10 minute read
Forty years of the Tavern, as told by its owners
Matthew Cimitile
It started at a dinner party.
That’s how Bud and Joan Karins describe the origins of the idea that became the Tavern at Bayboro. Friends had come together to celebrate a new venture – a bookstore to be built in an old woodworking shop on the edge of the campus. With the building came an extra attached space and initial ideas for a tearoom.
Memories of his own graduate school days with limited food options – and a longtime dream of owning a pub – prompted Bud to put in a bid for the space.
Since that fateful evening, the Tavern at Bayboro (originally called Tavern on the Green) has become an institution at USF St. Petersburg. For 40 years, it has provided food, live music and a social gathering spot for faculty, staff and students outside of class and work.
Since 1982, the pub has had four owners. Though their styles varied, their outlook could nicely be summed up by Tom Herzhauser, who owned the Tavern from 2010–2019.
“I always had the feeling that as the owner, I never really owned it. I had the keys for nine years. It is a treasure in St. Pete and especially on campus. And I always felt like I’m here for a little bit of time, and don’t screw it up.”
Here is the story of the Tavern, as told by its owners.
Joan and Bud Karins, owners from 1983–1987
Bud: I earned an MBA at night at the University of Hartford in Connecticut and mostly just ate out of vending machines. And I thought, this (USF St. Petersburg) is a commuter campus, and it would be nice if there was a place to get a sandwich and a Coke or a beer before or after your class. The opportunity came along, and I decided to jump at it and convert the space into a place that would sell mostly beers and a few sandwiches. It didn’t turn out that way.
Joan: It turned out that we sold a lot of sandwiches.
Bud: Building it was an experience. I decided to take part of the ceiling out, as it was pretty cramped. It turned out to have a vaulted ceiling, so we were able to make a space that was only the size of a two-car garage a bit more interesting and open. I also wanted the bar to be a mahogany bar, so I went to the lumber yard and they had mahogany planks available. The original bar is still largely here.
Joan: When we started, the parking lot just outside the Tavern was a big green lawn. So, we named it Tavern on the Green. It was really tiny, only four or maybe six tables inside plus outside seating. If we were going to be a place that sold sandwiches, we weren’t going to make it with that small space. We got it in our head to sell sandwiches delivering all around downtown and opened up the loft upstairs and set up a sandwich making shop. Every morning we would take orders from downtown businesses and deliver them around town.
Bud: Over time we would get regulars that became friends. We had professors who held classes here.
Joan: It was alternative dining, which students liked a lot. It was small and somewhat intimate, so it had that Cheers vibe that made it unique.
Gavan Benson and Mike Tarantino, owners from 1987–2010
Mike: My mother was in real estate and told me one night she just listed the Tavern for sale. Gavan had talked to me about the place before, as he had been a couple times. We were young but we looked at the place and reviewed the numbers and thought we could make it work.
Gavan: I was floundering, looking for something to do. I was in banking and didn’t like it. Mike told me about this listing and wanted to know what I thought. I had just been there recently seeing a friend play music. It was a great little bar in downtown. We checked it out and then we had the crazy idea to make an offer on it. I thought we would make an offer and they would say no and that would be that. But much to our surprise, Joan and Bud said yes. Then we had to scramble for the down payment.
Mike: So, we bought it. We were all of 24. Luckily our moms took a chance on us. We each got our loan from our mother. We made it work, paid them back quickly and never looked back.
Gavan: I liked to have a good time, and someone was willing to hand me keys to a bar. We took full advantage of that and had a lot of fun for those first several years. And then at some point we both realized if we could do as well as we are doing and have as much fun doing it, imagine if we really tried. Then it became a job, and we went about making it as
well–run of a business as we could.
Mike: We did our live music thing on Thursday nights and that lasted quite a few years. It was a great atmosphere and really the place to be back then. We started that in 1989–90 and Thursday nights really blossomed down here with good bands and discounted beers. It
really clicked.
