Caught @ Bradley’s on 7th
Caught @ Hamburger Mary’s
Caught @ The Social
Caught @ Steam Fridays
Photos of the Week
Photos of the Week
La France
Police Chief Jane Castor
Queen & I at Cristino’s
Mathieu on his balcony
Carne’s
JB, John & Cookie
David @ Sundays
Tom – Ybor Chamber
GaYBOR
GaYBOR
Click for More Photos at Hamburger Mary’s
Click for more Photos @ Cristino’s
Caught @The SocialClick for More Photos at The Social
Click for More Photos atJJ’s Cafe & Bar
Click for More Photos at Centro Cantina
Dishing with Mark & Carrie 2-12-14
Happy Valentine’s Day
100 Year old Tampa Church Meets Remodeler Ty Pennington
On the corner of Palm & Lamar Ave in the Tampa Heights District a major change is happening. The 100 year old former Gothic Revival First Prysbyterian Church and has been acquired by the Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association in 2009. With the help from Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay, a major restoration is taking place. February 11 had a celebrity introduce the new changes forth coming.
ABC TV’s, “Extreme Makeover” host Ty Pennington has come with his building crew and 100’s of volunteers, rewiring, remodeling, painting, new floors, landscaping the historic structure and a grant from Sears Home Services. The old church building was set for demolition in 2007 with the widening of Interstate 4 at the junction with I-275. Thank you for the reprieve!
Now it is being renovated to have a new life for Tampa Heights residents. Its new use is for becoming a community center for youth. A park in the back of the community center has a newly built park and playground for children. The center will have a library and resource center in a safe environment for the area youth and also will be available for group meetings in the neighborhood.
Tampa City Councilman Mike Suarez smiled at the progress. Darrren Impsom, President of Paul Davis Restoration said that his company was on board from the renovations beginning. Columbia Restaurant is putting in a new commercial kitchen. Casper’s Company (McDonald’s) is also a major funding source for the historic project. Tampa Heights, close to downtown seems to be getting new positive momentum in re-establishing the economically hard hit riverfront Tampa Heights District.
A new craft brewery & unique restaurant, Ulele, part of the Columbian Restaurant Group will be opening this spring in the old Tampa Heights Waterworks building on Tampa’s riverfront.
Ty talked with the volunteering group on stage outdoors to get them motivated on this massive renovation and historic project.
It is with great honor to see the leaders of the Tampa historic civic committees, Hillsborough County Historic Preservation Board and local construction companies working together to save the old historic building faces in Tampa.
Happy Valentine’s Day Specials at MC FILM
A great array of goodies for your special partner. Great & Personal Valentine cards, Handmade Soaps, Hand crafted Jewelry, Colognes and 20% OFF all Underwear: UNICO, Andrew Christian, XABU, Pistol Pete and our newest artsy underwear line from Sweden, Frank Dandy at MC FILM.
Specialty items for your romantic night includes discounts on personal lubricants and toys!
Knight Parade Lights Up GaYBOR/ Ybor
The cold day was dreary but the rain clouds left and the parade was rainless! The parade staging area had over 30 Krewes and businesses celebrating the annual outside spring social. With a record attendance of over 110,000 spectators and 10,000 pirate dressed parade entrant partiers filling the America’s Top Main Street in the USA! Yes, famed talk show hosts Jerry Springer did a return visit on the WMOR TV float and said, “it is one of the best treasured parades!”
Beads were not in any shortage for the robust revelers. There had to be tons of beads on the 130 participating parade floats. Sant’ Yago Knight Parade officials had to be more than pleased with the record number of people. The GaYBOR District Coalition also was very proud to be a float participant in the Ybor City event with 230 diverse business members sharing the Ybor experience.
The pirate filled GaYBOR float celebrated its 7th year in the parade and the Krewe of Cavaliers float, another GLBT group is celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. The many Ybor krewes also included the Krewe of Alegria, Ybor City Krewe, Knights of Sant’ Yago and The infamous Roughriders to name a few. They sponsor next month, St. Patty’s Day Parade, Sat, March 15th in GaYBOR/Ybor City.
The money raised by the Knights of Sant Yago goes to educational college scholarships and to many non profits.
You Can Not make this Up.
Back in the late 1990’s there was this very colorful friend of ours named Ed. He was and still is, the owner of a very large adult distribution center in Tampa. Ed sells everything from adult toys to dvd’s. One day he pulled up at our store with this huge black 4 door Mercedes Benz. We were all out side checking out his new car. Ed opened the doors and the glass was 1 inch thick!!! Ed explained the car was bullet proof!!! OMG Why do you need a bullet proof car? Ed laughed and said, “Guess what I paid for this car.” We said 80 or $100,000? Ed gave us his big laugh and said ” your not going to believe this…. This Asian guy came in and said he was going back to China. He could not take this car with him. So the guy traded the car for 1,000 Gay Porno Dvd’s! Laughing even harder Ed said This guy then told me there are no Gays in China! They are not going to believe this. LOL LOL”
Mark & Carrie Nephieu/Niece of the Week
Lee (Cody) Napier
Meet Cody. This fun loving guy just moved her from Ohio. When not on stage performing he can be found hanging out with his drag family in GaYBOR.