ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Yelp released its 2023 list of some of the best places to stick your forks in – and some restaurants in the Tampa Bay area were included.
"It's an honor," Dan Schmidt said.
Schmidt is the owner of Uptown Eats in St. Petersburg. The restaurant dropped in at No. 21 in Yelp's Top 100 U.S. Restaurants in 2023. He said he and his staff were surprised to see the news, but they're also proud of the work they've done to receive such praise. The eatery features breakfast and lunch with a bakery with house-made pastries and locally roasted coffee.
The mom-and-pop shop is a staple in the Historic Uptown neighborhood of St. Petersburg, hence the name. Their seats are normally filled with regulars and returning customers who enjoy the "Uptown" breakfast sandwich. But since Yelp gave the restaurant a shout-out, new faces have been walking through their doors.
Uptown Eats is proud to be featured in the list.
"We think we do a really good thing for our little restaurant and we produce a really great product," Schmidt said. "And we help a lot of people in our community."
The restaurant replaced a previous popular breakfast spot and has been around for just two years now.
Tasty menu items include Gouda cheddar grits, a BLT on marbled rye and Schmidt's favorite – the greens-n-things bowl.
Tukro Coffee in Dunedin also made the top 100 list. Former firefighter Dominick Briganti launched the coffee shop after moving to Florida from Connecticut and missing New York's high-quality coffee shops, Yelp says.
More than 10 Florida eateries made the top 100 including some in Orlando and South Florida. See the full list here.
