Club Reports: Ybor City (Tampa)

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The long weekend made it ideal to spend one of my free nights checking the club scene over in the Ybor City club district of Tampa. My night began with some disappointment because Club Tantra was closed. Formerly and better known as Amphitheater, the club features a small revolving dance floor downstairs and typically techno upstairs. The club is not out of business but they simply weren't open Saturday night!

Empire is still in business though. One of Ybor's largest clubs with multiple dance floors both downstairs and upstairs. Hip Hop all the way!

There are a couple Green Iguana bars in Tampa. This one had a live band playing hard rock to a dancing younger crowd.


Coyote Ugly has a branch in Tampa and it was pretty packed to the Top 40 playing DJ. Like its New York City and film namesake, employees like to hang out on top of the bar and patrons are invited up too as long as they're female and pretty! I'm kind of surprised Orlando doesn't have one of these considering we have nearly one of everything.


Hip Hop everywhere though. Skye had two long lines approaching the doors both both directions with a mix of races. The same could not be said for Full Moon Saloon and Prana which are situated side-by-side. The same music was drifting outside the doors yet nearly everyone in line for Prana was white while nearly everyone in line at FMS was black. What's up with that? The Honey Pot is a lesbian bar along the 7th Avenue strip.


And then there's The Castle, kind of like Orlando's Independent Bar but to the third power! Large, dark, smoky, goth, industrial, it is built inside a former church. The lights were not impressive but the sound system was incredible. The music was Industrial/Dark Wave but the people were really getting into it. A friend had told me about an outdoor patio I never knew existed and I checked that out too (below) and it was more of the same!