Emerald Bar — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

Smoke filled but..... I was there to see the band. They held my card to keep a tab open. Gave it to another patron who closed their tab on my card and then went to the Iberian across the street and closed another tab before I realized what was going on. Probably a mistake and the other person probably did not realize they had the wrong card either. All just a mistake up to this point even though it was a bad one. When I asked to close my tab they said they didn't have my card and then they called me a liar about having given them the card. Then they found a receipt and said here is where you closed the tab. Problem was it was not my signature. Still called me a liar. Said I probably dropped the card outside on the street. REALLY! No apology. Changing my card. Takes hours to finish it all. Amazed at how badly I was treated when it was pretty obvious that that had made an error. Careful if you open a tab there. I won't be back...

I'm from St. Pete and have been here many times. I went for the first time in probably a decade last night, and was disgusted by the presence of German cockroaches crawling on the walls underneath the bar, while the bar was packed with people. I had my purse on a hook under the bar top and another customer tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out a roach that was about to CRAWL INTO MY PURSE! I spotted 2 more after that. I get this is an old dive, but maybe consider getting some kind of pest control? I personally can't go back knowing this. Don't use the wall purse hooks or you'll be taking home some...

I always used to look forward to a visit to The Emerald, such a great dive bar. I love the atmosphere, I feel like I’m stepping back in time. Last few visits, not so much. The surly bartender takes her sweet time, when she finally ambles over to take my order she acts like she’s doing me a favor, barely says anything, much less say thank-you. Even though we left her a tip on the first round, she had little interest on getting us a second round of drinks, even though it was not very busy in there. We ended up leaving and going next door where we were the bartender was friendly...