Tampa political power lunch hotspot Valencia Garden closed
June 3, 2009 at 4:54 pm by Wayne Garcia“I had a politician who called me up one day and chewed me out because she was seated in the back dining room,” he recalls. The key to getting a seat in the vaunted main room is not status, it’s timing, he reveals. Agliano tells the hostesses to fill the back room and bar first. Those rooms are farther from the entrance, and it takes more time for the hostesses to go back and forth once the lunch rush hits. — Creative Loafing, 6.11.08
It was THE place to be and be seen in Tampa politics, for fundraisers and just to see who is chatting up who at lunch. Now, the Valencia Garden tradition of political intrigue is over. (And I need a new spot for a lunch date I had set for there next Tuesday.)
From the Tampa Tribune:
A padlock at the entrance to the Valencia Garden restaurant on Kennedy Boulevard today had patrons and others wondering: What is happening at the iconic local business?
Owner David Agliano confirmed late Wednesday afternoon the business is closing. He is informing his employees.
I wrote about David and how he sets (or doesn’t set) part of the city’s political agenda. The story started like this:
In Tampa politics, there is only one “Decider,” and it is not the president of the United States. It is David Agliano, the 52-year-old manager of Valencia Gardens restaurant on Kennedy Boulevard, just west of downtown.
For the 300 or so people who show up at the front doors of the Tampa landmark for lunch each day, it is Agliano who decides where they sit. And on any given day, a dozen or so of those folks are politicians. Recently, the main dining room hosted current Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and her predecessor, Dick Greco, seated at different tables.
It is Agliano who decides who sits where — in the bar area, in the original dining room in the back of the restaurant or, if you arrive at the right time, the main dining room. It is the main dining room, just to the right of the lobby, that seems to be the most popular political haunt. Politicians often can be seen going from table to table, greeting other elected officials or glad-handing fundraisers or business leaders. New candidates looking to launch their campaigns need only one lunch at Valencia Gardens with a well-known politician or consultant to set tongues wagging, and nobody’s tongue wags more than Agliano’s.
“I’m probably the worst rumormonger out here,” he says with a laugh one recent morning.
Read more about David Agliano and Valencia Garden.
