Pat McClellan never met a stranger or anybody he wasn’t willing to help out
Pat McClellan never met a stranger or anybody he wasn’t willing to help out
By Fran Thompson
A celebration of life for Flora-Bama co-owner Pat McClellan will be held from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9 in the Flora-Bama tent. Pat passed peacefully at home on July 22 with wife Sheryl, children Sean (Jennifer) and Brendan and grandkids Declan, Fionn and Conor close by. He was 77 years old.
Although Pat had been battling health issues, his death was unexpected. Just a day before he passed, he had his hair cut and drove himself to the Flora-Bama, where he passed out $2 bills and hugs to employees. He scarfed an ice cream bar at Flora-Bama Watersports on his way out and stopped at Bushwacker Landing, his sons’ bistro & live music venue on the Intracoastal Waterway, before returning to his Innerarity Point home.
A stand-out high school athlete in four sports while growing up in Minneapolis, Pat attended the University of Minnesota and then continued military service that started in ROTC. He made his P-Cola bones immediately, as the public affairs and special services officer for six years while stationed with 1,550 other sailors aboard the USS Lexington at NAS Pensacola.
He left the Navy in 1976 to work for Jack Snow, a friend from his hometown neighborhood, who, with a dream, a prayer and a little help from his friends, had opened Seville Quarter in downtown Pensacola in 1967.
By design, McClellan started as a barback at Rosie’s, then tended bar at Lilly & Marlene’s. He was the general manager of the entire Seville Quarter complex by the time Flora-Bama owner Joe Gilchrist gave him co-ownership to entice him to go west to Perdido Key in October of 1984.
Seville Quarter co-owner Buck Mitchell started working for Pat when he was 14 years old.
“He would always say we were breaking child labor laws,” Mitchell said. “He was one of my very best friends and mentors. He and Sheryl have been like family for 40 years. I learned so much from both Pat and Joe about how to make things happen.
“He was a legend, not just at the ‘Bama, but here at Rosie’s. He helped make this business and we are about to celebrate our 59th year.
“I loved him. My whole family does. We all worked for him, and we’ve always kept in touch. He cared about people. So did Joe. It’s sad to lose those guys. They were responsible for a lot of fun times on Perdido Key, for sure. He was such a showman. He learned a lot of that from Bob Snow,’’ Mitchell added.
The list of events at the Flora-Bama that have Pat’s stamp on them include The Mullet Toss, Polar Bear Dip, Mullet Man Triathlon, Make It To The Line Run, Super Chili Cook-Off, and the Flora-Bama Fishing Rodeo. It was important to Pat that every one of those events also raised money for local charities.
Gilchrist and McClellan also started the ‘Bama tradition of hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas potlucks. Initially, it was to give sailors from NAS a place to gather on those holidays. They even sent the ‘Bama bus to pick up sailors on base. Those potlucks now draw more than 1,000 folks.
Not surprisingly, while at Seville, Pat was also about initiating events to attract customers. As co-chair of the city’s first Mardi Gras committee, he organized the first Pensacola Mardi Gras street party and started a Mardi Gras Queen contest in 1980.
Sheryl’s company, Avis Car Rental, put her up for Mardi Gras queen that year and she won the title. The two began dating, married five years later and celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last October.
Gilchrist, who bought the Flora-Bama from Connie and Bubba Tampary on April 15, 1979, thought Pat would handle the back end while he hobnobbed with customers out front when Pat joined him on the state line. But it turned out they were equally egalitarian by nature and they both loved visiting with their customers.
“The Flora-Bama was the perfect place for him,’’ Mitchell said. “I still laugh about how he could make 50 friends on a $6 bottle of Peach Schnapps buying shots for people.’’
John McInnis and Cam Price came aboard with McClellan and Gilchrist to get the Flora-Bama back open after Hurricane Ivan leveled the place and most of Perdido Key with it in Sept. of 2004.
“Joe and Pat were just such great people and loved other human beings unconditionally to the point that they created a spirit in the community and at the Flora-Bama that was contagious,’’ McInnis said. “It’s just amazing to see the impact two people can have.”
“He taught me everything I know about the restaurant business,’’ Price added. “He just loved everybody that came to the Flora-Bama. He poured his life into the Flora-Bama, and its success just shows everything he put into it.”
Pat’s hobbies included deep sea fishing, and many ‘Bama employees’ children caught their first fish while on a boat with him, including musician Donna Slater’s daughter Robin, who died tragically in an automobile accident during her freshman year at Auburn in 2003.
“Pat spoke at her funeral,’’ said Slater, who played her first ‘Bama gig in 1981. Slater also paid musicians, and filed bar reports and bank deposits – sometimes during band breaks – during her 40 years at the bistro. Although she eventually also booked the ‘Bama music, both Pat and Joe handled those duties at one time.
