Country music bar Cowboys Dance Hall opens in Largo
/Cowboys Dance Hall, a 12,000-square-feet country music bar, on opening night | Brandon Miles
Put on your Stetson hat and your cowboy boots and get ready for some boot-scootin’ boogie! Dubbing itself “Pinellas County’s Premier Country Bar,” Cowboys Dance Hall opened last month at 12333 66th Street North in Largo. The venue was previously known as the Waterin’ Trough, a nightclub that also had a country-roadhouse vibe.
Once you enter the 12,000-square-foot venue, grab a drink from the main bar or the blue horse trailer turned mobile bar and hit the dance floor for some two-stepping and line dancing.
According to the Cowboys Dance Hall Instagram page, the venue’s entertainment lineup varies from day to day. Dance lessons are offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m., with a $5 cover charge. Friday and Saturday nights feature “honky tonkin’ all night long,” while Sunday evenings offer 20% off to those in the service industry.
The 12,000-square-foot building that houses Cowboys Dance Hall at 12333 66th Street North in Largo was formerly home to another country bar called the Waterin’ Trough | Google
“It’s pretty much exceeded expectations,” manager and co-owner Travis Wateska said of the venue’s first few weeks in business. “We’ve been talking about how busy we were going to be, and how many people were going to be there, but actually experiencing the amount of support that we got, it was almost overwhelming.”
Wateska and his partners, Kenneth Davis and William Karns, also own the Saltwater Hippy Beach Bar and Brass Captain Saloon & BBQ, both located in Madeira Beach.
“We’re not, like, a corporate company,” he said. “We’re local, family people.”
Wateska said he and his team made significant upgrades during the transition from the Waterin’ Trough to Cowboys Dance Hall, including an all-new hardwood dancefloor and a new drink rail.
Country music is at the heart of Cowboys Dance Hall. Whether there is live band or a DJ, there’s always toe tappin’ country music being played. Line Dancing lessons are offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. | Cowboys Dance Hall
He added, “We’re going to be opening an upstairs VIP area soon,” he added, “although there’s not a defined date on that yet. We added another bar inside and we're doing live music on the weekends. We're planning on doing some ticketed shows with some bigger acts from around the country.”
To help meet that goal, Cowboys Dance Hall has partnered with 103.5 FM, a Tampa-based country music radio station, to book and promote shows by well-known bands and artists.
“There’s nothing bad to say about the Waterin’ Trough,” Wateska said. “They killed it. But we did try to change the recipe a little bit.”
Speaking of recipes, Cowboys Dance Hall offers something that wasn’t available at the Waterin’ Trough: food. Eats are provided by a mobile restaurant called the Food Joint, owned by a friend, and the menu changes every week, according to Wateska.
A cow skull disco ball hangs over the dance floor at Cowboys Dance Hall | Cowboys Dance Hall
“We sell food every night,” he said. “It’s kind of like a food truck. He sells everything out of a tent.”
One of the main goals of Cowboys Dance Hall, Wateska added, is to offer entertainment at a reasonable price — and that means cheap drinks.
“We’re firm believers in volume over price,” he said. “Our beers are only four bucks apiece. But if someone wants a Bahama Breeze or something like that, we could probably make it, but our drink menu is fairly simple.”
The price of beer drops to $2 on Thursdays, Wateska said, adding that Thursday is also Ladies’ Night, so female guests get 20% off all bar drinks. Happy Hour, offering half-priced drinks, is from 6 to 7 p.m. every night of the week except Mondays, when the venue is closed.
If the main bar is too busy, check out the old horse trailer that has been converted into a mobile bar | Cowboys Dance Hall
“We just want people to come enjoy some cheap drinks, you know, rather than paying $10, $12, even $15 per drink, like some of the other bars in the area.”
So, dust off those cowboy boots, grab some friends, and head to Cowboys Dance Hall, now open at 12333 66th Street North in Largo.
For a list of upcoming shows and other information, follow Cowboys Dance Hall on Instagram.
