It’s here. Bay area live music lovers’ long goodbye to New World Brewery comes to an end Saturday when the 22-year-old old venue, restaurant, and community gathering space stages its final Ybor City concert. Unless you’ve been living under a rug (and not the New World rug hiding a trapdoor to a storm drain that’ll lead you to lost vinyl), then you know that the property at 1313 E. 8th Ave. — which has been a topic of conversation since November — is slated to become four stories of residential and retail.
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Music Issue: The long goodbye — what we'll miss about New World's Ybor oasis
A relocation six miles away is in the works, but this weekend marks the end of what’s truly been one of the greatest runs any single venue has had in Tampa Bay.
With the final note of the final show — which features two dozen of Tampa Bay’s best bands of the past, present and future — a community’s collective memories of concerts, weddings, baby showers and the occasional funeral go to bed, too. The days and nights sipping soda and beer while looking at the old typewriters, seagulls, clogs, aluminum signs, copper pigs, dartboards, multiple globes and the action figure of Crowbar Tom DeGeorge are over. There are probably thousands of items not-strategically placed across the venue, and we can only hope to keep them in our dreams as we await the opening of the new New World.
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Iconic Tampa concert venue New World Brewery secures new location, announces final Ybor show
This newspaper has devoted thousands upon thousands of words to the end of New World as we know it (a lot of that has to do with the fact that half the staff has come of age there as musicians, drinkers and people in general), so we asked owner Steve Bird to talk about the jumble of trinkets he’s amassed over the years. In spite of our efforts to keep it light, feelings were had.
Look around for a few facts you can tell your friends on Saturday, and click around the related links more New World coverage. See more of Anthony Martino's photos of New World Brewery here.
GLOBES & MAPS
"I thought I would have more globes. I thought they were more common than they are, but I got enough now," Bird told CL. "When people have ‘em out, people want $10 or $20 for ‘em, but I thought they’d be more of a throwaway item and I could collect a lot of them easy. It took a long time.
He hasn’t bought any for himself in a long time, but people bring them and maps in from time to time.
"Somebody counted once and got to a couple hundred. I think they may have missed a few. I never counted. I’ve never taken an inventory of the globes," he added.
One special one in particular is one blues musician P.W. Fenton gave Bird.
"t has no political boundaries on it — just clouds. The only one I’ve ever seen that didn’t have boundaries on it. It’s over the doors into the kitchen. He said his wife hated it."
IRMA DING DONG
Illustration by bartender Krystal Ralph created while Hurricane Irma moved closer to America's wang.
THE MANTELPIECE
"It came out of Ybor's office. From Ybor square. Go through the front door, all the way straight back is a mantel between the two beer coolers," Bird said. "That was [V.M.] Ybor’s. I got it from Harris Mulholland who used to own Ybor Square."
Bird adds that it was covered in paint and took a week to refinish.
"That one is priceless," he said.
IS THERE A SHED AT HOME FULL OF STUFF THAT NEVER MADE IT TO NEW WORLD?
It’s packed with stuff, too. When we finish the new place everything will be in its place. I won’t be jammed up anymore.
THE PONIES ON TOP
They came off for Irma. The horses — kids riding ponies salvaged from the trash — are already on site at the new place right there along with the globe, which was an old pool filter.
BILLY SUMMERS SMASHED GUITAR
Billy Summers, current frontman of Luxury Mane and member of New World Blowout band Lost Weekend Riviera Club, was formerly one of the Bay area’s biggest partiers and told CL that the guitar was smashed one night when he was blacked out and playing a show at New World. We asked him how long the blackout lasted.
His response: several years.
"RAT" DRUMHEAD
A memorial drumhead memorializing scooter-bound New World regular David “Rat” Anderson, whom the Tampa Bay Times reports was stabbed to death in 2005 while trying to break up a fight between concertgoers at a 20th anniversary show for South Florida punk band Nuclear Beer. Easily the darkest day for New World, ever. A photo of Anderson and longtime New World bartender Joanne Silvera is also hanging to the right of the entryway to the bathroom.
PICTURES ON THE SIDE OF THE BAR
The photos near the bar are the items that get Bird choked up the most. Old staff and regulars, including some who’ve gone on to the other side. “I miss so many of the staff,” Bird said. “A lot of them, and I miss the memories, too.”
PIN BALL MACHINES
"The pinball will be at the new place. I’ve got more at the house," Bird says. "One of those things I have clogging up the house. I have some real good ones."
Pictured are regulars Warren Wilson and Bill Clements, who've been patrons of the bar for the last half decade.
"We come for the pinball and the food," Wilson said. "That's what it's all about."
BOP CITY BAR
"Bop City was a bar, I think it was on Fourth. It was a notorious Jamaican bar. Joe Howden gave me the sign." Bird said, adding that he thinks it's one of the best pieces in the restaurant."I’m gonna have it repaired again. It worked for years, but it bombed out. It’ll be in the new place in all its glory. When we fixed it, it was cool. Had no idea until it lit up what all the different neon colors are. I’m looking forward to having it fixed."
THE BAR TOP ITSELF
One of my favorite things. They’re hard pine timbers that came out of the factory where Ybor City Brewing company was. When we were just building the place, they were opening and took it out for brewing equipment, so they gave me the timbers.
SEAN BIRDSELL PICTURE
Sean Birdsell, forever a Fuma Bella employee of the month, is easily one of the kindest people in Ybor City. Ask somebody to tell a story about the kind things he's done for them.
STAINED GLASS
All salvaged English stuff and it’s all going to the new place.
THE CAT
"The cat stays here. What do you think the cats gonna do?," said Dean Rosenberger, New World's spiritual janitor. "Don’t worry about the cat, somebody comes and feeds that cat. We’re more worried about you (points at the full bar) — what are all of you gonna do when we leave?"
JUKEBOX
It used to be the best free jukebox it town, but "it kind of bombed out" according to Bird, who eventually sold it to a customer. It kind of bombed out.
THE SNEEZE GUARD
"That’s a door," Bird says while laughing at our appreciation for the fixture. "Like from an old stack of front doors that was there when we first got the place."
TRAP DOOR
Just before entering the bar proper. "That’s just access to an old storm drain and truck well," Bird said.
TOM DEGEORGE ACTION FIGURE
Exactly, what it looks like. An action figure of Crowbar general manager Tom DeGeorge, who once said that New World Brewery was his favorite Ybor venue not called Crowbar.
"When I go to New World, I can actually sit back and enjoy myself. I think a lot of that has to do with the management and the staff," DeGeorge said. "If you have a place that takes pride in what they do and people are on point and they’re paying attention and they’re friendly — I just feel really comfortable when I go there. I don’t feel like I’m at a bar, I feel like I’m at a friend’s house. You go in there, you’re always gonna see someone you know. I really enjoy that place.”
