Hungry for more New York-style sandwiches, St. Petersburg? Good news: The wildly popular Tampa sandwich shop Cousin Vinny’s is expanding across the bay.
A second location of Cousin Vinny’s will open at 2063 Central Ave., said chef and co-founder Vinny Andriotti. The Grand Central District space was formerly home to Little Philly, a Philadelphia-inspired sandwich spot.
Cousin Vinny’s started out as a ghost kitchen in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood three years ago and quickly rose to popularity. Andriotti and co-founders Russell Leone, AJ DeSimone and Jake Schmidt launched their first brick-and-mortar location on West Cass Street in January 2025. Soon after, the shop landed on the Michelin Guide’s list of “recommended” Florida restaurants.
Andriotti said expanding to St. Petersburg was a personal decision for the group. For him, a Long Island kid who was never more than 15 minutes from the beach, the new shop’s proximity to the sand is a plus. So is the Sunshine City’s community vibe.
What can St. Petersburg diners expect?
“Just great food, great hospitality, a true connection to what we’re making and traditions that we grew up on,” Andriotti said, “and sharing them with everybody else, especially a place like St. Pete that values a community and local operator. That’s something that we’d like to be very much a part of.”
Cousin Vinny’s has had quite a few people from St. Petersburg make the trip across the bridge for its food, according to Andriotti, in part thanks to the travel-oriented Michelin Guide. When the restaurant posted an Instagram video asking its followers where they’d like to see it open next, an influx of comments in favor of St. Pete confirmed the group’s hunch that the city was the right fit for them.
The creative force behind the menu, Andriotti used what he learned from working in fine-dining kitchens to elevate the traditional Italian-American dishes he grew up with. And fans of Cousin Vinny’s know its lineup of East Coast-inspired sandwiches well — from chicken cutlet creations served hot on toasted Italian bread, like the signature That Louie (hand-breaded cutlet, house-made pesto aioli, roasted red peppers, mozzarella cheese), to wraps and cold combos layered on Tuscan-style schiacciata bread, a thinner, crispier cousin to focaccia.
The new Cousin Vinny’s will feature the same menu and counter service format that Tampa has, with the added bonus of both indoor and outdoor seating. If there’s a special running at the Cass Street shop, it’ll get served up in St. Petersburg, too.
St. Petersburg’s location is smaller than the flagship — 1,340 square feet compared to 1,680 — but the Central Avenue space is taller, which will allow for more storage up top. With the architectural work and design complete, Andriotti said the group now is in the process of collecting bids from contractors.
The shop will likely open in November.
“I think what I’m longing for the most is community connection. ... It’d be really cool that I could walk across the street and go get some doughnuts, and then go grab a coffee, and then go sit down over here at Trophy Fish,” Andriotti said. “There’s so much more going around in such a defined area there for us that we can just be much more community based. And that’s ultimately what this is. This is just, we had a dream and we’re having fun.”
• • •
Meet the Food Hub, a team of Times journalists dedicated to covering Tampa Bay’s dining scene. You can support our work through our journalism fund.
Want food news weekly in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter.
Top 50 Restaurants: Check out our food critic’s list of the area’s best spots.
Follow our updates on the local restaurant landscape on Instagram at @tampabaytimesfood.
