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EP # 236 Behind the Bar: Meet Tina Tomasino and Her Dive Bar Journey
Step into the vibrant world of Hurricane Tina's 5 Star Dive Bar through the captivating journey of owner Tina Tomasino. From her beginnings as a high school teacher and cheerleader in New Hampshire, Tina's transition to bar ownership reflects her adventurous spirit and desire to create a community space. In this episode, we delve into the heartfelt anecdotes and lessons learned while establishing her dive bar in Fort Myers Beach, a hub where locals and tourists gather for an unforgettable experience.
Tina shares the ups and downs of her journey, including the changes brought on by Hurricane Ian and the unique atmosphere she has cultivated with live music and themed events. The warmth you feel when you enter Hurricane Tina's is a testament to the strong bonds formed between staff and patrons alike. Her story resonates deeply, reminding us that local bars can be more than just places to drink—they can be sanctuaries of friendship and fun.
Discover how Tina tackled misconceptions about dive bars, turning Hurricane Tina's into a beloved neighborhood spot where everyone can feel at home. The sense of community and connection serves as the backbone of her establishment, showcasing the importance of togetherness during both challenging and joyous times.
As you listen, you’ll find yourself inspired to visit Hurricane Tina's and experience the welcoming atmosphere firsthand—whether you're a local or just passing through, there's always room for one more at the bar. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to support the community spirit that Tina fosters every day!
Hurricane Tina's 5 Star Dive Bar
Tina Tomasino
19051 San Carlos Boulevard Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931
239-770-4211
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo Jim.
Speaker 2:Schaller. Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 236 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Tina Tomasino from Hurricane Tina's Five Star Dive Bar in Fort Myers Beach. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Jim. Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Yes, taco and tequila Tuesday. That's it. Excited to learn a little bit more about you and your bar over there, so let's jump right in. Why don't you share with our listeners what you do over at Hurricane Tina's?
Speaker 3:We well. I own Hurricane Tina's five Dive Bar. It's a little small local bar located just before you get over to the bridge on Fort Myers Beach on the left-hand side. It's a lot of fun. We have an outside patio live music. It's a fun little spot to go to.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So let's back up your story a little bit. How did you?
Speaker 3:get involved in the bar industry back up your story a little bit. How did you get involved in?
Speaker 2:the bar industry. Wow, you want the readers digest version.
Speaker 3:Yeah, why not? So I I used to teach high school and I I coached and I owned a cheer gym. So when I moved to, I sold my cheer gym up in New Hampshire and I started teaching out here in Florida and opened up another gym. The person that I was involved with wanted me to do the um, not travel as much, so I like to cook and I opened up hurricane hurricane tina's beach bar and grill on fort myers beach. When the uh they did the first um construction on fort myers beach, it was I used to be right next to uh, lonnie kai, okay, and when they did the first construction I got out of it. And then my beer reps found this little place and they said Tina, come on, get back into it. So here we are. I never thought I would own a bar in a million years.
Speaker 2:Right Strange strange story. So, lonnie Kai, where were you Right over by the cottage then?
Speaker 3:No, the other side. So you know, on the like right before like in between Lani Kai and the beach bar. Okay, Like right there it was the little orange building right on the beach Avenue C, Right, right that's everybody's dream to have a bar at the beach.
Speaker 2:Right there you go, but you got a great location now, so I love it yeah.
Speaker 3:We weren't always that big. After Ian we became bigger, did? You Expanded a little bit, yeah. So we weren't always that big. After Ian we became bigger, they did.
Speaker 2:Expanded a little bit. Yeah, ok, wow, interesting. I did not know that I drive by all the time. I see it all the time. So let's talk about your journey. You know, obviously, coming from New Hampshire, switching careers, getting involved in the bar industry, there's some challenges involved, whether personally or professionally. Is there something that you went through that you can look back at now? And you know what? I made it through it?
Speaker 3:I'm in a better place now, you know something that happened I think just the the location, the way that it was, it was a very uh and the kindest way. It was a very eclectic group of people and just going from a certain culture into the culture that I grew it into, it was a big change. It was a little scary in the beginning and a lot of people were very less apt to stop in until they knew that it was a different change and a change in the scenery inside the building and outside the building. So that was the tough part of it. So now people know where we are. Now we've become a sports bar. So people thought that we were just like a little little bar. They didn't know what was going on inside there. So now that we've done a lot of things outside and we get the bands playing outside during season, people know now that it's like a neighborhood bar.
Speaker 2:I love it, and you've got Betty working there, right.
