James W. (Jimmy) Donofrio’s Rio Liquor Store opened at 3126 Gandy Blvd. in 1960. It was the fourth store for that brand. It featured Rio’s sandwich shop on the east end, the Fiesta Lounge with Ole Sarge at the piano in the middle, and a package store on the west side. The name of the lounge was later changed to the Bamboo Lounge. The sandwich shop, open 24 hours a day, offered Tampa favorites like a jumbo Cuban sandwich for $.55, homemade bean soup for $.25, and a steak and pepper sandwich for $.75. The interior looked like a typical diner, with a u-shaped lunch counter and vinyl backed stools, and the backsplash in the prep area was chromed diamond plate.

In 1971, Charles Brown opened Brown’s Trophies on the property and was in business until 2014. Trulieve Medical Marijuana Treatment Center constructed a new building and opened in 2021.

Donofrio is the real story here due to his long rap sheet and low jail time. He sold the Rio Liquors chain to Jack Holloway of ABC Liquors of Orlando in August 1970. Earlier that year, Donofrio was charged with possession of a firearm as a felon following an investigation into attempted murder at another club he owned, The Deep South in St. Petersburg. The attempted murder charges were later dropped when the witness said he was unable to identify his assailants.

James Donofrio, also known as James Nofio, was a reputed Santo Trafficante crime syndicate associate. His complicated story began in the 1930s when he served time in federal prison for attempted robbery and liquor law violations. In 1956, in Tampa, when he applied for a liquor license transfer to the Gandy store, his former convictions came to light. That year, he pleaded guilty to five beverage department charges ranging from acting as a wholesaler to a dry county to failing to report those sales to federal tax officials. The department ordered him to sell his interest in Rio Liquors and stay out of the liquor business. By late 1957, he had his civil rights restored. In 1962, the beverage department again charged Donofrio when they determined that he had reentered the liquor business in defiance of the 1956 order. He was again ordered out of the liquor business, and all seven licenses held by his company were revoked. After a bunch of legal wrangling, in 1964, Donofrio was fined $2500, and the suspensions of his licenses were lifted. He did not sell the Rio chain until 1970.

In 1971, he was charged with tax evasion after allegedly receiving two $50,000 checks under questionable circumstances. In 1972, Donofrio took a plea deal in an eight-count indictment and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for income tax fraud and making false statements in a federal bankruptcy hearing. In March 1988, at 77, he was indicted for federal loansharking charges after being accused of loaning money at exorbitant interest rates to three Tampa businessmen between July 1980 and September 1984. He then allegedly threatened to castrate them if they failed to repay the loan. He was released on a $100,000 signature bond the next day, with reports stating that he was suffering from memory lapses and diabetes. Those charges were dropped when a doctor determined he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. In 1992, his bank records were seized along with St. Pete restauranter Louis Pappas, Key Bank president Frank Pupello, and eight other men by a task force investigating racketeering and money laundering allegations at the Key Bank of Florida. He was never formally charged in the case. James William (Jimmy) Donotrio died of heart failure in 2001.

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