© 2026 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Inside Tampa’s 5-star bar scene with The Tampa Edition’s Nihat Çam

Ways To Subscribe

A hotel bar is much more than a place to grab a drink while you’re on vacation or traveling for work. It’s about connection, relaxation and rituals as old as mankind. A really good hotel bar will even attract the locals.

That’s the case at The Tampa Edition, a five-star hotel located on downtown’s bustling Channelside Drive. Throughout the hotel’s bars and restaurants, service is as important aswhat’sin the glass. Ensuring that hospitality is the Tampa Edition’s director of bars, Nihat Çam.

We sat down with Çam at the hotel’s Punch Room speakeasy. Over virgin hibiscus cocktails, he shares how his Turkish upbringing and global travels led him to this role. Çam also shares the latest trends in alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks and discusses the larger role that hotels play in society, as detailed in his book. It's called Bar Culture: Hospitality, Hotel Bars and Spirits.

Transcription

Thank you to our sponsors: Adalay Interiors

Stay Connected