Café Gala: A Sneak Peek at New Menu Items

ST. PETE FOODIES APPROVED SPONSOR:
Café Gala: A Sneak Peek at New Menu Items

Last week I tagged along with a food writing class from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg at The Dali Museum. For those of you that don’t know, the Dali Museum is also home to Café Gala, a quaint cafe in the museum lobby that serves coffee, beer, wine and Spanish inspired eats. The museum café even has its’ own executive chef, Chef Chuck Bandel. Bandel learned to cook by working with the late Tom Pritchard, and spoke highly of Pritchard during the tasting.

Chef Chuck Bendel
Chef Chuck Bandel

Chef Bandel recently spent more than a month in Spain learning how to whip up gourmet Spanish eats, and has brought his knowledge back to the ‘Burg. After spending serious time in at Miramar, (a Michelin star eatery in Llanca,) Bandel is back and ready to cook.

Café Gala Inside The Dali Museum
Private Event Room that Café Gala Serves

At the tasting, Bandel reflected on his time abroad. “It was a life changing experience, without a doubt. I thought a knew a little about food, but once I went to Spain… gee.” Inspired by the freshness of the food he tasted in Spain, Bandel has big plans for the café in the coming weeks, and will be updating and expanding the menu.

Seafood Gazpacho at Café Gala
Seafood Gazpacho at Café Gala

New menu items will include:

  • Seafood gazpacho, pictured
  • Roasted Beet Salad with a Coco de Beet Tart
  • Cava Poached Truffle Stuffed Pear served with Vanilla Bean Crema, Fresh Berries, Chocolate Almond Crumble & Whipped Cream
  • Madeleine Muffins, traditional Spanish lemon muffins

The café is open to the public, and guests do not need to buy a museum ticket to dine and drink. The seafood gazpacho I tasted was light, and flavorful. If Bandel’s delicate, chilled soup is any indication of things to come, I plan on spending many sunny afternoons at Café Gala in the near future.

(Photos by Angelina Bruno)

ST. PETE FOODIES APPROVED SPONSOR:
Café Gala
  • Readers Rating
  • Rated 5 stars
    5 / 5 (2 )
$$4.00-11.00
  • Your Rating


  • Café Gala
  • (727) 623-4725
  • Spanish
    • Sun - Wed 10:00am - 5:00pm
    • Thu - Thu 10:00am - 7:30pm
    • Fri - Sat 10:00am - 5:00pm
  • View menu
  • 1 Dali Blvd, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701, USA

Café Gala is a great Spanish inspired restaurant inside the Dali Museum in Downtown St. Pete. No museum ticket is required to dine there.

MORE FOODIES READING  St. Petersburg Foodies Brunch at Gratzzi Italian Grille
DISCLAIMER: Kevin, Lori, Abby, Haley, Lindsey & Mahika do not dine anonymously (this would be impossible) and we sometimes get free food (though never expected). However, we dine with the locals and we support our own. You will always get honesty in a respectful manner. We do not include any large national or regional chains in our ratings and reviews. We focus on independent locally owned eateries exclusively.

PLEASE NOTE: Reviews reflect a certain moment in time. Some restaurants stay extremely consistent over many years, and some change for the better or worse. Some things that may change are: chefs, recipes, food suppliers, ingredients, philosophies, ownership, etc. We always hope that you have the same good, or great experience we had.
ST. PETE FOODIES APPROVED SPONSOR:



More Foodies News, Reviews & Recipes


Comments are closed

ST. PETE FOODIES APPROVED SPONSOR:
St. Petersburg Foodies