Governor Ron DeSantis was in Tampa this week, speaking on infrastructure projects and his controversial removal of street art. On Tuesday (Aug. 25), he made an unscheduled detour over the Howard Franklin Bridge to St. Petersburg – not for a public address, but to cop some grub from local hot-spot Violet Stone. And it wasn’t his first time.

According to the Violet Stone’s co-owner, Daniel Fekete, DeSantis is smitten with the food, and had ordered some 10 or so cheesesteaks and a large pie for himself and his cohort. “He was honestly raving,” laughed Fekete. “Going up to all the customers, saying ‘it’s the best pizza and cheesesteak in the state.’ He was like a little salesman for us.”

DeSantis’s office did not immediately respond to questions about his sandwich. (Oh, yes, we actually asked.) But the public has made plenty of comments about the governor’s visit – and not all positive.

Local businessman Kevin Hohl, of HD Interactive, slammed Violet Stone in a social media post: “Welp. I’ve been needing for a while to give up bread and pizza. This is all I need to know about my favorite pizza shop to never eat there again.”

Fekete told Poliverse that he got “a ton” of mean messages, but that “90% were just messing around.” In addition to posting a picture on social media of DeSantis’s visit, Fekete posted an AI-generated pic of him serving Kamala Harris.

“[I received] 200 DMs telling me [the Kamala pic] was hilarious, Fekete said, adding, “If people want to make politics their entire life because of it, that’s fine, but I believe most people don’t give a $%!#. If they actually did, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are.”

Indeed. The very next day, Violet Stone hit a new sales record, and DeSantis’s visit surely didn’t hurt.

DeSantis’s endorsement of Violet Stone adds another feather to the cap of its reputation, on par with the time Bar Stool Sports owner and pizza critic Dave Portnoy visited in March 2024. Portnoy gave the pie 8.1 out of 10 (“superb pizza,” he said) and a “monster score” of 9.2 for the cheese steak, calling it a “real deal Philly Cheesesteak.”