Visiting Tampa/Orlando? LOOK HERE FIRST! Spring 16 Update!

I kinda think that since the guy was intimating I'm a douche, I should be the leading authority on where to find Massengil (come on, internet trolls, don't mix your metaphors when insulting others!) ...

I really appreciate @BKnarr's efforts in pulling this thing together. It's truly the best resource for all the folks coming here to Central Florida. And for those of us who live here, the bolded sentence can't be emphasized enough. Generally, the requests we get for places to check out are coming from folks who will be here one night (on business) or maybe two days as part of a vacation. I know I'd rather get sent to the best places we have to offer vs. the new place that just opened down the street with one five-gallon recipe of a decent pale ale on tap and that may be The World's Most Amazing Brewery a year or two from now but is clearly getting its act together now.

 

3. You probably will be able to find Jai Alai -- and fresh Jai Alai, at that -- at the Publix grocery store nearest where you're staying. And they date-stamp in plain English on the bottom of cans.
4. Don't forget to use the Places in the top navigation bar here. Places >> Florida >> (city where you're going). That will be a great resource for finding places in the specific place you're staying if it's not within the St Pete/Tampa/Orlando metro areas.
5. The breweries' social-media sites (i.e., the horse's mouth) generally are the best, most reliable sources for when/where/how they are going to release That Bottle You're Dying to Get When You're Here.
6. If That Bottle You're Dying to Get When You're Here hits distribution and you're heading to Total Wine, it's quite likely they're keeping their supply of That Bottle at the customer-service desk so stop there.

Cheers!

 

As of yesterday CCB has added a nice pre Huna experience. The Marriot Waterside in downtown Tampa has three bba stouts on draft. Had lunch their today with a MZ Sharey BA, $15.00 for a snifter and you get to keep the glass such a deal. Many other local beers and CCB on draft as well.
If you find yourself in downtown Tampa, Cheers

 

As to the former, hit me up closer to your trip and I'll be happy to meet you. As to the latter ... Six-Ten is coming along. Cool spot; great people. Their CBGB berliner series is quite good.

 

Really appreciate the info here and on the old one. Been reading them both for the past few months prepping for our trip.

We'll be staying in Clearwater for three nights. Priorities for Breweries are:

Cigar City Brewery(Tampa)
Rapp Brewing(Seminole)
Seventh Sun Brewing(Dunedin)
Angry Chair Brewing(Tampa)

Was thinking of combining Cigar City and Angry Chair the same day and doing Rapp and Seventh Sun the other days.

I love Cycle from our last trip and will be trying to squeeze that in too somehow.

What I'm hoping for help with are good restaurants and beaches most recommended close to these places. Don't mind a 20-30 minute drive for the beach. Hoping the food is within 20 minutes. Not looking for anything fancy. Seafood, cajun is cool obviously, pizza, burgers, mexican.....doesn't have to have a great beer selection...we'll get our beer fill at the places listed above...I can live with whatever with the meal.

Thanks for any help. I've done a little research on the web and a few near Rapp I'm looking at are Cajun Cafe, Senor Taco, and Jotos Pizza.

Near Seventh Sun I'm looking at The Bait House Tackle and maybe Crabby's Beachwalk Bar and Grill.

Would love any and all thoughts on beaches and restaurants near these places:

1. Rapp Brewing(Seminole)

2.Cigar City Brewery(Tampa)
Angry Chair Brewing(Tampa)

3. Seventh Sun Brewing(Dunedin)

Thanks!!

 

@ZAP, I love the work you've put in for your trip; much appreciated!

As far as beaches go ... well, you can look at Google Maps and see where you can cross the Intracoastal from the peninsula to the beach strand. Clearwater Beach is the most crowded; the rest are less so (thank goodness). The least-crowded are those near Dunedin (7venth Sun) and the southernmost ones (Pass-a-Grille).

Restaurants:
Mid-Pinellas (certainly Rapp): Cajun Cafe on the Bayou. The food's tremendous, the tap list is all-Florida and the owner (Paul Unwin) is a great guy and one of the greatest beer advocates I've ever met.

