Sober Bar will open next month at 3062 Beach Boulevard South in downtown Gulfport with zero-proof cocktails, kava, and specialty coffee. Owners Sean Hawthorne and Collin Horton have spent months renovating the 1,400-square-foot space into a New Orleans speakeasy-inspired lounge.
The idea started as a pop-up in 2025. The owners served drinks at markets throughout Tampa Bay. Gulfport’s Tuesday Fresh Market became one of their regular stops, and demand grew for a brick-and-mortar spot.
“With the name Sober Bar, we want it to elicit some curiosity with our customers because the words ‘sober’ and ‘bar’ seem like two conflating ideas,” said Hawthorne to St. Pete Rising. “I discovered the kava industry about five years ago when I decided to go sober for a while. I was looking for some sense of community and I found it at these kava bars.”…