There is a new hideout for serious cocktail drinkers under downtown St. Petersburg, and you would almost miss it if you were not looking. The Winfield, tucked beneath Central Park Food Hall, is a swanky subterranean parlor that seats just 22 guests in a wood-lined room built for lingering service. The bar leans into spirit-forward cocktails and a tight menu of elevated, shareable bites, using modern techniques to crank up classic flavors. Since opening earlier this summer, the Winfield has gone from quiet experiment to one of the most talked-about corners of the new five-story food hall complex.
Food critic Helen Freund was among the first to slip downstairs for an early look and came away impressed with how polished the drinks and design already feel. As reported by the Tampa Bay Times, photographer Martha Asencio-Rhine’s moody images drive home the underground vibe. Freund casts the Winfield as a refined, seated escape from the louder, more casual operations humming away on the floors above.
The room, the spirits and the food
Hidden in the building’s basement, the roughly 1,000-square-foot, 22-seat Winfield specializes in lesser-known global spirits, singani, raicilla and sotol among them, and leans on techniques like forced carbonation and clarification, according to St. Pete Rising. Beverage director Silvia Fridegotto says the program is designed to introduce guests to unfamiliar bottles without any whiff of pretension, while Director of Operations Robert Castellon describes the decor as “an homage to old Florida.” The compact food menu is built to play off the bar program, with plates like wagyu carpaccio, madai-topped rice crackers and house pork rinds aimed at sharing rather than full-on feasting.
How it fits into Central Park
The Winfield is one of several concepts debuting inside Central Park St. Pete, the 27,700-square-foot, five-story food hall at 551 Central Avenue that has been rolling out in phases this year, per the Tampa Bay Business Journal. The project transforms the long-vacant Dome Grill site into a stacked dining destination, with fast-casual counters at street level, a mezzanine, a rooftop bar and, tucked below all of it, the Winfield as the building’s low-lit, reservation-friendly anchor.
What to expect and practical details
Most cocktails at the Winfield ring in around 16 to 19 dollars, and small plates typically fall between about 14 and 32 dollars, according to St. Pete Rising. The bar currently opens in the evenings from Wednesday through Saturday, with the last seating slotted around 11:45 p.m. Walk-ins are accepted, although reservations are recommended given how tiny the room is. For locals, it is essentially a trapdoor out of the high-energy food-hall bustle and into a slower, cocktail-focused night below street level.
Hi Hospitality Group, the Sarasota-based operator behind several of the building’s concepts, says Central Park is meant to function as a one-stop destination for food and nightlife in downtown St. Pete, and the Winfield suggests the group is betting that there is room in that mix for a tightly focused, high-end cocktail parlor. For more on the building and the operator, see Hi Hospitality Group.