In Tampa: Do yourself the favor of hitting the James Beard-nominated The Refinery, which is just down the way from Angry Chair. Closer to Angry Chair is Rooster & the Till. Also in the neighborhood are Fodder & Shine and Ichicoro. All great stuff!

In Dunedin: I'm gonna get some flak for this but I think the fish tacos at Dunedin Brewery are really good. But the even better fresh-catch fish tacos are at Olde Bay Cafe.

 

7th sun is just south of Caldis Island, good beach it is also a state park. Short ways to the north is Molly Goodheads, great Florida grouper has been real fresh the past couple of visits
Other places close to Angry Chair are Ella's Folkart cafe, or for great scenery and in house brewery Ullehlee on the North side of downtown Tampa.
May want to try Hidden Springs brewery just a couple blocks from Ullehllee and Coppertail's brewery as less than 10 minutes away.
Sorry my spelling has always been terrible

 

Great thoughts...much appreciated...how is the Dunedin Brewery for beer? I see it is pretty close to 7venth Sun....worth a stop if not eating there or would it be better to just spend more time at 7venth Sun?

 

Thanks for the ideas...much appreciated...

So if you were to rate these places for just their beer quality how would it go? Thinking of adding another stop to our Tampa day. It already included Cigar City and Angry Chair. Fodder and Shine looks up our alley for food so we'll likely pencil that in for our meal...just asking regarding beer for these three.

Hidden Springs
Ulele Spring Brewery
Coppertaill

 

Dunedin brewery is possible the oldest brewery in the area. Not more than a couple of blocks from 7th sun and worth the stop! On the same road as Dunedin brewery just a short distance to the north a new brewery called Woodwright brewing may be open, spoke to Roger one of the owners and wanted to be open by March for beer week.
Tampa, I would do Coppertail then hidden spring. Ulele is a very good restaurant and sits on the river, beers are just so so pretty expensive as well.
Cheers hope you have a great trip

 

@Jge301985 is correct: Dunedin Brewery is the granddaddy of the craft-beer scene in the Tampa Bay area if not the state. My recommendation is to park in the municipal lot across the street from Dunedin Brewery, go there to have one beer to honors its legacy and then walk over to 7venth Sun.

 

Awesome thread here guys. I am flying into tampa for 3 days and then driving to Orlando for 4 days with the familiy. I didnt expect to find all the info I was looking for in a single thread, let alone it be CURRENT. Just found out the hotel i will be staying at is 6 or so blocks from Cigar City. Getting pumped for this trip in April. Thank you for the info. I will be bringing some goodies from Chicago with me to share.

 

1. Coppertail
2. Hidden Springs
3. Ulele

That listing is based strictly on beer, both quality and diversity. To be clear, there's not a singularly bad place in the list. You probably noticed on the map that Hidden Springs and Ulele are a (decent) stone's throw from each other. Hidden Springs is straight tasting room while Ulele, as @Jge301985 mentions, is a gorgeous restaurant right along the river. You can get Ulele's beer in a special Tampa Riverwalk cup that allows you to walk along the Riverwalk, which is a cool thing to do if the weather's nice. Doesn't change the order of the list but just throwing out the option/features.

 

All credit goes to @BKnarr! An early "Welcome to Tampa!" to you; cheers!

 

Great thread here @BKnarr. I have just a simple question for those of you 'natives' who know both the Orlando and Tampa breweries. My wife and I will be flying into Orlando on a morning in May, and we'll have one full day to kill before visiting family in the St. Pete/Clearwater area, where we have already visited most of the good breweries on a previous visit. So the question is whether we stay the first day in Orlando after our arrival and do lunch, dinner, etc. at some of the breweries there, or drive over to Tampa and enjoy the beer culture there. We're NOT interested in visiting the good beer bars or bottle shops, we just like visiting breweries.

So, pitting the two cities against each other, the question is (removing all of your 'homer' bias) in which city do you recommend that we spend that first day, Orlando or Tampa? Thanks for your responses.