The Tampa area has become a hot spot for people moving from the northeast U.S., especially from the New York area. With warmer weather and proximity to great beaches, Tampa has become a destination for digital nomads as well.
If you’re looking for bars, restaurants, or coffee shops to work from, here is a list of the best spots for digital nomads to work remotely in Tampa. Every place listed has a WiFi network with speeds fast enough to work seamlessly.
Table of Contents
Coworking Spaces
Hyde House Public Studio
Hyde House Public Studio is a coworking and event space located across the street from Hyde Park Village. I lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood for much of my time in Tampa, and this was the absolutely best place to work remotely from. I walked or scootered there each morning.
It’s truly one of the best coworking space I’ve worked from anywhere. It’s HUGE. And they do have a coffee bar, plus the area has many nearby restaurants.
Hyde House is one of the only spaces in the area that has both small company office space and also allows day/month passes for digital nomads to work in the open seating areas. You will find a large number of remote workers here on any given day. This is my pick for the best coworking space in Tampa.
Hyde House Heights
Hyde House has now also opened another coworking location, on the 2nd floor of Armature Works. This is also a great office space, and obviously being above a food hall means there are plenty of quick lunch options. It feels more like driving to an office for me, as you park in the large parking lot and the surrounding area doesn’t have the same neighborhood feel that Hyde Park has. My guess is that more people drive to this location vs scooter or walk.
Coffee Shops
Ginger Beard Coffee at Pour House
Similar to Magnanimous, they advertise as “Coffee First Then Beer.” Ginger Beard coffee operates until 2pm but serves their signature nitro cold brew all evening. Or drip coffee is inexpensive with free refills. They have a good-sized indoor space as well as an outside area.
You’ll see a handful of digital nomads and locals working here regularly each morning. Then in the afternoon, Pour House starts serving their own brewed beer until midnight or later, so this is a place you can truly both start and finish your day at.
Pour House makes some good sours and Hefeweizens, but the Belgian White (dubbed La Flama Blanca) I think is one of the best beers in Tampa.
Ginger Beard and Pour House are dog friendly as well. You will also find this on my list of best locally owned coffee shops in Tampa here.
Cafe Quiquiriqui (Hotel Haya)
Cafe Quiquiriqui is attached to the lobby of the Hotel Haya, right on the main strip in Ybor. You can connect to the free hotel WiFi and work along business travelers, locals, and other digital nomads.
Try the short rib empanadas and café con leche while you work. Later in the afternoon you can move back into the restaurant and bar area where they serve local beer and excellent cocktails if you’d like. My second time here the staff had already remembered my name and started friendly chat and it immediately became my favorite spot to work from in Ybor.
Blind Tiger
Blind Tiger is really the only local coffee shop in the SoHo area of Hyde Park (yes, there is a Starbucks too, but I prefer to support local). So, it tended to be a place where students and digital nomads congregated in this neighborhood.
The Ybor City shop moved into a larger spot a few doors down from their old location, which now makes it one of the best spots to work from in Ybor.
Both locations have a printer, which you can use for a small fee, so that came in handy several times.
Breweries
Magnanimous Brewery
Magnanimous Brewing is a brewery just north of downtown. Unfortunately, the coffee bar that used to operate here in the mornings shut down, and they don’t open until noon.
But in addition to great beer, for some reason unknown to even the owners, they seemingly have the fastest WiFi in town (>500Mbps). It’s like working in the Google headquarters, but with beer and fewer tech nerds. So, it’s a great place to digital nomad from or just watch YouTube videos of cats. Whatever.
Tip: Although they don’t serve food here, Café Hay just behind the brewery has great breakfast and lunch options, as well as 80Mbps WiFi.
WiFi Speed: >500 Mbps
Coppertail Brewing
A bit off the main strip in Ybor City, Coppertail Brewing Co could have the best mix of both beer and food of any brewery in the area. They offer four core beers year-round, and then have a rotating tap of 20 beers at any given time. The bar is fitted with outlets for your laptop and there is also plenty of other seating in their restored 100-year-old building. If you’re anywhere near the area, you can easily scooter here to work for the day.
Tampa Bay Brewing
It seems that breweries tend to have some of the fastest WiFi in Tampa, and Tampa Bay Brewing is no exception. They have both an indoor and outdoor bar (somehow WiFi is actually faster outside than inside) and they have a rotating menu of their own brewed beers which focus on hop centric IPAs, sours, and what they call fruit forward Florida-Weisse (their take on Berliner Weisse). They open for lunch every day at 11am.
Hotel Restaurant & Lobby
Epicurean Hotel / Elevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar
Hotels typically have good WiFi, so they make good places to work. Add in a restaurant with great food and space to hang out for several hours, and it’s even better. You don’t need to stay at the Epicurean Hotel to dine at their restaurant, so you can grab a bar table (my preferred seating) or one of the couches and enjoy free refills of coffee and standard breakfast fare like an omelet or my favorite, the baked French toast, while you work. Breakfast runs til 11am and then lunch starts. This is a bit more pricey than coffee shops, but if you’re willing to order food and tip well, it’s a great atmosphere for work. You might even see some celebrities or sports teams that are in town, as they often stay here.
Bars
Gen X Tavern
Hidden on the ground floor of a parking garage, you probably wouldn’t stumble on this as a place to work. But they open at 11am, have strong WiFi, and there’s plenty of seating. It has an 80’s and 90’s theme and if you need a break from work you can play their Super Nintendo or a quick game of skeeball.
Corner Bar
Corner Bar was a surprising find in Tampa. It gives the appearance of an open-air dive bar, and that’s exactly what it is. But it’s fairly new and the owner seemingly paid to install the good WiFi, because it has one of the fastest WiFi speeds I found in all of Tampa (>200 Mbps). The food meu is pretty small, with typical bar food, but they have a good beer selection. The downside it they don’t open until 2pm, so you’ll have to work somewhere else until you’re ready for an afternoon beer.
