Local chef develops St. Pete tiki bar food menu

Nestled close to the Gandy Bridge in north St. Petersburg, popular waterfront bar The Getaway has added a new variety of fresh seafood and Tampa staples to the menu.

Fare includes favorites from local BBQ joint Holy Hog — whose food truck could often be seen parked outside the bar on busy nights during the past year — along with Florida-inspired seafood creations from Chef Ted Dorsey. The new menu will go live on Saturday, June 6.

Managing partner Dave Burton called the new menu “a perfect mix of food and fun” in a news release.

“We are very proud to have a renowned chef [Dorsey] work with us to create a menu that captures Florida with a foodie flair,” Burton says, “and to also have Holy Hog, a Tampa barbecue staple.”

The tiki bar’s menu will include signature Holy Hog dishes: pulled pork, smoked chicken, brisket, fried okra, jalapeno mac and cheese, and more. Other Holy Hog favorites, like the popular burnt ends, are incorporated into new dishes, such as the Burnt End Jalapeno Poppers and Beach Tacos.

Dorsey, a local chef who has spent time in some of Tampa Bay’s most well-known restaurant kitchens (Boca, Ciro’s Speakeasy, Copperfish, Castile) is opening a new restaurant, The Mill, at the former Jojo’s In Citta Progress Plaza location in St Pete during summer 2015.

For The Getaway’s food menu, Dorsey developed a Florida-focused theme. Everything’s grown, caught or inspired by South Florida and the Caribbean, from the Tortuga Nachos – with ingredients including yellow fin tuna, salsa, a wasabi soy glaze, pineapple, orange and guacamole – to the Lobster BLT salad, created with fresh Maine lobster but given a Southeast spin with avocado, pork belly croutons and a buttermilk vinaigrette.

At the new waterfront restaurant’s raw bar, enjoy a variety of oyster preparations; dress them up at a nearby seafood sauce bar. Often, you’ll dine to the sounds of live music.

Along with seafood, the St. Pete beachfront bar will serve burgers (with a ketchup bar for your enjoyment), sandwiches and house-made fries or Florida orange kettle chips.

The Getaway‘s Managing Partner Scott Tashkin says that a consistently high volume of guests and a desire for more variety in seafood led the beach bar to develop the new menu, which was “inspired by our favorite island destinations.”  

“With our own food, we are able to have the creativity to take the menu any direction we desire,” Tashkin says.

In addition to The Getaway’s new food menu, the bar added a selection of “mocktails,” cocktails that don’t contain alcohol, to its drink menu of craft cocktails, beer and wine. Menu items range in price from $5-$23.

The Getaway, located at 13090 Gandy Blvd N., is open Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. and Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. – midnight.

The waterfront bar “has become that close to home reminder of favorite destinations,” Tashkin says. “It takes a little piece of so many popular places among the Florida Keys and the Carribbean.”