The Historic Manhattan Casino in south St. Petersburg will transform into a 24/7 community hub for food, music, art and culture under a plan that will be presented to the St. Petersburg City Council this week.
A food hall with several restaurant concepts would replace Callaloo, a table-waited restaurant serving southern cuisine. Rising Tide Innovation Center would open a small business center and coworking space and the upstairs performance space would host business events, said Mario Farias, partner and director of development for Callaloo Group LLC.
Actor Henry Fonda, lured to the area with the promise of a day’s tarpon fishing, gave a short speech at the Fort De Soto Park dedication ceremony on May 11, 1963. Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians performed, and 13 local girls competed for the title of Miss Fort De Soto, afterwards posing for photos with an uncomfortable-looking Fonda. There was a waterski show, direct from Cypress Gardens, to hold the interest of the estimated 15,000 locals gathered on yet another miserably hot Saturday afternoon.
On Friday’s edition of The Catalyst Sessions, novelist Lori Roy provided insights on her writing process, her personal history (she was an accountant before penning Bent Road, the first of her five books), the importance (to her) of the Eckerd College Writers in Paradise workshops, and what is feels like to be photographed for Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine.
Much of the conversation was devoted to Gone Too Long, her acclaimed 2019 thriller, the story of a Georgia family living – or attempting to live – with a deep, dank secret. The shadow of the Ku Klux Klan lingers on every page of the Southern gothic thriller, set in a backwoods Georgia town.