Geoffrey Zakarian never thought he’d end up in Tampa Bay.
The celebrity chef, restaurateur and television personality — best known for his appearances on “Iron Chef America,” “Chopped” and “The Kitchen” — spent nearly five decades in Manhattan, and has opened restaurants across the country, including in South Florida.
But a more permanent move to the state’s west coast had never occurred to him.
Life’s twists and turns brought Zakarian to the Sunshine State with his family in August 2020. And now, he’s preparing to open his first Tampa Bay restaurant.
It will be part of a sprawling mixed-use development in St. Petersburg’s EDGE District called The Central, which will also include a 168-room Marriott Autograph Collection hotel.
It’s just the start of what Zakarian hopes will include several more projects in the area while he puts down roots in his new home. He also recently partnered with Tampa General Hospital, where he serves as culinary director.
“I love it here — I really do,” Zakarian said. “But never in a million years would I have thought I would be here.”
Zakarian isn’t a complete stranger to the area: His wife has deep Tampa roots, and his father-in-law owns the Tampa-based construction company Kimmins Contracting. His family relocated from Manhattan during the pandemic, and it didn’t hurt that the chef had built-in family and friends in the area.
But there was another draw: opportunity.
Tampa Bay’s rapid growth the past five years, including dozens of burgeoning blocks along St. Petersburg’s Central Avenue, were an inspiration to the culinary entrepreneur. A tenured chef with a long history of working in hospitality, Zakarian has worked with celebrity hotelier Ian Schrager in the past and said at one point he was considering a concept at Tampa’s Water Street development. But he ultimately decided on St. Petersburg for his first big foray into the local market.
“It’s very impressive,” Zakarian said. “(It’s one of the) very, very few places I’ve seen where there’s one large, long, sexy main drag that’s just on fire right now. Buildings are going up like crazy.”
Casey Ellison, the CEO of Ellison Development who is spearheading the ambitious project, agreed, citing the area’s walkability, density and overall energy.
“We believe downtown St. Petersburg is probably the finest urban market in the southeastern United States,” Ellison said.
The hotel, called the Central Hotel, will open in fall 2027 and is one of five buildings planned across the 2.1-acre site. Other amenities at The Central development will include the 11-story Halcyon office building, a 531-space parking garage, a central plaza, 42 workforce housing units, a rooftop “Dino Park,” an 11,000-square-foot wellness center and fitness club, and roughly 14,000 square feet of retail space spread across the ground level.
Here’s what else to know about the hotel and restaurant before it opens.
The Central Hotel
Once open, the Central Hotel will be the most upscale hotel to launch in downtown St. Petersburg since the Vinoy Resort & Golf Club. Zakarian, 66, will run the entire hospitality program, overseeing a 160-seat restaurant, a rooftop pool menu, a second-floor jazz lounge (described as having “Vegas-style, Rat Pack” vibes), room service, banquets, catering and other culinary events. At some point, he envisions a “sexy beer garden” outside in the plaza space in front of the hotel.
“It’s quite interesting and complicated and fantastic at the same time,” Zakarian said.
Part of what makes the approach unique, Zakarian said, is that, unlike some arrangements where a restaurant leases hotel space, the model here is a fully integrated operation where the hotel and food service operations are “one and the same.”
Other amenities at the hotel will include multiple banquet rooms and event spaces, an intimate theater designed for everything from movie screenings to small concerts, and a rooftop ballroom on the 15th floor with 270-degree views of downtown and the waterfront.
Construction on the hotel is slated to start in early 2026.
The restaurant
Zakarian described the hotel’s flagship restaurant as a “modern brasserie,” serving lunch and dinner with a moody ambiance at night, taking inspiration from lauded New York City institutions like Balthazar and Carbone. There’s a name for the concept floating around, but they’re not ready to announce it just yet.
While not overtly French, the menu will be rooted in classic French cuisine with contemporary twists. Zakarian, who has Armenian heritage, said his longstanding culinary philosophy of emphasizing “simple, perfect” ingredients will take center stage here, too. The restaurant will also serve what Zakarian said will be the “best steak in Florida.”
The spot will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with afternoon snacks available in the lobby — a place where anyone could pop in without much thought or hassle.
“That’s the kind of restaurant I like,” Zakarian said. “It’s a restaurant where, when your plans fall through (at) one place you say, let’s just go here.”
He called the restaurant a “Plan B” concept, a place that has longevity, in part, due to its broad appeal.
“Plan B restaurants last a long time,” he said. “Plan Bs will be there 30 years from now.”
Though the menu is still a long way from being fully planned, Zakarian estimated the price point for a meal will hover around $35 to $50 for lunch, and $60 to $70 for dinner, excluding drinks.
The Tampa Bay area’s rapidly evolving culinary scene and the recent addition of Michelin-rated restaurants helped create a dining landscape poised for growth, Zakarian said.
“The fact that all this is happening is why I’m doing it,” he said. “This is very fertile ground for food, and there’s a lot of things not happening that I’m hoping to introduce here.”
The details
The Central development will be located at 1301 Central Ave. Construction on the restaurant will launch once the Central Hotel has been built, and right now developers are eyeing September 2027 for an opening date.