Sawgrass Tiki Bar

Really?  In town visiting family for the Easter weekend and the wifey and I decided to go get a Margarita and the open sign in the window was lit but a handwritten note on the door said "at dinner be back in 45 min" . We walked down the street and had a couple drinks elsewhere. Walked back by the Tiki Bar about 1 1/2 hr later and the sign was still on the door, the door was locked but yet the open sign was lit. Are you open or not?? Ridiculous!

I went to Tarpon Springs to check out the Sponge Docks and Greek community and my (bored) husband dragged me into this divey tiki bar.  It was a cute bar and the frozen margaritas were fantastic, but I was initially disappointed the bar didn't quite follow my Greek themed Saturday.  After I drank one of the HUGE margaritas I didn't care that the bar wasn't Greek and we had a blast stumbling around Dodecanese Boulevard!

The bar looks a little out of place amongst the Greek restaurants and shops along the sponge docks, but it is one of the few bars in the area.  I don't remember the bartender's name, but she was really nice!  

Sometimes the bar puts coupons on the sponge docks website: <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spongedocks.net%2Ftarpon-springs-coupons.htm&s=51e5f6ce59f52ecf1d319446138771ed1502e37ba575695782ac2020f6720645" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.spongedocks.n…</a>

We were looking for a local place to do hookah and drinks. This place in the Sponge Docks came up on our navigation search, so we checked it out. The decor is tacky tiki style, including grass skirt material hanging around the walls. The frutti tutti hookah was delicious (tasted like fruit loops) but the mixed drinks were just average.

We had fun there and it would have been an okay night if the owner wasn't such a conniving businessman. He was the one who waited on us. He was really friendly and conversational, but when we received our bill he had manipulated our orders to stiff us out of every dollar he could.

We paid for the hookah at the beginning ($7.50 a person) and he added that again to the bill at the end. He also added a per person smoking charge for every person at our table, EVEN THE ONES WHO DIDN'T SMOKE! My husband ordered water cause he didn't want to drink, and our bill stated 2 bottled waters when my husband thought he'd been drinking tap the whole night.

We got one bill for our whole table (half of which are in the food service industry), so we asked if he could seperate it cause we didn't have cash. He brought us a calculator. Really? Really? We spent 15 minutes doing arithmetic at the end of our night off.

I got 2 cocktails ($10 & $5). My husband got water and smoked hookah ($7.50). Somehow we ended up paying over $40 on our bill. I don't mind paying premium if it's a nice place with exemplary cocktails. This kitschy, hole-in-wall? No way. This is the kind of place you go when you're being frugal.

We won't be returning. I wouldn't advise you to go unless you have lots of money you want to waste.