HUNTSVILLE TIMES ARTICLE
Posted: May 25, 2004 5:05 pm
LuLu's brings Paradise a bit closer to home
Jimmy Buffett's sis has a new place at Gulf Shores with beach-bum ambience
Sunday, May 16, 2004
By DEBORAH STOREY
Times Travel Editor, dstorey@htimes.com
GULF SHORES - That Jimmy Buffett is a genius.
Not only is he a good musician but he managed to tap into the one thing all Americans desperately want:
A vacation.
That helped create his Parrothead following - people who dress in Hawaiian shirts and huaraches, knock back margaritas and want to hear catchy songs about the beach.
Buffett shrewdly capitalized on that mentality with successful restaurants called Margaritaville in Key West, Orlando, New Orleans, Las Vegas and soon Myrtle Beach, S.C.
But you don't have to go to those for an official Cheeseburger in Paradise. Buffett's sister is serving 'em up just as fast as she can at her new restaurant called LuLu's in Gulf Shores. Her famous sibling is rumored to drop by from time to time - but don't say we told you that.
Lucy Buffett had a LuLu's location not too far from Gulf Shores before, but it was a bit off the beaten path to capture the hungry tourist market.
In February, she opened the new restaurant at Homeport Marina. If you look down and to the left while heading into Gulf Shores over the Intracoastal Canal (Alabama 59) bridge, you'll see it. You might even see the lines of people waiting to get in.
"This place had been in the family business since 1946," Lucy Buffett said of the old seafood and ice factory that she and a partner took over in May 2003. "It was just a synchronistic thing" that it came available when she lost the lease at her other place, she said.
It isn't really advertised as being one sibling removed from the famous singer, but everybody in town knows it.
His beach-bum attitude carries over in the new restaurant's laid-back open-air atmosphere, big bar and views of the waterway. And the menu does actually list the Cheeseburger in Paradise for $6.50 - you can add everything from avocado to pineapple.
With that name recognition the restaurant wouldn't even have to be especially good, but it is.
The menu includes a wide variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, baskets and kids' choices. Some sample items: West Indies Salad with lump crabmeat marinated with sweet onion, oil and vinegar at market price; $7.95 jerk chicken sandwich; $9.95 grouper loaf sandwich; $21.95 big fried seafood basket for two; and appetizers like a terrific $5.95 smoked tuna dip and $5.25 fried green tomatoes as tasty as you've eaten anywhere.
The $3.95 "LA caviar" (Lower Alabama, of course) appetizer is a black-eyed pea dip served with crackers.
The restaurant also has a line of LuLu's merchandise using her nickname.
Buffett knows her brother's fans might seek out her place at least once out of curiosity but wouldn't come back if they don't like it.
"We have to be good enough on our own," she said shrewdly.
LuLu's is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations are not accepted. Call (251) 967-5858 or see www.lulubuffett.com for information.
Jimmy Buffett's sis has a new place at Gulf Shores with beach-bum ambience
Sunday, May 16, 2004
By DEBORAH STOREY
Times Travel Editor, dstorey@htimes.com
GULF SHORES - That Jimmy Buffett is a genius.
Not only is he a good musician but he managed to tap into the one thing all Americans desperately want:
A vacation.
That helped create his Parrothead following - people who dress in Hawaiian shirts and huaraches, knock back margaritas and want to hear catchy songs about the beach.
Buffett shrewdly capitalized on that mentality with successful restaurants called Margaritaville in Key West, Orlando, New Orleans, Las Vegas and soon Myrtle Beach, S.C.
But you don't have to go to those for an official Cheeseburger in Paradise. Buffett's sister is serving 'em up just as fast as she can at her new restaurant called LuLu's in Gulf Shores. Her famous sibling is rumored to drop by from time to time - but don't say we told you that.
Lucy Buffett had a LuLu's location not too far from Gulf Shores before, but it was a bit off the beaten path to capture the hungry tourist market.
In February, she opened the new restaurant at Homeport Marina. If you look down and to the left while heading into Gulf Shores over the Intracoastal Canal (Alabama 59) bridge, you'll see it. You might even see the lines of people waiting to get in.
"This place had been in the family business since 1946," Lucy Buffett said of the old seafood and ice factory that she and a partner took over in May 2003. "It was just a synchronistic thing" that it came available when she lost the lease at her other place, she said.
It isn't really advertised as being one sibling removed from the famous singer, but everybody in town knows it.
His beach-bum attitude carries over in the new restaurant's laid-back open-air atmosphere, big bar and views of the waterway. And the menu does actually list the Cheeseburger in Paradise for $6.50 - you can add everything from avocado to pineapple.
With that name recognition the restaurant wouldn't even have to be especially good, but it is.
The menu includes a wide variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, baskets and kids' choices. Some sample items: West Indies Salad with lump crabmeat marinated with sweet onion, oil and vinegar at market price; $7.95 jerk chicken sandwich; $9.95 grouper loaf sandwich; $21.95 big fried seafood basket for two; and appetizers like a terrific $5.95 smoked tuna dip and $5.25 fried green tomatoes as tasty as you've eaten anywhere.
The $3.95 "LA caviar" (Lower Alabama, of course) appetizer is a black-eyed pea dip served with crackers.
The restaurant also has a line of LuLu's merchandise using her nickname.
Buffett knows her brother's fans might seek out her place at least once out of curiosity but wouldn't come back if they don't like it.
"We have to be good enough on our own," she said shrewdly.
LuLu's is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations are not accepted. Call (251) 967-5858 or see www.lulubuffett.com for information.