Ybor City’s Honey Pot dance club is a place to move and let go of stress. The dance floor takes up 75% of its square footage—and a generation of partygoers, many from Tampa Bay’s LGBTQ+ community, found a home there—but in December, local officials banned gathering on the dance floor, and those restrictions seem to have spelled the end of the historic district favorite.
Over the weekend, Honey Pot, located at 1507 E 7th Ave. next to The Ritz, announced its closure in Ybor City.
“The mounting expenses of maintaining the business while shutdown without income for months has made it impossible to recover financially,” Honey Pot wrote. The venue, which has served the community for 14 years, said it’s looking for new venues and hopes to share some good news shortly.
In December, the club decided not to try and adapt to the dance floor restrictions. Other clubs around it did, and found themselves in hot water as code enforcement moved through Ybor City, citing some for repeat violations.
“While we take the pandemic very seriously and understand the goal of local officials, it doesn’t leave us much left offer to the community,” Honey Pot wrote in its December announcement. “We are at a dance club. We have no seating areas, no tables, and after eight months of being closed in 2020. no ability to buy them either.”
We’re guessing Honey Pot is going to land on its sweet feet somewhere soon. But in the meantime, pour one out for one of Ybor’s best.
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This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2021.
