Two Shepherds Taproom, the Drew Park dog bar that built a following around off-leash social hours and community events at 4813 N Grady Ave, will close permanently on May 29. Its successor is already named: Gambit Games, an all-ages board game and trading card café, is taking over the property and has scheduled a grand opening weekend for the days immediately following.
Two Shepherds drew a consistent crowd from Tampa pet owners who wanted a bar format organized around their dogs rather than around them. The off-leash model — a social space where the dog was the point, not an afterthought — gave the Grady Avenue address a niche identity inside a Drew Park corridor that doesn't have many leisure anchors. The operator's Instagram confirmed the closure and the handoff, framing both as a single transition rather than a gap between tenants.
Gambit Games is positioning itself in the same community-event lane: tournaments, tabletop gaming, beer, wine, and programming for all ages. Trading card events — think Magic: The Gathering and similar competitive formats — have found durable audiences in Tampa's mid-market bar and café spaces, and an all-ages license broadens the weekday foot traffic potential beyond what a standard taproom license allows. The concept targets the same kind of repeat-visit, event-driven customer that Two Shepherds cultivated, just through a different activity vertical.
The address itself is worth noting. Drew Park sits northwest of the airport and has historically been a light-industrial and commercial services corridor — not a traditional hospitality strip. Two Shepherds was something of an outlier there, and Gambit Games appears to be betting the customer base follows the location rather than the concept. Whether the all-ages gaming format can hold the loyalty Two Shepherds built will be the early test.
The farewell party for Two Shepherds is Thursday, May 29, from 6 to 10 PM at 4813 N Grady Ave. Gambit Games' grand opening weekend follows on Saturday and Sunday, per the operator's Instagram. No further opening details — hours, ownership, or tournament schedule — have been confirmed through additional sources.
