The original Margaritaville was in Gulf Shores; Jimmy Buffett played at the grand opening in June of 1984

The original Margaritaville was in Gulf Shores; Jimmy Buffett played at the grand opening in June of 1984

By Fran Thompson
Before the retail store in Key West in 1985, the Margaritaville restaurant in that same hamlet in 1987, and a second restaurant in New Orleans in 1993, there was J.B’s Margaritaville in Gulf Shores.
Jimmy confirmed that fact from the stage at the 2010 BP Concert at Gulf Shores Public Beach:
“We’re coming home in a lot of ways here. A lot of people don’t know, if you study your history – it’s not even in Wickipedia – that the actual first Margaritaville was in Gulf Shores, Alabama before it was in Key West, Florida,’’ Buffett said. “Let’s just say we didn’t do as good here as we did eventually, but it was a learning process. Thank you everybody. You can put that up on Wickipedia or you can just take it and throw it in the Gulf. I don’t care.’’
A story in the Tuscaloosa News from June 19, 1984 states that Buffett was in Gulf Shores to shoot an album cover (see page 17 story), visit his parents, go to a wedding reception for NFL quarterback Kenny Stabler in Mobile and help his friend, Dan Sweet, open the club, which was located at the corner of Hwy. 59 and Fort Morgan Rd.
“I tried to franchise a club under the Margaritaville name in Florida. But I couldn’t get trademark rights because there are so many using the name around the country,’’ Buffett told the Tuscaloosa News. “A friend, Dan Sweet, talked to me about doing it in Gulf Shores and it got me interested because I wanted to come back home.’’
Although he knew Jimmy’s sisters Laurie and Lucy when they were all at McGill-Toolan High School in Mobile, Sweet did not befriend Buffett until the early 1970’s.
“Jimmy played at the Admiral Sims Hotel all the time,’’ Sweet said. “He was just a nice guy and way smarter than you would have guessed. He already knew what he was doing.’’
Sweet said he grew closer to Buffett in 1977 when he helped Jack West build the legendary Judge Roy Bean in Daphne (it burned down in 2005).
“His parents lived down the street. So, Jimmy would come down when he was in town,’’ Sweet said. “He was a regular and fun to be with. He was smart. He always got to the punch line early.’’
Sweet may not have become part of Parrothead trivia were it not for a fire that claimed an early 1800’s house in Fort Conde (Mobile) that he was remodeling to open as a bar. “You could see the fire from the Eastern Shore,’’ he said.
With his original plan up in smoke, Sweet called Buffett and said he had a chance to buy Sam & Shine’s in Gulf Shores and wanted to name it Margaritaville. Buffett gave him no assurances at the time, but he called back a little later and said he talked to his attorneys and it could open up as J.T.’s Margaritaville.
At the time, Buffett’s lawyers were in litigation with two different bistros doing business as Margaritavilles in South Florida that Buffett had nothing to do with,
Sweet said.
“He said put the initials J.T. in front of it and we could do it. His lawyers said it would help with the litigation if he also had a place with the name,’’ Sweet said.
Buffett made several trips to Gulf Shores to check out the building, which included a fireplace and a huge patio, and he was definitely involved with the bistro’s set-up and atmosphere. Buffett insisted that six ounce bottles of coke be used for all the mixed drinks. Almost the entire Coral Reefer band played at the grand opening, according to the owner.
“He liked the way it looked, and his suggestions were always the right move,’’ Sweet said.
Margaritaville had its moments, especially in the summer and when bigger acts played there. But Sweet was not prepared for the winter season. He said he knew business would slow down in the winter, but he did not know it would be non-existant. That and four hurricane evacuations in the summer of 1985 were the original Margaritaville’s Waterloo.
Sweet said Coral Reefer guitarist Mac McAnally, a frequent performer at the club, played at the grand opening for a putt-putt golf course he put in the courtyard, but that addition was not nearly enough to combat the lack of business in the winter, and the club closed after around three years in business.
“For the next 30 years Buffett would say that I owed him money, which, of course, I didn’t,’’ Sweet said. “He expected it to do a lot better and I did too. But I just didn’t factor in the winter. Anyway, I would still see him around at The Bean.
“He was a nice guy, a great guy, and very influential in the world,’’ Sweet added. “I was lucky to have been involved with him in even a small way. You couldn’t have much more fun than you did with Jimmy.’’
He said Buffett’s business acumen was always evident, and he is proud of him, but not surprised by Buffett’s incredible success.
