Nobody set out to build a landmark.
A tavern became a sandwich shop, the sandwich shop became a burger joint, and the burger joint became the place St. Pete goes when it wants to feel like St. Pete.
- 1948
A pub on 4th Street
The building goes up at 3500 4th St N and opens as a neighborhood tavern. St. Pete is still mostly citrus groves and sunburns.
- 1958
Louis Svabek names it El Cap
A tiny bar with a red sign. The name sticks for the next seven decades.
- 1963
The Bonfilis buy in
Pennsylvania transplants Steve and Rose Bonfili turn the tavern into a stop-and-go sandwich shop. Stacked ham is the headliner. The burgers quietly steal the show.
- 1980s
Frank and Mary Jean take the keys
Their son Frank runs the front and never forgets a name. Mary Jean runs the kitchen. They buy the buildings next door, add dining rooms and a second kitchen, and hang the first TVs in what may be St. Pete's first sports bar.
- 1992
Johnny Johnson starts forming patties
Every burger since, by hand, one at a time. His personal record is 2,300 in a single day.
- 1997
Frank passes at 46
A Devil Rays believer before there were Devil Rays. When the team debuts in 1998, El Cap opens on Sundays for the first time, the way he wanted.
- 2019
Mary Jean's promise
She keeps El Cap exactly as it was for twenty-two more years, then leaves it to two longtime employees with one instruction: don't change it.
- 2023
Local hands, same burger
Cindy Nally, twenty years on the floor, partners with St. Pete natives at Seed & Feed Hospitality. "El Cap is somewhere I went when I was 4, and now I'm 40."
- 2026
Not closing. Not selling. Not for sale.
A fake news story said otherwise. It was wrong. The grill is on, and the pickle is still giant.
“I’m not anti-progress, but I am definitely defensive about the things that make St. Pete St. Pete.”
