We are saddened to see BCT close its doors. We were huge supporters of theirs and enjoyed the great ambiance and delicious meals. Unfortunately, Ybor is still combating image problems related to crime and violence during the evenings. Although we are seeing improvements, they did not happen quick enough for the Tavern to survive. We sincerely hope that one day, they will return as Ybor continues its march to economic success.

CSI Ybor: Who killed Big City Tavern?

By Brendan McLaughlin

There’s nothing unusual or mysterious about a restaurant going out of business. About one in four new restaurants fail in the first year. But in a city like Tampa, with such a dearth of quality, independently owned eateries, the failure of Big City Tavern in Centro Ybor is a real loss.

Big City Tavern actually beat the odds staying open for over seven years. The location, in the original ballroom of the historic Centro Espanol was one of the most dramatic and beautiful in the Bay Area. The food, in my experience, was above par. So what went wrong, beyond the owner’s obvious inability to put enough butts in the seats?

Three days after shutting down his dream, Brian Cornacchia sounded tired, but upbeat- like a boxer who lost the fight but gave it his best shot. Cornacchia praises his staff. He says his landlord, M & J Wilcow couldn’t have been more supportive. He claims his bar and catering business were very successful.  If there was a medical examiner’s report to identify the cause of death, it might read:   Financial asphyxiation due to repeated news accounts of beatings, stabbings, and shootings in Ybor City.

Cornacchia believes the negative associations people make with Ybor City were his undoing. "’Dirty, dangerous, tattoos, kids.’ Those are the words people think of when you say, Ybor City. It’s never ‘classy, historic, artistic.’"  I asked him if that was just perception or reality. He believes the problems are real and complained that when people dine at Sideberns in South Tampa, they’ve got lots of places to go and things to do after dinner. His clientelle, he says,  just isn’t interested in the loud and sometimes rowdy clubs and street scene.

 In 2004, Cornacchia tried to get the City to pass an ordinance that would raise the age requirement for admission into district’s clubs from 18 to 21. That effort failed along with his restaurant.  "I did everything humanly possible to make this a success. The one thing I couldn’t change was Ybor."

From my vantage point as a journalist and an Ybor neighbor I see the failure of Big City as both dire and undeserved.  If Big City was located almost anywhere else, it would have become a Florida landmark. But it was exactly where it belonged.  Ybor does have a crime problem. So does San Francisco. Welcome to the world. I visit Ybor regularly- day and night, often with my wife and even my kids. Its shabby originality has always been part of the fun. I can only hope that another class operator will take over that magnificent space and spend a little more on advertizing.

It appears that after a year long effort by HYNCA and local businesses to close Club Fuel, there has finally been some success!  Three weeks ago Club Fuel closed on its doors after an enormous amount of pressure. 

We are told the club will only reopen for special events under a different name and after some renovations.  The Fuel Group lease for this space is up on September 30, 2008 and will NOT be renewed.  Apparently the Club Fuel operators are trying to get out of the club business now.  Damaging media attention has negatively affected their business dealings in other parts of the Bay area; particularly Fuel Group’s planned Westin hotel in downtown St. Petersburg.

We hope that the owner of the building will consider converting or selling the property for retail, restaurant, office, or hotel development when the lease is up.  We encourage the building owner to bring in a business which will improve the east side of 7th Ave.  Ybor City residents will not tolerate a nuisance club which fails to protect residents and visitors from criminal activity. 

We will continure to keep an eye on the Club Fuel space until the day it finally closes for good!!!

Without an official announcement, Club Fuel has closed.  More details to come soon. 

We believe this closure comes in part to the pressure HYNCA and our residents put on the City of Tampa and the club owners.  We want to thank everyone who has been and will continue to keep pressure on nightclubs that are not "good neighbors."  Ybor residents will not tolerate nightclubs and clients that negatively impact the environment in our neighborhood. 

From TPD Captain Hamlin’s weekly report:

At 2:37 AM a bouncer from Club Empire, 1902 E. 7th Ave. knocked out a citizen with a punch to the face.  Causing the victim to suffer injuries to his face and head.  It is believed that this incident was unprovoked. The bouncer fled the scene prior to police arrival and the case has been assigned to detectives for further investigation.

