Moving pitchers, a beer can and a bureauful of laughs

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

By ERNEST HOOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 9, 2001

Agraveyard could be out there for all the theaters that have died in Tampa.

The headstones from just the last couple of years would read Main Street Cinemas, Mission Bell, Britton Plaza, Varsity and Hillsborough 8. Even the relatively new Hollywood 20 sits empty at the corner of Van Dyke Road and North Dale Mabry.

Yet the Tampa Pitcher Show in Carrollwood still is going after nearly 20 years. Along with the Fun-Land Drive In and Olde Hyde Park, the Tampa Pitcher Show is the last of the Mohicans: a survivor in the new world of stadium seating, cup holders and surround sound.

"We basically just thrive on having a real hard-core, local clientele that gives us, fortunately, a lot of repeat business," owner Wayne Valenti said.

For the past year, business has been bolstered by first-run movies (Bridget Jones's Diary is showing now). The menu also has some first-run entrees like mahi-mahi, and the beer factor cannot be discounted.

I guess I'm getting older, because the combination of movies and meals used to be new wave.

More than $2-billion was pumped into the local economy by 15.3-million tourists last year, but the queries they brought to town were just as rich. The Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau has a Top 10 list of funniest questions, and my favorite is No. 8: "My sister always wanted to come to Florida. Do you have any suggestions of where I can spread her ashes when I get there?"

Turns out Chatterbox owners John and Elizabeth Ackermann do have the venerable property for sale, but that's hardly news. It's been on the block for at least two years.

There is, however, a party interested in buying the land, Mrs. Ackermann says. The question is, can that party come up with the right offer? Others have tried and failed.

The changing face of SoHo may not desire the Chatterbox, but there is some hope. Proprietor Dan Lea holds the liquor license and would like to be part of any new development on the site.

No. 3 from the visitors' bureau wacky queries list: "I am going to be coming to Tampa Bay in six months. Will you have a hurricane when I get there?"

You can't put a Koozie around a 31-story beer can, so exactly how do you make it better?

The folks at Colonnade Properties have a few potential ideas for the Bank of America building, downtown Tampa's beer can: a top-name restaurant that would draw folks into the city at night; a day care center and a wellness center.

The USF College of Fine Arts also is negotiating to convert the cube, the five-story glass square that sits at the bottom of the tower, into a mini-museum.

Maybe you can get value out of the beer can without recycling it.

fThe No. 1 funny question is, "How do you get to Why-Bor city?"

Our newest visitors may not have to ask. More than 1,200 people are here this week for the GasMart energy industry convention, but HARTLine is hoping they will find their way to Ybor and SoHo on the Uptown/Downtown Hotel Connector.

The free shuttles are up and running from now until Friday, and will be back in operation all next week with 2,000 folks in town for the Governor's Hurricane Conference.

- Ernest Hooper can be reached at (813) 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com. His column appears on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

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