcohol sales as people are out celebrating the good weather and the holidays and all the family coming into town,” Gigante said. “Again, I always look back in time. I’ve been doing this for a lot of years in Tampa, and I’ve seen these variances happen from time to time. And \u2018this too shall pass\u2019 is one of my favorite sayings. So I don’t really worry about it too much.”<\/p>\n

“Diners might not be chasing booze or big steaks these days, but they are chasing the experiences,” Siegel added. “It’s never been more important, especially with the way things are now, to be out together in real life with people in a great room. And that\u2019s what we do best.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this story was gathered from FOX 13 Tampa Bay, who interviewed local restaurant owners including Nate Siegel of Willa\u2019s and Jeff Gigante of Next Level Brands Hospitality.<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>Food and Drink<\/a>Small Business<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Restaurants adapting menus GLP-1 medications slow down digestion and help people suppress cravings longer. Local restaurants are saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[558,47,4451,629,555,115,6652,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-388841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-business","tag-fl","tag-food-drink","tag-hillsborough","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-small-business","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388841","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=388841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}