Thrive
Mei restaurant to open in St. Petersburg
“It will have an eight seat chef’s counter that will be really focused on foraged produce as well as local ingredients.”
Alex Chamberlain will serve as the executive chef of a new dining concept planned for downtown St. Petersburg. Currently, he is Chef de Cuisine at the Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant Kōsen in Tampa.
It will be called Mei.
Chamberlain said that the venture, at 320 3rd Street S., is expected to open in May. Kōsen owners Johnny and Jimmy Tung are also involved in the project. It will replace Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi, which closed this year.
The 2,700-square-foot Mei will feature French technique, Nordic ethos and Japanese ingredients. Benjamin Coutts, who won the 2023 Michelin Guide Florida Sommelier award, will lead the restaurant’s beverage program.
While Chamberlain grew up in south Tampa, he decided to move to Denver, Colorado to advance his culinary career. The first restaurant the chef worked at in the area, Tables, was a “neighborhood French bistro.”
He would eventually become sous chef at the Michelin-starred Beckon, which has a 18 seat chef’s counter. After leaving the Scandinavian-inspired concept, Chamberlain returned to Tampa and began to work at Kōsen.
A rendering of Mei’s dining area. Image provided.
Chamberlain is Taiwanese through his father. Kōsen executive chef Andrew Huang was born in Taiwan.
“It felt like a sense of family and understanding with him,” Chamberlain explained. “I got to learn a little bit more about my culture. The way Andrew thinks about food is very similar to how I grew up with my grandmother’s cooking.”
Mei will be a “culmination” of Chamberlain’s career experiences.
“It will have an eight seat chef’s counter that will be really focused on foraged produce as well as local ingredients,” he said. “This calls back to my time at Beckon. It will also have a Japanese pantry, which calls back to my time at Kōsen.”
Mei’s main dining area, “the Living Room,” will have approximately 50 to 55 seats and feature an à la carte menu. Chamberlain’s goal is to create a shared experience in a “homey” environment. In fact, the space will be designed based on his own living room.
“I really wanted to showcase the hospitality driven nature of restaurants that I experienced in Colorado,” he added. “Having Jimmy and Johnny’s support was not something that I expected to have this early on, but it’s exciting.”
The project is very personal for Chamberlain. Mei is his sister’s middle name.
“She’s been a pretty big influence in my life especially as far as restaurants go,” Chamberlain explained. “I ended up adopting her when she was 16. So, she came out and lived with me in Colorado. Nearly every restaurant that I worked at in Colorado, we ended up working at together.”
Construction on the venture should be completed in the coming weeks. Chamberlain and his team will then begin setting up the space.
A waitlist for reservations is available at this link.
