9/27/2014 Update: Buffett Song Bar Trivia
The J Bar in the Holiday Inn in Davenport opened Sep 8, and when we
and our friends Dave & Robin (rare thing to have company when I add a new
bar to my list) hit it for the first time, it was too busy to sit inside. The patio was heated and very cool, with a
fire feature bisecting it. Unfortunately
it was still too cold to hang around too long, so I went back the next day and sat
at the bar. Good food, unique menu, and
a $40,000 argon filled wine cooler. All
very hip, and I think will make a really nice hotel bar, but really very
corporate.
The Field House (same owners as the original one in downtown Iowa
City) occupies what used to be Habaneros
in North Park Mall. This place is Hawkeye
heaven with its gold and black décor and 20+ flat screens, and the food is good
enough to be a draw even on non-football Saturdays. They opened 9/2, but I didn’t even notice it
until over a week later.
We also hit the first of the
three Market Cafes in QC area
Hy-Vees, this one in Rock Island (the others are in Milan and Davenport). I didn’t know what to expect from a pub in a supermarket,
but it’s pretty much normal bar except for the setting.
New total: 536.
Other bar news, including lots of
remodeling going on in the Quad Cities:
In prior posts I had been talking
about how the week-long remodel of The
Hat in Davenport had stretched to months.
Perhaps becoming a Happy Joe’s Pizza was the reason it dragged on.
Blu Shamrock in Cordova has reopened after remodeling this summer,
but the Dam View is still closed to
complete their flooding repairs .
I’m told the old Bon Air in Moline is going to be more a
restaurant than bar when it reopens.
Work has started, but I’m sure there’s a long way to go.
The East Village Café is also remodeling, and will have craft beer and
wine to go along with coffee. This is
becoming a trend in the QC, as Dunn
Brothers also serves beer, and 129
in LeClaire sets the bar (so to speak) for coffee – wine – martini places.
Back in June, I wrote that I
doubted Smokin’ BarBQ in Milan would
knock down the bar inside, after it opened in what had been Bobbie's. Turns out I
won’t be able to re-count it anyhow, as it’s now BYOB.
QC Hammertime in Moline has a For
Sale sign up, not sure if they’re still open.
I’m adding East Village Café (getting mixed signals as to if they’re changing
their name or not) to my What’s Left list, and The J Bar comes off. The Field House never made it on the
list as it was a surprise, so the list remains at 10.
And congratulations to Skip at Rudy’s Cantina, who takes a
well-deserved place on my Favorite Bartenders list. A couple other changes to the list: the owner of Mulligan’s Valley Pub in Coal Valley said that both Sarah and
Nasreen were back, but we just found out that Patti at Rosy’s Watering Hole in Moline is no longer working there.
BUFFETT BAR TRIVIA
I’m a member of the Quad Cities
Parrot Head club, and a Jimmy Buffett (and Trop Rock, and pretty much all
things Caribbean) fan. Lately, I’ve been
trying to track down and visit bars that inspired, are mentioned in, or have
anything to do with Buffett songs – not including, of course, the corporate Margaritavilles, of which I’ve been to
only half a dozen: Key West, New
Orleans, Las Vegas, Orlando, Montego Bay, and Air Margaritaville in the San Juan Airport (actually, when we went
to the one in Montego Bay, it wasn’t yet owned by the corporation, and was
spelled “Margeuritaville”).
So, here are 10 Buffett-related bars
that aren’t named Margaritaville. I’ve
been to the first six, and will have been to the seventh, god willing, by my
next post. The final three are on my
bucket list.
The
Chart Room, Key West
The first bar in
Key West that Buffett played (some might say it was actually Captain Tony’s, but I’m told that that
was the first place he was paid to play), the bartender Phil Clark was the
basis of A Pirate Looks At 40 (and also mentioned in the song Nautical
Wheelers). Later, his body washed
ashore near San Francisco.
