{"id":8001,"date":"2024-05-24T19:11:15","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T19:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/the-beautifully-colourful-city-of-st-pete-florida\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T08:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:56:10","slug":"the-beautifully-colourful-city-of-st-pete-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/the-beautifully-colourful-city-of-st-pete-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beautifully Colourful City Of St Pete, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following morning, we bade farewell to Clearwater a little too late to squeeze in any proper breakfast. (Save for a quick pastry and a coffee as we left).<\/p>\n

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Leaving Clearwater, we didn\u2019t really have any plans but we\u2019d gotten a few recommendations along the way \u2013 one of which was John’s Pass Village<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A quick google of John\u2019s Pass Village piqued my curiosity but actually getting to visit made me wish we\u2019d planned to spend a bit more time here.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s the such an amazing, rustic (perhaps intentionally so?) little spot that feels like you\u2019ve stepped back in time into an olden fisherman\u2019s harbour. There are cool restaurants and bars all across the boardwalk and even some on mini-piers on the water.<\/p>\n

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Fishermen go about their daily business here, attracting a crowd of hungry birds, looking to do the least possible work to get their lunch. \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n

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Eventually, we left John\u2019s Pass and made our way to St Pete beach<\/a> where we would be staying at the Don Cesar hotel<\/a> a.k.a. the Pink Palace.<\/p>\n

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The Pink Palace is a place whose reputation precedes it! It\u2019s been \u2018home\u2019 to Marilyn Monroe, Al Capone and even F. Scott Fitzgerlad (writer of the Great Gatsby).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s got so much history around it and is a favourite with the locals (it\u2019s the kind of place you dream of getting married in or honeymooning in since you were a kid, I\u2019ve been reliably informed on Instagram<\/a> – the ice cream is also not bad here too!)<\/p>\n

Alas, we arrived too early to check in, which was fine as we had plans in St Pete\u2019s to check out the city murals (they\u2019ve got so many amazing ones here) and grab some lunch.<\/p>\n

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By the time got into St Pete\u2019s though, plans had changed and tummies-a-rumbling, we decided to go lunch first.<\/p>\n

For lunch, we headed over to Pacific Counter<\/a>, a spot which I had no idea how much I would love until I stepped into it.<\/p>\n

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As soon as I stepped into the bright colourful space, I kinda realised I was probably in for a surprise (though thinking back now, I have no idea what I was expecting).<\/p>\n

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Then we took some time to get into the menu here (which was so patiently and rather helpfully explained by the manager here).<\/p>\n

Turns out, everything here is thought through to the last details. Even the bright lights are there so you can see exactly how fresh your food is. The ingredients are prepped daily and you can definitely tell as soon as you take your first bite.<\/p>\n

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But let\u2019s back things up a bit. So, Pacific Counter<\/a> is essentially inspired by Pacific cuisine \u2013 think Hawaii (poke bowls) and Japan (sushi, sashimi…etc).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much choice on offer here \u2013 so much so that it could almost be a bit much but then it\u2019s all reigned in as you get two ways to \u2018build your meal\u2019, poke bowl or in a wrap (and I know the wrap is perhaps more Mexican than it is Pacific but it comes greatly appreciated as it\u2019s quite the most convenient edible plate, given the delicious choices you\u2019re about to make).<\/p>\n

We went poke bowl style and I went for all things spicy, including extra spicy sauce because… well, why not.<\/p>\n

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Lloyd tried to go in the similar spice lane as me but backed out when choosing his fish and a couple of veggies.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll just go ahead and say something now. And this is a pretty big deal considering how good the food here is \u2013 this was the best meal we\u2019d had (all meals included thus far), the entire time we\u2019d been here on the trip thus far. Like hands down, the most \u201cmakes you wanna dance while you\u2019re eating it\u201d meal.<\/p>\n

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In fact, looking back now, there was only one other place that rivalled this but I\u2019ll tell you more about it later (it was actually the last place we ate in the city before leaving).<\/p>\n

It was just so delicious and this was even before I had the frozen sake (kinda like a sake slushie \u2013 soooooo good and much appreciated in that Florida heat).<\/p>\n

