The Break Room

I love this place. The staff and owner are incredible and the atmosphere is mostly laid back. There are some really incredible people who consider this their second home. I love it

Ah. Walking in reminds me of my younger days, spent in the haze of smoky bars, bad pool games, and maybe not the best decisions! haha
What more is there to say? I went there to watch my friend’s band play and it is definitely smoker friendly. If you’re not a fan of that, stay away. Really, though, it’s a pool hall. I’ve realized that smoking, drinking, and pool tends to go hand in hand.
Honestly? This place is not for me. I prefer places like Peabody’s but that’s simply because I am food + drinks over most everything else. Still! The bartenders were nice, the drinks were pretty cheap, and it has an area for live bands and pool.
So, if you want to still keep with those old time feels of being able to smoke inside and drink and hit some cue balls, come here! Be warned: You will have to shower and wash your clothes once you get home because you will definitely smell like smoke.

For the life of me, I’ve tried to find a non smoking joint I like better than the break room but I can’t. I love the karaōke show here. The DJ is fantastic. Love his sincere interaction with the crowd. The bartenders are cool as shit. I’ve just had to succumb to the powerful vortex this place beholds. Cigarette smoke and all. After all that’s what showers are for!

I love this place when I’m out of ideas or want to just go out for a little bit. It’s a good hang out place for friends. I come here once in a blue moon to play pool and have drinks. I believe they have karaōke some nights. There is also a small dance floor. The only thing I don’t like is how bad it smells with smoke. I am a non-​smoker and everytime I leave this place my clothes and hair smell like cigarettes. So I always have to bathe after this place.

It was Friday night and I had bumped into a bunch of guys at a nearby dive bar who were enjoying some chicken wings and a pitcher of beer. We were in the mood to shoot some pool, and so we drove down the block to The Break Room — a notorious late night haunt for stick shooters, poker players, and vampires.
The Break Room (TBR) is located in the back of a non-​descript strip mall along Gunn Highway in southern Carrollwood, very near the traffic light at Mullis City Way. Most of the store fronts in this mall are vacant, which gives the whole place a very eerie appearance late at night. The first thing you notice as you walk in the front door is the wall of cigarette smoke which seems to smack you upside the head. No food is served inside, and so the cloud of smoke is quite intense.
They have a handful of well-​worn pool tables in the place as well as a couple of card tables with games of Texas Hold ‘em and other card games nearby. The jukebox was pumping out some Classic 70s rock, giving the whole place a very surreal feeling.
I’m not a big fan of smoky bars, so I just shot a couple of games and then came home to take a shower. I’ll probably have to burn the jeans that I was wearing that night since they still stink of cigarette smoke.
If you like shooting pool in a smoky bar while listening to Deep Purple and knocking back pitchers of domestic beer, then I highly recommend a stop at The Break Room.

Holy Crap.
This place totally proves my brother right when he says «Nothing good ever happens in Tampa after midnight.»
Thank Baby Jesus for nothing good: tattoos, whiskey, skinny dipping with TWELVE people I just met, getting stung by hornets, getting licked in the face by three stray pit bulls, «no officer, I can’t honestly say what the difference between peyote and mescaline is, but I wouldn’t recommend them together.»
Fuck: this place is amazing.

Meh. We probably won’t be going back to this pool hall anytime soon. It was hot and humid, as if the A/​C was broken, so it made playing conditions uncomfortable. Speaking of broke, there is no music so the place is really quiet. There is a «TouchTunes» type jukebox, but I guess no one could afford to get a playlist going. You could hear a pin drop in this place; it was like a library. Sarcastically, we felt like someone was going to hush us if we got too rowdy, so we played two quick games, finished out pitcher and dipped out.

First off, I’ve lived in two foreign countries and have traveled all over the US. I’m in my mid thirties. I’ve been to a few bars to say the least. The young blonde bartender is THE WORST barterder I’ve EVER meet

I was introduced to the Break Room through the regulars, which is really the way to see this place.
The bar has two sections: the first with about half a dozen pool tables, foosball, a few odd arcade games, etc. This half is frequently inhabited by the 18+ crowd. The second half holds the bar, a few tables, and a small stage they put to good use with karaōke and open mic.
The management and staff are excellent. Really sweet, and they take care of their own.
While there’s no menu, they’ll fry you up some mean chicken tenders, fries, onion rings. Tasty baskets with plenty of dipping sauce.
It’s a bit dingy, a bit shady, and occasionally more 18+ than 21+. But the people running the place are great, they mix a good drink, there’s plenty of karaōke, and the onion rings are rad.