Captain
Tony’s, Key West
The song Last
Mango In Paris is set in Captain Tony’s and is about the life of Captain
Tony Tarracino. A line in the song says
“a legend never dies”, but in 2008, at the age of 92, Captain Tony passed
away. At the same time, while
entertainment was happening on the main stage at Casa Marina resort during
Meeting Of The Minds (the Parrothead convention), the power went out for 5
minutes. Like the Chart Room, this is
another twofer: the title The Weather
Is Here, I Wish You Were Beautiful was graffiti in the men’s room stall (although
Buffett admits it could have been at the Napoleon
House in New Orleans)
Dune
Preserve, Anguilla
Not really a
song, but Jimmy wanted to come to reggae legend Bankie Banx’ place to play a
concert, resulting in the album “Live In Anguilla”
 |
| The stage at Dune Preserve |
Blue Heaven,
Key West
I’ve mentioned
in a past post that my favorite place to spend an afternoon in the world is
Schooner Wharf in Key West, eating oysters and
drinking beer (and Bloody Marys and Fireball and Patron Café), while
listening to Michael McCloud. After having
our first Blue Heaven Rendezvous for breakfast (among the wandering
roosters) last trip down, this could be the new morning place.
Square
Grouper, Jupiter, FL
The concert
footage in the video of 5 O’clock Somewhere was filmed here. In person, the size of the stage is about a
third as big as it looks in the video.
Louie’s
Backyard, Key West
Buffett had an
apartment right next door, and used the connecting gate quite often,
apparently. One day, he spent the day with
friend Vic Latham, “and we had been at it all day until about six o’clock in
the morning. It was champagne and aqua
vitae and scotch and nose candy and everything else. I brought him home and left him lying face
down on his hammock. He was just a mess!” Later that day (as the line in the song
goes), Jimmy ‘stumbled down to Louie’s Backyard’ for a Bloody Mary, and wrote Trying
To Reason With Hurricane Season. As
an aside, the album cover from A1A was shot on the deck.
Le
Select, Gustavia, St. Barth’s
Their website
says “Singer Jimmy Buffett, a regular customer, has made (Le Select) known
widely in the United States with his famous song ‘Cheeseburger In Paradise’.” Even Alton Brown from the Food Channel
stopped in her to try “the inspiration” for the song on the show, “Feasting On
Waves”. It’s good enough to make this
list because Jimmy really has eaten there, but according to him, the true
inspiration for the song was an overdone burger with burnt buns he ate in a
marina in Road Town, Tortola, BVI, after a rough crossing from Puerto Rico
where his boat lost their refrigeration, and he and the crew survived on peanut
butter and canned meat.
The
Chi-Chi Club, Santa Catalina Island, CA
Okay, this one
admittedly is a little peripheral since it’s a cover, but as good as CSN did
the song, Southern Cross was meant for Jimmy Buffett. If you haven’t guessed, this is the ‘noisy
bar in Avalon’ Steven Stills wrote about.
Flora-Bama,
Perdido Key, FL
The basis for Bama
Breeze. While I’ll someday make it
here I’m sure, I won’t be able to have a drink at the Firedog Saloon (where the
video was filmed) in Bay St Louis, as it was destroyed by Hurricane Camille.
Foxy’s,
Jost Van Dyke, BVI
When he wrote Manana,
Buffett “was anchored in the bay in Jost Van Dyke in front of Foxy’s bar, and
was staring out at the lights of St Thomas in the distance. All of a sudden the electricity went out, and
the stars were the only lights left. I
imagined the panic at the power plant while the stars smugly shone on into the
dawn, and then the song became a chronicle of the things I had done and seen
that week.”
One that I won’t get to go to: The Red Garter sits at 208 Duval St. now, but
the Old Anchor Inn (nicknamed The Snake Pit) was where Margaritaville was
written. While I may someday get to Curry
Mansion, Billy Nine Fingers unfortunately won’t be playing the piano. He was who the character Billy Voltaire was
based on in Cuban Crime of Passion.
If any of my Parrothead friends
are reading this and can add to the list, please comment!
Bars since the Sep 4 post ( * - new to my
list):
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