September is turning out to be a very active month. Labor Day weekend saw some news-making incidents including a high-speed car chase ending in Plant City and reports of an assault rifle being waved out of a car! Here are the police reports:

Friday August 31, 2007: Officers received a call from a parking lot attendant in regards to a subject riding in a vehicle eastbound on E. 7th Avenue at N. 20th Street, waiving an assault rifle out of a car window.  Officers located the vehicle abandoned, but did recover the assault rife from inside of the car.  The vehicle was not reported stolen. This case has been referred to detectives for further investigation.

Saturday September 1, 2007: Three black male suspects approached a victim near E. 6th Ave & N. 20th Street, while displaying a firearm and demanding the victim’s property. The victim grabbed the gun from the suspect and they struggled over the firearm.  During the struggle, a shot was fired.  The suspects then ran towards and entered a blue Buick and fled the scene in this car.  A police officer had heard the gun shot and was in the area with other officers investigating the shots fired when they located the Buick and the victim.  The suspects refused to stop for police and a vehicle pursuit was initiated.  The pursuit ended in Plant City with the arrest of two of the three suspect

We urge you to become involved with our crime watch. Our first meeting this Weds the 19th 6:30pm in Rock and Sports.  For questions please call Jose at 789-4252

Last Thursday we had a shooting on 8th Ave. that involved two Empire patrons. We have verified with TPD that the shots were fired in the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office parking lot and not in the City of Tampa parking lot directly behind the nightclub. The police and Club Empire staff were on scene within 15 seconds of the first shots being fired. A shoot-out did
occur between two groups of young black males. There was never a fight in Empire as Channel 13 stated:

Witnesses at the scene say it all started when a fight between two groups of men began inside Club Empire.  They say it continued into the parking lot with members from both groups getting guns and firing at each other.

 Although Empire is making an effort to control its clientele, as we have seen, it keeps attracting a violent crowd to the area.

Here is the complete story printed on the St. Pete Times:

TAMPA - Gunfire rang out in Ybor City early Friday, and Tampa police believe some of the bullets were intended for them.

Christopher Ingraham-Richardson, 24, of Tampa was arrested in connection with the incident. Police said he rammed a marked police cruiser while trying to flee.

About 3:13 a.m., while they were monitoring crowds spilling out of area bars, officers heard an argument break out behind the Empire nightclub.

One man retrieved a sawed-off shotgun from a four-door, brown 1990 Honda sedan and began waving it around "recklessly," said Assistant Chief Jane Castor. The man put the shotgun back into the car, fetched an SKS assault rifle from the car and fired a single shot.

When officers arrived to investigate, they saw muzzle flashes and heard several more shots - gunfire that they believe had been aimed at them.

The officers opted not to return fire because of the gathered crowds. That’s when they spotted the car speeding away.

Police units, including a helicopter, saturated the area and tracked the car several blocks away, police said, boxing it in around N 23rd Street and Second Avenue. Police said the driver tried to break out by ramming a marked cruiser, but that failed.

The driver got out of the car without a weapon, and he beat on his chest, repeating, "You’re going to have to kill me!" Castor said.

Guns drawn, the officers approached him, and he "resisted violently," she said. Officers used a Taser on him several times, she said.

Police recovered both weapons. No injuries were reported.

Police took two men into custody, but only Ingraham-Richardson had been charged Friday evening. He was being held in lieu of $15,500 bail, and the charges include aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, battery on a law enforcement officer and obstructing or opposing an officer.

Ingraham-Richardson of 14521 Prism Circle, Apt. 105B, had been charged Thursday with driving with a suspended license.

Until Friday, that had been his only arrest, according to state records.

Police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said the incident is still being investigated.

Article from the St. Pete times regarding Ken Grossman from Empire

On the defensive

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published July 6, 2007
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It’s Thirsty Thursday at Empire, and the dance floor is a bouncing sea of all-you-can-drink cups, gold grills, glam sunglasses and booty shorts.

Clubgoers stomp so hard, the ground shakes. Their summer anthem is on. They yell the Shop Boyz hip-hop hit at the top of their lungs:

Party like a rock / Party like a rock star …

In VIP, high-rollers sip Hennessy. On stage, an emcee throws dollar bills. Outside, a bouncer pats down for guns.

