Promoting community; the details of barbecue

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published May 7, 2002

For years, former football player Adrian Wright has detailed cars at the corner of Boulevard and Platt Street.

Like any successful businessman, he decided to expand. But how? Auto repair? Tires? Car stereos?

Try barbecue. Wright had already dabbled in selling barbecue on the weekend, and with the waiting room in the detailing shop basically going unused, it just made sense to start selling his "oak-smoked" brand of barbecue a couple of months ago. People can phone or fax in to-go orders in the morning and pick them up for lunch. The barbecue side is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The sign -- "Mr. Klean's Auto Detailing and Oak-Smoked Barbecue" -- still strikes a funny chord, but Wright says: "It's all good."

It's all good now that the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau's new visitor information center is up and running. It spent most of the weekend turning people away before Monday's grand opening at Channelside.

Clearly, the new location is more accessible than the old downtown digs on Ashley Street, which had been in operation for 12 years. Not only will it be a perfect complement to port visitors, but the TBCVB also hopes locals will stop in to find activities for families and friends.

Eventually, the visitors center will include an electronic billboard and interactive displays.

My sons and I once waited for nearly an hour to get a table at the Brandon Outback on a pretty brisk night. It wasn't that big a deal because we wiled away the time playing hangman, but for a young couple and their infant, it appeared the wait would be too long.

One of my sons, probably thinking of his own baby sister, said I should invite them to sit with us. I tried to explain it doesn't work that way -- even though we were three sitting at a table for six -- but in the end I gave in to their wishes and extended a rather awkward invitation.

The couple politely declined, but now I've learned from a man in New Jersey our thought was not all that awkward.

Morris Egert, a former restaurateur, is touting an idea he calls "Friendly Community Tables" which would give single diners and couples a chance to share a meal together. Egert is a big believer in the idea, partly because 43 years and four children ago, he met his wife at a community table in the Paterson, N.J., deli where he worked.

"We can all learn so much from each other," Egert said by telephone Monday. "Everybody has a story to tell."

Egert has gone about disseminating information on his idea through press releases and a four-page newsletter, reasoning it would be good for newcomers, people traveling alone on business and senior citizens who may be living alone.

For no charge, Egert said he is willing to give restaurants promotional material and list them on his Web site if they want to start a community table.

The local Woods and Wanton chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers held its third annual coronation ball Saturday, 104 years after the first Buffalo Soldiers arrived at Port Tampa to help with the Spanish-American War on May 2, 1898. Mary Towler was crowned the queen for 2002-2003.

Esquire magazine has named Bern's as one of the four most fun restaurants in America.

Wright's new barbecue foray continues to draw interest, but he hasn't exactly been around to greet newcomers. He recently suffered a serious motorcycle accident and has been recuperating at Tampa General after four surgeries. Still, he expects to make a full recovery and credits his survival to keeping himself in good shape.

In these troubling days, Morris Egert's idea of community dining tables may be a difficult theory to peddle. Yet if it worked, I'm sure the lives of at least a few people would be enhanced.

And maybe the wait for a table wouldn't be so long.

That's all I'm saying.

-- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com.

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