Recent photos shot by the Mark's List Mad Paparazzi photographers
in the Tampa, St Petersburg and Sarasota Florida areas are found on the
individual nightclub's page (links
Ybor City
(EE-borh) is a historic neighborhood in downtown
Tampa, Florida. It was founded in the
1880s by cigar manufacturers and was populated
by thousands of immigrants, mainly from Spain,
Cuba, and Italy. For the next 50 years, workers
in Ybor City's cigar factories rolled millions
of cigars annually.
After
WWII many of the neighborhood's cigar factories were abandoned and now the
area has been redeveloped into a popular night club and entertainment
district that includes restaurants, bars and nightclubs, a Muvico theater,
shops, offices and hotels. The area boasts the GaYbor entertainment
district, with several gay and lesbian bars and restaurants all within
walking distance of the very conveniently located Hampton Inn.
The neighborhood has been designated as a
National Historic Landmark District, and several
structures in the area are listed in the
National Register of Historic Places. In 2008,
7th Avenue, the main commercial thoroughfare in
Ybor City, was recognized as one of the “10
Great Streets in America” by the American
Planning Association.
Traveling to Ybor City from
South Florida is very simple. Board Amtrak at
any station in Broward, Miami or West Palm Beach
counties, relax for four hours and you'll end up
at Tampa's Union Station, about four blocks from
the heart of the GayBor entertainment district.
Round trip tickets on Amtrak are about $70. Once
you're in Ybor City everything is no more than a
few blocks away and for longer trips you can
board the Teco Line, a streetcar line that
connects Ybor City to Channelside Village, a
cruise port with more shops and theaters. The
streetcar line also runs past the Florida
Aquarium, St Pete Times Forum, where the Stanley
Cup winners, the Tampa Bay Lightening (NHL),
play and ends up near Harbor Island and the
Tampa Convention Center.
Tampa
is also the home of Bush Gardens as well as Super Bowl winners, the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers. The New York Yankees Spring Training facility, Legends
Field, is located near the Buccaneers stadium. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge,
spanning Florida's Tampa Bay, is the world's longest bridge with a
cable-stayed main span, with a length of 29,040 feet (exactly 5.5 miles or
approximately 8.85 km).
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
Chelsea nightclub is centrally located
near downtown Tampa. The club features the Chelsea Boys; go-go boys that
perform most nights. Some nights include drag performances and karaoke along
with the boys. Friday nights is Club Papi, a Latin night that features Latin
Divas. and Latin boys.
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
Georgie's Alibi is St Pete's largest Gay
nightclub. It's always busy. There are tons
of video monitors and the VJs are great. The
music is mostly current Top 40 with some
blockbuster Country and oldies thrown in.
Georgie's Alibi serves lunch and dinner;
the menu is made up mostly of convenience
foods like burgers, chicken sandwiches and
salads.
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
G. Bar is located in a
turn-of-the-century factory in the historic Ybor City district. This 8000
square foot venue boasts 20 foot ceilings, a state-of-the-art video system
with plasma screens throughout, a huge dance hall complete with
all-intelligent lighting, laser projections, and L.E.D. ambient lighting.
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
Steam Fridays has changed the way
Central Florida gay men party! Every week, hot men experience the World's
Biggest names in circuit deejays and singers while enjoying the multi-million
dollar 3-story venue! Move to the groove on their huge wooden dance floor and
adjacent stage with earth-shattering sound and mind-altering lighting and
effects!
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
Metro Station is a gay bar located in
Tampa Florida with a weekly Sunday T Dance. The nightclub is located
near Tampa stadium and is a favorite place for West Tampa and Hyde
Park locals. Gogo boys entertain on weekends along with DJs.
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
The 2606 has been
Tampa's leather-levi-cruise bar for more
than 20 years. Centrally located on
Armenia Avenue the bar features two
floors of cruising and a leather fetish
atmosphere that has been packing them in
year after year.
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
Clothing Optional Heated Pool, dance hits w/DJ, 2 bars, country
music, great food, theme weekends, T-dances, activities 7 nights a week. Cabin,
RV & tent site rentals, day & eve. passes, RV storage, long term site
rentals. Free Thurs. or Sun. night stay with paid weekend reservation!
(restrictions apply). Located between TPA & ORL.
Click the ad for map, photos and
more upcoming events.
Streetcar Charlie's Restaurant is
located in downtown Tampa Florida's historic Ybor City neighborhood where a
variety of Gay and Lesbian owned businesses have banded together to create
the GaYBOR entertainment district.
Family
owned Italian restaurant that gets it
right. They know how to make pizza,
they're one of our 10 best Pizza
restaurants.
Map and
full review:
Caragiulos Italian-American
Family
owned Italian restaurant that gets it right. They know how to make pizza,
they're one of our 10 best Pizza restaurants. Map and full review:
Caragiulos Italian-American
Casual outdoor dining with
a Caribbean flair. Loads of great jerk (spicy) menu items as well as good
selection of fresh fish entrees and sandwiches.
