A very Hooper farewell to the original Four Green Fields, a Tampa institution - Tampa Bay Times

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TAMPA — It’s not how it proved to be a great launching point for Lightning games or concerts at Amalie Arena. It’s not the crisp taste it always delivered in a pint of Harp or that I once enjoyed a pint on St. Patty’s Day with the lovely Ann Slattery from County Westmeath.

No, something more rudimentary left me awash in melancholy all week about the closing of the original Four Green Fields. It’s the evenings I walked in alone after a long day’s work, just needing a place to unwind, that endears the spot at 205 W Platt St.

The greatest tribute you can pay to any drinking establishment is that it — not the owner, the bartenders, the servers or the cook, but the pub itself — welcomed you in moments of reflection. Any place can host the festive times, but who can you turn to on a lazy Saturday afternoon or a slow Tuesday night?

Four Green Fields, named for the four provinces of Ireland — Ulster, Connacht, Leinster and Munster.

Ernest Hooper [ American Cancer Society ]

The walls know my laments, the patio deck knows my joys and the picnic tables know my pains. Amazingly, they always picked me up. It didn’t hurt that I often struck up a conversation and made a new friend on those quiet entrees.

Owner Colin Breen, a St. Petersburg native of Irish descent, opened the bar in 1992 with a decided focus on Irish authenticity, starting with the thatched roof, made of reeds packed 12 inches thick, that promised to be more durable than regular roofing shingles.

“I figured if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right,” Breen told the Tampa Tribune in 1992 before the bar opened. “I didn’t want people walking in and going, ‘Gee, this almost looks like an Irish pub.’ "

Louise Lopez, 48, and Caitlin Weaver, 21, write farewell messages on the walls of the original Four Green Fields as the last pints were served on its last day on Saturday. The iconic Tampa bar opened at 205 W Platt St. in 1992 and will soon move to a new Channel District location. [ LUIS SANTANA | Times ]

Four Green Fields’ authenticity lies not only in its selection of Irish drafts and whiskeys, but in its bartenders and servers, many of whom hailed from Ireland, and in the music acts it drew to its stage, including Sinead O’Connor and the Wolfe Tones. My friend Martha Minahan, a 75-year-old lover of Irish ballads, never missed the Wolfe Tones and lead singer Derek Warfield. She too has found new friends at the bar.

Breen said this week that such stories represent a key to the bar’s long-term success: consistency and staying true to the concept.

“The idea of a true Irish pub is a place for companionship and all that goes with it: food, drink, entertainment and conversation,” he said. “We don’t try to be everything to everybody. You either like it or you don’t, but if you do, you’re a friend and customer for life.

“It’s tempting to change some of the concepts during the ups and downs of business, and there are plenty, but people know what to expect when they enter through the door and fortunately there have been many from around the world that like what they have experienced.”

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper wrote a farewell message on the wall of the original Four Green Fields. The bar served its last pints at its original location on Saturday. It opened at 205 W Platt St. in 1992 and will soon move to a new Channel District location. [ LUIS SANTANA | Times ]

Four Green Fields became a go-to spot for me and for many, including those of us who worked in the Times Tampa Bureau and some good folks from the Tribune. The rivalry never rivaled the revelry we enjoyed as journalists. In fact, a Times supervisor delivered one of my first job evaluations at Four Green Fields and then ordered a $40 glass of Scotch.

It also became a favorite of the legal community, including many from the federal courthouse, a scene undoubtedly spurred by the fact that federal prosecutor Bobby O’Neill became a part-owner in 1997. O’Neill would go on to become the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida in 2010. There was a time in the 1990s and early 2000s that the Friday night happy hour proved to be a veritable who’s who of judges and lawyers.

As fate would have it, I sat in the newsroom one night whining about turning a year older and how I didn’t really want to celebrate my birthday. I think I was 36. My friends cajoled me into going to Four Green Fields for a beer. Former Times staffer Kathryn Wexler went over to Publix and brought some mini cupcakes and we had a grand time. Strangers joined us on the deck and Bill Varian, now the Times business editor, said, “This has turned into a Hooperpalooza.” At least that’s how I remember it.

In the years that followed, that simple celebration became an annual gathering that would draw hundreds, including elected officials, dignitaries and friends and family from out of town. I’d count former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn among the honored guests, but he frequented Four Green Fields so much he may have planned to be there all along.

The funny thing? I never reserved the pub for Hooperpaloozas. I just would swing through around lunch the day of the party and tell Breen (or whoever happened to be there), “Hey, it’s my birthday, I’m bringing some people through.” He would just smile.

The last pints were served Saturday on the last day of the original Four Green Fields. The iconic Tampa bar opened at 205 W Platt St. in 1992 and will soon move to a new Channel District location. [ CHRISTOPHER O'DONNELL | Times ]

In the latter years, Lightning fans made it a pregame (and postgame) stop. Jon Cooper was known to occasionally drop by after games, and he once wrapped up a season by holding court with Lightning media members inside the pub. I’m sure the Stanley Cup has made an appearance or two over the past couple of months.

Regulars have long known this day was coming. Breen sold the property to neighboring St. John’s Episcopal Parish Day School in 2015 for a reported $3.75 million. He has leased the land from the school since then, and he privately told patrons he was likely to close the location within five years.

The bar’s last day started Saturday with a host of well-wishers paying their final respects. With the Irish-related photos placed in storage, folks took to marking up the barren walls with farewell messages. Breen said some longtime patrons visited Friday night and were in tears. He noted it would only be a few weeks before the new location opens.

We all wonder if Breen can replicate the magic of the original pub in a new Channel District location. The Four Green Fields he opened in Curtis Hixon Park also features a thatched roof and an oaken bar. It’s a nice facsimile.

But no matter how well he does in retaining the architecture and the feel, there will be only one original Four Green Fields.

• Only one pub where I traded jokes with a bankruptcy judge.
• Only one pub where I met a U.S. Central Command Lt. Commander who once posed with a Four Green Fields flag in front of a cement bunker in Qatar.
• Only one pub where former Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson (and current Arkansas governor) showed up with two federal protective service agents guarding the front and back door.
• Only one pub where I once wrote a column.
• Only one pub where I interviewed Irish pop star Red Hurley.
• Only one pub where the late Times journalist Paul de la Garza and I shared beers.
• Only one pub where I jumped off the patio one night and followed a group of 20 white-robed monks out to Bayshore Boulevard to commemorate the 16th century death of Fray Luis de Cáncer.
• Only one pub where I first (legally) bought my younger son a drink before seeing Kevin Hart at Amalie Arena.
• Only one pub where, with the help of my friend Scott Purks, I locked on to a certain phrase and decided it would be my column tagline.

That’s all I’m saying.

Ernest Hooper is a former columnist, bureau chief and assistant sports editor at the Tampa Bay Times. He is now a regional communications director for the American Cancer Society.

Patrons enjoy the last pints served on the last day of the original Four Green Fields bar on Saturday. The iconic Tampa bar opened at 205 W Platt St. in 1992 and will soon move to a new Channel District location. [ LUIS SANTANA | Times ]

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