Oak and Stone at Downtown St. Pete Review

There’s a new restaurant taking St. Petersburg by storm and I was lucky enough to be at the soft opening! Oak and Stone is a restaurant specializing in flatbread pizzas and craft beers, making it a perfect fit for Downtown St. Pete. It is located right next to the Hyatt Place in Downtown and that’s how I stumbled upon it while visiting the area.

As usual, I had planned a list of restaurants to visit in St. Pete mainly based on online reviews and blogger recommendations. However after checking out a few breweries, the smell of pizza next door to the hotel was calling my name. Even though I hadn’t heard anything about it, my family decided to walk in and give it a try. I am so glad we did! They had just opened that week and were still in the soft opening process. We were very excited to be one of the first people to experience Oak and Stone.

The Self-Serve Brew Wall at Oak and Stone

The centerpiece of Oak and Stone is a long row of self service beer taps. You see it right when you walk in and people gleefully refilling their cups. This is definitely the coolest part of the restaurant! If you like beer, then you have to give it a try. All you have to do is go up to the bar and request a wristband and put a card on tab. Then you take your wristband and press it to any tap you want and pour the amount you want! It can be a little taste, a full pint, or anywhere in between. This is possible because the RFID wristband tracks how much beer is dispensed and charges your accordingly. To me these wristbands are much more magical then the ones at Disney World!

When I went, they had 48 different beers on tap with the styles, ABV, and IBUs listed for each. The hard part is choosing which to get! The good news is you can try a taste, and then they have rinse stations for your glasses. We found the self serve to be so fun and convenient, especially since you can just pour a small amount instead of having to order another beer and feel bad about not drinking half!

I would say more than half of the beers are Florida ones, with plenty of local options, including Cigar City and Cycle Brewing. My first beer was a Mango Wit from Proof Brewery in Tallahassee and I loved the tropical, creamy flavor. I then switched to the Angelica by Lord Hobo. This is a brewery close by to where my family is from in New England, and they have some amazing beers! Their hazy beers are the best and this was one of them. I am just loving unfiltered beers lately.

Between the five of us, we tried quite a variety. This was also when we decided we had to go to Angry Chair Brewing the next day because we tried their Space Grass and loved it! This one had such a great blend of hops giving it a crisp, but earthy taste. Other beers my family enjoyed were the Hops 4 Teacher by J. Wakefield and the Florida Avenue Brown. They are always rotating beers, but with so many options, you will never be disappointed!

Cocktails and More

However if you don’t like beer, there are plenty of great wine and cocktail options. My mom wanted a break from beer so she ordered this lavender lemonade. It was such a beautifully crafted drink with vodka, lavender syrup and lemon juice. It also tasted as good as it looks!

They also do create your own bourbon flights. For $25, you can choose four different bourbons from over 20 options. They even have the Jefferson Ocean, a bourbon that is aged at sea! For normally $80+ per bottle, having this in a $25 bourbon flight is a great deal. I was shocked at how well they are executing so many things. Usually at a place with so many taps, you might expect below average cocktails, but they are really firing on all cylinders here.

The Food at Oak and Stone

For food, we were very much in the mood for pizza, but they had a lot of other options too. There are salads, sandwiches, burgers and even poke bowls on the menu! The menu can best be described as elevated bar food. A lot of the items sound like they would be on the menu of a sports bar, but they have an unique twist. The pizza is clearly the specialty here though and I think you would have a hard time not ordering it after seeing all the delicious types available.

Oak and Stone Pizzas

For our group of five, we decided to order three pizzas. The favorite by far was the Eggs Benny with bacon, eggs, garlic sauce and hollandaise. This pizza was just a cheesy, garlicky masterpiece! The eggs on top really brought everything together in the tastiest way. We were fighting over this one, as it was just too good!

The second one we got was the Popeye with prosciutto, garlic spinach, roasted red peppers and ricotta. This one just melted in your mouth and was a classic Italian pizza! I’m not a huge fan of spinach on pizzas, but it worked on here and just added to all the yummy garlicky flavors. It was some of the best ricotta I have had on a pizza as well.

The third pizza has a funny story. When they brought the three pizzas out, one of them was the Sweet Seide which has sweet potatoes, goat cheese and bacon. Now at this point we were all a bit tipsy, and we all were sitting their silently wondering why we ordered that. My mom and Andrew don’t like goat cheese and Nancy hates sweet potatoes. I remember thinking, did I convince everyone to get this pizza?

Then finally my Dad took a look at the menu and was like, didn’t we order a spicy one? And that’s when it hit all of us that they brought us the wrong pizza! We called over the waiter and he had us down for the right one but the wrong one was brought out on mistake. So we were all kind of relieved since that wasn’t our third choice out of all the other options! They did leave the Sweet Siede On the table and my Dad and I ended up trying a piece and were surprised at how good it was! I still think sweet potato on a pizza is a bit weird, but it did have a nice balance from the sweetness to the tangy goat cheese.

The third one we meant to get was the Sweet Heat, which is topped with pepperoni, capicola, pickled jalapeño, and Mike’s Hot Honey. By the time it came out, we all devoured it so I didn’t get a picture! It was another delicious one though! We discovered Mike’s Hot Honey a few years ago and my main use for it at home has been on top of grilled peaches or chicken biscuits. However, putting it on pizza is a game changer! This pizza was definitely on the spicy side, but if you like that then you will be in heaven.

I have to say they really have nailed down a great crust and tomato sauce. I was expecting one or the other to be less than perfect since they just opened. But it seems they already had it down by opening and I hope it stays that way! We really loved everything about this place. The pizza was very affordable at $12-$14 and pretty much everything on the menu is under $14.

The beer is affordable too and is on average fifty cents an ounce. This comes out to about $8 for a pint, but some beers that are normally served in snifters are the same price. This can be a great deal, but you have to watch out for that ABV with those! The bracelets also stop letting you get beer after thirty-six ounces, which keeps people from losing track of their consumption. You can go back to the bar and restart if you want more, so its more just a safety feature.

They also offer a brunch which sounds amazing! Of course the Eggs Benny pizza would be delicious at brunch, but they also serve french toast, breakfast burritos and other breakfast items. They also have bottomless mimosas AND Bloody Mary’s for $10! This place really has everything and I can’t recommend it enough if you are in St. Pete!

Oak and Stone is an all-around great restaurant, and was such a fun surprise for us. If you like pizza and beer (who doesn’t?) then you will love this place, although they have other options if you are keeping it on the healthy side. Have you ever seen a self-serve beer wall like this? I haven’t, but I can only hope a restaurant with one opens up near me!