Welcome to our Ultimate Bar Guide.
We know you're eager to dive into all those great places that exist in Tampa Bay to get your drink on. But the bosses want us to get this out of the way right up front: This isn't the Ultimate Most Comprehensive Scientific Guide to the Tampa Bay Bar Universe.
Oh, it's close. But we don't want any lawsuits, okay?
We like to think of our picks as consensus "all-Tampa Bay" places where we'd go anytime, any day, to have a beer, or a gin and tonic (Bombay Sapphire, please) or a glass of wine or a Dreamsicle specialty drink.
We chose these places based on longevity, crowd potential, drink selection, reputation, word-of-mouth, had we ever been there and liked it, and - the all important - "what the hey, let's throw it in."
With well more than 600 places to choose from, we think that the featured 83 bars and the selected "also recommended" picks give you a pretty good range for your nights out on the town.
The guide itself is divided geographically and by themes. And the back consists of all of the listings in our bar database on tampabay.com. But here's a caveat about that: We purchased those from a vendor, so if you are a bar owner and your business isn't listed, it's because it wasn't in the initial list.
You can help us improve our listings by shooting an e-mail to tbteditors@tampabay.com, with BAR GUIDE in the subject line.
And finally, that brings us to our contest for the ultimate Tampa Bay bartender. We loved getting all of those entries. Loved the creativity. Loved the photos (see our tribute to those on page 23). And we think you'll like the winner, whose profile you can find on Page 23 as well.
Okay, thirsty yet? Enjoy.