Speaker 3:I do my Betty Boop. She's 97.
Speaker 2:Wow, she's an icon down in Fort.
Speaker 3:Myers Beach. Right, she is. She certainly is.
Speaker 2:How did you ever get her to come and work for you?
Speaker 3:I've known her for a long time so she was one of the first people that I met when I moved here on Fort Myers Beach, that I met when I moved here on Fort Myers beach and she used to work. She worked for Jimmy B's. She used to be the shot girl, the sunset shot lady. And every at sunset. She used to do the sunset shots. So I had met her and she was working somewhere else and I said well, if you ever want to change, and now she's been at Tina's probably now five years.
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah, she's been there a long time. She works Monday, tuesdays and Thursdays nine to two, so if anybody wants to come see her, yeah, you got to make sure you go and see Betty for sure, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about myths or misconceptions. I think you addressed some of that as far as the stigma of a type of bar or anything like that that we can maybe kind of clear up for our listeners today.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't. I mean I don't know what misconception that they would have about it. I mean, we're a bar we don't have food. So we're a bar like the Mermaid or Valerie's where we don't serve food, we just have, you know, just our drinks, all the sports stations. So I don't know um other than that, I don't think that there was any misconceptions of what kind of bar it was outside that they thought that we might have food but we don't um but it's.
Speaker 2:But it's turned into a good hangout for for everybody you know, whether tourists or locals or anything like that as well too we get a lot of tourists coming in now as they drive by.
Speaker 3:We've got the lights up outside. So a lot of people they'll say, oh my god, I decided to stop and we've never been here. Once they come inside, they fall in love with it. So if we can get them in the door, because we have no, we have no signage outside since ian, so I just have my lights that I put around the building and uh, so people, you know, if they come in, they're like, oh yeah, we're gonna drive by. Or my niece's name is Tina, my granddaughter's name is Tina, or my name is Tina. So we decided to stop in. Once they stop in, they fall in love with the place and they come back.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I love it. Everybody does so a lot. How long have?
Speaker 3:you owned it. Now Seven and a half years, seven and a half years.
Speaker 2:So a lot has changed in that time. You know changed in that time, you know not you know. And Ian changed a lot of things as well too. But do you notice things that are different now, that were in the past, or getting easier?
Speaker 3:I think it's getting easier with the people coming in. The amount of people we've. Definitely we did double not double, but just about one and a half in size and different crowds are coming in now that they know that we're non-smoking because we used to be smoking, so we're completely non-smoking and that changed. That made the business elevate beyond I could imagine. And um just being having all the college football games, so I do um on during football season. On saturdays and sundays I do free food.
Speaker 3:So I do all the cooking because I have a food license. I have the food truck outside that I don't really use because everybody's inside watching the TV. So we use the food truck during our functions. For St Patty's Day we'll have the food truck open.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 3:We do all the cooking and so there's food in there and it's just a lot of fun. We make it a real lot of fun inside and I think people are excited about it. They get excited. Ohio state and michigan those are two big people that come down, so we have a big um house divided party we flip the whole bar from the street all the way up. We dye the trough like red and blue. There's no fights, people go crazy over. It's so much fun that's you're doing.
Speaker 2:You're doing the right things. You're doing. You're doing great. So New Hampshire to Southwest Florida how did that happen?
Speaker 3:So I used to. I was a high school teacher and I used to coach cheer. Well, cheerleading up north is pretty big. Everybody thinks it's really big in Florida, which it is, but it's big out here because everybody comes here to travel. So it was big out there and we opened up. I opened up a cheer gym up North. When I decided to sell it, I signed a one-year non-compete and I came out to Florida. I was going to only be here for a year and work for NCA, national Cheerleading Association. Well, I stayed longer. I started teaching again out here and coaching and I opened up a cheer gym out here as part of the project, as one of the as my business. I taught business out here. So I opened up a cheer gym and then I don't know that's how I ended up being in a bar. It all like. I don't know how it all coincides, but it does. But the girls that used to cheer for me when I first opened my bar on the beach, the ones that were all old enough, all came to work for me.
Speaker 3:I love it, I love it, it was great, and then some of them came to me over at this location and two of them ended up marrying the Coast Guard boys that came in.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 3:That's it.
Speaker 2:See. Wow, you're not only a bar owner and a phenomenal person, but you're a matchmaker, see.
