ST. PETERSBURG — What exactly is Small Bar?
For the team at Bandit Coffee Co., it’s several things: a running joke, cobbled together during a trip to Mexico City; a preview of their upcoming wine bar, Spitz; an opportunity to make a little bit of extra cash to fuel construction costs in the interim.
But in the simplest terms, Small Bar is just that: a very small bar.
With just six bar seats and four two-tops squeezed into a roughly 300-square-foot space, Small Bar can fit no more than 15 people. But what the bar lacks in space, it’s attempting to make up for with an ambitious food and drink menu.
The temporary bar and restaurant, which occupies a tiny space in the rear of Grand Central District coffee spot Bandit, launched in mid June. It’s currently only open on weekends, with staggered seating at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Reservations are a must and, due to Bandit’s loyal local following, likely to book up fast.
How long Small Bar will stick around is anyone’s guess, but the spot will almost definitely cease operations when Spitz officially opens, which could be by fall or early winter, said owner Joshua Weaver. After that, the bar’s temporary facade will be broken down to allow for expanded seating inside Bandit’s cafe.
Weaver, who co-owns Bandit with his wife Sarah, is helming the Small Bar operation along with partners Seth Davis and chefs Ben Pomales and Adrianna Siller.
The Weavers opened their coffee shop in 2016 with $500 in the bank and have since grown the business to become one of the area’s most popular cafes. Over the years, they’ve launched an extended breakfast and lunch menu, which for the past two years has been helmed by Pomales.
It was always the team’s plan to expand into dinner service, Weaver said, and over the years they landed on the idea for Spitz, which will serve wine, beer, co*cktails and food at 2520 Central Ave., in what was formerly home to the Acupuncture & Herbal Therapies business. But getting that bar and restaurant up and running has taken more time and funds than initially expected.
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Explore all your optionsDuring a research and development trip to Mexico City, the crew came up with the idea for Small Bar. At first, it was just a joke, Weaver said.
For anyone who knows the Bandit team, this less-than-conventional approach shouldn’t come as a total surprise.
“We’re basically bootstrapping it like we did at Bandit,” Weaver said. “It’s changed iterations multiple times — we’re throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall. Sometimes I think we’re crazy … but we also slow down enough to try and do it right.”
At Small Bar, the wine and food function as a preview of what guests can expect once Spitz opens its doors. And though diminutive in size, the kitchen has launched an ambitious menu that is anything but. Opening weekend included dishes like tempura onion rings with black garlic tofu sauce; shrimp crudo with watermelon aguachile, guajillo peppers and cucumber; duck cracklins with creme fraiche, shallots and trout roe; heirloom Royal Corona beans with malt vinegar, salt and cumin mayonnaise; and a whole snapper served with Cascabel chiles, citrus sabayon and Macadamia eggplant puree.
The wine list will feature what the team is loosely calling “real” wine, “made by people, not corporations,” Weaver said, referring to a catchall phrase encompassing natural, organic and bio-dynamic selections, also known in the industry as “low-intervention” wines.
Because so much at Small Bar is still in flux, Weaver said the menu will likely change frequently, to allow for recipe testing and development and to reflect the kitchen’s versatility at Spitz. There, menus will be changing often as well, likely weekly or every two weeks, Weaver said.
“We’re not really setting any rules,” he said. “We’re allowing ourselves to breath and see what that looks like.”
If you go to Small Bar
It’s located in the back of Bandit Coffee Co., at 2662 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. Reservations for Fridays and Saturdays can currently be made through Small Bar’s listing on Resy at resy.com/cities/st-petersburg-fl/venues/smallbar.
