As with any major metropolitan area, downtown Tampa does not lack for options, and though the area isn’t quite as densely packed as far as urban centers go, there’s a lot of run-of-the-mill crap to wade through in search of a cheap meal or a good dive. I will admit that the itinerary below involves a little bit of backtracking for the sole purpose of ensuring that Tampa institute The Hub served as the crawl’s end destination, an absolute requirement given the uber-generous liquor pours that have made the Hub a dive bar institution.
Thankfully, Yoke White & Associates provides the perfect bookend to start the trip, an early hours-only food cart (not even a truck, really) stationed in one of Tampa’s downtown pedestrian parks. In between, a handful of bars, dives and breweries have been selected here to provide maximum authenticity with the least amount of extraneous walking (the horror).
And it must be said that though
Tiny Tap Tavern is a bit too fair afield of downtown Tampa proper to include here, consider it an honorary mention or bonus selection that I cannot recommend highly enough as the capper to any trip, let alone a dive bar and brewery crawl through downtown Tampa. If The Hub doesn’t knock you out, Tiny Tap beckons.