The former Shuckin’ Shack pad on Wesley Chapel Blvd has a new lease on life, trading low-key casual for big screens and scratch-made plates until well after midnight. Food + Beer — the Sarasota-born sports pub chain known for keeping its kitchen open when most bars call it quits — opened its eighth location here in November 2025.
Co-founders Mike Whalen and Casey Daniels met working a restaurant floor in the early 2000s — he was the server, she ran the kitchen. That partnership launched their flagship Gulf Gate location in 2018, and the chain has since spread across Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, and Lakeland before reaching this first Pasco County location.
What separates Food + Beer from the usual sports-bar fare is its insistence on cooking from scratch: hand-breaded wings, house-made burgers and sandwiches, plus less-expected items like sushi burritos and tuna poke bowls. The kitchen stays open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday — late enough to catch service-industry workers coming off their own shifts.
Compared to the Buffalo Wild Wings and Walk-On’s already on Wesley Chapel Blvd, Food + Beer is positioning itself somewhere between elevated gastropub and no-frills bar stool — a scratch kitchen with a sports-bar’s hours.
Good to know: Food + Beer is at 25026 Wesley Chapel Blvd, Lutz, FL 33559. Kitchen open daily, closing 1 a.m. Sun–Thu, 2 a.m. Fri–Sat.