The District Magazine Vol. 3 NEW BEGINNINGS 2018 | Page 42

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Portico Café Creating
New Beginnings
Social, Spiritual and Artistic
by Melanie Hicks
“Just when the caterpillar thought her
life was over, she began to fly”
- Anonymous
When you step foot into the Portico Café, you are
struck by the modern furniture, the friendly staff and
the smell of delicious food. The Wi-Fi is as fast, free
and unlimited as the smiles and the building has a
designated free parking lot, a unicorn for coffee shops
downtown. I had the fantastic pleasure of sitting down
with Justin DeRosa, pastor and lead man at the Portico
to learn their story.
Portico Café sits on an entire city block off Florida
Avenue on the edge of downtown. It’s an abandoned
Church campus with a vivid history, a fresh coat of paint
and a renewed purpose.
Founded in 1846, Portico Café is rooted in what was
the oldest church in Tampa. The current campus,
built in the 1960s during the Church’s height, was
abandoned in 2011 as the aging congregation could
no longer support its operations. For three years
the Hyde Park Methodist Church brainstormed and
planned on how to reinvent this asset for the current
needs of Tampa. They came to three underlying
desires: One, to activate the block, two, to be a gift
to the city, and three, to make an impact on people
struggling on the margins.
Transforming this decades old space that had been
abandoned for two years was no small feat. Roofing,
electric, air, flood damage - all a distant memory from
this bright modern space.
And so Portico Café and Event Space were born. The
campus concept is a figurative umbrella set out to
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