ST. PETERSBURG — After starting as a food truck in 2022 and moving into a tiny brick-and-mortar location in Kenwood a year later, The Violet Stone has opened its biggest space yet.
The spot known for its “well-done” pizza with charred crispy crusts and sandwiches like a lauded Philly cheesesteak has moved a few miles away to a 100-seat restaurant at 2607 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. in St. Petersburg’s Crescent Heights neighborhood.
Now it’s an Italian restaurant, not just a pizza and sandwich joint, said owner Daniel Fekete.
“We can make more food, add some pasta dishes with beer and wine,” Fekete said. “And people will be able to dine in with air-conditioning.”
The space has a bar and a menu that includes pasta dishes in addition to its already famous pizza and cheesesteaks.
The Violet Stone really took off when Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports brought his One Bite Pizza Reviews YouTube Channel to the Tampa Bay area and stopped there last April.
Portnoy is a popular online presence — and also a somewhat controversial figure, for his anti-union rhetoric and allegations of sexual assault, which he’s denied. For his pizza prowess, he serves reviews up to more than 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube alone.
When he stopped by The Violet Stone, Portnoy tried the Philly cheesesteak and called it “spectacular.” The pizza did well too, with a high score.
“This is the best food that I’ve had so far in Tampa,” he said about the St. Petersburg shop. “I’ve got nothing but rave reviews for this spot, which I think is a little bit of a hidden gem.”
Soon after, the tiny shop with no air-conditioning and only a few seats had long lines, with people traveling for miles because of Portnoy’s review.
The spot is known for its “well done” pizza made with a thicker dough than Neapolitan options, Fekete said, that is then cooked in a blazing oven to create a charred edge. The owners aren’t afraid to lean into the polarizing style. Fekete’s wife and co-owner, Brittany Costello, has been known to clap back at negative Yelp reviews, saying their pizzas aren’t Neapolitan-style and not for everyone.
The spot has garnered some pushback for its social media comments.
“But, let’s not kid — negative comments on Instagram are not ‘constructive criticism,’” they once wrote on their Instagram page. “It’s a cop out for someone to try and trash a business and then b—- out when the business says something back.”
Fekete had originally announced a Labor Day opening, but the spot opened on July 30. The new restaurant is decked out in Philadelphia-themed decor, a nod to the city the owners moved from.
“We had the ugliest restaurant in town, but we knew the important thing was the quality of food,” Fekete said. “We make our own dough, do our own sausage, make all of our sauces from scratch and some take seven hours to make.
“I’m really glad we have the space to show it off now.”
Dining and Cooking