Map and
full review:
Cha Cha Coconuts
Casual outdoor dining with
a Caribbean flair. Loads of great jerk (spicy) menu items as well as good
selection of fresh fish entrees and sandwiches.
Map and
full review:
Cha Cha Coconuts
Incredible
views of Tampa bay.
Steaks
marinated in bourbon. Seafood paella, Cuban sandwiches and black bean soup to
die for.
Map and
full review:
Columbia
Surreal
scene; punk rockers, yuppies and a bunch
of gay guys in a Thai -Japanese
restaurant with ice cold European beers.
Map and
full review:
Ratchada
The best
breakfast going on in the Bay area.
Legendary southern cookin' in a place
where the waitresses still call everyone
'hun' and 'sugar'.
Map and
full review:
Skyway
Jack's
Florida's
oldest restaurant, built in 1905.
Steaks marinated in bourbon. Seafood
paella, Cuban sandwiches and black bean
soup to die for.
Map and
full review:
Columbia
The day Datz Delicatessen
opened a new Tampa institution was born.
This amazing restaurant, on MacDill in
Tampa, has to have one of if not the
largest deli sandwich menus south
of Times Square. Map
and full review:
Datz Delicatessen
When
you order one of the famous "Frankie's" hot dogs you're in for
a real treat. The hot dogs are made just for Frankies with
choice meats, special seasonings and each one is grilled to perfection. Not may
places...
Map and
full review:
Frankie's
The ribs were tender and
rubbed with a seasoning that was raved
about endlessly. The chicken was
marinated and smoked in the oven without
drying it out. The BBQ pork and roast
beef sandwiches were.
Map
and full review:
Kojak's House of Ribs
How
does
Samurai Steak with Wassabi-whipped
potatoes or Soy Ginger Tokyo Beef
Short Ribs with Japanese Habachi
rice sound? After talking it over with
my Server, the Blue Crab Rangoon
was recommended as the appetizer and
then two rolls, my tried and true
California Roll and to mix it up the
Tokyo Rock & Roll off of Ryo’s
Specialty Makimono. When it is said that
everything was delicious—it truly
was. More after the Jump,
Samurai Blue
Fantastic
Fiesta Bowls and cool drinks in a three
foot high cylinder with a spout on a
lazy Suzan. Sports on sixteen plasma
TVs.
Map and
full review:
The Lime
They say presentation accounts for over
50% of taste perception and the folks at
Tre Amici at the Bunker definitely know
how to lay out a plate.
Map
and full review:
Tre Amici
In
The Twilight Saga: New Moon,
Bella Swan is devastated by the
abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, but her
spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the
irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn
into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the
vampires, and finds her loyalties tested."
St.
Petersburg
(often shortened to St. Pete) is a city
in Pinellas County, Florida. The city is known as a vacation destination for
North American and European vacationers.
With a purported average of some
360 days of sunshine each year, it is nicknamed
"The Sunshine City." In recent years the
population has shifted in a more youthful
direction.
The city has a
children's museum (Great
Explorations), Museum of Fine
Arts, a History Museum (which
has a full-size replica of the
Benoist seaplane and is located
near the approximate spot by the
St. Petersburg Pier where the
first flight took place), a
Holocaust Museum, and the
Salvador Dalí Museum, which
houses the largest collection of
Dalí's in the world,
including a number of famous and
large-scale paintings such as
The Discovery of America by
Christopher Columbus. There are
also various other smaller art
galleries and entertainment
venues, such as: The Midtown
Royal Theater, The Arts Center,
Florida Craftsmen Gallery,
Mahaffey Theater complex, The
Coliseum, and Palladium Theatre,
especially in the Downtown area,
which has seen a boom in
development since the mid 1990s.
The St.
Petersburg Pier is a popular
tourist attraction. It contains
a small aquarium open to the
public, retail shopping,
adventure activities, and both
casual and fine dining
restaurants. Various sightseeing
boat rides are also offered.
Frequently docked at The Pier is
the replica of HMS Bounty used
in the 1962 MGM movie starring
Marlon Brando. The Bounty
charges a fee for tours, and has
recently returned from filming
the sequels to Disney's Pirates
of the Caribbean.
Downtown is the
location of the BayWalk shopping
complex which contains an IMAX
Muvico 20 screen movie theater,
as well as many chain
restaurants and retail shops,
catering to more of a middle and
upper class audience. Baywalk is
also a nightlife destination.
North of downtown is Great
Explorations, The Children's
Museum, an interactive museum
featuring a Children's Village
with giant pretend stores, Fire
House and Pet Vet Clinic, and
preschool, science, music, art,
and water exhibits. The museum
is located next to the Sunken
Gardens. Nearby restaurants on
4th Street include local
specialties.
