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News flash: We're not dead yet
By CHARLOTTE SUTTON
Published February 6, 2007
Anyone who has tried to snag an on-street parking space in St. Petersburg on a Friday night knows that downtown long ago shed the "God's waiting room" image. Now the wider world is catching on. In a recent travel story in the Washington Post, St. Petersburg sounds pretty fabulous. Here is some of what writer Andrea Sachs discovered on her visit; don't be surprised if you find yourself competing with some inside-the-Beltway type for your next raspberry mojito. If God sticks around St. Petersburg, he's going to be waiting a while. The Florida town once known as the last exit before the pearly gates is looking more youthful these days, thanks to an influx of younger people taking their place alongside the more senior residents. Indeed, in certain circles, white-blond is the new gray, "hip" has nothing to do with replacement surgery, and "social" now refers to partying, not a security check. * * * Most people associate shuffleboard with wrinkled players pushing disks across a cruise ship deck or a retirement rec center. Banish the image. About a year and a half ago, the 83-year-old (St. Petersburg Shuffleboard) club started the St. Pete Shuffle - free play to rockin' music every Friday night until 11 - in an effort to inject some young blood into the sport. . . . I don't know about the little-old-lady version of the game, but the new generation plays with the ferocity of dirty croquet competitors. More than once - OK, several times - my opponents blasted my puck out of the score zone and skittering close to the lead singer's leg. * * * Where can you get a cocktail around here? So many places - unlike a few years ago, when residents say you had to drive over the bridge to Tampa for some night life. Bella Brava concocts a tangy raspberry mojito served in a pint glass. BayWalk, an outdoor mall a few blocks from the water, handles the sports bar, hip-hop and post-shopping crowd. There are also posh wine bars, $1 sangria nights at the Salvador Dali Museum and punk dives so dark you need night vision glasses to avoid getting poked in the eye by a mohawk. These worlds collide at the Globe Coffee Lounge, a corner hangout filled with board games, local artwork (and artists) and spruced-up Dumpster furnishings. * * * It's hard to sit still in St. Petersburg, an oversize playground accessible by land and sea. Word for Word is an occasional feature excerpting passages of interest from books, magazines, Web sites and other sources. The text may be edited for space, but the original spelling, grammar and punctuation are unchanged. On the web About a hip town To see the full article, go to www.washingtonpost. com and search for "St. Pete's Fountain of Youth."
[Last modified February 6, 2007, 06:31:04]
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