Bar Ten & Cheese Please — Restaurant in Tampa

Very disappointing. We were super excited to go to the new location of Cheese Please. We really loved the old location next to Pane Rustica; it was super cute, classy, and the service and options were top notch. The new location on MacDill was very disappointing needless to say. The atmosphere wasn’t bad, cute. We sat at the bar on a Saturday. The bartender told us they were charging $15 a person because they were having live music that night. That right there was $45 just to sit down. We listened to two songs and left. Not really an actual live band. Just a guy singing to prerecorded music. Similar to karaoke. Staff were in Hawaiian shirts. I wouldn’t consider this in line with a wine bar vibe. One bartender was wearing a shirt with bob Ross’s face all over it had been doing shots with guests and seemed like he’d been drinking. He ordered a sandwich for himself and was just stuffing his face at the bar. Just didn’t seem like a very professional thing to do in front of guests. The wine selection was very small for a wine bar. Food menu consisted of a lot of fried items. We ordered a charcuterie board and lebnah. The charcuterie board was pretty small portions and the actual quality was just okay. Lebnah (which I’m a huge fan of) tasted just like plain yogurt drizzled with light olive oil and some old bay with a side of rock hard chips. I would not order again. If you want authentic quality lebnah go to Byblos down the road. Service was fine. I think a quick shift meeting /training would go a long way before service to help ensure staff are educated on the actual food items they have (if your out of items, recommendations on food so when a guests asks the server can answer questions about the product).

There are so many other options nearby that offer free actual live music with much better quality of service, options of wine, craft cocktails, and fresh food. For three glasses of wine, a tiny charcuterie board, and lebnah it was $150. We most definitely will...

Listen. I need you to understand. Let me set the scene. South Tampa has given you a case of the bayshore blues. Its raining, the bolts lost, you aren't allowed back at any bar in SoHo after the shorts incident, so you're roaming MacDill like in Mad Max, only instead of the wasteland its a gentrified wasteland and instead of Tina Turner its Stamkos or something, ok, sorry, getting off topic. Anyways you're roaming MacDill in the Medusa when you see it.... yes... between the gaudy soccer mom traps and the bars where dudes tell you they're entrepreneurs and wont shut up about TED talks ... and you see a humble sign, glowing like a beacon in the humid Tampa night. An orchestra plays. The rain turns to liquid Siberian Pule.

"Cheese Please"

You brake so hard someone almost wrecks their Lexus and you dive out from the wreckage to carefully enter la dieu doux temple sacré doré du fromage (thats Québécois for 'cheese please'). What is this place? What secrets does it hold?

It's like a wine bar, but they've got cheeses so good that you're probably going to need to read some books on cheese to fully understand. Also there's a wine bar. As a local weirdo, I recommend grabbing a fistful of the most unpronouncable ones and a bottle of prosecco and going to sit under the Selmon Expressway Bridge and become a delightful bacchenalian tramp. Disclaimer: Tampa PD discourages being a delightful bacchenalian...

Very warm and cozy place, kind of tight when it comes to space but does not matter when it comes to the experience. Not a large selection of wine but each one that I tried was outstanding you can tell the wines they choose for the menu are special. I was not familiar with the cheeses they had so I asked the bartender to choose for me and that I prefer spicy, he smiled and said "I got you" and to my surprise he did not let me down! Everything on my plate was absolutely stunning and delicious. Everything he chose was absolutely great tasting! The waitress was extremely attentive and asked me if there was anything I needed at the right times and was never too slow or annoying. The owner even approached me and I asked for his recommendation on grill cheeses and he selected a grill cheese that will forever have a place in my heart ha ha. Do not come here worrying about money and just indulge in the experience believe me! I will be back for sure and it was my pleasure that I came (after work).

Pros: everything Cons: tight space but really...