Hulk Hogan makes a splash at beach restaurant

Hulk Hogan, the wrestler and entrepreneur, has muscled Crabby Bill's aside and opened his own restaurant where the seafood eatery formerly stood on the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Tampa.

Hogan, whose birth name is Terrence Gene Bollea, got things off to a rousing start at Hogan's Beach restaurant with a masquerade party on New Year's Eve. “It looked like a sea of people out there,” many wearing masks, says Ron Howard, who partners with Bollea in his Hogan's Beach Shop in Clearwater.

The new eatery is located at the Bay Harbor Hotel on the Causeway. Hotelier Ben Mallah bought the hotel last spring and has been upgrading the property.

The Pinellas County beach shop sells T-shirts, backpacks, hats and other beachwear, and Howard is running a similar shop at the new Tampa restaurant.

On Monday and Thursday nights, the restaurant features televised wrestling. “It's not too rowdy,” on fight nights, says Howard. “We do have a mechanical bull shark [to ride] if someone's feeling frisky,” he adds.

As for Hulk Hogan, he's not just a restaurateur in name only, says Howard. “He's very much involved,” from development to the restaurant's theme and entertainment.

Patrons of Crabby Bill's won't find much evidence of the old restaurant at the site of the new one, notes Howard. Crabby's name isn't spoken at the eatery, he says. “Crabby Bill's is no more. Hogan's Beach has taken over.”