Several years ago progressive funeral homes opened their own hospitality rooms to be able to serve post-funeral meals and refreshments on their own premises.  Many of those funeral homes that have promoted that concept and have consumer friendly facilities for that purpose, not only have seen their rooms used and profitable, but they have been able to grow market share for death care services by having the rooms available.

This week we learned that a funeral home in Tampa, Florida, the Blount and Curry Funeral Home, has taken the hospitality room amenity to the next level.  According to this article from Yahoo News, the funeral home has invested about $2.85 million in upgrading three distinctive event spaces on funeral home property.

One of those spaces is a throwback space to the days of Tampa’s Ybor City area that was a reputed area of activity during the Prohibition period of the United States.  According to the article, where you can see photos, the area has “exposed brick, stained concrete, and a bar with mirrored antique glass”.  The area can host up to 55 people.

Again, according to the article, “. . . clients will be able to book full catering and bar services. It also has an exterior entrance, so guests don’t have to enter through the front of the funeral home to access it”.

The hospitality room is not scheduled to be open until sometime this summer, however, funeral home personnel say that it is already being booked for non-funeral home events.

Here is the website for Blount & Curry Funeral Home in Tampa.  It is a Dignity Memorial chapel owned by parent company Service Corporation International.

Here is a 2017 Funeral Director Daily article entitled “Alcohol and the Celebration – a trend that is Here” on some of the trailblazers in the food and beverage hospitality business of death care.

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