Just a few steps away from the bars, restaurants and shops of 7th Avenue, there is The Ybor Party House. A perfect playground for Bachelor and Bachelorette bashes. Open the front door of the charming 1930’s bungalow and you’ll find four televisions, three couches, two overstuffed lounge chairs, one dining room set, a small kitchen and bathroom. Bright colors stain the walls in the wide-open space and the atmosphere screams, “If you can’t have a good time here, you won’t find fun anywhere”.

Owner Eddie Surales turned the two bedroom, one bathroom home into a rocking party house. It’s a concept he created to allow celebrations to carry on long after the Ybor City party scene has called it a night. “It’s not a club so it can’t shut down after 3 a.m. It’s classified as a group assembly under YC7 zoning.” In English that means you can party as late as you like and then crash on the pull out beds and couches. Bring your own liquor, your own D.J. and 100 of your closest friends. Don’t try that at the Hilton.

“This is a one stop shop for partying; we have bartenders on call, caterers and bands.” And the distinction of being the closest house to Centro Ybor. You’ve got it all here, privacy in the middle of a bonanza of partiers. You can soak in the excitement of Ybor and head back to your own domain.” But this hip MTV culture inspired pad, has a History Channel background.

When the house was built in 1908, the cigar industry was thriving and Latin culture was dominating. The home was called a “casita” and it’s believed the owner was a cigar maker. Fast-forward a few decades to the 1930’s and The Boone family moves in, for nearly seventy years. Vernita Nicole Boone was one of seven children to grow up in the small home. “Partying and prostitution were very popular in the area during the Great Depression. Tampa officials had to comply with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal” so they took the prostitutes out of the neighborhood and made parts of it residential, selling the homes to low to middle-class Black and Italian families. It was originally located at 1608 16th Street, but when the tourist started to pour into Ybor it was moved to1603 6th Avenue, to make way for the Parking Garage. The family never imagined that it would end up as a party house or it would be out of the family lines at all, but we accept it. We’ve even rented out our old property for parties.”

Although the Ybor Party House caters to brides and grooms to be, it has seen other scenes. An eighty-three year-old grandmother blew out candles for her Birthday Party; there have been art showings, yoga retreats, bikers during Bike Week, company Christmas parties, high school graduations, and Super Bowl soirees. If there is an occasion to commemorate, the Party House puts out the welcome mat.

It’s booked about three weekends a month at $199 a night. Ybor Party House #1 is so successful, that Ybor Party House #2 is in the works. A bigger bungalow with a 60’s theme---we’re talking shag carpeting, bean bags and strobe lights. By 2010, Surales hopes to have 25 Party Houses with 25 Themes and 25 reasons to leave your abode for one of his.