Courtesy of Ana Dominguez | The Crow’s Nest
By Ana Dominguez
After the Neamtu family fled Romania three years ago and moved to St. Petersburg, they noticed that the city was missing something they could truly relate to.
Their culture was being underrepresented in Pinellas County and the family knew that needed to change.
After buying the space formerly known as Wine Madonna, the Neamtu’s created Dracula’s Legacy, a castle-inspired bar that serves Romanian wine flights on 111 2nd Ave. NE.
Without hesitation, they knew they wanted a Dracula-themed bar due to the vampire’s legacy in their culture, originating from the Transylvania region in Romania.
For more than a century, Hollywood moviemakers have reinterpreted the origins of Dracula – from the silent, unofficial adaptation of the Bram Stoker story, Nosferatu, to modern reimagining of vampire myths in feature films and television. Robert Neamtu, one of the owners of Dracula’s Legacy, explained that the real story of Dracula is based on Vlad the Impaler, the official ruler of Walachia, now part of modern Romania.
“The Turks attacked Walachia and Vlad pushed them out by impaling them. There were two reasons behind it, so the enemies that came and tried to take over that area would get scared and would back off, and to keep his people safe,” Neamtu said.
Because Vlad would cut off the fingers, arms and legs of all trespassers in plain sight of all the villagers, somehow it got back to Hollywood where they made the assumption that Vlad must have been inhuman and drinking the blood of his victims.
Although the Neamtu family knows the real origin of how the story of Dracula came about, they still partake in all the fun, incorporating Dracula-themed wine, such as vampire pinot noir, bloody cabernet and Dracula sparkling wine.
The owners of Dracula’s Legacy offer these vampiric drinks from around the world, while embracing their culture’s history through traditional Romanian wines, which normally can only be found back home. These wines can be enjoyed by the glass or in a wine flight.
“Something really interesting that we offer that most wine bars in general don’t have would be the Romanian wine from the Feteasca Negara grape –– a dark-skinned grape variety native to the Republic of Moldova and Romania –– and the Feteasca Regala –– a white wine that is rich in lush aromas of peaches and apple,” Neamtu said.
This bar meets the needs of every customer, not just the blood-drinkers.
Dracula’s Legacy also has non-alcoholic options like coffee, cider, tea, juice and an assortment of food options, including garlic knots, bruschetta, soup, salads and chocolate fondue for dessert.
The courtyard space in front of the establishment hosts an annual Halloween costume contest and has artists of different genres come out to play live music.
The Neamtu family is very grateful that last Halloween their business started to pick back up after the pandemic, since it hasn’t always been easy for Dracula’s Legacy.
After being open for only two months, their business was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, they have gone through many hardships, such as reconnecting with former customers, getting to know new ones and building a community where people from different backgrounds and cultures can come together.
Throughout the pandemic, the owners of Dracula’s Legacy reflected on how they could build their community back up and reconnect with customers again for the reopening of their bar. As a result, Dracula’s Legacy created a VIP program to help get their clientele involved.
Customers can pay a one-time fee of $100 and get a customized Dracula’s Legacy wine glass with a nickname engraved that is on display on their hanging wine rack for life, which is now two racks full.
“The VIP program is fun; it always sparks conversations as to why my glass says Medicated Pete,” said Marc Singer, a regular at Dracula’s Legacy.
As for students, the establishment offers a 10% discount and it is within walking distance from the St. Petersburg campus.
For most people, Halloween doesn’t last longer than the month of October, but Dracula’s Legacy is open year-round, inviting everyone to keep the spooky spirit alive.
What? No mamaliga?