Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Cafe and Store are side by side at 500 Duval Street in downtown Key West. The decor was about what I was expecting — heavy on the “chill/relax” theme using a large amount of wood to visually sedate the soul. I was still in my seafood mode when we stopped there for lunch on the afternoon of Jan. 19, 2017, so I had a blackened mahi sandwich with fries (left), while Lee Ann went with a Cuban sandwich (right), a mix of ham and pulled pork on sourdough bun that we first discovered a few months before that when we had visited The Mug in Greenfield, Ind., and its now-former location in the historic Irvington neighborhood of Indianapolis. We both liked our sandwiches. 
We both also opted for large mixed drinks in plastic glasses that we could carry around with us when we left the eatery (in Key West, our sever at Sloppy Joe’s had told us two days earlier that it’s legal to consume alcoholic beverages outdoors anywhere in public places as long as the beverage is in a plastic container -- and as long as the drinker is clothed (I’m serious). I don’t recall what beverage Lee Ann got in her plastic container (she thinks it was some version of a pina colada), but I got a margarita in mine (right). It seemed appropriate that a person ought to try a margarita the first time he/she visits a place called Margaritaville, and the one I ordered was made with real lime juice. I finished mine before we left the cafe, so I ordered one to go. Lee Ann did not.
Buffett started his Margaritaville brick-and-mortar enterprise in 1984 in Key West with a retail store that sold brand-name merchandise at the end of Margaret Street in Lands End Village, a commercial district facing the ocean north of Mallory Square. The move to Duval Street came later when he decided to couple the store with a casual restaurant.
The Buffett empire has since grown to include hotels and retirement communities throughout the country and in the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada and Australia. Cheeseburger in Paradise and Landshark restaurants are part of the empire.
Coming up next: Harry S Truman Little White House
Previously in FLORIDA:
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