Brooklyn South, the sandwich and cheese shop that spent 12 years slicing Cubans and reubens at 1437 Central Avenue, has closed permanently in St. Petersburg's EDGE District. Owner Karen Kramer said rising costs simply made it impossible to keep up, ending a run that began in July 2014 and survived three different owners.
Kramer, who took over the shop with her husband Mark in 2024, wrote in an online review that Central Avenue rent and food costs had become overwhelming, according to St Pete Rising. She said she made significant sacrifices to keep Brooklyn South going, adding that she worked for the joy the shop brought people rather than for the money. There is a possible next chapter: Kramer said Mark may sell sandwiches across the street at Ferg's in the future, though she cautioned that a future sandwich operation there has not been finalized.
From Brooklyn to Gulfport to a St. Pete Institution
The shop's roots trace back to founder Matt Bonano, a trained chef who worked at Alon's Bakery & Market in Atlanta before becoming wholesale production manager for Murray's Cheese in New York, per the same account. When Bonano moved from Brooklyn to Gulfport, he named his new deli Brooklyn South because St. Petersburg reminded him of the Brooklyn of the South. The original shop was a small, largely takeout operation with limited seating, its walls covered in cheese labels Bonano had collected since the 1990s.
Bonano's menu leaned into that cheese pedigree, with sandwiches like rosemary chicken with fresh mozzarella, Vermont cheddar with fig jam, and jerk chicken with chèvre and mint, alongside custom sandwiches, knishes, homemade muffins, cheese plates, sliced meats, and specialty groceries. He sold the business shortly before the COVID-19 shutdown in early 2020. The shop then passed to Edel Fernandez, who folded in Cuban influences including ropa vieja and a Cuban sandwich that became one of Brooklyn South's best sellers, the report notes.
By the time Karen and Mark Kramer took over in 2024, Brooklyn South had expanded into the adjacent storefront in 2022, doubling its footprint and growing its menu to more than 40 specialty sandwich options. Offerings ranged from ciabatta melts and pressed hoagies to grilled rye sandwiches, with the Italian, turkey fig, turkey melt, jerk chicken, Cuban, and reuben among the most popular. Yelp had named Brooklyn South Florida's best cheese shop in 2022, an all-time customer-review ranking cited by the outlet.
A Corridor Reshaped by Rent Pressure
Brooklyn South's closure fits a pattern that has hit Central Avenue and the EDGE District hard in recent months. LocalShops1 reported that several Central Avenue businesses had closed; some owners publicly cited rising commercial rents and post-hurricane financial fatigue. Patch reported in August that Red Mesa Group permanently closed its California-Mexican concept Mercado West on Central Avenue, marking its second major St. Petersburg closure in 2026 after shuttering its downtown event venue in June.
Not every business has folded outright. According to melissahoglundrealtor.com, several longstanding Central Avenue food concepts have altered their menus or rebranded rather than close entirely, such as vegan restaurant Love Food Central becoming FireWater Cuisine & Wellness, as owners try to cope with changing consumer habits and overhead costs.
Institutional Money Pours Into the EDGE District
The financial pressure squeezing small operators is colliding with a wave of large-scale investment reshaping the same blocks. The Real Deal reported that PTM Partners secured a $125 million construction loan for EDGE Collective II, a 20-story tower planned at 11th Street South and 1st Avenue South that will bring 330 residential units and 19,000 square feet of commercial retail to the district; Phase I of that development opened in 2024 at 1234 Central Avenue anchored by a 163-room Moxy Hotel.
St Pete Rising also reported in December that Dallas-based investment firm 90Ten acquired three Central Avenue retail properties in the EDGE District for $10 million from developer PTM Partners, properties that host national and regional tenants such as Sweetgreen and The Candle Pour. City records show the EDGE District, short for Execution of Downtown's Growth and Expansion, was designated an accredited Florida Main Street district in 2014, the same year Brooklyn South first opened, and spans Central Avenue and 1st Avenues North and South between MLK Jr. Street and 16th Street.
Hoodline previously reported that the district also borders the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District, where a $6.5 billion public-private redevelopment centered on a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium was approved in 2024, a project pushing the area from low-rise commercial uses toward high-density towers. The city also enacted a transit-oriented overlay in May 2026 along the SunRunner Bus Rapid Transit corridor on Central Avenue, eliminating minimum parking requirements for nearby commercial and residential construction.
Ferg's Looms Large Across the Street
If Mark Kramer's sandwiches do end up at Ferg's, they would land inside one of the EDGE District's most established institutions. St Pete Catalyst reported that Ferg's Sports Bar, located across the street from Brooklyn South, was named America's number one local sports bar in USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice awards, a venue established in 1992 by former schoolteacher Mark Ferguson that now spans nearly two city blocks.
