Om-tastic.

We’d like to invite you all to come out tonight to meet & greet local artist, Tim Nelson! 

Nelson creates contemporary Tibetan Buddhist icon paintings, or “Tangkas”.  This type of painting requires an in depth study of symbolism and traditional proportion and color in order to become a genuine support of meditation and sacred energy.  His work has been shown locally and nationally and is often sought after by private collectors, meditation and holistic healing centers worldwide.

In addition to creating his own paintings, Nelson teaches art at all levels.  He is very passionate about this endangered form of art and is active in educating the public and supporting the cultural heritage of Tangkas.

We’re proud to be welcoming this artist and his unique style of painting.  As a gesture of celebration during tonight’s Meet ‘n’ Greet, we’ll be offering a wine special:  20% off all bottles!  Come on out to enjoy the party beginning at 7:30p.m.  Admission is free…as always. 

Ybor City/Downtown Tampa Event Hopping!

Get plenty of rest tonight, boys and girls, because this weekend is going to be back-to-back events!  We’d love to invite you to come event hopping with us as we try to hit them all.

First up, stop by our tent at the ECO.lution Festival on Saturday anytime from 11-9!! (free admission)  www.ecolutiontampa.com/_festival.php Our good friends with the Urban Charrette have worked hard to put together this awesome festival, and we’re so excited to be a part of it.  From their website:

ECO.festival 2010 is an afternoon full of fun, enlightenment and entertainment. The outdoor festival is highlighted by live music, food, wine tastings, green products, educational seminars and children’s activities.

The Urban Charrette and Mise en Place are proud to announce their partnership with 2nd Annual Tampa Twilight Criterium at this year’s Eco.lution festival. The Criterium or “Crit” is a fast paced, urban bike race through the streets of Downtown Tampa. Participants and spectators attending the Crit will have the opportunity to join Eco.lution and sample local food and drinks, listen to live music and learn about how to make Tampa a more sustainable city.

Next up, come an cheer on The Bunker Bocce Team as we fight to hold on to the gold at Festa Italiana’s Bocce Ball Invitational on Saturday from 10 – 6!  (free admission)

And, finally, end the day at Creative Loafing’s “Sensory Overload” event Organized by the Artists and Writers Group, the same folks hat you love from our Bunker Open Mic Nights!  http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/sensoryoverload/.  (Entry fee $10-$15)  From their website:

Creative Loafing’s fifth annual Sensory Overload will take place on Saturday, March 27 in historic Ybor City.  Your Sensory Overload wristband will get you into some of our favorite bars, galleries and venues and allow you to explore the sights, sounds, tastes (and smells) of historic Ybor City.  In addition to checking out the bands, artwork, performances, food, cigars, beer and wine, there will be special art and video installations on the streets of Ybor for one nigh only.  Come get “overloaded” with us at Sensory Overload 5.

After you get home and crash from all that fun, wake up Sunday to get it started back up again with Festa Italiana from 11:30a.m. – 6:30p.m! http://www.festaitalianatampa.com/index.html Don’t worry, we know you’ll be tired, so we’ll have your espresso ready for you to start the day.  :)

Hope you see you all this weekend at the events!

The Bunker ECOmug!

From the moment you lace your sweet little fingers around the smooth, ergonomically correct handle of our sleek black ECOmugs, you’ll know what true mug love is…

No?  Over the top?  Okay… how about this:

The photo above says it all – if you buy it and use it, you get 10% off your drink order.  Which is just greatness, pure & simple.  And, look, the mug is even stylishly retro with our now vintage logo!  Nifty! 

Pick yours up next time you stop by and start saving some green!

Meet the Artist Event: March 6 @ 7p.m.

From our comfy couches, our customers have been falling in love with the new artwork that now graces the walls.  The wait to meet the artist behind these paintings is almost over; we’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be holding a “Meet the Artist” event on Saturday, March 6th, from 7-9pm.

The artist, Nava Mentkow (www.navagallery.com), is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.F.A. ’05) and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Cert. ’05).  Nava has been a professional artist since 1998, and has been painting over 20 years.  Her exploits as an artist have been featured in The Palm Beach Post, The Sun Sentinel, The Chicago Tribune, and The St. Petersburg Times.  Nava has also been a guest on several radio programs, and regularly conducts lectures on art and art history around Florida.

