Jessie Wohlers at Jug & Bottle in Tampa, Florida on Feb. 7, 2025. Credit: Photo by Ray Roa

There might have to be a flash sale on inherited inventory—and the place never closed—but Jessie Wohlers is finally ready to welcome the neighborhood back to Jug & Bottle.

“It’s definitely beer heavy right now, but it will be wine heavy next week,” Wohlers—a Tampa food scene lifer who was part of the team that opened the recently-shuttered Ichicoro Ramen a decade ago—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.

Wohlers, who’s also behind c. 1949 beer bar near Lowry Park, told CL that she and “a bunch of buds” more-or-less made their ownership of Jug & Bottle official this month. The shop, opened in 2015 and located at 6203 N Florida Ave., went up for sale last year.

She’s also been spending every moment available editing the insides, making a little more room for customers to move around, finding space for more seating, and clearing some of the shelves for a more diverse selection of wine.

“We’re going to bring in some traditional producers. As well as keeping the natural wine, and we’re going to bring in a lot more non-alcoholic options,” Wohlers, who helmed the beverage program at Ichicoro said. There are also plans to put cocktails from the Ichicoro days on some of the nine draft taps, along with new sake and wine cocktails if the neighborhood wants them. She and her partners do have a liquor license, and would have to get the business rezoned to use it, but Wohlers emphasized that there is no intention to turn Jug & Bottle into any kind of liquor store.

“It’s always going to be predominantly wine. Then I would say beer, then I would say spirits,” she said, adding that caffeine will also be part of the offerings.

“I’m not trying to work at a place that doesn’t have espresso. I’m 44. I have been doing this long enough, and that’s my one request,” Wohlers laughed. Once the revenue picks up, Jug & Bottle plans to open earlier and stay open later, too.

Wohlers added that she was happy to pick up the baton from Jug’s previous owners, including co-founder Veronica Danko.

“We are so excited that Jessica and her team are taking the reins at Jug & Bottle and we are relieved that our little beer & wine shop will remain a staple in the community!,”” Danko wrote in a text to CL.

While initial listings for Jug & Bottle asked for $375,000, Danko and Wohlers would not disclose the final financials of the deal.

More than anything, Wohlers and her partners are focused on preserving and enhancing Tampa’s mom and pop businesses. She loves that the city has shiny places like Channelside and Water Street, but really loves the neighborhoods and wants her concepts to be historically and culturally accurate, plus hospitality-focused.

“We want to keep that in Tampa, and this will be the first thing that we kind of try to enhance, while keeping the bones,” she said.

And while Wohlers would not say what was moving into the kitchen that used to house vegan favorite 3 Dot, she did throw out a bone and say that it would be an “exciting and familiar” addition.

“It’s definitely going to be a ramen shop. We just don’t know what the name of it is going to be,” she said.

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