Pro Shop Pub
Clearwater, Florida, United States
(Listing updated about 1 month ago.)
A Clearwater Institution located in downtown Clearwater, at Pro Shop you can always find a friendly face. It's the oldest and best-known bar in Pinellas County. Friendly bartenders pour generous drinks to a small crowd of chatty regulars and the random stranger.
The oldest gay bar in Tampa Bay (just celebrated its 40th) attracts a mixed-gender crowd ranging from visiting college kids to older gents in Florida-chic. Drive too fast on Cleveland Street and you'll miss it — a game outpost, brick and glass block with only “Pro Shop” in neon lights. And that's by design, as the pub's obscurity was part of a defense mechanism decades ago for men who went there to avoid bigoted attacks elsewhere.
Today the bar is well-known in the area, and snowbirds and locals alike flock to this low-key Clearwater favorite. If you're in town for a weekend, or just want to take a glimpse at what going out looked like when we couldn't be out, take a stroll to Clearwater to experience the Pro Shop Pub.