How St. Pete fits into Brightline’s plans for Tampa Bay

Although Brightline does not plan to bring a high-speed train to St. Petersburg, the city plays a key role in Brightline’s expansion plans for Tampa.

“St. Pete is an important market. We think a lot of our travelers will want to come from Orlando to the Tampa Bay area to go to St. Pete Beach,” said Bob O’Malley, vice president of government affairs for Brightline, a privately owned and operated rail system based in Miami.

Brightline currently runs between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Phase Two will extend trains to Cocoa and to Orlando, followed by service between Orlando and Tampa, said O’Malley, who spoke Friday morning at Café con Tampa at the Oxford Exchange.

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The Peabody restaurant debuts inside John’s Hopkins campus

There’s something special cooking up inside of John’s Hopkins new Research and Education building.

The Peabody – the highly anticipated St. Pete sister restaurant to Tampa’s Oxford Exchange – opened to the public Friday.

Dr. Jonathan Ellen, the president, CEO and physician-in-chief of John’s Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, knew that the draw would have to be great to bring the community into the hospital campus. After visiting the Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Dr. Ellen shared his vision with the owners, siblings Allison Casper Adams and Blake Casper of the famed Tampa Caspers Company ilk. He asked them to expand to St. Petersburg.

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Asian food trucks tonight; ‘The Fantasticks’ opens Saturday

Wok, don’t run to Albert Whitted Park Friday evening for the Asian Street Food and Craft Beer Fest. There’s no admission cost for the event, 6 to 11 p.m.

The park is at 480 Bayshore Drive South, on the water near the Dali Museum and the Mahaffey Theater (and the Albert Whitted air field, of course).

In other news: St. Petersburg’s exemplary freeFall Theatre opens the 2018-2019 season with a warhorse (and no, it’s not Warhorse, although freeFall’s artistic director Eric Davis has been known to use life-sized, representative puppets to great effect, at times). It’s The Fantasticks, officially the longest-running musical in the world.

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