What have they done to my Pelican Pub?

The cool, stained-glass Pelican sign is still out front.

And so ends the positive portion of this column in regards to the nausea-inducing redesign of the pub formerly known as the Pelican.  If you liked the old pub, it's hard to imagine a worse fate could have befallen it.  Gone is one of the best jukeboxes in St. Petersburg, the sweet woodcut of Ponce de Leon and the punching machine, along with the flooring, most of the wood, the darkness and the cool, dank, and slightly squalid quality that is the hallmark of any dive worth a damn.  Also gone is most of the old clientele, unless they all happened to get blowouts and new clothes for Christmas.  They may as well have put down blue carpet, chromed it out and walled it with mirrors a la 'Les Bos' from South Park.

Now stripped of any personality, charm, warmth, sense of intimacy or originality, the Pelican Pub has been recast as what may perhaps be the perfect illustration of everything I don't want in a bar.  The saddest part about all of this is the cluelessness exhibited by management.  Their press release actually promises — or threatens — to “pump in endless music and video.”  Oh good, that's what I was hoping for, to be distracted from any social interaction by various videos, and songs NOT from a jukebox.

This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2010.