Have a drink and step back in time

The Scott, a new bar in downtown St. Petersburg, is now open. While it joins a long, and growing, list of drinking establishments in the bustling neighborhood, this one is a tad bit different.

The Scott is inside the Cordova Inn, the recently purchased and refashioned hotel on Second Avenue North. The hotel was called the Hotel Scott when it first opened in 1921 and changed its name two years later.

Largo-based New Hotel Collection bought the 32-room hotel in December for $3 million and has since been working to revive that feeling it had in its glory days, while adding a few modern touches. Tommy Del Zoppo, New Hotel Collection's chief investment officer, tells Coffee Talk he wants to see the bar and lobby become a part of the community, a watering hole where both tourists and locals belly up to the bar for a drink or cup of coffee. “One of the reasons why we bought this place was we wanted it to be integral to the community,” he says. 

The Scott is inside the lobby of the Cordova, to the right when you walk inside. Like the rest of the hotel, there’s a feeling you’ve walked into a European hotel built a century ago. Four types of beer are on tap and liquors, including Banyan Reserve Vodka, which comes from a St. Petersburg distillery, are available. Signature drinks include The Burg, which is a Manhattan and The Scott, an Old Fashioned. 

The coffee, like the vodka, is locally sourced. Hogg Batch Coffee, a St. Petersburg roaster, created a special brew for The Scot as well as some specialty roasts, including coffees made from beans aged in barrels that stored liquors. “It’s important we support each other instead of going to some big distribution center and getting our name on a label,” Del Zoppo says about turning to brothers Duane and David Hogg. “Plus, they make great coffee.”

In addition to the Cordova, New Hotel Collection owns an 86-unit property at the Harbourside Resort in Indian Rocks Beach, the 10-unit Beachside Resort on Indian Shores and the Smoky Mountains hotel, located near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.