Gavan: A few classes would get out by 8:30 or 9 p.m. those evenings and students would come here. We would close by 11 p.m. because of noise ordinances. There would be 300 people at 11. Then the band would stop. By 11:15 p.m. there were 10 people left.
Gavan: We had our outside customers, particularly on Thursday night. But the rest of the week this place was jammed full of professors, students, academics, research people from the marine sciences. It was a fascinating place to come and be part of the conversations that happened at the bar and out here on the patio. I had conversations about plate tectonics and how they discovered that snook changed sex. It was such a unique environment.
Mike: It was a business to run, we always kept that in mind, but it was a lot of fun. A lot of people work all their lives in corporate America, work until they are 50, then they take their investment and buy a bar. We did it the other way.
Gavan: In 1987 when we started here, this was the outskirts of the campus. Since then, the campus has grown around us, which is symbolic because this place has always been such a part of the campus. People didn’t believe us when we said we were private property and a privately-run business.
That being said, the Tavern is such a big part of the USF St. Pete family. It’s a symbiotic relationship and one wouldn’t be what it is without the other. And owning it literally changed my life. I met my wife here.
Tom Herzhauser, owner from 2010-2019
I had a number of restaurants over the years in Tampa, but I always lived on this side of the bay. And one day my wife said, “Why don’t you get something closer to home?” I told a realtor friend of my interest and within two or three weeks he told me the Tavern was for sale. I had been there enough times to know it was a great place. So, I came down with my wife, had an appetizer and a cold drink on the patio, and it went from there.
I always knew this was a special place. Joan and Bud did great things, Gavan and Mike did great things. I wanted to add my own take on it. I was a food guy, so coming in I wanted to build upon that. After a couple of years, we generated enough profit that I put in a kitchen and went after the grouper business. I wanted to build a business that would bring in people from the community because of the food – specifically grouper – but also accommodate college students by keeping it affordable.
As a chef, I was able to write my menus. One of the things I’m most proud of is dedicating menu items to the special people on campus. We lost some great people while I was here, like Bobby Dardenne (sandwich named The Journalist) and Terry Tomalin (sandwich named The Adventurer). We had dedication events. The simplicity of making a sandwich and dedicating the name meant a lot to the family. It was a way of paying tribute to the great minds that were here and I was really proud of that legacy.
I knew we were unique and had this special place. My decision-making always came from a place of preserve it, be kind and help as much as you can.
Dennis and Stephanie Bixler, owners from 2019-present
Dennis: Tom had been asking around for someone to take over the place and wanted someone who had time invested in it. He asked me at some point. I was driving home one night from Open Mic night, which I had been running here for years, and asked Steph, “Want to take over the Tavern?” I thought it was the stupidest idea ever. But she said, “Let’s look into it, could be fun.” That’s how it came about.
Stephanie: We knew it would be a lot of work to take it over. We didn’t know about COVID. It came less than a year after we became owners. That was frightening. Luckily, we had good people that we couldn’t have done this without, like our Chef Chevy who was so patient. The fear of starting it and owning it and then with COVID, that was a tough time. But with supportive staff helping us, like my brother in-law Patrick, we got through it, and it has certainly paid off. And now we are just grateful to still be here.
Dennis: Coming back from COVID was certainly the biggest thing we have been through since owning the Tavern. Nobody could foresee it being a ghost town, with limited times being open. But we adapted where we could, spent the time updating where we could, such as painting the building inside and out during that time. A group effort to get through it.
Stephanie: The Tavern is just such a laid back, super easy-going place. Many people think it’s just a college campus place, and college students are here of course. But it really goes from little kids to people in their 80s and 90s. It’s a great local hangout that is relaxing, affordable and friendly.
Dennis: The history of students and faculty coming here is something I have always found interesting. Seeing familiar faces. Seeing those groups of students coming in as freshman and seeing them graduate. Them knowing us by name. And that they love this place. Same thing with faculty, showing up with students to talk shop. It’s just something I’ve never seen anywhere else.