And behind a private door, a 39-year-old man sits in a plush brown leather chair watching it all on a split-screen security monitor in black and white.

He’s a South Tampa father of two who keeps an air freshener on his desk and his kid’s finger painting on his wall.

And he’s the co-owner of one of Ybor’s most controversial clubs, the general manager who will get blamed if someone else is shot.

Meet Ken Grossman.

An early morning in May, a man was fatally shot a block away from Empire minutes after being kicked out of the club for fighting with the alleged gunman.

Grossman got the first call from the press that afternoon.

"Are you seriously asking me if I let guns into my club?" he asked a Times reporter.

In the month that followed, he would defend his club’s safety protocol to cops, to neighbors, to TV news watchers.

Reporters would rehash the 2002 murder of bouncer Philip Harris, shot by a club patron who refused to take off his hat.

A Tampa Police commander would stand before the City Council detailing crimes surrounding Empire and its neighbor on the 1900 block of E Seventh Avenue, Club Fuel.

A sign would emerge across the street warning Ybor visitors about Empire.

Grossman would take it personally.

"Anything that’s said bad about Empire, it’s bad about me, " he said. "Empire and Ken Grossman is the same person."

So began the nonstop public relations campaign.

Grossman had his bouncers eat at Acropolis, across the street, to apologize for a decline in restaurant business linked to bad Ybor press.

He stood before a room full of neighbors at the Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association and gave them his cell phone number, a goodwill gesture.

Police came to understand that Grossman and co-owner Joel Brewer were cooperative, and neighborhood association president Tony LaColla said, "he’s doing as much as he can."

Then, last Saturday, between 15 and 18 Tampa police officers marched into his club and stood there, just to keep watch. Clubgoers fled, thinking it was a raid, Grossman said.

"We’re done, " he remembers telling Brewer on the phone, eyes glued to his security monitors. Bar sales plummeted that night.

Police said it was a routine security measure. Grossman said it was an intimidation tactic, a frustration after more than a month of trying to prove he was a good neighbor.

"I can’t afford this, " he said this week.

- - -

Grossman has a lot to lose.

His three-story house towers over the others in the quaint Virginia Park neighborhood. It’s gray and blue, like his nightclub. He had it built in 2001. Its market value, according to the county property appraiser, is $534, 075.

In his driveway sit his two red sports cars, a Mercedes CLK 320 convertible, and a Porsche with a license plate that says LAAATER.

His wife, Vaneeda, pulls up on a recent day in a BMW SUV. She’s a Realtor, and a bodybuilder like her husband. Grossman used to watch her work out at Xtreme Total Health & Fitness and got the courage to talk to her at Whiskey Park in SoHo. They married last year.

When she moved into the home, Grossman replaced his pool table with a dining room table.

His 7-year-old, Jacob, zooms along the sidewalk in a Hot Wheels race car, and 5-year-old Chase storms the impeccable lawn with a kid-sized Escalade - customized with Empire bumper stickers on the back.

Grossman plays kickball with them, barefoot on the lawn, in a Hawaiian shirt. In the back of his mind, the night’s gloomy weather forecast lingers. No one goes clubbing in the rain. But even when the dance floor is empty, he still has 60 employees to pay. They work in maintenance, security, behind the bar.

Grossman’s critics ask him why he continues a business that promotes hard drinking and partying, instead of something more productive for society.

Nightlife is the only business Grossman knows. "I can’t shut down what I’m good at."

A Maryland native, Grossman came to Tampa in 1991 with intentions to graduate from the University of South Florida with an economics degree.

To make extra cash, he got a gig as a bouncer with former downtown club 911. Grossman zoomed up the club’s chain of command, and in 1993, he became a business partner.

He chose the club over the degree, a decision that launched his career.

By 1995, Grossman’s downtown club emptied as the Ybor nightlife windstorm came alive. He went with the crowd, finding a job as the general manager of Empire, which was a Gothic alternative club then.

The average lifespan of a Tampa nightclub is two to three years, he said. Grossman said he has kept Empire afloat for more than a decade by keeping abreast of nightclub trends and giving people what they want.

