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By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Blogger
Boy, am I in trouble.
The Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville bar – its real name the LandShark Bar & Grill – is now open in San Diego. In the Gaslamp Quarter. A mere 10-minute walk/stumble (walk there, stumble home) from PubClub.com’s World Headquarters.
Located at 6th & J streets, it’s a tropical escape around the corner from Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres and several concerts, as part of the new Margaritaville Resorts hotel. This is an early review of the Landshark Bar & Grill which opened Aug. 15. A few months earlier the 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar opened by the pool.
You don’t have to be a Parrothead to enjoy the place. But it certainly helps. As a Parrothead, I can easily see myself spending several of my renegade pesos there.
The decor is simple. There’s a model of the Hemisphere Dancer hanging from the ceiling, a surfboard on a wall, a Fins Up sign above the bar, a few vintage tropical photos and not much else. LandShark Bar & Grill is not a tacky themed bar. The cool stuff is in the hotel lobby: a giant flip flop (with a pop top of course), artwork showing Buffett in his long-hair days, a compass with “San Diego Margaritaville” on the floor, a mural of a 60s VW bus by a palm tree on a wall and a really cool lounge area with a fireplace.
It’s an open-air bar like something you would find in Hawaii, complete with ceiling fans. And lots of TVs. While laid out more like a restaurant with several tables, I like how there are several seats at the long and curved bar, at least 20, making it one of the biggest bar areas in the Gaslamp. I love it when there’s ample space at the bar because that’s where all the interaction with other customers and staff happens in a place. Tables are for groups. The bar area is for minglers.
The music is mostly Jimmy Buffett with some rock tunes mixed in – Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, the Zac Brown Band and even Johnny Cash, as well. There is also a stage for bands to play live music.
For those used to the Margaritavlle bars scattered across America and in the Caribbean, there is no Cheeseburger in Paradise or Volcano Nachos on the food menu. There is, of course, a cheeseburger, plus sandwiches, salads and other items, all priced in the $18-22 range.
The drinks are the real star and they are surprisingly reasonably priced, thank goodness. You can get a can of beer for just seven bucks. That’s incredible in the Gaslamp. A 20-ounce draft is just $11. The speciality cocktails are $15. I was thrilled to see The Perfect Margarita is on the menu. That margi is for drinking veterans only and it’s my go-to drink at the Las Vegas Margaritaville bar.
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With a hurricane barreling down on San Diego (well not really, but it makes for good copy), I had the Hurricane on my first visit on a Friday night. With one adjustment. The one on the menu includes tequila as well as rum (what!?) and not being one to mix up my drinks – let alone in the same drink – I had the friendly bartender Sasia substitute a floater of Myers for the tequila.
The Hurricane, while not exactly creating flashbacks of the ones served at Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans, (after all, I actually did receive my first scar at a Bourbon Street bar) was good and reasonably potent. Just tryin’ to reason with a hurricane season. In San Diego of all places.
I am impressed with the staff. All are not just “San Diego friendly” but have that extra bounce in their step and are quick to please.
Not all is Margaritaville utopia tho. Not yet anyway. There are some early issues that management is working on fixing:
• Margaritaville TV, which has videos of Buffett concerts and the Parrotheads tailgating before the shows, is not yet functioning.
• Only three of the eight beer taps work
• The men’s bathroom door sticks (the bathrooms are not in in the bar but at the far end of the adjacent hotel lobby, by the way)
• The chicken sandwich is not very good. I cannot, as of this writing, comment on the other food items but at least for time being, steer clear of the chicken sandwich.
In racing parlance, these things are known known as “teething problems,” meaning bumps that must be smoothed out after first taking to the track. I use that particular phrasing here because I spent the better part of my career in auto racing public relations – in fact, it’s all that traveling to races that led me to create PubClub.com – and it seems appropriate here.
Overall, I give the place a definite “Fins Up” as the Margaritaville Resort’s Landshark Bar & Grill adds a new and different type of bar to the already dynamic San Diego Gaslamp nightlife scene. Currently it’s busiest before and after Padres games and there’s a lot of potential for it to be a regular hangout for PubClub.com and other San Diego barflies on a regular basis.
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