Tampa's Ciccio Restaurant Group to open fast-casual food hall in St. Petersburg
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 28, 2020

Ciccio Restaurant Group is planning to debut a fast-casual food hall in St. Petersburg, bringing several of its concepts together under roof.

CRG, known for its quick-serve, bowl-based concepts like Fresh Kitchen and Taco Dirty, said On the Fly will officially open at 4447 Fourth St. N on Nov. 16, when it adds Taco Dirty to the mix.

That building is already home to CRG's Better Byrd, a fried chicken concept, as well as CRG's Fresh Kitchen which is in an adjacent space and not part of the main food hall. Sweet Soul, a smoothie bowl concept that CRG debuted on South Howard Avenue, opened in the space on Oct. 1.

The addition of Taco Dirty will officially make the building home to CRG's first food hall, and consumers will be able to order from Taco Dirty, Better Byrd and Sweet Soul via On the Fly's website for pickup and for delivery via third-party apps UberEats, Grubhub, DoorDash and Postmates.

The food hall concept is a response to how consumer behavior has changed during the pandemic, CRG co-founder James Lanza said in a statement.

“The way people experience food has been continuously changing since the pandemic began," Lanza said, "and we wanted to offer people the option to enjoy fresh, healthy, reasonably priced food however they are most comfortable. Whether you experience OTF in-person or from the comfort of your own home, we are hoping to appeal to our guests’ diverse tastes."