He gave them booty music when they were done with Goth, then played trance until the glow stick era dimmed. About four years ago, he noticed hip-hop dominating MTV and pop culture, so he made the switch.

These days, hip-hop is the only genre that brings people out in masses to Ybor dance clubs.

People ask him why he can’t open a jazz club. It’s less rowdy and would draw a more mature crowd.

"That’s great, " Grossman tells them. "You open a jazz club."

- - -

It’s 2 a.m. on a recent Thirsty Thursday, and bass vibrations seep through the walls of Grossman’s office. Bouncers just broke up the only fight of the night.

"We straight out there?" he asks a manager. "Did you find a cop? Get them trespassed."

Since the shooting, Grossman has begun permanently banning fighters from re-entering his club. Anyone who tries could be charged with trespassing. He thinks it’ll weed out the troublemakers.

Grossman leaves his office for his hourly patrol of the club. He has no idea who sings the song everyone seems to know the words to, but a clubgoer recognizes him from TV interviews and calls him a "cool white guy."

Down the street that night, two managers at Club Fuel were arrested for repeat noise violations. Just one conviction could get their liquor license suspended for 30 days. Fuel has eight charges.

Grossman checks the DJ booth to make sure Empire gets none. He insists his place isn’t like that other club.

He leaves the bouncers in place for the Seventh Avenue exodus in less than an hour, then returns to his virtual guard tower.

Miss something, and Grossman could lose his Empire.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

As you have already probably heard, two of the pending cases against Club Fuel regarding violations of the noise ordinance were thrown out of court. The judge cited not enough notification of the City’s noise ordinance rules were provided to the owners or managers of this nightclub. The question is: would a responsible business not take a criminal offense seriously the first time that it occurs? Would not a first violation be enough notification of the noise ordinance? Club Fuel has 7 noise violations as well as multiple arrests.

More cases are pending against Club Fuel and we will keep watching closely.

This video was recorded a couple of weeks ago at the corner of 20th St. and 7th Ave. It shows a crowd of Club Fuel patrons in what seems a fight or altercation. The police had to break up the huge crowd before it escalated into something worse.

Also, I must note that the poster of this video is not associated with our neighborhood association (to our knowledge). He or she makes a comment in youtube.com that suggests people should not visit Ybor because they will certainly see the same disruptions happen. Although we disagree with the certainty of such incidents occurring, it is most likely they will continue to happen until Club Fuel admits they are responsible in handling incidents involving their patrons in and around their premises.

The St. Pete times has written a detailed report surrounding the crime pouring out of Club Fuel and our organization’s wish to curve it. Unfortunately, to this day, the club organizers have not contacted our neighborhood to begin a dialogue on how they can improve the situation. Read the article below.

With little more than a day’s notice, 35 residents and business owners in the Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association mustered an emergency meeting last week.

The newspaper headlines called for action:

A man was fatally shot over the weekend, minutes after being kicked out of Empire Nightclub for fighting with the alleged gunman.

Neighbors had griped about crime surrounding Empire and its nightclub neighbor Fuel for about a year. They’d even met with Mayor Pam Iorio last fall to discuss their worries.

"Enough is enough. We’re fed up with what’s going on," association president Tony LaColla said when he found out about the shooting.

"It’s hurting business. It’s going against our plan to bring more people to Ybor."

The neighbors needed to act fast, they decided. The city needed to get more involved. Police needed to do more.

- - -

Empire Nightclub and Club Fuel share the 1900 block of E Seventh Avenue. Drink specials and nonstop hip-hop draw huge crowds on weekend nights.

Neighbors say they also draw trouble.

In 2002, two of Empire’s bouncers were shot after telling a man to take off his knit cap. One died. The gunman got two life sentences.

Last fall, a Temple Terrace man was stabbed to death in a parking lot outside Empire, also after an argument.

In 2003, a man was stabbed on Club Fuel’s dance floor and survived. Two years later, a man was shot outside the club.

That same year, 2,000 teenagers left an "All Ages High School Party" at Club Fuel and flooded the streets. It took 30 police officers and a helicopter to keep them under control.

