Six rainbow foods in Tampa Bay to try for Pride Month

Look for rainbow-themed foods and drinks around town this weekend and beyond as restaurants, and especially bakeries, get creative with color during Pride festivities. Check with your favorite breweries and bars, too — a lot of them are rolling out Pride-themed drinks all month. Here’s a look at some of the local offerings:

Freak Shake at Bake’n Babes

Every month, there’s a different Freak Shake at Bake’n Babes, the bakery inside Tampa’s full-service food hall the Hall on Franklin. What’s a freak shake? A milkshake topped with a piece of cake or whatever else owner Julie Curry is physically able to pile on top. For June, it’s Pride-themed, with all of the colorful accoutrements that suggests. It starts with a vanilla milkshake made with milk that’s dyed purple, and a slice of Funfetti-like cake sitting atop the glass. On top of that, there’s a rainbow decoration, a lollipop and a sparkler. Plus whipped cream and loads of sprinkles. It’s a feat of dessert engineering. The bakery will be serving them until the end of June. And this weekend, they’ll be replacing the Belgian flags in their liege waffles with rainbow flags.

Address: 1701 N Franklin St., Tampa

Rainbow Grilled Cheese at Central Melt

The rare, savory rainbow-hued dish can be found at Central Melt, a grilled cheese hole-in-the-wall on St. Petersburg’s Central Avenue. Shredded mozzarella cheese is dyed with food coloring, then melted on white bread (you can also get it on wheat or rye) for a multicolored cheese pull that is very Instagrammable.

Address: 685 Central Ave., St. Petersburg

Pride Cake at Valhalla Bakery

It’s a stunner: a five-layer rainbow cake slathered in the bakery’s vanilla “buttercream” frosting. And it’s all vegan. The dairy-free and egg-free bakery inside St. Petersburg’s Baum Ave Market is serving up slices of its Pride-themed cake through June. The second location for Celine Duvoisin’s Orlando-based bakery has a wide assortment of baked goods, from cupcakes and s’mores bars to scones and cookies. And there’s another vegan spot serving up Pride cake: Check out Golden Dinosaurs Vegan Deli’s rainbow layer cake, each layer a different fruity flavor.

Address: Valhalla Bakery, 1113 Baum Ave. N, St. Petersburg; Golden Dinosaur Deli, 2930 Beach Blvd. S, Gulfport

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Pride cupcake at Sprinkles

Sprinkles will have the Pride Sprinkle cupcake available for the month of June. You can get one locally in Tampa’s Hyde Park Village — there’s even a cupcake ATM on site. The flavor is birthday cake, and the cupcake is filled with nonpareils, those colorful round sprinkles, and topped with vanilla buttercream frosting.

Address: 717 S Dakota Ave., Tampa

Rainbow cocktail at Iberian Rooster

The Portuguese fusion restaurant in St. Petersburg is hosting a Pride after-party on Saturday. And there will be drink specials to accompany the entertainment, including a layered rainbow cocktail made exclusively for Pride. A tip: You can upgrade your drink to a double for $1 more with the code word “milk.”

Address: 475 Central Ave., St. Petersburg

Rainbow Cupcake at Datz

Datz is known for its outlandish fare, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that its whimsical rainbow cupcake is available year-round at Dough, the bakery at Datz’s Tampa location. Look for plops of colorful icing, rainbow sprinkles and a little candy rainbow on top. Check the restaurant for other Pride specials, too, like the Pride Waffles available one recent weekend, with Fruity Pebbles cereal, rainbow frosting and sprinkles galore.

Address: 2602 S MacDill Ave., Tampa