ST. PETERSBURG, FL — After losing its lease at its previous downtown St. Petersburg location and closing at the end of January, Ringside Café has found a new home.
The popular live music venue shared on its Facebook page that it will reopen at 350 1st Ave. N., across from Williams Park, later this summer.
“We’ll be back up and running before you know it,” Ringside posted at the end of June.
Though the venue didn’t give an official date for the reopening, in a comment, it said, “We’ll be open in about a month from now.”
In another comment, Ringside said that “if all the stars line up properly” it could open its doors July 29.
It also created a Facebook event page for a free Aug. 20 concert featuring Scream Machine, a 1980s arena rock tribute band playing music by Van Halen, KISS, Twisted Sister, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Journey, Foreigner and more.
“The wait is over St. Pete!!! The Ringside Cafe’ is reopening at a brand-new location downtown!! Live music is still here, so get out and support the Ringside Café after all the challenges they have been faced with while keeping the music scene alive,” the event page said.
The venue’s new space has previously been home to a number of restaurants, bars and nightclubs in recent years, including Marquee DTSP, Fuego Lounge, La Casa Tropical, G St. Pete and Diner 24 DTSP.
Ringside announced Dec. 13, 2021, on its Facebook page that it was leaving its location at 16 2nd Street North at the end of January.
“Many of you have been asking whether or not Ringside is staying in its current location,” the venue posted. “The short answer is that we were not given the opportunity to renew the lease; the location was leased to a business from out of state. We all were caught off guard with this news and are greatly saddened by it.”
A 1970s-themed nightclub, Good Night John Boy, is opening in the space later this year. The new Studio 54-style club is owned by Forward Hospitality Group, which is based in Cleveland, Ohio, according to St. Pete Rising.
After learning that Ringside’s lease wasn’t being renewed, the owners said they were committed to finding a new home for the venue.
Ringside has operated in St. Petersburg for more than 30 years – 26 of them on Fourth Street North where Trader Joe’s is currently located. When new owners bought the property, the venue, which featured live music seven nights a week, shut its doors in December 2013 and moved into its 2nd Street N. location, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“We would like to express how grateful we are for your patronage and how fortunate we are to have experienced the level of talent and professionalism that the musicians have put forth,” Ringside posted in December 2021. “Not many businesses have been able to develop the relationships that we have had with the residents of Saint Petersburg. Hopefully, we will be able to reopen the doors to Ringside and pick up where we are leaving off.”