St. Petersburg is well
regarded for its beaches. In 2005, Fort Desoto
was rated the number one beach in America by the
annual Dr. Beach rankings. TripAdvisor also has
the beach ranked number one in the nation for
2008. Also noted for its arts community, St.
Petersburg regularly places top 25 in the nation
among arts destinations Recently, St. Petersburg
has become known and regarded as one of
America's most livable cities.
Sarasota
is a city located in Sarasota
County on the southwestern coast
of the state of Florida . Its
current official limits include
Sarasota Bay and several barrier
islands between the bay and the
Gulf of Mexico. These islands
separating Sarasota Bay from the
gulf near the city, known as
keys, include Lido Key and
Siesta Key, which are famous
worldwide for the quality of
their sandy beaches.
Sarasota is
widely recognized as the
cultural center of Florida and
includes The John and Mable
Ringling Museum of Art with one
of the largest collections of
Baroque art in the world along
with a bevy of surprising
institutions. A few are included
below.
Cŕ
d'Zan, a Mediterranean Revival
residence in Sarasota, Florida,
was the winter home of Mable and
John Ringling (roughly
translated the name means "house
of John"). He was a circus
magnate, a developer, and art
collector. Lovers of the
Venetian esthetic, the Ringlings
chose the site overlooking
Sarasota Bay for its vista,
which reminded them of the
lagoon of their favorite city.
The Ringlings had been renting
the residence of Mary Louise and
Charles N. Thompson on their
extensive Shell Beach parcel,
and decided to purchase some of
the land to build a permanent
winter headquarters that would
include a residence on the bay
and a museum for their extensive
art and artifact collection. An
art school was planned to abut
the museum, but it never was
built. Mable's rose garden was
the first completed portion of
the complex.
In 1926, A. B. Edwards built a
theater that could be adapted for either
vaudeville performances or movie screenings. It
is situated at the intersection of Pineapple
Avenue and Second Street, having been restored
and used for operas. It is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
In the early 1950s, the John and
Mable Ringling Museum of Art purchased a
historic Italian theater, the Asolo. A. Everett
"Chick" Austin, the museum's first director,
arranged the purchase and reassembly of the
theater for performances of plays and opera. The
theater was built in 1798 and disassembled
during the 1930s and now resides among the
buildings on the Ringling groundshttp://frontpage.jumponmarkslist.com/iso/us/fl
Later, Stuart Barger designed and
oversaw the construction of another Asolo
Theater. It is a multi-theater complex, located
farther east on the John and Mable Ringling
Museum of Art property, being placed between Bay
Shore Road and Tamiami Trail, and facing
Ringling Plaza. It was built around a rococo,
historic Scottish theater, another theater that
had been shipped to Florida. The new complex
also provides venues and facilities for students
of Florida State University's theater arts and
film program.
In the 1960s the Van Wezels
enabled the city to build a performing arts hall
on the bay front. The auditorium, the Van Wezel
Performing Arts Hall, was designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright's successor firm, Taliesin
Associated Architects team under the direction
of William Wesley Peters. Wright's widow,
Olgivanna Lloyd Wright, selected its purple
color.
Other cultural attractions include the Sarasota
Ballet, Sarasota Opera, Asolo Repertory Theatre,
Florida Studio Theatre, the Sarasota Players,
the Banyan Theater Company, and many other
musical, dance, artistic, and theatrical venues.
Since 1998, the city has hosted the Sarasota
Film Festival annually. The festival attracts
independent films from around the world. It
claims to be one of Florida's largest film
festivals.
Sarasota is
home to Mote Marine Laboratory, a marine rescue, research facility, and
aquarium; Marie Selby Botanical Gardens; G-Wiz Museum, a science museum; and
Sarasota Jungle Gardens, which carries on early tourist attraction
traditions.
When
you order one of the famous "Frankie's" hot dogs you're in for
a real treat. The hot dogs are made just for Frankies with
choice meats, special seasonings and each one is grilled to perfection. Not may
places...
Map and
full review:
In
Cŕ
d'Zan, a Mediterranean Revival
residence in Sarasota, Florida,
was the winter home of Mable and
John Ringling (roughly
translated the name means "house
of John"). He was a circus
magnate, a developer, and art
collector. Lovers of the
Venetian esthetic, the Ringlings
chose the site overlooking
Sarasota Bay for its vista,
which reminded them of the
lagoon of their favorite city.
The Ringlings had been renting
the residence of Mary Louise and
Charles N. Thompson on their
extensive Shell Beach parcel,
and decided to purchase some of
the land to build a permanent
winter headquarters that would
include a residence on the bay
and a museum for their extensive
art and artifact collection. An
art school was planned to abut
the museum, but it never was
built. Mable's rose garden was
the first completed portion of
the complex.
