SoHo pub offers Irish ambience

Owners of the quaint Dubliner on W Azeele Street strive to be just the ''pub around the corner.''

By MICHAEL CANNING and RON MATUS
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 15, 2002

WEE BIT O' DUBLIN ON SOHO: Like an Irish field after a gentle rain, clovers have blossomed on the SoHo map.

One block from the recently reopened MacDinton's Irish restaurant and pub, the Dubliner Irish Pub has replaced the former Captain's Galley restaurant and bar at 2307 W Azeele St. Co-owners Richard Campion and Noel Duffy hail from the Irish capital, hence the name.

The Dubliner's proximity to the bigger, more elegant MacDinton's doesn't phase Campion. "We're striving to be the pub around the corner," he said. "We're just happy to be small and quaint."

Campion is no stranger to bringing quality Irish ambiance to Tampa. He opened the James Joyce Irish Pub in 1998 on Ybor's Seventh Avenue. A year ago he sold the business to another bar owner. The Ybor crowds were getting a little too young for his taste, he says.

In the meantime, he settled on the SoHo location and worked on its conversion. Just as well, since Campion, an airline pilot, was laid off by Northwest Airlines after Sept. 11.

The Dubliner offers a full lunch and dinner menu, plus a rib-sticking Irish breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Ditch the calorie counter: Breakfast includes rashers (bacon), traditional pork sausage, black and white pudding (famously tasty sausages made from things Americans would rather not hear), fried tomato (say it right: "toh-MAH-toh"), eggs, toast, and your choice of coffee or Irish breakfast tea.

Some lighter fare with Continental influences reflect the recent renaissance in Ireland's cuisine. Baked brie with sun dried tomatoes, salmon, kabobs and salads share menu space with shepherd's pie, fish and chips, and chips and gravy.

Fifteen beers are on tap, as is live acoustic music Thursday through Saturday evenings. Bring your bodhran for Irish Steve's Sunday open mic.

SCAN DESIGN MOVING: The former Scotty's at 4221 W Gandy Blvd. will get a drastic makeover. In the next few months it goes from failed hardware barn to Euro-Contempo chic house.

This thanks to the pending move of Inspiration Furniture by Scan Design, currently at the old Twin Bays plaza at 4264 S Dale Mabry Highway. If you haven't been into contemporary for a while, this is the same business that used to be known simply as Scan Design and had a store in the Kmart shopping plaza at Dale Mabry and Columbus.

Co-owner Michael Eskildsen says the new store will boast 48,000 square feet, double that of the existing one. The former Scotty's will lend a new face to the Gandy business district, with a contemporary two-story facade of glass and powder coated metal. The lofty interior will feature granite and Siberian birch floors, lots of aluminum trim and an open ceiling.

Eskildsen says the new Scan Design will open in mid-December, and the old one will close by the end of the year.

OLD BUILDING, NEW VENTURES: Brenda Dohring laughed as she recounted how some of her office tenants have asked if they can also live in her downtown building.

When we catch on to something in Tampa, we catch on.

Loft living spaces, we mean. They're sprouting up in South Tampa and Ybor City and will soon blossom in the Channel District. Now just working in loft office space can tempt tenants to pack toothbrushes in their briefcases.

But for now, in Dohring's building, they'll have to be content with just working there.

And it seems that many are. Since buying the old Tampa Morning Tribune building at 514 N Tampa St. in 1992, Dohring says 25 businesses have come and gone. Such transiency shouldn't be alarming when you consider Dohring's business, Venture City, is an entrepreneurial center that specializes in providing a weigh station of sorts for upstart small businesses or even downsizing larger businesses.

Venture City offers short-term leases, curricular programs and specialized networking tailored for companies of 10 people or less. Dohring says there's currently room in her circa 1900 building for two such businesses. They would share space, contacts, ideas and possibly even employees with Venture City's other tenants.

The mix now includes tech consultants, marketers, a fitness trainer, Web designers, executive recruiters, and let's not forget City's Gourmet Deli on the ground floor. Dohring's other businesses, the Dohring Group real estate appraisers and Real Wired commercial real estate software and consulting, round out the roster.

Dohring said renovations to the three-story building restored it's original elevator, believed by some to be among the first in Tampa.

FARMERS MARKET REPLANTED: The dirt and debris mound at Howard and Swann avenues, where the Hyde Park Farmers Market stood for several years, is set to yield a proposed two-story medical building.

Meanwhile, the Farmers Market business has moved and transformed. Forever Flowers and Gifts opened Thursday at 1001 N MacDill Ave. Business co-owner John Sansone describes it as a "New York style bucket shop," meaning fresh cut flowers, potted flowers and plants, plus gift items. No cards, though.

His business partners, daughters Elizabeth Richeson and Sara Sansone, will run the shop and offer wedding consultant services.

Sansone said he's currently looking for another location in the SoHo area to open another produce stand.

- Do you know something that should be everybody's business? Call 226-3382, or e-mail citytimes@sptimes.com.

THE FIND

Underwater digital camera

With this goody in hand, even fish will strike a pose. The SeaLife Reefmaster sells for $549 ($779 with the strobe) at World of Water scuba shop, 4323 W Kennedy Blvd. Call 286-3483 or check out www.worldofwaterinc.com.

-- RON MATUS

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