The newest addition to St.Petersburg’s food scene has officially opened at the St. Pete Pier.
Perry’s Porch is located at 335 2nd Ave. NE, taking over the former Hops and Props spot near the entrance of the Pier. The “coastal eatery” is the latest concept by Seed & Feed Hospitality, which also owns Trophy Fish, Mandarin Hide and the classic El Cap burger spot.
Ryan Griffin, owner of Seed & Feed Hospitality (and a St. Pete native), said the idea for Perry’s Porch came from a desire to embrace the restaurant’s waterfront location and its proximity to the St. Petersburg Museum of History.
“We wanted to come up with something that was St. Pete-forward, and so from that came Perry’s Porch, because Perry Snell was probably the foremost architect developer in St. Pete to this day in terms of the amount of real estate he developed and also the dollar amount of real estate he developed,” Griffin said, adding that he wanted the restaurant and menu to embrace an “Old Florida” feel.
“We wanted to activate the best parts of the property, so we expanded the project from essentially a 1,200-square-foot space to more than 5,000 square feet right with the porch space.”
The drink program includes many nods to St. Pete history and popular landmarks, like the Pink Streets Margarita, Straubberry Park and Jungle Prada cocktails. The menu has a few Italian-influenced dishes as well, another reference to Snell.
“Perry Snell always wanted St. Pete to be Venice, Italy,” Griffin explained. “If you go up near Coffee Pot Bayou, you’ll see these areas that were formed in the 1920s as little gondola ports. [Snell] would bring Venetian gondolas that take folks around what is now Snell Isle to pick out the lot that they wanted to build their house on. So with that, we’ve added a couple of Mediterranean and Italian touches to the menu, as a nod to that part of history.”
Griffin said Perry’s Porch is his “love letter to St. Pete,” noting that he hopes Perry’s Porch will serve to educate visitors about St. Pete, as he wants to train his staff to be “ambassadors of St. Pete and St. Pete history.” He also emphasized the importance of community engagement and collaboration within St. Pete’s culinary scene.
“We’re trying to make St. Pete a culinary destination,” he said. “We want to make sure that when people think, ‘Should I go to XYZ city, or should I come to St. Petersburg?’, that they see our beautiful beaches, our arts, and they recognize that this is a culinary spot with some great restaurants, great hospitality and great hotels.”
“We, along with everybody that has already been here before us, want to play our part in bringing people here and continuing to grow what makes St. Pete so special.”
In addition to lunch and dinner, Perry’s Porch serves craft coffee and pastries in the morning and operates a gelato cart for Pier passersby. They also plan to launch a “picnic basket” program soon, allowing guests to “rent” a picnic basket with food and beverages from Perry’s Porch and a blanket, encouraging them to explore The Pier and its surrounding park’s 26 acres.