Over the span of her career, Nava has developed a diverse body of work, including portraits, landscapes, still lifes and drawings.  With literally a lifetime of experience in painting, Nava’s creative capabilities are boundless, and her commissioning patrons are often impressed with Nava’s ability to tailor her work to the specifics of their personal requests with her own blend of creative brilliance and ingenuity.  Indeed, Nava’s clients often walk away from commissioning her with a sense that they are themselves an integral part of the creative process.

The palette of colors and textures of the paintings being exhibited here @ The Bunker fits our ambiance so perfectly that a lot of customers have asked if we actually commissioned artist ourselves.  While the choice of paintings for this exhibit was actually quite serendipitous, we’re thrilled that the exhibit appeared to be tailor-made.  You’re invited to come to the Meet the Artist event and experience it for yourself!

Inspiration is a Dish Best Served…Repeatedly.

…and paired with a good wine.

Our friends Hampton & David of the Artists & Writers Group (www.artistsandwritersgroup.com)  hosted  the Bunker’s first ever “Demo Listening Party” last month, with great results!  We’re very excited to say that they’re doing it again tomorrow, 2/24/10, from 7-9p.m, and we’d love to invite you to stop by and enjoy the evening.

Here’s what it’s all about, directly from their press release:

The second event in a monthly Demo Listening Party series offers an opportunity for Tampa Bay area musicians to participate in a live, interactive review session with local music critics, bloggers, and other music professionals.

For the Feb 24 event, our guest panel of guest critics will be headlined by critics and music bloggers from REAX Music Magazine.

The first Demo Listening Party featured performers Brahm Bones, with a “dark and gritty Southern rockin’ blues tune”, Dominique Pecchio, with “fresh and bouncy synth pop”, and Aleshea Harris, a spoken word performance artist experimenting in songs that set powerful lyrics against minimal percussion and base lines.

“[T]he party proved that the Bay area music scene has a rather impressive talent pool and its growth is promising to say the least.”  –Leilani Polk, Music Director – Creative Loafing

Selected musicians will have one of their songs played for the audience, followed by an interactive review and discussion led by our guest critics.

To be considered for review, interested bands should submit through email an mp3 version of one song (no larger than 10mb) to artistsandwritersgroup@gmail.com. Please also include pertinent information about the song and the band. Applicants must be able to attend the event. Submissions are due by 5pm on Friday, Feb 19 and decisions will be announced the following Monday. Selected bands will be invited and encouraged to provide a short acoustic musical performance during the event.

The Homemade Music Symposium is a collaborative annual event produced by the Artists and Writers Group and numerous community partners, with support from the Ybor City Development Corporation. The seminars and workshops of Homemade are focused on the business of music making and aim to provide musicians assistance on developing careers in the modern commercial environment.

The Artists and Writers Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and incubating the Tampa Bay area cultural community with events such as the Homemade Music Symposium, Deep Carnivale: A Celebration of Words and the Ybor Festival of the Moving Image.

For more information and general inquiries please contact T. Hampton Dohrman 813.784.2972 at thdohrman@gmail.com.

Here’s a photo from last months event, taken by the fabulous David Audet:

Hope to see you all at tomorrow’s party!

High fives & hot coffee,

Us at the Bunker

Finding Love @ the Bunker…

…when you’re sitting here with your laptop & surfing Facebook? Channel 13 aired a peice last night about the pros and cons of finding old flames on Facebook and shot the majority of the story at the Bunker! Check it out:

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/scitech/friending-your-ex-122109

Ode to October…

We had a *great* first day being back on October 7th, catching up with our regulars and rocking the house once again. It’s great to get that smell of fresh ground espresso wafting through the air again.

Our art this month is the photographic works of Stan Loper, the Executive Vice-President of FleischmanGarcia, along with his daughter Selina and his son Austin. Talent runs rampent in that family! Here’s a peek at what the work looks like:

Photo by Stan Loper

The photos will be up until November 17th, at which time we will be hosting photography from the HCC Photo Students. We’re looking forward to seeing what they’ll bring in! Until then, stop by and take a look at our current exhibit!

We have some new events going on at the Bunker, starting TONIGHT with our very first TRIVIA NIGHT @ the Bunker!

Also, Songwriter’s Night is BACK and going on its 3rd week! Our new host, Amy Snider, also hosts WMNF’s Tuesday afternoon Sonic Detour show, and she’s a lot of fun to have involved with this event. You can get more info about the event here: www.myspace.com/treamicimusic.

