Strait Street: Jason Micallef wasn’t joking

When Jason Micallef said that he wants to turn Strait Street into ‘the Paceville of Valletta’, he wasn’t joking.

The Paceville operators are moving in fast. Lapdancing ‘kink’ and friend of Emmanuel Mallia, Frankie Grima, has taken over what used to be The Egyptian Queen, on Old Theatre Street corner with Strait Street. He had a soft launch party there a couple of weeks back at which the special guests were all Taghna Lkoll fixers and operators.

The prime minister’s security officer, the retired old policeman known as Iz-Zubina, spent most of the time on the balcony, highly visible from the street because of his fabulous Hawaiian shirt.

You can argue that this is simply Strait Street going right back to its seedy roots.

Frankie Grima has prior connections with Valletta. In the 1970s he was goalie for Valletta FC, but was ‘suspended’ in 1979 for extracurricular activities following a match in Tunis. He then moved to another club until he swapped football permanently for Paceville after finding the money to set up the Bamboo Bar just outside the Dragonara (remember that?).

He then shot and killed a man in 1992 with a submachine gun he just happened to keep behind the counter, and got off on self-defence even though the man – a thug – was running away. Since then there has been no stopping him: Argentine steakhouses, frozen meat wholesalers, bars, restaurants at Portomaso (for which he defaulted repeatedly on the rent) and lap-dancing clubs.

He was most recently in the news (on this website) for throwing a birthday party at one of his Paceville clubs for Emmanuel Mallia.

Frankie Grima