Grand Central District

The work of Darren Conner and Paul Smith, Queens Head is an adorable, cheeky and emphatically stylish addition to St. Petersburg's Grand Central district. The small bar-restaurant is a delightful addition, a British pub with a little South Beach glamor and New York club smarts (it's hard not to feel hip while sipping a mimosa and listening to a little of DJ Craig Dirty's chill-out music at Sunday brunch). Chris Greer, formerly at MJ's Martini Jazz Lounge in St. Petersburg, is doing great work with affordable, gutsy reinterpretations of pub classics and some freestyling entirely his own. Crispy fried chickpeas just blushed with smoked paprika are a curiously satisfying bar food, and you don't usually associate pub grub and a trio of seared sea scallops served with cherrywood bacon and caramelized Brussels sprouts, but so be it. Chef Scott Jones recently replaced Christopher Greer, who moved to Portland, Ore.

Read the full review.