Pop City will help channel your energy

By VALERIE Q. CARINO

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 15, 2001

Dancing, dining and games for grown-ups are all in one place in Channelside's Pop City.

TAMPA -- You're over Ybor. You're sick of the booty bars, mouthy drunks and under 18s.

So, what if your friends are visiting for the first time from Ohio? Surely there's more to this city than Seventh Avenue.

Now you can say there is.

Seven minutes away is Pop City, the Channelside District's first-to-open restaurant, club and adult arcade. Currently the only open entertainment/dining venue in Channelside, Pop City caters to people who've already been to Senior Prom and graduation.

Unlike GameWorks, Centro Ybor's adults-at-play concept, Pop City has its own dance club, called Elements, which was unveiled last Friday. The club, with a strict no-jeans, no-sneakers dress code, is Channelside's answer to the thumping clubs in the cigar district.

Pop City managers are confident you won't walk away from the velvet rope."We have something for everyone here," said manager Jeff Single.

That's because once you're in Pop City, you have access to a club (Elements), a game room/pool bar (High Jinx) and a restaurant (Elliott's). Read: You're not stuck. Once you've had your dinner, your rock climbing, your alpine skiing or target practice, you can try to meet a honey on the dance floor.

The look of the overall club is South Beach meets Pop Art, with a few fancy tricks such as a $300,000 lighting system and a transparent bar filled with moving water lit by fiber-optics. Some wall hangings of oversize pulp fiction-style temptresses make the place look like a playboy's living room. Campy. Cute. Harmless.

As for drinks, here's props to the bartenders for making strong ones. The outside bar, which is near the dance floor and away from the VIP room, is fully stocked, with mixed drinks and beer starting at $3.50. This on top of the $5 cover charge makes it no more expensive than a Friday night at Jackson's or Tuesday at the Hyde Park Cafe.

Perhaps since the club is so new, you can expect service with a smile and maybe even a little chit-chat.

For the exhibitionists out there, smack in the middle of the dance floor is a steel cage, which will surely heat up once more bodies figure out how to get to Channelside and where to park. (That would be in the parking garage, which is right across the street.)

ON THE TOWN

Pop City, 615 Channelside Drive, Tampa, is open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday; weekends until 3 a.m. Elements is open Wednesday through Sunday.

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