Cleveland Street is an “untapped gem,” Nick Reader said Thursday at Streetlight Taco.
Reader is the chief executive officer of Tastes Pretty Good, an ascendent Tampa Bay-based hospitality group with Michelin-starred, Bib Gourmand and Recommended restaurants in its portfolio.
The group is opening two concepts in downtown Clearwater’s revamped Cleveland Street corridor. Rippers, a completely new concept, is planned to open by the end of this year, and a second Streetlight Taco location is slated to debut in quarter one of 2027.
This will be the group’s first venture outside of Tampa.
Lumbre, a Spanish-inspired concept from the group, debuted in South Tampa’s Rome Collective in mid-July.
Reader is betting that the redevelopment and historic restoration of the corridor spearheaded by the Cleveland Street Alliance could be viable in as little as five years. The restaurateur sees massive potential in downtown Clearwater’s revitalization, tantamount to the success of Tampa’s Riverwalk and Armature Works.
Raised in Tampa, Reader saw firsthand the resources his mentor Richard Gonzmart, the leader of 1905 Family of Restaurants, started pouring into what is now Ulele about 15 years ago. He aims to take a page out of Gonzmart’s playbook.
About a year ago, Reader was approached by a regular diner at Rocca, a resident of Clearwater, who informed him of the progress downtown.
“Everybody seems aligned for full growth,” Reader said.
Rippers is a 33-seat burger, chicken wing and deep-fried hot dog concept that will occupy a space in the over-100-year-old Telephone Building on Cleveland Street’s 500 block. When Reader first saw the space, it reminded him of an old drugstore soda fountain diner, he said.
Streetlight Taco will occupy a space in the Peoples Bank building. The taco spot’s original location in South Tampa earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand distinction a few months after opening in 2024. Streetlight Taco is known for stone-ground heirloom corn tortillas, creative and classic taco fillings and a comprehensive and creative agave-spirits program.
With an ecosystem of in-house talent and a philosophy of promoting within, Tastes Pretty Good and Reader have a successful formula.
It’s their restaurant until they open, and then it’s their guests’ restaurant from there on out, Reader said.
Nashville, Tennessee and Austin, Texas are some cities he cited as a template for Clearwater’s trajectory.
“Restaurants and artists can be tipping points for real change,” Reader said. “Build it and they will come.”
The Telephone Building boasts historic detail, with “47,000 bricks individually inspected and restored” and “period-matched brick and mortar,” according to the Cleveland Street Alliance’s website. And over at the Peoples Bank, at the corner of Cleveland and Fort Harrison Avenue, patrons can check out the building’s Mediterranean revival-style, including a restored four-faced clock and historically accurate storefronts.
Cleveland Street’s redevelopment has been about two decades in the making. It strives to create a more pedestrian-friendly corridor, improve storm water infrastructure and reconfigure on-street parking.
The Cleveland Street Alliance is a limited liability company the Church of Scientology uses for its downtown Clearwater development projects, which as of May was working on 42 storefronts.
“We’d be pretty proud to say we had a hand in the redevelopment of Clearwater,” Reader said.
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