In a city like St. Petersburg or Tampa, you can only hear about so much conceptual, inventive, contemporary, or whatever buzzword-of-the-month dining before it gets tiresome. Not a knock against high-end, inventive cuisine or anything, it's just sometimes after a long, taxing day you just want something simple, cheap, and delicious.
If you're not above chowing down on American culinary staples like burgers, hotdogs, and the like, definitely make some time to check out Dairy Inn in St. Petersburg if you haven't already.
Don't be fooled either, Dairy Inn may sound like just another faceless, mom-n-pop, eat at it once and forget about it kind of joint, but it's anything but. Owner David Kornbluth, believe it or not, trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York City and you can bet he transfers that skill set to a variety of meals at the Dairy Inn.
For their Philly cheesesteaks, authenticity is the name of the game. Dairy Inn gets every ingredient of the sandwich - bread, meat, and cheese - shipped straight from Philadelphia. If that isn't authentic, we don't know what is.
Their burgers, as claimed by many, are arguably the best in the St. Petersburg area and always come from fresh, never-frozen, 100% ground beef. Their "Almost-Famous Double Double" is heaven between two buns with double meat and double cheese between a pillowy-soft kaiser roll.
They also serve an expansive variety of soft serve and hand-dipped ice cream, smoothies, and shakes. The shakes come in a wide assortment of flavors ranging from plain vanilla to black cherry, oreo mint, butterscotch, chocolate chip and more.
If you're looking for "fast" food with an unexpected touch of quality and freshness, Dairy Inn is the place to be in St. Pete.