“Pat gave me a copy of Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search For Meaning’’ at Robin’s funeral,’’ Slater said. “I picked it up a few times over the years, but, oddly enough, I finally got into it about a week before Pat passed. I wanted to let him know that after all these years, I finally read it. I thought he’d get a kick out of that.
“Even though he was the boss and had his own busy life and commitments, he made time for us. Pat actually cared about others struggles, and he always showed up,’’ Slater added.
“I remember one time Pat brought in a band when I was scheduled and I lost my temper. We had words, and I walked out,’’ Slater said. “He called me up later and asked what time I was playing tomorrow. I told him 3 p.m., and he said, ‘I’ll see you then.’
“We all worked so hard there, but we lived and breathed the place. I have lots of work memories, but they are fun and friendship memories at the same time.
“Pat was always a positive person. He looked for ways to improve a situation, and truly would look at the other side of things. Joe was fair once you convinced him, but Pat was always able to look at both sides from the get-go. We used to joke that Pat and Joe were like our mother and father. We would go to one, and if we didn’t get an answer we liked, we would go to the other one. It was strange. But it worked for all of us.’’
LeaAnne Creswell met Pat in the late 1970’s when she entertained people at Seville while Pat slung drinks a few feet away. She knew Joe from his days owning the Town Square in Downtown Pensacola. (Ken Lambert, the Bama’s first musician, played for Joe there).
Creswell and a friend drove out to the ‘Bama to visit her pals in 1985. She has been a mainstay ever since and still plays in the ‘Bama main room every Friday at noon.
“I had just moved back from Dallas, and I didn’t even know where Perdido Key was. There were no street lights. No condos. There was nothing around it when we pulled up to this little shack. It was a dump,’’ she said.
“The only reason I went in was because I wanted to see my friends. But the place was packed. Ken Lambert was playing. Pat kept asking me to get up and sing. By then, I wasn’t even playing guitar, I was playing piano. He kept twisting my arm. I finally got up and sang Bobby McGee and the people went crazy. They were swinging from the rafters. I went back to Seville and graciously told Wilmer Mitchell that I was going out to the Flora-Bama.’’
Darrell Roberts has been playing music at the ’Bama since 1981. He remembers the first day Pat showed up for work.
“Right from the beginning, it was game on with Pat. It didn’t take him long to become part of the whole deal,’’ Roberts said. “We wanted to have a good time and create something that worked, and that is exactly what we did. Pat was very good at keeping everything moving forward and getting everybody excited about it.’’
Pat often created company road trips on the ‘Bama bus for his employees. Roberts’ favorite was a jaunt Pat organized to Montgomery in Joe’s red Cadillac convertible filled with shrimp, oysters and musicians for an art exhibit opening featuring a series of caricature type paintings of the Bama’s cast of characters.
“I don’t think the muckity mucks from Montgomery had ever seen a group like us,’’ Roberts said. “We were milling about answering questions about the people in the paintings when one lady asked Ken (Lambert) about a biker in one of the paintings. Ken said, ‘Oh, that’s Ronnie !@#$%^&*.’ That’s what we called him.”
Pat, who majored in advertising in college, paid for Flora-Bama boat sails on Roberts’ boat and gave him wooden nickels (good for one free beer) to toss to swimmers near the first sand bar along the beach between Johnson Beach and Perdido Pass from his boat.
Another early and unique marketing idea of Pat’s was buying space in SEC student newspapers with a free drink coupon in early fall and again at spring break.
Pat’s obit included this great sentence about him: “Pat’s life was shaped by family – both the one he was born into and the one he built. He had many titles: devoted husband, proud father, loving brother, saloon keeper, genius marketer, legend, man with the gift of gab, friend to everyone, amazing storyteller and a hugger who believed in giving three a day.’’
Just for pure entertainment, it’s worth checking out the funny, poignant and heartfelt comments that followed the ‘Bama’s facebook post about Pat’s passing. But it may take awhile. There are more than 2,500 of them. The common theme is that the Flora-Bama was an incredible journey not only for Joe and Pat, but for those who shared that journey with them.
• I especially like this post from my pal Lorie Raisch: “Pat interviewed me for a job in 2009. I didn’t get the job (at least not then), but he sent me away with a bag of Flora-Bama coffee. How do you not love a guy that gives a consolation prize at a job interview?’’
• Steve Spragg wrote: “Many years ago while deployed to the Mideast, one of my responsibilities was to assign call signs to naval aircraft operating in theater. I frequently used Flora, Bama and Lounge for some of those flights.”
• This from Brandon Hamilton is a good closer: “Pat and Joe are back together again! Having a margarita or bushwacker with Jimmy Buffett and Jesus!”