Tampa Delivers Foodies Affordability, Study Says

Tampa Bay area foodies have cause to celebrate.

At least that’s the take of the folks at WalletHub after they completed a study ranking 150 cities across the country in regard to culinary options and affordability. When all was said and done, Tampa was named the eighth most affordable place for foodies, according to the website dedicated to personal finance.

To arrive at its findings, WalletHub compared the 150 most populated cities across the country on 18 different key metrics. Those metrics included such points of interest as the cost of groceries, the number of restaurants per capita and the ratio of fast-food establishments to full-service restaurants.

Tampa’s rankings across all 18 metrics earned it eighth-place honors overall. Its “affordability” rank added up to 27th-place rankings.

Portland, Ore., earned first place in overall rankings while Orlando came in second. Miami scored 10th-place honors and Fort Lauderdale came in 24th. The least affordable place for foodies, WalletHub concluded, is Moreno Valley, Calif.

As for Tampa’s scores on the individual metrics, here are a few of the metrics the city ranked high in:

• Number of grocery stores per capital – 8th
• Ratio of full-service to fast-food establishments – 15th
• Number of ice cream and frozen yogurt shops per capita – 11th
• Number of gourmet specialty food stores per capita – 8th
• Number of coffee and tea shops per capita – 26th

Tampa ranked 51st in the cost of groceries, 27th in the number of craft breweries and wineries and 58th in the number of restaurants per capita.

Check out the full report on WalletHub.

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