1983
South MacDill restaurant, bar and arcade from a Tampa hospitality group. Publishes Bucs and Gators schedules, NFL and college football all season, and Premier League on weekends. Says it has 80 TVs.
7th + Grove
7th + Grove sits on East Seventh Avenue in Ybor City and describes itself as the flagship of the 7th + Grove Hospitality group. The cooking is Southern comfort food crossed with Guyanese flavours, served with what the site calls creatively crafted cocktails, and the room runs late on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It is one of the Ybor rooms Creative Loafing Tampa Bay lists among Tampa Bay's restaurants, and it leans into events... a Saturday day party with hookahs and small bites, NFL Sundays, private parties and catering.
Angry Chair Brewing
Angry Chair is a Seminole Heights brewery known well beyond Tampa for big pastry stouts, but its own line about itself is about the name: everybody has an angry chair, work or traffic or whatever, and the beer is the getting away from it. The brewery says it does not always brew to style and calls its beers forward thinking, then notes drily that it won a gold medal for its pilsner, so it can follow the rules if it wants to. The taproom is on North Florida Avenue, has its own food menu and takes private event bookings.
Armature Works
Armature Works is a 1910 streetcar barn on the Hillsborough River in Tampa Heights, rebuilt into the Heights Public Market with close to twenty independent food counters under one roof. Above the market are private event rooms and Rooftop 220, which looks back at the downtown skyline. The lawn outside it runs down to the Riverwalk, and Creative Loafing lists it as a kid stop for the giant chess boards and the family events it runs through the week. Chill Bros keeps an ice cream counter inside.
BellyUp! to Tampa’s Best Bars
Bar specials & what’s not on the bar menu
6 spots
Hattricks
Hattricks is the hockey bar of downtown Tampa, an Irish pub and sports room on South Franklin Street that has been there for years and fills before and after everything at the arena. Its own description is the number one spot for Lightning pregame parties, postgame celebrations, and any concert or event at the arena or the convention center. The posted closing time is honest about how that works: eleven in the morning until as late as three, according to volume.
Late Start Brewing
Late Start runs three ways out of one downtown room: locally roasted coffee and a breakfast menu with a Mexican twist in the morning, smashburgers and breakfast tacos through the day, and beer brewed on site all of it. The taps carry its own IPAs and stouts plus a rotating selection from other local and regional breweries, and there is a short wine list. Coffee service stops at 2pm on weekdays and noon at weekends.
Predalina
Predalina is a waterfront Mediterranean restaurant and lounge on East Cumberland Avenue in the Water Street district, a concept by Oxford Commons. It runs dinner, dessert, weekend brunch and a full cocktail and spirit-free drinks list, and it is one of the few MICHELIN-listed rooms in Tampa that stays open past midnight, to 1am on Friday and Saturday. It has been MICHELIN Recommended in both the 2025 and 2026 Florida selections.
Tampa Burgers & Pirates
A pirate-themed sports bar and burger spot on N Ashley Dr, across the street from the University of Tampa. Its own pages list UFC nights, Lightning and Bucs game deals, weekday happy hour and live music on Fridays.
The Pearl
The Pearl is a restaurant, tavern and oyster bar in the Water Street district, serving made-from-scratch entrees, shareable plates and seasonal oysters with a long cocktail and beer list. It runs lunch on weekdays, brunch at weekends and dinner seven days, with a weekday happy hour from 2pm to 5pm. Its own site records inclusion in the 2024 through 2026 MICHELIN Guide.
Top Shelf Sports Lounge
The Downtown room of a two-location sports bar, the other is in Wesley Chapel. Its homepage invites fans to catch the Lightning or the Bucs and its events page lists weekly nights.
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What these spots are known for
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Rooftops and Patios
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Big Groups
Will they seat twelve of us?
Private Dining and Buyouts
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Sports on TV
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Late-Night Food
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Live Music
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Origin Stories
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Vegan and Plant-Based
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