Subscribe to Axios Tampa Bay

Axios finally made it to the Tampa Bay's top new restaurant.

• With all the hype around Wild Child in St. Pete's Grand Central district, we were skeptical, but the hip eatery certainly delivered.

A Canadian journalist who vacationed in Florida and then made fun of the Sunshine State has stirred up a social media hornet's nest of debates about individual liberty and government mandates.

• "While Quebec is in full confinement mode, Florida is Cowboyland, where you barely know COVID is happening, despite much higher new case and hospitalization rates than ours," writes columnist Josh Freed in the Montreal Gazette.
• "It's lunacy by Canadian standards, but an eye-opening experience."

Florida is failing miserably compared to other states when it comes to enacting laws to make driving safer and reduce traffic deaths.

Why it matters: Urgent action is needed to make roadways safer as traffic deaths climb at record rates despite fewer miles being driven, according to a new report from Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

What British artist Lucy Sparrow calls her most ambitious project to date — "Tampa Fresh Foods" — opened to the public Thursday, and it is something to behold.

• Two years in the making, press materials call it an immersive art installation of a fully functioning supermarket at Water Street Tampa.

🧥 Don your finest vintage and join the 10th annual St. Pete Tweed Ride, a fundraiser for the nonprofit St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club.

• 4pm Saturday at the club, 559 Mirror Lake Dr.
• Tea and scones before the ride; dinner, live music and Cycle Brewing beers after. Members $40, others $50, under 17 free.

No, you will not be getting poutine at a Rays game.

What's happening: MLB has officially rejected the Rays' plan to split seasons between Tampa Bay and Montreal, a heartbreaker for team officials who spent more than two years trying to get approval for open-air stadiums in both areas, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

A bill that would ban the sale of kratom to anyone younger than 21 and regulate the industry advanced in a Florida Senate committee this week.

• A mild stimulant that comes from a tree, kratom is typically brewed into a tea or taken via gel capsule.

In the aftermath of Rays bullpen catcher Jean Ramirez's death by suicide, people are wondering if the Rays — and MLB as a whole — may have a mental health problem.