Another Loss of a Beach Institution
May 11th, 2007 by Alex Pickett in Flashbacks & Updates, Urban ExplorationsSummer is here, and while Creative Loafing is celebrating the change of season this week with our annual Summer Guide, not everyone is looking forward to longer, hotter days.
My Urban Explorer column this week examines how the end of tourist season affects the Corey Avenue shopping district in St. Pete Beach, along with the larger question of redevelopment in the beach community.
The issue hit home when I found out the Bamboo Beer Garden closed last week after 60 years of business on Madeira Beach. Right next to John’s Pass, this little tiki bar has been a favorite for locals and tourists alike, proven by all the pictures and license plates given to the bar by loyal patrons and visitors. The beer-only establishment offered a nice reprieve to the packed, tourist-driven boardwalk.
Whenever my friends visited, I made it a point to take them to Bamboo Beer Garden, which I felt represented a distinct part of what Florida meant to me. On one of my most memorable experiences at the bar, a Connecticut friend and I met two scruffy Treasure Island denizens who invited us back to their place to see the toilet/bench they set up in their front yard. The man looked like an emaciated Charles Manson and the woman resembled Janis Joplin had she lived to 60. Although we didn’t end up going with the couple (for obvious reasons), we did chat for a while about how we liked older beach establishments such as the Bamboo Beer Garden. I still have the pictures they insisted we take with them.
When I stopped by yesterday to take a few photos of the bar, I approached a man with a blonde handlebar mustache parked out in front, staring at the closed building. He had a 40 oz. of Budweiser between his legs and a Labrador in the back seat.
“I’ve taken a few sips here,†he told me. “This was the place down here. More than all this.†He pointed to John’s Pass.
“Nothing is historic down here,†he continued. “It’s all about the land. That’s what’s valuable.â€
And, unfortunately, he’s right.
May 11th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
This is the end of one of Florida’s true institutions. What a loss.
Please keep me posted on the fudge shop just a few blocks north. Losing beer is bad enough, but to add chcolate fudge to that loss would be really devastating.
July 17th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Yes Sir, this is a true loss for me & my family. My first visits to the Garden came as a young lad of 8 years in 1970. My Grandfather Cliff Greenawalt and his lovely wife Alice enetrtained the masses in the bar & in the parking lot strumming up the Banjo. “If it takes 10 minutes from my house to your house, how longs it going to take to make you….wah wah wah wah”
Johns Pass will never be the same for me or any of our family members.
I will miss you on my yearly visit from Cincinnati. Thanks for the memories & God Bless Cliff & Alice Greenawalt’s souls!
Mark Hall
Batavia, Ohio
July 17th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Yes Sir, this is a true loss for me & my family. My first visits to the Garden came as a young lad of 8 years in 1970. My Grandfather Cliff Greenawalt and his lovely wife Alice entertained the masses in the bar & in the parking lot strumming up the Banjo. “If it takes 10 minutes from my house to your house, how longs it going to take to make you….wah wah wah wah”
Johns Pass will never be the same for me or any of our family members.
I will miss you on my yearly visit from Cincinnati. Thanks for the memories & God Bless Cliff & Alice Greenawalt’s souls!
Mark Hall
Batavia, Ohio
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