TAMPA, FL — A Michelin-recommended sandwich shop in Tampa is planning a massive Florida expansion with 10 locations opening across the state by 2029, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
The first stop for Cousin Vinny’s Sandwich Co.: St. Pete.
The restaurant has signed a lease for 2063 Central Ave. in the Grand Central District, the former home of Little Philly, which closed at the end of last year, its owners shared in a social media post.
The new location is expected to open by the end of the year, St. Pete Rising reported.
“Opening a second location in St. Pete seems like the natural progression of a restaurant that starts in Tampa…but we recognize that it’s a completely different market,” co-founder AJ DeSimone told the news outlet. “We’re not trying to ‘Tampa their St. Pete,’ but we want to be a part of their community and bring a type of cuisine that might not be available to them all of the time.”
Cousin Vinny’s menu is centered around chicken cutlets, which are featured in various sandwiches.
It started out as a ghost kitchen in Seminole Heights, the Tampa Bay Times said.
As its popularity grew, its owners, DeSimone, Vinny Andriotti (also the chef) and Russell Leone and Jacke Schmidt launched Cousin Vinny’s first brick-and-mortar location at 1331 W. Cass Street in January 2025.
It was added to the Florida Michelin Guide as a “recommended” restaurant in March 2025.
“There's usually a line and rarely a seat at this casual sandwich shop in Tampa's NoHo neighborhood. It's Italian to the bone (note the flag out front for further proof) and the name is both a nod to the movie of the same name, as well as one of the co-owners … they're bringing New York Italian-American flavor to Tampa,” the Michelin listing for Cousin Vinny reads. “Any sandwich aficionado knows it's all about the bread and the fillings, and both are top notch here. Tomato and mozzarella on their house-made schiacciata (think focaccia, only thinner and crispier) is a knockout, but the Tony Piccante, a crispy chicken cutlet with vodka sauce, cheese, and roasted red peppers on an Italian sub is another winner.”
Now, it’s expanding across the state, planning to bring to the Grand Central District “just great food, great hospitality, a true connection to what we’re making and traditions that we grew up on,” Andriotti told the Times, “and sharing them with everybody else, especially a place like St. Pete that values a community and local operator. That’s something that we’d like to be very much a part of.”
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