It’s been nearly 30 years since Mark Ferguson taught at Southside Fundamental Middle School.
But when visiting his iconic restaurant in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, you feel as if you’ve stepped into a Pinellas County Schools archive room.
The Ferg’s stage where bands perform on Friday nights is constructed from old wooden gymnasium bleachers from Gibbs and Northeast high schools. The outdoor patio stage is made of pieces from the former Meadowlawn Middle gym floor. Photos from his days at Southside line the walls, and relics from when Ferguson played basketball and baseball at Lakewood High School are proudly displayed.
His “collections” could be misconstrued as junk, but for Ferguson, better known as “Ferg,” the restaurant’s namesake, he is surrounded by memories in a place that began as a tiny gas station with a $100,000 price tag.
In fact, he stumbled upon the property one morning while driving to work at Southside.
“The one thing I do is when I get an idea, I follow through on it,” said Ferguson in a recent interview on his high school campus. “I wasn’t really thinking, other than I wanted to own a small sports bar next to a major league stadium. It was just out of the blue. I had no business plan.”
After purchasing the property in 1991, Ferg’s opened in November of 1992 and did “terrible” its first year. Ferguson said they sold “cold food and warm beer”, and he had to hire his friends to keep the place afloat. Soon after, the Tampa Bay Lightning moved into the then Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field).
“If the Tampa Bay Lightning hadn’t played in that building for three years, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to you,” Ferguson said of the surge in business that kept him open until the Devil Rays (now Rays) arrived in 1998. “We were very lucky, and we were able to buy more property around us while it was much cheaper than it is now.”
Now, Ferg’s spans multiple city blocks in an area now know as The Edge District. In addition to being the number one gathering spot to watch any big game or the place to grab a bite before a Rays game, Ferg’s now has a dog park, pickleball courts, axe throwing and golf simulators. It also has a private upstairs room that can be rented for parties. Ferguson has hosted everything from Final Four watch parties to live wrestling matches, concerts and karaoke and trivia nights.
“I think it’s important that we’re always trying new things and putting money back into the business and building,” Ferguson said. “I mean, how many places can you say can gather 2,000 people for a sporting event or live music?”
Ferguson attributes his forward-thinking mindset in large part to his time as a student-athlete at Lakewood. Being a good teammate taught him how to build relationships, he said.
“Even though it’s sports and you’re having fun, it correlates to the job you do later on and how you build your team,” said Ferguson, who played two years of baseball at Edison Junior College in Ft. Myers before transferring to Florida State University where he hung up his cleats. “The more sports you’re in the more relationships you build. You try to get the most out of people every day and try to teach them how to do the right thing.”
Ferguson spent 18 years teaching at Southside Fundamental before making the switch to full-time Ferg’s owner. Being a fundamental school meant they didn’t have organized sports, so he coached boys’ and girls’ volleyball as well as boys’ basketball at Bay Point Middle. His dream was to become a high school basketball coach, but the growth of his restaurant forced him to make the tough decision to leave the district.
But that doesn’t mean he is any less invested. He regularly donates food for teacher events, hosts a student-led local sports radio show every Friday at the restaurant, and sits on the Hall of Fame board of Lakewood High School. He still lives in the southside neighborhood where he grew up and has a profound fondness for his childhood there.
“It was like one big neighborhood – the athletics and the camaraderie and the culture,” Ferguson said. “We always had a good time, but we were respectful of our classes.
“It’s the number one reason I’m here, because I got a good education,” Ferguson continued. “I had great teachers and great coaches who always taught you to do better.”
That nostalgia is woven into the framework of Ferg’s. Not just in the décor on the walls, but in the way Ferguson greets his regulars by name, telling stories of each one, what days of the week they swing by for a meal and sometimes even what they order. He loves the out-of-towners just the same; the ones who come to visit for a baseball game and end up moving a year later due to the welcoming nature of the area.
“I’m so thankful for the City of St. Pete – the teachers, the firefighters, the police – they’ve all made us what we are today,” Ferguson said. “We’re not real fancy. We just enjoy each other and treat people with a lot of respect.”
As for what’s next for Ferg’s, Ferguson trusts it will all work out. Opening a business in a virtual ghost town in 1992 has taught him to be patient, but also pivot when necessary.
“I think it’s very important we remain part of the St. Pete history,” Ferguson said. “We want people to gather, so you will not be seeing high rises here for a long time.”