Sweet went on to open and eventually sell bars (Doobie’s) in Mobile and (Toddys) Tuscaloosa. He now lives in retirement on the Tensaw Delta in Spanish Fort.
“All the fun for me with nightclubs was in the building, design and decoration,’’ he said. “The day-to-day operation was never too much fun. Even when it was a packed house, you’d have to deal with people fighting.’’
He said one his best memories of the Buffett family is a trip he took with Jimmy’s mom (Peets) and sister (Lucy) and other old friends to see Jimmy play a show at The Superdome.
Mark Calamette was bartending at Adolph’s at Gulf Shores Public Beach when Sweet was a manger there. He left to join Sweet’s team at J.B.’s Margaritaville as a bar manager before taking a career turn and going to art school. He now owns a company that designs and builds Mardi Gras floats.
Calamette’s Buffett bonafides are many, and include a story we won’t repeat for publication that ended up with both him and Buffett crashing on sofas in Sweet’s West Beach living room.
Calamette bought Buffett’s now famous 1963 Falcon from him and Buffett gave him the original screenplay for the Margaritaville movie written by PJ O’Rourke that was never made. The script includes Buffett’s notes in the margins.
Like Sweet, Calamette said he is a bit fuzzy about exact dates for the grand opening or how many times Buffett played there, but he also remembers good crowds in the summer and empty space in the winter. George Thoroughood and The Delaware Destroyers and John Prine were among the best shows Calamette saw from behind the bar.
Buffett asked Calamette to draw a map of Margaritaville to use in the proposed movie from a sketch that Jimmy drew after a long night at Judge Roy Bean.
Buffett wanted to meet him at 6:30 a.m. in the cottage behind his parents’ home nearby, as he had an early flight to catch. Calametti figured if he went to bed, he would not get up. When he showed up in the morning, Buffett was just returning from a run.
“The guy was super human,’’ he said.
Buffett’s Margaritaville sketch included The Reptile Barn and Joe’s Bar, and Calametti still has it, along with the script with Buffett’s notes.
“That Margaritaville was a little piece of history, especially with Buffett being able to bring it to his attorneys to use to get the attention of the court to tell the other bar owners to cease and desist. The Margaritaville name was his and he was open.”
A 1985 story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about Greg Fingers Taylor, a charter member of the Coral Reefers and a mainstay on Buffett’s early albums, stated that Taylor played at the grand opening with Buffett in 1984.
Longtime Gulf Shores resident Milton Rittelmeyer said he was there that night and many times thereafter, but he does not remember Taylor playing.
“That doesn’t mean he wasn’t there with him,’’ Rittelmeyer said. “And I’m not sure it was the official opening, but it was the first night it was open.”
Rittelmeyer said other concerts he saw there included WAR, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Jerry Jeff Walker and the Neville Brothers.
Taylor and Buffett met in a campus coffeehouse at Southern Miss around 1970. Buffett was a recent graduate and Taylor had already sat in with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band when they played on campus.
“I was the local harp player, and I was supposed to play with everybody,” Taylor remembers. “I got Jimmy a date with a girl from Burger Town, and at the end of the week I drove him home to Mobile. We stayed up all night. Driving along as the sun came up, Jimmy was playing his guitar, singing all his songs to me.”
“Fingers’ comeback concert was at JB’s Margaritaville, a 180-seat Gulf Shores bar in which Buffett had a financial interest. It was there in June 1984 that the two reunited after a yearlong separation,’’ is how The Sun-Sentinel put it. “Buffett performed opening night and invited Taylor down to reprise their original two-man show. They played for three hours.’’
J.B.’s Margaritaville was originally a bowling alley. It was also re-invented as the Lamplighter, Crabby Pete’s and Peanuts Sports Bar. There is a Walgreen’s there now. A poster on the Buffetworld facebook page stated the place was not anything like the present day Margaritaville clubs.
“There was very little, if any beachy decor. It was more dance clubish and they hosted live music, including a Pensacola reggae band every Tuesday for Rum and Reggae, Lazy Day. I also saw Otis Day and the Knights for a toga party, A Flock of Seagulls, and Leon Russell and Edgar Winter together.’’
According to the post, the bar had a sloping ramp down to the main floor with curved, flat railings and surfing, sailing, and sailboarding videos looped on monitors.
“Jimmy did play there in 1984 and 1985. I can’t remember seeing him there in 1986 though. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t, just that I can’t remember,’’ a poster named Linell stated.