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While Tampa establishments didn’t make this year’s James Beard Award semifinalists lists, one bar did so in 2024: St. Petersburg’s Webb’s City Cellar.
Pay a visit to this tasting room at Green Bench Brewing Co. not just for its mead, cider and ale but also for its philosophy: During the early 1900s, 3,500 green benches lined the downtown sidewalks of Tampa Bay, inviting people to sit and strike up a conversation with strangers.
However, during segregation, the benches were off-limits to African Americans. The brewery strives to forge a new Green Bench tradition and “move toward a more unifying future.”
– Eve Lederman, The 100 Companies