Sports & Game Day Tampa

Downtown · $ · pizza, italian

Eddie & Sam's has been selling foldable New York slices on the corner of Twiggs in downtown Tampa since 1998. The kitchen's whole argument is the water: it imports New York water for the dough, on the theory that the minerals in it are what give a New York crust its texture. The slices are wide and thin crusted, sold by the slice or the pie, and the room is the downtown lunch counter for courthouse and office workers.

Temple Terrace · lebanese, middle eastern

Phoenix opened on N 56th Street in Temple Terrace in early 2025 cooking Lebanese breakfast and brunch, which is a rarer thing in Tampa than Lebanese dinner. The kitchen works saj bread on a domed griddle, thin and crisp, filled with cheese and topped with za'atar, and serves it with a house Mosaic Hummus; the same bread carries their Lebanese-style pizza. Balila, slow-cooked chickpeas with olive oil, lemon, garlic and cumin finished with pine nuts and parsley, is the heartiest thing on the menu, and the shakshuka is seasoned their own way. The owners make a point of the coffee: in Lebanon, they told That's So Tampa, offering a guest a freshly brewed cup is a ritual of friendship and respect, and they keep it.