ST. PETERSBURG — Locale Market's FarmTable Kitchen serves its first guests today and Saturday. The market itself, a collaboration between celebrity chefs Michael Mina and Don Pintabona, opened in December in Sundial with lines out the door of would-be shoppers eager to check out the foods from 11 kitchens spread out over 20,000 square feet. On the second floor, a wine bar serves a small-plates menu, downstairs the grill has become justifiably famous for its St. Petersburger, and savvy shoppers have come to rely on the house fried chicken and housemade pastas for a quick lunch or take-home dinner.

But the tiny FarmTable Kitchen restaurant, only 8 seats in an intimate dining room in the northwest corner of the shopping plaza's second floor, was always intended to debut later than the market. Scaled back in size but not ambition, the communal table operates by a ticket system on the website, something that has proved successful at some of the nation's most notable restaurants (Alinea in Chicago shared its ticketing system with Locale's team).

The private dining reservation system is now live for bookings during the month of February (visit localegourmetmarkettickets.com). Each ticket is $105 per person, plus state sales tax and a 20 percent gratuity, and tickets must be purchased two at a time. The eight-course menu is entirely different from the small-plate menu served at Locale's wine bar and will change weekly, each course paired with wine, sake, cocktails or locally brewed beers. For now, dinner service is Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, the space reserved for private parties the rest of the week.

Food preferences and dietary restrictions are accommodated, but the prix-fixe menu is served to the entire table with a 7 p.m. start time (there is talk of doing two seatings per evening in the future). Ticket sales are final but fully transferable. With the feel of an intimate chef's table or a restaurant pop-up, this is Tampa Bay diners' first opportunity to see the intricate and dynamic work that have brought Mina and Pintabona to national prominence.

Contact Laura Reiley at lreiley@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2293. Follow @lreiley.