Ferg's Sports Bar and Grill: Mild Appetizer Before the Rays Game

Ferg’s Sports Bar and Grill is an example of a location that started up in the right place at the right time, and are taking advantage of it.


Sometimes to a point that it negatively affects the consumers.


Now, traffic is a pure nightmare in terms of attempting to get to the Rays’ Tropicana Field. That interstate traffic can get pretty hairy and will unleash the kraken in you. The alternative is to take a few smaller local roads and make your way to the area that has this restaurant for smoother parking, a short little walk, and getting some cheaper food at this institution on the way there. Paying $10 for a hot dog and a drink is always ludicrous no matter where you are.

Ferg’s Sports Bar opened before Tropicana Field became the home of one of the winningest franchises since 1998. So while attendance is a pathological disaster, it still draws a crowd of at least 10,000. So if Fergs can get a fraction of that 10,000 every home game? Well, the owner will be jamming out to Jay-Z and Kanye while wearing nothing but boxers. So how does this affect us anyway?

The service. We have to seat ourselves. We put up with this because the damn place is so close, but seating ourselves is rather ridiculous, especially when the place gets packed and is quite big. I battled for seven minutes finding a seat before nesting myself in the boondocks of the restaurant. The menu itself consists of lots of bar food with minimal amounts of main entrees to fill your belly.

I went with the fish dip and their wings---garlic parmesan and honey bbq. After finally managing to get a server, I ordered this while my friend got one of their hot dogs. I shall remind you if we had a seater there would have been a better chance for some organization to see who just got seats and needs menus and a starting point.

Luckily for me, the food actually wasn’t half bad. The ball of fish dip isn’t exactly the biggest and they attempt to counter this with an assortment of veggies. The stereotypical man in me thought that if I really wanted so many veggies I would order a salad. However the fish was good, as it mixed the delicious Tampa Bay seafood flavor with a little spice kick. The wings were actually quite good, although the bbq ones were far superior. They both had enough spice to flavor the meat and with enough of these you can actually make a filling lunch out of it.

Bottom Line: Fergs is surviving mainly because of its close proximity to Tropicana Field. Otherwise, its lack of service, the lack of a seater, the claustrophobia feeling, and the punishing parking prices nearby would have driven any other business out the window into Failsville. The food is good, but seeing that this is Tampa Bay, and there are far better options out there (The Eternal Legend known as Mazzaro's Italian Market comes to mind), Fergs needs to step up its game especially if the Rays were to move elsewhere.


In the meantime, Ferg’s is one of the luckiest restaurants I’ve visited.


Final Verdict: Lightly Recommend Before a Game.
Do Not Recommend in the Off-Season

Ferg's Sports Bar and Grill
1320 Central Ave
St Petersburg, FL 33705