Tampa City Council voted 5-2 to permit Cigar City Brewing to sell alcohol. The brewery is located on Spruce Street off of Dale Mabry and is owned by Joey Redner and his father Joe, the strip club owner. Joey writes regular beer columns for tampabay.com and has been working on this venture for a while.

You can read more about Cigar City Brewing from a previous post. TBO.com reports that the vote was somewhat controversial because residents were “concerned about how the microbrewery would affect the neighborhood’s image”. I don’t get this. Is it because they don’t want any commercial business there? Or is it just a brewery they don’t like? Would they feel the same way about a winery?

The TBO.com story isn’t specific about what the residents dislike so much. Maybe it’s just because of the Redner name. Five members voted for it, but the reporter primarily focused on the negative.

I’m looking forward to having a local brewery in Tampa and I really don’t see it as anything but positive. The craft beer industry, despite the recent hops shortage, has been booming almost everywhere else in the country. Why not bring it here?

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