St. Petersburg | Bambusa Bar & Grill, an LGBTQ-friendly restaurant and entertainment hotspot in Naples, will not open a St. Petersburg location at the former Georgie’s Alibi.
The Naples eatery announced their intent to expand to St. Petersburg in August 2017, noting they had chosen to resurrect the Alibi location, a spot synonymous with the St. Petersburg LGBTQ community for years.
“It’s basically the location didn’t work out,” Bambusa’s co-owner Steve Soutner tells Watermark. “There were just too many unforeseen problems.”
Bambusa offers a plethora of entertainment, including drag performances and weekly gaming, Bingo and karaoke nights. They had previously announced that Tampa Bay fan-favorite entertainer Kori Stevens would serve as the new location’s entertainment director.
Watermark reached out to Stevens, who says that the decision not to open the St. Petersburg location is “an unfortunate disappointment for the entire community.”
“We’re sort of looking at other spots right now,” Soutner says, though he also notes that Bambusa has yet to do so. “The location… there were just too many unforeseen problems.”
Philip C. Dobson of Dobson Construction, Inc., who owns the building that houses the vacant Georgie’s Alibi, did not wish to comment.