Keep an eye on this blog or our twitter account (@yborbunker) for announcements about our specials and our schedule of events. This month our special coffee is the “Pumpkin Spice Latte” – it’s DELISH!

Hope to see you soon!

The Bunker: Past, Present & Future

 Hello, and welcome to our blog!  We’re very happy to have one now, since we’ve been told that you don’t really exist unless you can prove it in a blog.  Finding out that we haven’t actually existed for the past three years is, admittedly, unsettling, but we’re prepared to remedy that fact by giving you a quick and dirty recap of our little coffee house’s last three years below.  So, grab a cup of coffee and indulge in the deliciousness of that which we were…and that which we have become.

First up:   Hey!  Guess what?  We opened!  That happened way back in September of ’06.  Even our Mayor stopped by to help us cut the ribbon – how cool is SHE!  Dale & Angela, our fearless leaders, are pictured on the far right.  Little did they know at that time that by rescuing the Bunker building, they’d be reintroducing a gem to Ybor.

When the Bunker Building was first built in 1926, it was home to a cafe called the “Two Friends Cafe”, which is where the community & community leaders gathered to discuss the issues of that time.  Once “Tre Amici” opened in 2006, we were embraced by the spirits of those community leaders of the past, and immediately began walking in the footsteps of our predecessor by welcoming people that offered that same type of exchange of progressive thinking and public discussion.  We’ve been pleased to become a forum to people like John Kerry &  the late, wonderful Ms. Phyllis Busanski, (photos below) as well as the Urban Charrette, Tampa Jobseekers Network, WMNF 88.5, and more.

Our seats were packed during the 2008 Presidential Election Debate Nights, with the community surging in to watch and discuss the debates together.  (photo below.)  They came back to watch the Inauguration, and, regardless of “whose side” you were on, we all knew it was a ground-breaking occasion and felt a rush of emotion as we watched it.  Together.

“Together” has been the theme of our coffee house.  People have described us as their “gathering place” and ”Ybor City’s Living Room”, and we have been honored and thrilled to invite all in to be a part of our community. 

Our music events have cemented our opinions that Tampa is home to some of the most talented musicians *ever*, and we have watched those events grow over the years as more and more musicians have become regular fixtures to our stage.  We’ve hosted 2 wonderful Songwriter’s Night Anniversary Parties (photos below) and have won Creative Loafing’s Best of the Bay “Best New Open Mic” award.

We adopted a green lifestyle in ’07 by introducing our fair trade, organic espressos, and bringing in a collection of sustainable to-go products made from corn.   (note – melting down our straws and adding salt and butter does not delicious creamed corn make.) 

In 2008, Creative Loafing named us one of Tampa’s “100 Green Businesses”, and wrote:  “A locally owned, independent coffee & wine bar in Ybor City that sells fair-trade organic coffee and emphasizes goods with local provenance, Tre Amici has also become a kind of creative clubhouse. It’s a classic “third place,” suitable for informal brainstorming or for regularly scheduled events like the third-Wednesday public gatherings of the Urban Charrette.”  Awesome, right?

We kicked butt at Bocce Ball – winning 1st place at this year’s Festa Italiana (photo below), and woke up extremely early to appear on Channel 13′s morning show to teach viewers how to make Cafe con Leche.  (photo below)

One of our daredevil owners, Dale Swope, won a NATIONAL race at the Palm Beach International Raceway driving a Formula Mazda bearing our name.  Since our name is on the car, I’m pretty sure that means we’re fast.  And people have said that we’re easy to talk to… so we’re fast and easy.  Does that make you think less – or MORE – of us?

When we closed for the summer in June to remodel, we were *overwhelmed* at the outpouring of love and support from the community – all begging us to reopen soon.  We’ve been working hard since we closed, and are SO excited with the changes.  We’ll be introducing these changes on this blog over the next few weeks leading up to our reopening, but, the most obvious one is our new “look” – we have a new logo!  We also have some amazing new people on staff that can. not. WAIT to meet you all and make you delicious drinks and meals. 

So – now you’re all caught up.  Keep checking back to read about new things we’ve got going on, as well as to read musings & observations from some of our regulars who will appear as guest bloggers in our “user generated content” series.  We can’t wait to see you all again soon – and welcome your feedback!

High-fives & hot coffee,

Us at the Bunker