Dessert came in the form of a soft-serve pineapple delight.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s like one of those desserts that not only tastes good but is like free from artificial anything so it also feels good. In fact, I think one of the only other places you might be able to find it is in Disneyland.<\/p>\n

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Lunch done with and with an extra spring in our step, we decided to go check out the murals of St Petersburg (which is actually the official long name of St Pete).<\/p>\n

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The murals here are kinda next level, not necessarily in terms of what they are but in terms of how integrated they are across the city. Like there are soooooooooo many, and you could spend a whole day looking for all of them and still not end up getting round to seeing them all.<\/p>\n

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The main thing here is to decide on which ones you wanna see the most and focus on them. This colourful piece very easily made the shortlist but that\u2019s also because it was right next Twiggy one, amongst a few others.<\/p>\n

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Mr Sunshine here also made me giggle a fair bit, mostly because of that random car in front of it and how it looked like someone ridiculously pleased with his new car. (I know, it seemed so much hilarious to me at the time. Even Lloyd didn\u2019t get why I kept bursting into fits of giggles).<\/p>\n

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Shark toof is something of a special one.<\/p>\n

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The opportunities to play around with it are endless but what really struck a chord with me is how detailed it really is!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just one of those pieces that makes you duff your hat to the artists. (I\u2019m terrible at drawing or painting \u2013 that\u2019s more Lloyd\u2019s forte so I appreciate this stuff soooo much).<\/p>\n

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I could run through all of them in details (I tried to find out a bit more about the artists and the art as we went along) but I\u2019ll let you discover that for yourself when you visit \u2013 I will, however, show you some of my favourite across that afternoon…<\/p>\n

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This one with the fish was Lloyd\u2019s favourite. (Like it\u2019s cool but I don\u2019t \u2018feel it\u2019 the same way he does \u2013 each to their own I guess \ud83d\ude00 ).<\/p>\n

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Marilyn Monroe kinda rounded things off for us before I realised that it was well past check-in time at the Don Cesar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Now, there was a spot we\u2019d  (and by \u2018we\u2019, I mean \u2018I\u2019) had been planning on seeing the evening into and that\u2019s Green Bench Brewing<\/a>, however, thanks to a festival in town that evening, parking proved near impossible and so with that, we headed the Don Cesar for evening cocktails.<\/p>\n

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The Don Cesar is a whole vibe, in and of itself. It\u2019s just such a fun place to be! (Also, if you\u2019ve ever been there, you know those big pink sweets at the reception? I can\u2019t even begin to tell you how many of those I had. I tasted one when we arrived and instantly started making excuses to go to reception just for a sugary top-up).<\/p>\n

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The cocktails here are so good and just the thing you need to start your evening.<\/p>\n

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By this point, we decided to abandon the car with the valet and hop into a taxi for dinner.<\/p>\n

Dinner had us at Trophy Fish<\/a>, which I kid you not, was the point where I decided that I could probably be quite happy moving (even if just for a few months) to live in St Pete.<\/p>\n

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The vibe here was so fun and relaxing as soon as we arrived and cocktails were exactly as delicious as I\u2019d hoped (again, this was another local recommendation so we went with high hopes).<\/p>\n

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I went for the shrimp to start (don\u2019t ask \u2013 given what we had in Clearwater, I feel like this needs no explanation \u2013 Hehehe! \ud83d\ude04).<\/p>\n

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We carried on with tacos for both of us, asparagus and coleslaw – all of which was just so yummy but left very little room for dessert!<\/p>\n

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With the final drops of the cocktails tucked away in our tummies, we decided to bid adieu to Trophy Fish and head over to the Don Cesar for drinks at the bar.<\/p>\n

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In what turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise, the Don Cesar had left some bubbly at the hotel for us which turned out to be the nightcap I didn\u2019t know I wanted but kinda felt like I deserved! \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n

Well played Pink Palace, well played. \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following morning, we bade farewell to Clearwater a little too late to squeeze in any proper breakfast. (Save for a quick pastry and a coffee as we left). Leaving Clearwater, we didn\u2019t really have any plans but we\u2019d gotten a few recommendations along the way \u2013 one of which was John’s Pass Village. A … Continue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,396],"tags":[369,748,393],"class_list":["post-8001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-travel-journal","tag-florida","tag-st-pete","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}