Planet Bubba owners vow music will boom louder

The club plans to expand, cranking up on more nights of the week.

By JENNIFER FARRELL

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000

SPRING HILL -- As Hernando County commissioners announced plans Tuesday to tighten noise-control regulations, owners of the controversial nightclub Planet Bubba promised to pump up the volume.

In a surprise move in their yearlong dispute with county officials and angry residents, Richard Fabrizi said he and the co-owner, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, have decided to close their Forest Oaks Plaza restaurant, Bubba's Ale House, and expand the attached nightclub.

Along with extra space, Fabrizi said, the club will have more speakers and stay open all week, with teen nights Sunday through Tuesday.

"Now they're going to put up with us seven days a week," he said. "And the teens like their music louder."

Blaming heavy sheriff's patrols for killing the tavern's family atmosphere and scaring away customers, Fabrizi said it makes good business sense to cater to a younger clientele.

"Kids are going to come to controversy," he said.

The move is the latest in a continuing dispute with neighbors and county officials involving noise complaints and disturbances at the year-old establishment, including a slashing last month in which a man nearly bled to death.

Also last month, Sheriff Tom Mylander forbade off-duty officers from working at Planet Bubba, saying Fabrizi did not want deputies to enforce the law.

Fabrizi, who has threatened to sue, makes nightly trips to Spring Hill from his home in St. Petersburg to videotape the deputies who he says line up outside the club to harass customers.

"What if something was happening to somebody (on the other side of the county)?" he asked. "They're all sitting at Planet Bubba's measuring the bass speakers."

Fabrizi said closing the Ale House forced him to fire about 60 employees who worked the restaurant's two shifts.

Signs announcing the closing went up Monday night.

"Thank you to all our loyal customers," said two fliers taped to the Ale House entrance Tuesday. "Hopefully we will be re-opening soon. Matters are in the hands of our attorney."

Scott Powers, a regular at the Ale House and the club, was surprised by news of the restaurant closing when he showed up at lunchtime. As he turned to get back in his truck, Powers, 30, of Spring Hill shrugged off the neighbors' complaints.

"It's just a bunch of old biddies pitching a fit," he said. "They don't have anything better to do than sit around and b----."

Residents, meanwhile, insist there's more to the story.

"We didn't start complaining until we went without sleep," said Jeanette Sprague, a nurse who lives near Planet Bubba. "I can't be up until 3 a.m. listening to this nonsense."

Sprague said a neighborhood cleanup last week yielded piles of dirty laundry from patrons.

"The panties, the bras, the socks -- we probably could have dressed the whole neighborhood had we the courage to throw it in our washing machines," she said.

Asenath Kuhar, who also lives nearby, said a bigger nightclub is the last thing neighbors want.

"For three nights, whenever he's open, there's no sleep here," she said. "All we're asking Bubba to do is turn the boom down."

But Fabrizi vowed not to back down, adding that noise levels have been tested repeatedly and found to be within the legal range. The proposed change to the noise ordinance is an unfair attack, he said.

"We haven't done one thing wrong," Fabrizi said. "I hope it goes to the Supreme Court. We're going to take it as far as we can take it."

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