Fo’Cheezy Twisted Meltz closes St. Pete Beach location and food truck, owner hints at new concept

"Since our lease will be ending soon it made for good timing to consolidate and focus on the next chapter."

click to enlarge Fo’Cheezy Twisted Meltz closes St. Pete Beach location and food truck, owner hints at new concept
Photo via Fo' Cheezy/Facebook
Last March, Fo'Cheezy Twisted Meltz closed its downtown St. Petersburg location, and now it appears the St. Pete Beach location and its food truck are also calling it quits.

In a Sunday night social media post, owner Robert Hesse said he made the decision in order to focus on a new, yet to be announced, concept in the works.

"Based on our local success and popularity we have made the decision to redirect our company efforts towards something that will be launching soon…stay tuned! In doing so, we will be closing the beach location, as we did the downtown location earlier this year, and parking the truck for a while," wrote Hesse. "Since our lease will be ending soon it made for good timing to consolidate and focus on the next chapter."

With a focus on fancy, fully-loaded, grilled-cheese sandwiches, Fo' Cheezy  made its debut on St. Pete Beach in 2020. Last May, Hesse closed the downtown St. Pete location at 111 3rd St. N, also citing a need to focus on new operations.
According to the post, "Korean-Mexican" fusion concept Grillaking is still operating, which is also run by Hesse and his business partner Matt Crowley.  The post did not mention the status of the newly-opened Fo' Cheezy location inside Tropicana Field.

Also, no details have been provided about the new up and coming concept, other than it'll be fine dining-focused and located in South Tampa.

"As we continue to grow we also encourage and wish much success to our founder Chef Robert Hesse as he embarks to attempt to capture his first Michelin Star later this year in the opening of a exciting new fine dining restaurant in South Tampa," said Hesse in the statement. "

This won't be the first time Hesse has worked in fine dining. Hesse, who is known for his appearances on seasons five and six of "Hell's Kitchen," was previously the executive chef of South Tampa restaurant 717 South.

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Colin Wolf

Colin Wolf has been working with weekly newspapers since 2007 and has been the Digital Editor for Creative Loafing Tampa since 2019. He is also the Director of Digital Content Strategy for CL's parent company, Chava Communications.
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