The Ship's Hold

The Ship's Hold is reached through The Galley on 4th Street North in downtown St. Petersburg — a bar behind a bar, which is a format that usually promises more than it delivers. This one earns it. The room holds one of Central Florida's largest rum and amaro collections, keeps hours that run to 3am seven nights a week, and is regarded locally as one of the best craft cocktail bars in the Tampa Bay area rather than a novelty attached to a better-known restaurant.

What makes it exceptional for a non-drinker is not the size of the zero-proof list but how it is made. The bar distils its own non-alcoholic spirits in house — a step almost no cocktail bar takes, because buying a bottle of Seedlip is far easier — and works them alongside house-made shrubs, syrups and infusions produced for the full-strength menu. The dedicated Spirit Free section runs builds like the Apple-A-Day (Seedlip Spice 94, acidulated apple butter, lemon, sparkling apple cider), the Show Pony (Seedlip Spice 94 against a blueberry-horseradish shrub, lemon and orange flower water) and the Flightless Bird (Lyre's Rosso, lemon-vanilla oleo, pineapple, bubbles). Athletic Brewing and Guinness 0.0 cover anyone who would rather have a beer.

I Love The Burg put the distinction plainly in January 2024: not only do they make some of the best drinks in St. Pete, they even make their own NA spirits. That is the tell. A bar that produces its own alcohol-free base has decided the category is worth engineering for, rather than stocking to avoid turning customers away.

Practical notes: it is a late bar, opening at 6pm most nights and 7pm on Thursday, and the hidden-entrance format means arriving early is wise at weekends — the room is small and fills from the restaurant it sits behind. Ask at The Galley if the door is not obvious; it is deliberately unsignposted from the street. It is a full cocktail bar with a serious spirits collection — the Spirit Free menu is a genuine parallel programme, not the character of the room.