Popular St. Pete Restaurant Baba to Close, Reopen as Kaixo

St. Petersburg’s beloved Baba restaurant has announced it will permanently close its doors this summer, ending a celebrated seven-year chapter in the city’s vibrant Grand Central District. But longtime fans of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean hotspot won’t be left without something to look forward to — the same creative team behind Baba is already planning its next move, and it sounds like a bold one.

On Thursday, June 19, Baba took to Instagram to share the news that both the restaurant and its adjoining tinned fish bar Barbouni will serve their final meals on Friday, July 3, 2026. The announcement was warm and forward-looking in tone, with the team describing the closure not as a goodbye, but as “the beginning of something new.”