New Place for Hub 'Caps
Each year, the proprietors and staff of venerable hip-ass Tampa liquor-grotto The Hub shut business down for a couple of weeks to go fishing, or see Later live for once, or hang out at other bars, or something.
And each year, dozens of regulars invariably forget that The Hub is on hiatus.
They rush downtown from Hyde Park's Tiny Tap, or perhaps Pinellas County's 2 a.m. last call, for a quick lights-on nightcap, only to be forcibly reminded by the locked doors, darkened interior, and noticeable lack of loitering homeless dudes.
Cue voluminous vitriolic verbiage.
This year, Hub denizens had better be a bit more cognizant when the place closes Aug. 24. That's because, when the watering hole reopens Sept. 7, it'll be in a new location.
At 719 N. Franklin St., to be exact — a block away from where it stood for 53 years — and just two doors up from the Tampa Theatre.
The bar's long-time home on the corner of Zack Street and Florida Avenue was recently purchased by the adjacent First Presbyterian Church of Tampa, forcing Hub owner Jim Smith to seek out new digs.
Remaining as close as possible to its previous site was a priority, and Smith quickly found suitable space in a Franklin Street Mall storefront, which has been vacant since Italian restaurant Caffe Firenze closed there nearly two years ago.
The two-story building, 12,000 square feet or so, offers far more room and options than the old location. But Smith is adamant about preserving the Hub's intimate, shopworn local-bar vibe.
"Is it going to be the same?" he asks rhetorically. "We're trying very hard to make the answer "yes.'"
By the time the liquor store, staircase and assorted walls go up, the new bar proper won't be much larger than the old Hub. The infamous horseshoe-shape bar and liquor island will be relocated, as well.
Smith and manager Scott Imrich attest that everything is aimed at making patrons feel at home in the institution's next incarnation.
"To that end, we're going to great lengths," says Imrich.
"And expense," adds Smith.
Plans for the upstairs environs are tentative and long ranging – right now, the focus is on getting the bar itself open. Given the new space's current state of renovation, however, the projected grand-reopening date seems a bit (read: wildly) optimistic.
Imrich, who gradually fell into working at The Hub (first as a bar-back) after years of "pretty much hanging out there way too much," quietly agrees. He sees Sept. 14 as a more realistic target, but maintains that everything possible is being done to keep the hiatus down to two weeks.
Unfortunately for those Sharpie-wielding poets and drunken philosophers who considered their scribblings in The Hub's now-legendary bathrooms the stuff of eternity, Imrich quickly deflates the idea of having those hallowed walls installed intact at the new Hub.
"But maybe we'll cut out a section and have it framed," he adds, considering the idea. —Scott Harrell
Beached Objection
Politicians brag about open-door policies and ears to the public, especially during election years. In fact, they hold workshops intended to give citizens a forum to express their opinions.
Does that make a difference? Sometimes. But it won't this month, when Pinellas County commissioners are expected to approve a $2.5-million transfer from a beach restoration fund to pay for tourism marketing at the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Deborah Stambaugh, president of the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce, and CVB Executive Director Carole Ketterhagen entered into something of a pissing match after Stambaugh submitted a public information request with 66 questions.
Local news media, including Weekly Planet, then echoed her request.
Ketterhagen said she referred all questions to appropriate CVB representatives for a response to Stambaugh.
In addition to questions about the $2.5-million transfer, Stambaugh requested information about Web site traffic and hotel referrals. A concern for the beach chamber is that hotel referrals could go to larger hotels. Currently, the CVB does not track hotel referrals, according to Ketterhagen.
Before an Aug. 14 workshop opened to public questions, county commission Chairwoman Barbara Sheen Todd, sensing strife, attempted to set the tone: "Let's be professional with one another," she said.
The petitioners, including Doreen Moore of the beach chamber, questioned why the CVB's finances were presented in such a complicated manner. "We don't see how government can organize and manage an organization with budget numbers like these," said Moore, who requested another meeting to provide her chamber time to analyze and respond to the CVB's finances.
Russ Sloan, president and chief executive of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, couldn't understand why some of the $2.5-million will be used to provide raises to CVB employees when the companies face cutbacks and pay freezes.
"What makes government immune to the tough, difficult choices the private sector must make?" Sloan asked.
Todd and County Administrator Steve Spratt responded with I-feel-your-pain rhetoric before making it clear that nothing will change the proposed CVB budget. "I don't want to hear any more of these snippy, backstabbing, personal attacks," Todd said.
St. Petersburg City Council member Bill Foster, always the maverick, presented the only opposition on the tourism panel that held the workshop.
"I find it ironic that we call everything "Florida's Beach' and that's what we're going to defer," Foster said, referring to the CVB's marketing slogan and to the $2.5-million deferral from beach restoration.
Asked what the workshop accomplished, Foster said afterward: "They had to provide the appearance they were willing to listen." —Trevor Aaronson
Where's Trox?
It's been over a decade since Howard Troxler jumped from The Tampa Tribune to the St. Petersburg Times, but people still talk about it in that can-you-believe-it-honey tone generally reserved for rock stars and athletes.
Troxler, the Times' marquee metro columnist, is part of local journalism lore. And he deserves that place not only because he's the genuine article, but also because he's a damn nice guy who talks so fast you can only imagine how quickly his mind works.
When Troxler is missing from the left-hand side of the B section front page, readers take notice.
On Aug. 16, Troxler announced that he would take a break from writing his popular column. The logical assumption was that Troxler would assist with the Times' upcoming election coverage, as he has in years past.
But not this year. Troxler is getting his hands dirty as he fills an assistant metro editor slot for two weeks. After that, he'll take a vacation before resuming his column in early October.
"Every few years, it's nice to try something new, to make your brain work in a different way," Troxler told the Planet on Aug. 19, his first day in the temporary position. "It's a luxury to be able to read the newspaper and not feel obligated to develop some commentary." —Trevor Aaronson
This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2002.