Restaurants lose appetite for convention, crave working people

TAMPA, Fla.

While the convention business was red, white, blue and booming this week, the usually bustling downtown Tampa area became enmeshed in a maze of security barriers and police presence during the Republican National Convention.

The result was a mixed blessing for downtown operators as Tampa played the gracious host to an estimated 50,000 participants.

While many hotels are booked and some restaurants are packed, those eateries located too close to the epicenter of the celebration of Republicanism appear to have been stuck behind barriers. So close, yet so far.

Fenced off in its prime location at Kennedy Boulevard and Franklin Street, the diminutive Quiznos sandwich shop looked forlorn. It would be easier to escape East Berlin than to order a toasted sub there this week. Its owner talked of locking his doors until the barriers are removed.

Iron fences meant to direct pedestrian and vehicle traffic and funnel it toward security checkpoints appear to have worked so well that apolitical office workers avoided downtown altogether. Many large downtown bank branches agreed to close to minimize the hassle for customers and employees. No bankers and office workers, no lunch orders. Some of the business drain at the noon-hour sandwich shops was offset by conventioneers and cops. Without them, there might be no business at all.

Customer traffic was down by half this week at Bruegger's Bagels on Jackson Street, with all the banks and even the old City Hall building closed for the week.

"It's not what we expected," a disappointed employee says as he slaps cream cheese on a bagel.

Over at Primo's Deli Cafe, not far from the convention perimeter, the demand for chicken salad, turkey, corned beef and Cuban sandwiches was off substantially. Owner Rocky Barror laments that business on Monday was the slowest he has experienced in the decade he has owned his sandwich shop. On average, he serves from 160 to 180 customers a day. This week he has averaged just 80 to 100.

"They hyped up everything so much that everyone was expecting a lot," Barror says. "What has happened is, because of the hype, all the working downtown people that come to work every day are not coming to work this week … which has made it very hard on us because we depend on those working downtown people."

Security is tight, but he believes the real problem is that so many major businesses sent their employees home.

"If it wasn't for them scaring everyone off, everyone would be working and they would be fine," he says. "I actually do better with my normal working people in town than I do with what's going on right now. I'm ready for Tuesday to come back around."

Although cabbies reported business increased, especially late in the evening as the last of the delegates left the Tampa Bay Times Forum and Tampa Convention Center, the visitors often departed the downtown corridor for restaurants closer to their hotels.

Alas, there's a bright side.

With as many as 15,000 journalists in town, presumably beer sales went through the roof.

BUS STOPS HERE ...

Eventually. Former Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, an alternate delegate this week, is in Tampa with his wife, Rose, and several family members. The Woodburys managed to keep their cool despite suffering through excruciating late-night delays in bus service.

Other convention attendees weren't as kind. Add to the high security a decision to have delegates take one bus from the Tampa Bay Times Forum to Raymond James Stadium and then transfer to another bus in order to reach their hotel, and a long night grew much longer.

While convention veterans are used to late nights, some buses exhaled their final passengers as late as 3 a.m.

"Delegates fume as buses late," a Tampa Bay Times headline shouted.

A spokesman for special-event transit specialist SP Plus Gameday, which touts its success with many Olympic Games, Super Bowls and baseball All-Star games on a long list of credentials, declined to comment.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.