Clothes, café, co-work: Ybor's Blind Tiger will feature Buddy Brew, TeBella
By Chris Wilkerson
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 18, 2014

Tampa entrepreneur Roberto Torres is one step closer to his dream of creating a destination retail spot in Ybor City.

His new Blind Tiger Café will begin construction soon in the 1900 block of 7th Street in Ybor. Taking a page from Oxford Exchange's book, his new café will serve Buddy Brew Coffee and TeBella Tea.

The location also will be an opportunity for Torres to sell clothing from his Black and Denim brand as well as showcase other brands he has been impressed by as he has grown Black and Denim.

And if a coffee- and tea-serving blue jean selling café didn't already sound like the kind of place you could plop down, open up your laptop and get some work done, Torres also is opening a co-work space in an adjacent storefront for entrepreneurs like himself to work and collaborate before they have grown enough to need permanent office space. It will be called Co-Work Ybor.

Torres is taking about 3,000 square feet almost evenly split between the café/clothier and the co-work space. He didn't say how much he's investing in the project.

After launching his brand a few years ago in Tampa and selling mostly online, Torres has had micro-shops in Ybor and subleases in Channelside Bay Plaza. Now, he wants to create a destination – a place for people to gather in Ybor. Torres hopes to bring manufacturing of his apparel to Ybor eventually. The clothing currently is made in California.

Chris Wilkerson is Deputy Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.