Incredibly tragic breaking news: Downtown Sarasota’s Irish/pirate/German/New Orleans-themed pub, O’Malley’s, is no more
May 13th, 2009 by Cooper Levey-Baker in Editor's Desk, Food and Drink, News, Sarasota-Manatee
We’ve been hearing rumors all week; now it’s official. Downtown watering hole O’Malley’s has closed. Property owner Barry Seidel says the business just ran out of steam. We’ve contacted the pub’s owner, Jurgen Wochnik, but haven’t heard anything back yet. We’ll update this story as we get more info.
UPDATE
Just chatted with Wochnik and he confirms what we suspected: The bar fell victim to the terrible local economy, and couldn’t afford to the pay the bills. The revenue drop-off began a year and a half ago. “We tried to really fight hard,” Wochnik says. “Everything was getting more expensive. The thing that was killing us was the electrical bill. … I am broke right now. Believe me.”
May 13th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
This is really depressing. I love Thursday night karaoke at O’Malley’s and their bangers and mash is top notch. Best of luck to everyone who worked there. You guys are awesome. O’Malley’s will be missed.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
i guess they should have kept doing shows…
May 13th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Aw… had some fun there but also heard he didn’t pay some of the bands he hired — even when patrons were charged a cover that was said to be going to the band. And word on the street was that some staffers were either underpaid or not paid at all for overtime, despite the packed houses and overpriced beers. Good riddance as far as I’m concerned. Don’t like to see hard working people exploited!
May 13th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Can’t believe it! That place rocked. We were there alot and had a blast. Great food and drinks.The owner worked his ass off to keep the pub alive. Hard times suck!!!
May 19th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
[...] — O’Malley’s closes up. [...]
May 19th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I’ll miss it a respite from the other joints I frequented. That place just seems to have had much bad luck.