Tampa Bay Tailgate Taste Test is Saturday. They’ll Have The USF Game On The Biggest Screen In The City. Go!

We don’t shill ourselves to every Punch and Judy event in Tampa, even though we go to plenty. But for this one we’ll lay out because it’s just terrific, and for Bulls fans it’s a great way to watch the game on Saturday.

The Third Annual Tampa Bay Tailgate Taste Test is Saturday at Curtis Hixon Park downtown from 3 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Created and presented Tampa’s Event Development Institute, the world’s first sports and entertainment event incubator, it’s like bringing a tailgate to one of the prettiest downtown parks in America. And it’s tremendous fun.

The event is free, and you can bring your own tailgate chair to sit and watch football with the river and UTampa’s minarets in the background. They’ll have huge temporary tv screens set up by the water where you can watch USF-Cincinnati at 7 p.m. on one side and Clemson-Louisville at 8 p.m. on the other. The Bulls will also have their spirit squads and Rocky out there too.

Participating restaurants include:

Cask
Yard of Ale Soho
PDQ
Hooters
Pokey’s
Rubio’s
Port-A-Pit
Sonny’s BBQ
Bar 700
Champions
Cuatro
The Lodge
Square 1 Burgers
Carriage House/Franklin Manor
Newk’s
Firestick Grill – VIP only

You can buy a 5-sample wristband for $20 or a 10-sample wristband for $30, and adult as well as non-alcoholic drinks are also available for purchase.

Or you can buy a VIP pass with all-you-can-eat-and-drink included for $80. It sounds like a lot, but trust me it’s soooo worth it. You’ll see me in there maximizing the open bar while judging the food. And somehow they’re letting me be a judge again this year:

Lessons learned last year: this is a marathon, not a sprint. And start fasting around Thursday.

We hope to see a bunch of Bulls fans out there! If you’ve got questions, ask in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer them.