Rat Pack is out; floral shop making a comeback; Miss Piggy is in

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published May 27, 2002

Imagine an upscale bar in downtown Tampa with a Las Vegas theme: Rat Pack music, mahogany decor, billiard tables without the pool hall feel, a few video games without the sense of being at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Imagine it, because the City Council has denied Terence Moore the right to serve liquor at his Kennedy Boulevard building. University of Tampa officials persuaded the council to vote no 5-1 because the bar would have been just two blocks from the UT campus.

Never mind the fact that the university's Rathskeller pub sells beer on campus.

Don't get me wrong. I know drinking among college students is a problem, but the way to tackle it is through education about drinking responsibly.

And I'm not convinced Moore's club would have attracted UT students. The nearby jazz-themed 442 (next to Mise En Place) always drew an older crowd. In fact, it may not have had to close in October 1999 if a few more students had crossed the street.

UT professor and former city councilman Scott Paine told the City Council a student might get hit by a car crossing Kennedy at 3 a.m. But if UT students are driving off campus to places like the Dale Mabry Bennigan's, don't the chances of someone dying in a DUI accident seem higher?

Moore's club would have been a welcome development in the fairly bleak area near the campus. UT's opposition seems misguided.

Will Chris Hart IV run for the District 1 County Commission seat? More than one person I've talked to believes so. Hart, who decided not to seek re-election to the state House, denies the rumor, but some pundits say it is the only decision that makes sense.

And doesn't Sam Rashid need someone to support in that race?

In 1954, Adolph and Jennie Campisi opened Jennie's Flowers and over the years built it into a landmark business. Anyone in West Tampa in need of that special floral arrangement headed for the corner of Columbus and Hanna.

And Fort Lauderdale-based Gerald Stevens Inc. went to that corner in 1998 because the company was looking to put together a national chain of florists. Stevens bought Jennie's from the Campisi family and corraled 300 other flower stores across America.

But things didn't go well. The new owners lost many of Jennie's old customers. Problems with a new phone system and computers were partly to blame, but so was the absence of a family touch. Gerald Stevens Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last April.

Enter Brian McCarthy. The Scranton, Pa., florist bought back the three floral shops he had sold to Gerald Stevens. Then, he turned his sights on Tampa Bay and took over Jennie's and five other florists from Gerald Stevens.

For the past six months, McCarthy, 47, has quietly made improvements. People answer the telephone instead of a taped greeting. Billing has improved. McCarthy comes down from Scranton every three weeks and says he is falling in love with Tampa.

Maybe Jennie's can get its stellar reputation to grow back.

Update: The folks at Denny's don't see the problem I do with Miss Piggy endorsing the bacon and sausage-laden Grand Slam breakfast.

A Denny's spokeswoman called me to say that above and beyond all else, Miss Piggy is seen as a Muppet (as opposed to a pig, I guess). She added that Muppet fans enjoy irreverent humor.

She may be right, but I still think it would be weird if Foghorn Leghorn started endorsing chicken or Elsie switched from Borden to burgers.

That's all I'm saying.

-- Ernest Hooper can be reached at (813) 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com.

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