Bar@548 — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

I'm an employee here so my opinion is what it is but I do love this bar. The owner is awesome and so involved with the daily ins and outs to where I feel like this place is pretty close to a well oiled machine. Dare I compare to the likeness of Chick-fil-A. :D The team we have now is the best team I've worked with in a long time. I have a lot of fun working here and just love the downtown St. Pete artist culture. I've become good friends with a lot of the customers I've met while working here. And, bonus, I'm an artist! And 548 is an art gallery bar with local artists being able to showcase their work and even sell it and take home 100% of their asking price if sold. And yes, you can buy any art right off the wall. We have karaoke on Sunday nights, service industry discounts, happy hours, live music/ DJs a pool table (free pool Sundays) and every single night of the year everyone gets a free shot at 5:48pm. Dog friendly, full liquor bar with a plethora of different beers on tap many crafted locally. What more could you want from a cool hang out spot? It checks all the boxes I look for in a bar that's why I'm proud to be apart of the team that...

Expensive prices. Standard bar with a variety of liqour options. My last pick in St. Petersburg, honestly. I’ve had the bar-backs and bartenders pull my drinks half full several time when I walk to the bathroom. Probably not paying attention. Dirty bathrooms and dirty glassware. But they do like to push more alcohol on you, which is apparent by their $20 min. Anything below requires cash. ATM is expensive. Staff aren’t friendly about it either nor about anything really. They have the typical dive bar attitude and service. It is low key. Rather busy on weekend nights. The staff aren’t attentive, or they seem to not to care. Aka average dive if that’s what you’re looking for. They do have some interesting and cool art however. It’s also for sale. A couple bartenders are cool that work during the weekdays. I’ve also had them place “$50 holds on my account”. Not a big deal, but I’ve never had anyone do that before. Keep an eye. Because I have had the staff steal money from me in the past. But I haven’t seen that staff member for a while.

Not within my...

Now I don't think the problem is beyond redemption, but this bar has recently seemed to change what I always loved about it and what I think made it stand out...that it was never obtrusively loud. When I say obtrusive, I mean to having a conversation with the person right next to me without having to shout. You could go in here on a Friday night at 1am and even though there was a band or DJ you could still hold a conversation with the people in your group. It was fantastic!! We would always end our night here and usually close the place up because competing with the music wasn't exhausting. That has changed recently. It's gotten louder and louder in this bar and I find shouting, or worse, just being too encumbered by the volume of music to bother conversing, not worth my time. I'm going to hang out longer and in turn spend more money if I can be entertained and still be able to socialize comfortably. This place was a rose in a field of daisies, and now it's just...