Tampa, June 7-8, 2025

Written By Gary Wong

#tampabayraysoftampa

This is actually my second trip to Tampa this year so that puts in in the same category as London, right?

Okay, not really. It’s nowhere close to London and the only similarity on a personal level is visiting a city more than once in a year but there is one thing Tampa has over London… a Major League Baseball team.

Okay, in years past, that was only partially true. The Tampa region had an MLB team but they actually played their games in St. Pete. Enter Milton in October 2024, a Category 5 hurricane which did some major damage to the region, including quite literally blowing the roof off the joint the Tampa Bay Rays called home. Without that roof and due to other storm-related damage to the Trop, that meant the Rays were temporarily homeless.

With their primary residence unavailable for the time being, the Rays started a residency at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa proper for the 2025 season. I’d been there before for a Spring Training game but, now that there would be host to honest-to-goodness games that counted, I knew I had to revisit the place.

The Tampa Bay Rays of Tampa

There’s no sugar coating this - seeing a baseball game outdoors in the afternoon in Tampa in June is waaaaay hotter than seeing one in March. Be sure to get seats on the third base side of the stadium as the sun will move toward that side and the shade will envelop from the upper stand to the field level over time. Sunday was a noon start so it took a bit but the top most rows got shade pretty early on in the game

On Saturday, however, I was fortunate enough to score seats six rows behind home plate just slightly on the first base side. With a 4 pm start, that meant being in the sun for quite some time. I asked someone who worked there how long it took for our seats to get cover from the sun and they said sometime around 5 pm. So, for the first few innings, I alternated between seeing the action from my seat and taking refuge in the walkways out to the concourse until, sure enough, my seat was in the shade at about 5:15 pm.

I did, however, manage to tough it out in my seats to watch Evan Longoria soak in the cheers as he retired a (Devil) Ray on that day. Dude had a solid career in Tampa and it was nice to see him get the well-earned accolades from the fans ahead of him throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

There was plenty of action on the field with the Miami Marlins ultimately winning 11-10 over the Tampa Bay Rays. The real action though was the mascot race as DJ Kitty shoved Raymond aside to take the victory. I love DJ Kitty - they might be my favorite non-Mets mascot in baseball and I don’t really know why as there’s really no rationale for their existence. The Rays already had a mascot in Raymond but they thought “a cat with a turntable - that’s a mascot!” Whatever their thought process, I’m thankful for it.

The Food and Drinks

30 hours in a place isn’t really a lot of time to explore the restaurant and bar/brewery scene to its fullest. I actually only had time for one meal in a restaurant but I made it count by hitting up a spot on Tampa’s Michelin Bib Gourmand list - Rooster & the Till.

Side note: before planning our Spring Training trip in March, I had no idea that Tampa had a Michelin guide. That’s not a city I would have imagined getting one before the likes of Boston or Philadelphia.

Anyway, back to the restaurant - I was torn between the set menu and going a la carte but while the former had wagyu on it, the freedom to choose from some interesting dishes on the menu and not be forced into a dessert won out.

I was well-rewarded for that decision immediately when the cobia collar came out. Deep-fried crunch with some decent fleshy bits with a delicious nuoc chin sauce to dip into. When a dish has been on a menu since the beginning, you know it’s gonna be a good one and, this? This was a good one.

Also, not being forced into dessert meant that I could go for a third savoury dish but the seared foie gras might as well have been a dessert and I don’t say that in a bad way. I mean, there was Nutella on the plate so, yeah, basically dessert.

30 hours may not seem like a lot of time, especially with 25% of that spent asleep, but I did manage to make it to seven breweries on this trip. As far as highlights go, I’d have to go with Woven Water on Saturday and Sky Puppy on Sunday. Both had the best variety of beers on offer when I visited - props to Woven Water for sour smoothie beers that didn’t (all) use lactose to round them out and to Sky Puppy for being all over the place in a good way (they had a saison!). If I had to pick between the two, I’d go with Sky Puppy because they’ve truly got a great atmosphere and vibe going.

➾ Related Foto Feed Posts

The List

Restaurants

Breweries

Places

Gary Wong
Previous

London, June 28-July 7, 2024
Next

London, June 7-10, 2024