Speaker 3:Let's start that Tina's matchmaking.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go, you can do it. So, I know owning a bar and what you do demands a lot of your time. When you get a moment of free time, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Speaker 3:working more? No, just kidding, I like to be. We go boating out on the water. I just relax in by the pool with my friends A couple of my friends, that well. Anna Maria, she works with me and she works out at Lighthouse Tiki, but you know, when I hang out with her, she takes my phone. She's like that's it. You're not allowed to answer any questions. Like I'll answer the phone calls. It's your day off. You're not doing it. But laying by the pool, going out on the water, just kind of trying to get some downtime In season right now, though, there's not a lot of it.
Speaker 2:No, no, we enjoy it when it slows down a little bit. We can go to the beach without the crowds, right?
Speaker 3:Right right.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew, and what you do that maybe they won't be too familiar with?
Speaker 3:It's a family business. My staff is so unbelievable. No matter when you come in or who you meet, you fall in love with them. My cousin Lisa she visits from up north. She comes down in season. She works there. There's Betty, debbie, derek, anne-marie, john.
Speaker 3:Everybody is just so local and everybody that comes in they enjoy each other. They enjoy all my bartenders and it's just a fun atmosphere. You feel like home. Everybody that comes in they say, oh my God. This reminds me of my local bar up north. This reminds me of my local bar in Minnesota. You know everybody loves it once they walk in. So if you give it a shot and you come in, you're going to fall in love and I think part of it. I know Ian was such a challenge and I was so blessed to have I get a little emotional, sorry to have the kids working for me because we were out there the next day. We walked and we helped everybody and as hard as it was, it brought us all so close and I think the closeness that the staff became together. I think that transcends into how we treat everybody in the bar. So everybody, everybody's family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that because you really do have a sense of community with what you do. But it's but it's very welcoming. Like you said, you've got people that stop by that now they've been in there and now they become part of the family. You know that's, that's like. I love what you've created there and you continue to build. So how would our listeners go about contacting you? Or they wanted to stop by and check it out.
Speaker 3:Well, we're located. Our address is 19051 San Carlos Boulevard, just as you're going towards the bridge. We're kind of right across the street from the moose diagonal, across the moose. Or you can find us on our Facebook page, which is Hurricane Tina's Five Star Dive Bar, and then, if they need to, they can just give us a call, the 239-770-4211. And I update daily on our facebook. It shows who's working, what's going on, what sports? I think people don't understand. Like all we have all the sports packages mlb, nhl, college, everything we have. We have them all hockey, golf, nascar anything you want to watch now.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I love it perfect, yes.
Speaker 2:So when you stopped in traffic and you're waiting to go over the bridge, just took look to your left and hurricane tina's will be right there yeah, they can pull in one entrance and go out the other. Stop and get a cold one, go to the bathroom there you go right out because it's going to be a while before you get over the bridge.
Speaker 3:So exactly, exactly, and we do do. We have have karaoke on Friday nights, which is really big, from 6 to 9. And then we have D-Rox, who plays on Saturdays from 1 to 4. And then we have Wayne Deloria that plays on Sundays from 2 to 5. So we have live music on Friday, saturdays and Sundays, which is a big draw. Everybody loves live music Friday, saturdays and Sundays, which is a big draw. Everybody loves live music.
Speaker 1:Yes, they do.
Speaker 3:We're in the Shrimp Fest and then St Paddy's Day we have a big. We have outside music going on St Paddy's Day with D-Rox and we have the Chris O'Leary Band. He's a big. He's a five-piece band from New York. He's unbelievable. He's on my Facebook so if they check him out, he's there Really. He's really really good.
Speaker 2:The party never stops, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Very good.
Speaker 3:Storm is always brewing.
Speaker 2:I like that. I like that, that is awesome. So any last words for listeners today.
Speaker 3:Well, I do have one thing, just for fun. So last year in the shrimp fest we won first place in our in our category. Well that our trophy has been up on our bar for a year. It went missing, jim. What? Oh yeah, oh yeah, our shrimp fest trophy went missing.
Speaker 2:So we're wondering if somebody did a little trick, I know, I know. Right, cause they're going to give you the same trophy back again this year, right? Oh yeah, we're going to get a little trick, I know, I know. Right, because they're going to give you the same trophy back again this year, right?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we're going to get a bigger one this year.
Speaker 2:There you go. Even better, I love it. Well, we'll keep an eye out for APB. We'll put an APB?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there we go, there we go.
Speaker 2:Right? Yep, exactly, we'll find it for. But hey, tina, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor in what you do, and we're going to stop by soon and check out the Hurricane Tinas.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you so much, jim.
Speaker 1:Yep. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEstero. com. That's GNPAasterocom. That's GNPEstero. com, or call 335-296-2621.