Velvet Gypsy — Restaurant in Tampa

I went to this bar, because it seemed like a hospitable atmosphere, but ended up leaving being flabbergasted and with quite the story for years to come lol. Most unbelievable interaction of my life. The owner of the bar said that I "stole" her parking space (which after we both pulled in at the same time, and I got the spot which is not reserved-and I confirmed this with the staff). I offered the owner the spot 3 times because she was clearly upset and all 3 times she declined and said that I was "weird". I told her she didn't need to be rude, if she wanted the spot she could take it. She said "Don't worry about it".

She instead chose to keep her car parked behind mine for the duration of my time in the bar--which I didn't care bc I'm thinking a minor spat in the parking lot would certainly not be a big deal several hours later between 2 adults. I was incorrect. I still patronized the bar, paid for drinks, tipped my bartender, and when I was ready to leave I asked the owner could she move her car. First she ignored me and then her response was: "I'll move it when I feel like it honey-I'm going to the bathroom". This obviously escalated because after her flat out refusing to move her car and attempting to lecture me about "stealing" an open space which I had already offered to her, I had enough. We got into another verbal spat where she said that "in order to teach you a lesson, I'm not moving my car until I feel like it." And then proceeded to go back into the bar with her friends who all said if I hit her car while trying to leave, "they had my tag". Me and my friend both were floored and also couldn't help but find it so immature to the point of being comical. I called the police, who were awesome (thank you Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office!) The officers quickly responded and asked her to move her car immediately-which of course she did. This was funny too because she said that the police would not be able to do anything about her refusing to let me out of the parking spot because one of them "was my guy"-which I'm not sure what that means. She also continued to tell me that: "I own this bar honey"! Who cares if you own the bar? I'm trying to leave and get ready for work. You refuse to let me leave. And you have to love when someone is literally holding you from leaving and you tell them about themselves and they go to "you are being aggressive and mean and rude to me". This all culminated in her saying I was "dumb" as the officer asked her to move the car. Long story short, perhaps this place should invest in:

More parking spaces

Training course on customer service exclusively for leadership

I have NEVER had one experience close to this one in all my years of living in Tampa and this is after going to Ybor regularly and every major Tampa parade where parking is always tight and tensions are always high. This was clearly less about the parking space and more about an ego/power trip in my opinion. Truly sad and pathetic when your staff has to apologize on your behalf when you're not around, which I very much appreciated. Be the example for your team, not the other way around. If you choose to drink here, I would advise you don't take the owner's "spot" lol and perhaps have The Sheriff's Department on speed dial in case you too are prevented...

We came here as we were waiting on a table at a nearby restaurant. We weren’t acknowledged when we walked in and only after our bartender was finished closing out tabs did she even come over. She was super unfriendly, no smile or anything. We asked what beers were on tap and she said “yuengling, bud light and a few IPAs” we asked her to repeat it and then she said there was also a seasonal ale. I asked what that was and all She said was a “brown ale”. Nothing about the type or the breweries for the IPAs and seasonal ale which…they aren’t all the same. Maybe to her they are, but to those of us who drink beer a bit more effort and information would be nice. Or heck. A beer list and then we don’t have to bother her. Which, we clearly were. She seemed friendly with some other patrons. Not sure if they are regulars or what but we were pretty much ignored once we got our drinks.

The atmosphere is cute. There are five benches that can seat maybe 3-4 people? And then the bar comfortably seats 12-15ish. The music was chill and it was decorated for Christmas which made it feel cozier.

There were a few cocktails and mock tails listed on the wall but other than that no cocktail or alcohol list.

I don’t know if they get business outside of people waiting on a nearby local establishment but I...

Update to review and response from owner on previous review.... Your sarcasm is noted!! Contrary to your belief that he was trying to help us he was not. We were parked in the front of velvet Gypsy my passenger went inside to get some information about the place he did not care to offer one drop of information except demand that we move our car out of the way from the front of his bar. He did not want to answer questions he did not want to hear a word about what we were asking about Velvet Gypsy he just wanted to demand us to move our car from a place that belonged to Velvet Gypsy!!!! Stop defending the person that doesn't deserve to be defended and handle the guy that is not as nice as you believe he is!!!The guy at the door with the dreads is extremely rude, specifically and especially towards woman. I was trying to find parking for my 250,000 car we just wanted to see how the place was inside and feel it out and he was so focused on where we can and can't park he didn't want to answer any questions except tell us what to do with our car. It's almost like someone gave him a position of power and he doesn't understand how to treat people. Very abusive. He needs to be...