Ringside Cafe closure: ‘When you’re done, you’re done’

After 26 years in several different locations – the very definition of a round and a bout – Ringside Café has given itself a TKO.

Greg Pugh, owner of the venerable St. Petersburg club and eatery – one of the last small downtown bars to feature live music – closed Ringside Monday morning, after the New Year’s Eve crowd had partied hard and drifted off for home.

“Ringside had run its course,” Pugh told the Catalyst. “The business model and what we were able to do had pretty much come full circle for us.”

Everything, he said – rent, insurance, the price of goods and the fees for bands – had gone up.

“Our business model was, we make things affordable for people and give them the best quality that we can,” Pugh explained. “And that goal is harder and harder to achieve.”

Pugh and longtime bartender Mitch Gray stood outside the nightspot, at 350 1^st Avenue North, and reflected on its storied history Friday afternoon.

“We enjoyed Ringside for every year that we had it,” said Pugh. “We’ve been together for all of it. It’s always been a pleasure.

“At some point, everything runs full circle. Everything has its time. And for us, it was time. It was time to just shut the doors.

Gray spoke up. “It was retirement time for me, for damn sure,” he said. “I was ready. I’m 70 and I’m checking out.”

Inside Ringside on a typical live music night. Photo by Mark Parker.

Pugh bought the original business, a converted boxing ring on 4^th Street North, in 1993. Trader Joe’s replaced it on the site 20 years later.

The club relocated to a spot on 2^nd Street North, which became the ‘70s-themed Good Night John Boy bar in 2022. That’s when Pugh, Gray and their coterie of friends, employees, regular customers and music types moved to the 1^st Avenue location. The name, and the boxing motif, always went with them.

According to Pugh, although the decision to cease operations had been made, there was no long-term decision in place to shutter Ringside after New Year’s Eve. “We really weren’t sure what we were going to do,” he said. “We were just trying to figure out what would work best, and at some point we just decided ‘Why don’t we start the new year off with something different?’

“You’re not really holding on for any particular reason – when you’re done, you just feel like you’re done. And sometimes the quicker you can make those changes in your life, the better it is.”