El Cap, St. Petersburg’s iconic 4th Road North burger joint, has been partially offered. However the juicy World Champ burgers inside its wood-paneled partitions aren’t going away.
Seed & Feed Hospitality, the group behind initiatives like Trophy Fish and Mandarin Disguise, purchased half of the shop at 3500 4th Road North. Cindy Nally, who has labored at El Cap for about twenty years, will proceed to personal the remaining 50%, she stated.
Nally determined to place El Cap up on the market after working companion Tara Mattiacci withdrew.
“The time has come to go the El Cap torch to a different St. Pete native who will stick with it the custom for a few years to come back,” Mattiacci posted on Fb in December. “The brand new companions had been born and raised in St. Pete and have all been coming to El Cap for greater than 40 years.”
“We view El Cap as an iconic establishment,” stated Ryan Griffin of Seed & Feed Hospitality. “I keep in mind going there after I was a child.”
Ryan Griffin, alongside along with his father, Invoice Griffin, and stepbrother, Blake Thompson, are devoted to preserving St. Petersburg’s old-school attraction. When Ryan Griffin heard that the beloved restaurant was prone to being purchased out by an actual property growth firm, he knew he needed to act.
“It pushed me to do my responsibility and step in and do what I might in my energy to assist protect a group asset,” he stated.
Based on St. Pete Rising, a number of different individuals are concerned in El Cap’s new possession construction, together with Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Rowdies executives Matt Silverman and Brian Auld, shopper justice legal professional Augie Ribeiro and El Cap’s longtime accountant, WG Spoor.
Ryan Griffin stated he is desirous about saving extra Tampa Bay gems.
El Cap opened within the 1960s and stays a St. Pete staple, at the same time as different classic institutions, like Munch’s and Wilson’s, have gone up on the market.
Even the native wildlife is a fan of El Cap’s meals. Representatives of the close by Wooden Stork inhabitants have been identified to hang around within the parking zone earlier than the lunch rush, hoping to seize a chunk to eat.
“They’d get so daring that they’d climb on individuals’s tables and steal their burgers,” Larry Chopard, El Cap’s evening supervisor, instructed the Occasions in 2022.
Whereas the brand new possession construction could result in behind-the-scenes changes that enhance the move of the restaurant, Nally stated the menu and ambiance will stay the identical.
Regulars are already comfortable to listen to the information.
“It is only a new journey,” Nally stated. “They know I am right here for his or her greatest curiosity, the very best curiosity of the group.”