Boat Drinks makes its daiquiri and colada mix in-house. Credit: Photo via boatdrinksbarsa/Facebook

Boat Drinks is a veritable oasis on the heavily-trafficked streets of tourist-laden historic downtown St. Augustine, and the Northern Florida tiki pioneer is bringing its state of mind to Tampa later this month.

The concept—self-identified as a “Nautical, tropical tavern and oyster bar featuring fresh seafood, fresh & frozen cocktails, and a huge rum selection”—just announced plans to take over Tampa Heights coffee shop King State from 4 p.m.-8 p.m. on Monday, May 22.
There’s no cover for the happy hour, which promises “nauti-tropical cocktails & slushy things, craveable crustaceans, crispy veggies, jerked bird & other Shanghai’d snacks.”

Boat Drinks co-founder Whitney Hobbs told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the menu will be limited compared to what she offers in St. Augustine, but will include her famous peel-and-eat shrimp, plantain chips and dips, and jerk chicken.

A flier for the event also promises wonky bivalves from Pelican Oyster Company, which farms its product in the waters of Apalachee Bay just south of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (it’s up there in the state’s armpit where the Florida peninsula meets the rest of the U.S.).

The drink offerings include the pina colada featuring homemade mix, a goombay smash, Boat Drinks’ “Speedboat Captain” featuring cold brew coffee, lemon and mexican coke, plus the “Scuttlebutt Swizzle” with hibiscus, allspice, lime, bitters and soda.

All of it will be blended with a wide array of rum from importer Back Bar Project.

Daniel Guess, a rep from importer Back Bar Project who has a byline on CL, said that most of the rum will come from Worthy Park. The distillery is just one of just six remaining Jamaican rum distilleries and notable for its 100% copper pot distilled sugarcane and the fact that its single-estate origin allows for better traceability when it comes to how the sugarcane moves from the field to a glass. High ester content (a natural compound from fermentation that gives the spirit a diverse range of aromas and flavors) makes Worthy Park rums extra funky, too.

Many of the drinks will also feature the high-end French liqueur Giffard, Guess said, adding that there’ll also be mezcal margaritas and mezcal oyster shooters along with a sneak peak of a fermented Indigenous Mexican fermented pineapple beverage called Tepache Sazon. Tepeche is less like kombucha, but more reminiscent or a beer, cider or even cava or prosecco. “Ours is a very clean, very beautiful style that is at once sour beer, kombucha, natty wine, cider, but none of these things as well,” Guess added.

Cco-founder Rob Crabtree, will be on hand to help make it all happen, but so will three of Boat Drinks’ original bartenders: ceramicist Breanne Rupp, Joel Kollinger, and Jessie Lane

This article appears in May 4-10, 2023.