Bars and restaurants
hustle for business

While many Tampa Bay area businesses prepared for the busy weekend, some say things still got a little crazy.

By EVE TAHMINCIOGLU

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 1999

At The Hot Corner Restaurant, the beverage lines stretched as long as the bathroom lines, 25 to 30 people long. Patrons flashed wads of cash to get the attention of the short-handed crew, which included 10 extra workers for the big event.

The throng at Ferg's Sports Bar spilled onto the sidewalk and Central Avenue on Saturday before Game 1. By game time, Ferg's and other venues like it around Tropicana Field had become satellite stadiums with their own packed houses noisily watching the games on TV. [Times photo: Kevin White]

Hungry and thirsty Final Four basketball fans by the thousands descended on St. Petersburg's Central Avenue area beginning Friday. Crowds packed restaurants and bars near Tropicana Field, with some establishments so full people spilled out onto the sidewalk and street with beers in hand. Merchants relished increases in business of 25 percent to 1,000 percent thanks to the tournament.

"We not running out of anything but patience," said Hot Corner owner Dan Wesner. Business was more than twice what he expected. He estimated about 10,000 people had come through the restaurant by 5 p.m. Saturday with no sign of a let-up.

Mark Ferguson, owner of Ferg's Sports Bar, made hefty preparations for the onslaught. He said he ordered 1,500 cases of 16-ounce beer, 150 kegs and 15 tons of chicken wings that had to be kept in a refrigerated semitrailer truck behind the pub.

It paid off.

"We're very happy and very tired," said Ferguson, who found himself cleaning garbage, serving beer and tapping kegs even though he added 30 workers just for the weekend and recruited his wife, mother and father.

By 4:30 p.m. Saturday he ran out of hamburgers, selling 2,200 in two days.

The Silver King Tavern was so packed Saturday that a hamburger and fries, which usually takes 15 minutes to serve up, took more than an hour. The place was jammed with 500 to 600 customers all day Saturday.

"I'd like it to be like this all the time," said manager Andrew Adams.

For some of the merchants, the weekend's madness provided a too-vivid contrast with the so-so business the Devil Rays attracted to the Dome District on game days last year and the sparse traffic on non-game days.

"It will take three to five years before it gets going and we see the traffic," Adams said.

But some merchants saw new signs of life in the area in the past month, thanks to a number of new restaurants, clubs and bars.

"Now there are enough bars to bar hop," said Joseph Gray, owner of Budious Maximus, a 1940s retro lounge that opened more than a year ago.

One of the newcomers is Kokapelly's, where owner Mike Muar rushed the opening of the bar four weeks ahead of schedule to take advantage of the Final Four crowds. About 950 people came through his doors on Friday night, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Muar said he knew it was risky opening in downtown St. Petersburg because the city sees little activity in the evenings and weekends, but he hopes live bands will attract crowds on no-event weekends. "I grew up in St. Petersburg, and I saw there was a need I could fill," he said.

Some established merchants were vexed by the competition from vendors in big white tents that were set up in parking lots along the avenue. But the vendors said sales were disappointing because the tents lacked bold enough signs to draw people in.

George Vakalis, part owner of Boston Blizzard, a ice sorbet maker in Clearwater, said his business in the tent was half of what he expected. He even offered free samples to passersby to pull in customers.

Although Central Avenue was the epicenter of Final Four partying, other shops and restaurants around Tampa Bay got in on the action.

In Tampa, things were hopping between the convention center, the site of the NCAA's Hoop City (an interactive basketball festival) and the downtown Hyatt, a headquarters hotel for NCAA coaches.

"We're rockin' and rollin'," said Rich Holt, part owner of Hattricks on Franklin Street, as he carried kegs through the crowded restaurant Friday. "Over the course of five days we'll be the busiest ever," he said. Hattricks opened two years ago.

Cold Storage Cafe around the corner saw sales increase 25 percent on Thursday and Friday, compared to normal business for those days. "It's great to see this many people downtown," said Naida Delaparte, the owner.

While she tried to stock up on enough food and beverages, things got a bit "crazy" Thursday.

"We ran out of meat loaf and grilled Reubens," she said.