Uk Barblog

Tapper Bar (South Tampa - Florida)

Tapper Bar

This dark, sports themed small bar sits on the edge of an array of department stores and presents itself with an army of stools at the empty bar but at least it is open til 3am. The drinks cost 8 dollars for a three pint pitcher of budweiser but its not the best location for a family outting. I happen to spot that their are no chips on the menu and burgers and tacos are served with potato sala diwht I find rather odd. Very old style games machines populate the far end of the bar and behind it - female bar tenders appear to be working hard and keeping the drunkard all-day old folk entertained. There is a poor selection of beers and other drinks and it is such a cliche of an american bar that it is empty even at the peak of the weekend.

Overall not the sharpest blade in the pocket of Tampa. Worth the pop in for a bottle but don't stay for lunch - you'll find it rather lonely - 4/10

Coyote Ugly (YBor City - Florida)

Coyote Ugly

Yes of course I totally wish this one was as good as the one in the film. Once an hour girls of an average build shake their hips and "booty" to hard rock and metal. The bar is big, hall-like with industrial style warehouse pipes and steel rods protruding from the ceiling and it is dark apart from a neon glow coming from the sides of the bar. The crowd is almost all male. Crowding around the bar watching the women while the plce stretches right back until it hits a coupel of large booths. Along the back wall is a second bar and off in the corner is a particullary badly maintained set of toilets. the dancing is quite sexy and works to excite the crowd but they really are a bunch of white middle-lower class married men getting away from the wife to the only strip joint in town that hasnt barred them, except that the girls don't go all the way here.

Overall a shade on disappointing. beer was $3 a bottle and they served little else. 5/10. Great for size and amusing at the very least.

Club Prana (YBor City - Florida)

Club Prana

I could claim that Prana is one of the best clubs on the west coast of Florida and that the propaganda truely meets up to what it is like inside but unfortunately although I did end and evening out in here it was a rather drunken one. Prana requires its customers to queue outside it what are rather complicated systems of gender and membership based queues. The end of the queues presents itself into an army of bouncers and then the opening of the club. I failed to spot a box office nestled in the corner and after queuing for sometime made my way inside but found I would not be served at the bar without some kind of $10 wristband. After requeueing and entering into a dark disco of beating hiphop low level disco lighting and a long bar across the right side I found the toilets to be rather revolting. I stumbled out of the toilets and suddenly was being manhandled by the bouncers. A no-drinking policy appears to have gone overboard at this club since i suddenly appeared in an alley out the back- confused and appauled.

Overall I wouldn't like to claim that this wasnt a terrific venue but having just had a pretty bad experience with the staff I cannot justify giving the place more than 3/10, I tried to protest my innocence at the front door but I was ignored, I expect this happens frequently - terrible customer treatment but they appear to have a monopoly in the area. 

Churchill's Cigar Bar (YBor City - Florida)

Churchill's Cigar Bar

Ybor city is apprently infamous for it's Cigar importing history and what better cigar smoking figure to have a bar named after than Winston Churchill himself? The place is a fairly small sized bar (for the area) with sport being displayed on a flat screen above the bar and a pretty huge selection of drinks behind the bar tended by an attractive and polite barwoman. There is not very much seating and what there is drowns the bar in onlookers. Towards the back of the darkened room is a DJ booth and dance floor which remains empty early on in a an evening. The best thing about this particular bar was a drinks deal of Buy One get one free on everything, opting for a double Vodka red bull I was shocked to find out how cheap it was compared to beloved England.

Overall the place is affordable and a little smokey although polite and friendly the only thing is that is not a popular location for weekenders and although this is great news for crowds it feels a bit like sitting in the corner of a school disco with no-one to dance with, Ybor city is rammed but Churchill's is not - I guess cigars are not as popular as they used to be - 6/10.

Red Lobster Bar & Grill (Brandon - Florida)

Red Lobster Bar & Grill

Red Lobster in Brandon is a traditional set up American diner themed on the sea and bulging with lobster tanks, badly made model yachts and waiting staff would hastily wander round with fixed smiles. The food is very good, the service is unnerving. The staff plonk a salad down before any other course and snatch it back up again before you've placed a fork. The drinks here however are mega and beat TGI friday's hands down. The cocktails espcially are mountainous scultures that peak above the table and smile on its drinker. The actual bar part of the venue snakes around the the left from the main entrance and is literally an assembly of high bar stools crammed into a fairly small room with a good selection of drinks.

Overall the place would make for a good night out if the servcie wasn't so fast and uncomfortable. Food, drinks and bill are all served up and taken away so quickly that a good night decends into half an hour of delicacy and empty gestures. This bar would be far better if the staff didn't ask if you are finished with a pint after only drinking half of it - 3/10 for the amazing cocktails and this is of course excluding the cuisine.

Adobe Gilas Bar (YBor City - Florida)

Adobe Gilas Bar

Adobe Gila's is perched above the other bars along the YBor City 7th Street strip of bars and clubs and takes a deal of climbing up to its position on the roof of another building to see why it is so popular. One enters a bar with open air where windows shoudl sit in a traditional American booth setup with the booths assembled around a central bar offering up slushy cocktails and multi-tier alcoholic beverages to suit most pallets. Naturally the beer is bottled and Budweiser is standard. The place also enjoys the company of two piece bands on their formiddable "stage" beside a small dance floor in bright light where not even the best dancer woudl dare show off any moves.

Overall the place is very nice indeed and certainly didn't come across as a mexican eatery, the staff were a little unfriendly but mainly because they were so busy and the prices were reasonable. The views continue to be pretty amazing so this bar cannot help but score in upwards of 7/10.

Moon Under Water (St Petersburg - Florida)

Moon Under Water

Yet another traditional British Tavern with a US twist - yes thats right it more of a restaurant and bar combo than a pub. This place is in a partiularly lovely location beside the pier and marina giving wonderful outdoor views of the park and deep south style surroundings. The quaint novelty of the place to appear as British as of particular intriguge, yes indeed they boast here of traditional beers - most of which are completely up to date lagers of the american variety and thatnk the heavens - Cider! Yes and in a real pint glass as well - what a treat. From the outside the place looks like a large squared house design with an al-fresco dinign section and inside a darker more bar-liek feel with American- British colonial reference and a friendliness from the bar staff which feels forced and ungenuine.

Overall the place surprised me. It was so totally American yet had one or two ritish charms including a very old map of the British Isles dating from about 2000 years ago. In all the charms and the fantastic food save the day and I would gladly return here, just its rather a distance from anything similiar for a second drink..and its also expensive for the area, and if you want to try a curry the "Beyond" strength is about equilivent to a Madras. 6/10