After the most recent shooting at Empire, Tampa police Lt. Diane Hobley-Burney said she couldn’t comment on the club because the shooting happened between individuals, outside.

But she did say that violent crime in Ybor City, including murders and robberies, is down 15 percent.

- - -

Residents don’t question that the police presence in Ybor City is high.

"The perpetrators have been busted, so it shows police are on top of things," LaColla said.

But they have several concerns. One is that off-duty police officers are hired and paid privately by clubs to act as security guards. LaColla wonders if uneven wages among clubs might cause the guards to favor some establishments over others.

Also, security guards typically escort people who fight at the clubs off the property, LaColla said. He wonders if more could be done.

"Maybe they need to be brought to detox," LaColla said. "Maybe they need to be brought to jail."

After being bombarded with e-mails by Ybor residents, City Council chairwoman Gwendolyn Miller asked police last week to create a report on how the megaclubs factor into crime in Ybor. The report is due to the council Thursday.

"We need to kind of control what’s going on, because we are trying to get Ybor City back to where it should be," Miller said. "And now people are going to be afraid to go to Ybor City."

Through Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy, District 3 Cmdr. Maj. Robert Guidara declined to comment for this story.

"He’s uncomfortable talking about the problem until he has put together this report to City Council," McElroy said.

Representatives of Empire and Fuel could not be reached for comment.

But after the Sunday shooting, Empire owner Ken Grossman told the Times that people are patted down for weapons when they walk into his club. There’s nothing he can do, he said, to stop problems that spill into the streets.

Last week, Grossman met with the neighborhood association president for the first time. LaColla left feeling optimistic.

"They were willing to work with us and they said, ‘Hey, give us your solutions, give us your ideas and we’ll see what we can do.’ At least Empire is," LaColla said. "Club Fuel - I don’t believe they’re interested in dealing with the neighborhood right now."

- - -

The same day police give their report, Club Fuel chief financial officer Richard MacKizer will stand trial for the club’s allegedly violating the city’s noise code, a criminal offense punishable by up to 60 days in jail, a $500 fine or six months’ probation.

Club Fuel has been cited eight times, including at least three warnings, for pumping its bass too loud, said prosecutor David Shobe. That’s the highest number of noise violations at a club in Ybor City.

Two other Fuel associates face similar charges for noise violations: Jai Lalwani and Joseph Azzi, who is no longer with the club. Their charges were filed after MacKizer’s.

If any of them are found guilty, the City Council would have the chance to review the club’s wet zoning, which is required for alcohol sales, and possibly suspend or revoke its permits.

Miller says she is tracking the court cases and won’t hesitate to call a hearing.

"I’d be willing to revoke their license," Miller said. "I’m for the neighbors. I know how it is when you’re in a neighborhood like that."

Miller isn’t stopping with the police, she said.

"I think really it’s a wet-zoning issue. That’s drawing them to the clubs, and I think we need to look into whether they’re doing it correctly. If they’re abusing their wet-zoning licenses, we need to do something about it."

Residents sent a letter Monday to the mayor, City Council members, the city attorney’s office and all of the city’s neighborhood association presidents pitching their own amendments to the city wet-zoning code.

The residents want a "conditional use permit" that would apply to all bars within 500 feet of a residence that have a maximum occupancy of 250 or more.

They want clubs to require bouncers to attend a training program, to post rules of conduct prominently outside, and to create plans of action to deal with fights, drugs, intoxicated patrons, underage drinking and loitering. If any of these conditions are violated, a club should lose its wet zoning, the residents say.

Independently of Ybor residents, the City Council is reviewing and changing the wet zoning permitting process. The city attorney’s office is studying the neighborhood’s ideas to see if they can apply to the city’s revisions.

Any changes wouldn’t affect Empire or Fuel - they’re already grandfathered into current guidelines. But revisions would apply to any new club that opens.

- - -

LaColla welcomes the broader approach.

"We have to do more than just look at one specific nightclub," he said. "There’s underlying issues that need to be addressed."

Residents continue their struggle to diversify the types of entertainment in Ybor City.

"That’s really one of our biggest concerns," LaColla said. Residents want "more restaurants, retail, more activities for everyone."

Miller agreed: "You don’t need all those clubs."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.