TBBC co-owner will ‘walk away’ after employee walkout at Ybor brewery

An Ybor City brewery is short-staffed and without one of its co-owners after alleged offensive comments led to several front of house employees quitting.

News of the walkout at TBBC (fka Tampa Bay Brewing Co.) broke over the weekend on Reddit. The incident took place at TBBC’s Ybor City location at 1600 E 8th Ave.—staffing at the company’s sibling brewery in Westchase remains unaffected by recent events.

Casey Rhymestine, a now former bartender at TBBC Ybor City told WTSP that up to five employees of the Ybor City brewery walked out on Saturday night after John Doble, now former co-owner of TBBC, allegedly told the manager “that if we hired more attractive bartenders the place would be making more money.” WTSP added that Doble, 81, also allegedly called a longtime TBBC manager “the Middle Eastern kid” in front of wait staff, despite knowing his name.

David Doble, son of John Doble and TBBC’s managing partner, addressed the situation via Facebook live on Monday, calling his dad’s comments an “egregious event.” In the 34 minute-long video, David apologized for his father’s comments and commended the multiple employees that  quit on Sunday, inviting them back to work if they’d like to return.

“No,  he (John) is not going to work or be involved in TBBC,  as both of my parents have agreed to walk away from the place,” David said on his livestream, representing the entire company. “I don’t know if he’ll be issuing an official statement, but I really don’t want him to.”

Although David says that both of his parents are “walking away” from the family business, it’s still unclear when they plan to  financially cut ties with TBBC. David told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that he is still unsure of when the process would take place.

“My mom has worked extremely hard over the years and has earned every piece of ownership” David told CL. “It’s a reality sensitive topic to her, and there’s a process that needs to take place. But I don’t really have an answer.” Many of the more than 100 comments under David’s livestream support the straightforward nature he chose to address the issues at hand. Of the five employees that recently quit, David said he’s apologized to two of them and plans to reach out to the remaining three over the course of the next few days.

According to David, TBBC’s human resources department was at its Ybor City brewery on Monday and Tuesday, talking to its remaining staff about the situation. The brewery is currently in the process of hiring new employees to replace the five that walked out on Sunday night.

“I need to make this right and get us back on the right course.” David told CL.” I’m an open and honest person and I’ll always answer whatever questions people might have; it’s how i want to operate the entire brand.”

This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2022.