September 12, 2023 - Margaritas, Head Parrot, Cheeseburgers, Reefer

Hope you’ll indulge this old Florida boy's tribute to Jimmy Buffett.

Nuggets of Information: The Toast of the Town 

Of all the songs Jimmy Buffet is known for, “Margaritaville” is by far the biggest. It led to a chain of popular restaurants, hotels & resorts, and even retirement communities and a cruise ship. The Margarita is pure fun in a salt-rimmed glass – tropical, light, refreshing, relaxing. It is a quintessential party drink, can be enjoyed frozen or straight-up, with fruit puree added or with a Corona - and can help prevent scurvy. While Margaritaville is clearly associated with Buffett, the origins of the drink are a little less clear.  

The simple recipe – tequila, triple sec and lime juice seemed to emerge sometime in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s. In 1936, Iowa newspaper editor James Graham described a cocktail matching this recipe from a trip he made to Tijuana. The following year, the Café Royal Cocktail Book included a drink called the Picador, which had the same amounts of the three ingredients. A year later, Danny Herrera claimed to create the drink for one of his customers – a former Ziegfried dancer Marjorie King. There are several more stories from that time explaining how some bar or restaurant invented this drink in tribute to someone named Margarita or Margaret.

If you order a Margherita in an Italian pizzeria, you will get something much different, but no less wonderful. This traditional Neapolitan pizza (my favorite style of pizza) is made with either San Marzano or Pomodorino tomatoes and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana. It is typically finished with some torn basil leaves and EVOO. The origins of this pizza trace back to 1889, when Queen Margherita of Savoy visited Naples, and was served a pizza that had the colors of the Italian flag. Check out this video of Julia Child making Pizza Margherita with Roberto Donna. (Julia will resurface later in this week’s Boo’s N.E.W.S.. Well – hopefully not resurface, as that would be terrifying.)  

Boo’s N.E.W.S. long-time reader Keating McCarthy contributed the origin story of Melba Toast, the dry, bland thrice-baked toast. Back in 1897, French chef Augustus Escoffier created the dish for Australian opera singer Nellie Melba (pictured above trying to hold her pet cat to her neck). She loved grilled bread and was trying to lose weight. Apparently, Escoffier was smitten with her, commenting on her Instagram pics that she was the greatest thing since sliced toasted bread. He also created Peach Melba. Aw!  

To learn even more food origin history, book a table at New York’s Delmonico’s. I had lunch there back in 2015, and learned about the many influential dishes they are famous for. The Delmonico steak is a thicker cut of steak – usually a Ribeye (my favorite cut of steak). The also created Lobster Newberg, combining lobster, cream, butter, eggs, cognac, sherry and Cayenne pepper. Great for the old ticker. The story is that Ben Wenberg, a sea captain and regular at Delmonico’s, shared the recipe with Charles Delmonico in 1876. After some refinements, the dish was added to the menu as “Lobster à la Wenberg” but then Wenberg and Delmonico had a falling out and the dish was pulled from the menu. Customers begged for it to be added back, and Delmonico relented, but changed the name to Lobster Newberg – an anagram of Wenberg’s name. Delmonico’s also is credited with the Baked Alaska, Eggs Benedict and the Wedge salad (my favorite salad).  

If you take away one thing from this article, it is that I really like Neapolitan pizza, Delmonico steaks and Wedge salads. My birthday is coming up in only 6 months! 

Enrichment:  Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure, makes me want to go back again

As I mentioned at the top of the newsletter, Jimmy Buffett’s music has just always been there. Growing up in Florida in the 70’s and 80’s, near the ocean, where almost everyone had swimming pools, Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band always seemed to be coming through boom boxes and car radios. Along with Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974-1978 and Bob Marley & the Wailers Legend, Buffett’s greatest hits album, Songs You Know By Heart was played at every high school party. Throw in some Steely Dan and Eagles, and you can get a sense of the vibe back then.  

Buffett was the life of the party, and every concert was a group exercise in fun, sun and good times. Buffett was born on Christmas Day 1946, in Pascagoula Mississippi. His grandfather was a steamship captain, and his dad was a marine engineer and sailor. He really was a Son of a Son of a Sailor. 

In high school he played trombone, and in his only year at Auburn, he learned how to play guitar, mainly to attract women. His interest in women and music was greater than his interest in class, and he flunked out. He went on to community college, then the University of Southern Mississippi, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history.  

After graduating in 1969, he made his way to New Orleans, playing both on the street and in local clubs. After a year, he moved to Nashville, released his first album, and hooked up with Jerry Jeff Walker, who invited him to Key West to busk on street corners. Buffett loved the Florida Keys and moved there in the spring of 1972. The following year he released A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, which included the Kidz Bop friendly “Why Don’t We Get Drunk”. In 1975 he formed the Coral Reefer Band, and they opened for the Eagles. His success continued to grow through the rest of his life, including the partnering with Alan Jackson on "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" in 2003 and with the Zac Brown Band on the song “Knee Deep” in 2010. He also teamed up with Anheuser-Busch to release Land Shark Lager in 2006.  

If you find yourself snorkeling around a reef in the Florida Keys, and your eyesight is really keen, you may encounter Gnathia jimmybuffetti, a 3-millimeter isopod discovered and named for Buffett just a few months ago. 

When I was in high school and over college breaks, I spent a lot of time hanging out with Neil, Louie, Asa, John, Chris and Gary. Summers were spent floating in pools, or listening to Bad Habit cover songs at Fathoms, a dive bar on Singer Island. One break from college I drove home, and when I walked in the door, my parents told me Louie had died. Flipped his car over the night before. First close friend of mine to die. At his funeral, they played “A Pirate Looks at Forty” and that was what made me break down. A sad, slow song about a washed-up smuggler who had more downs than ups. It is a song of a strong first act, but subsequent missed opportunities, and how a simpler life may not be so bad. His brother Neil grew up, married and had kids, but then died from cancer at 40. Asa followed him a few years after that. I don’t know what will happen after my final sunset, but I like to imagine some of it involves floating in a pool, with my buddies, listening to Jimmy strummin’ his six string.

Workshop: Isn’t Any Place You Have a Cheeseburger Paradise? 

An ideal pairing with "Margaritaville” at your summer pool party is “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. Jimmy likes his burger with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes, a big Kosher pickle and a cold draft beer. Add an onion slice, mustard’d be nice and cooked medium-rare. Sounds pretty good to me.  

Next Monday, September 18^th, we will celebrate National Cheeseburger Day. I plan on honoring Buffett by following his recipe and will make the burger patties according to the method I’ve found most delicious. I prefer smashing the burger on my griddle. Smash burgers are all the rage these days. Take a roughly 4-ounce ball of ground beef (typically ground chuck: 80-20 blend) and smash it down on a hot griddle or cast-iron pan. Leave it alone until you see the brown creeping up, then flip. The thin, irregular-edged patties have more crispy nooks and crannies but remain juicy. If 4-ounces isn’t enough, just make two or three and stack ‘em! 

Maybe you prefer thicker burgers – no protests from me! When cooking a thicker patty, some recommend making an indentation in the middle of the patty, so it won’t turn into a weird burger ball. Others recommend putting an ice cube on top of the center of the patty, but that seems like a lot of work. How do you make your burgers? Leave a comment! 

In my decades of research on the best burgers in the country, most top ten lists seem to be mostly smash burger styles, with the notable exception of the Jucy Lucy. Or maybe it is the Juicy Lucy. Yes – another food origin dispute! Two Minneapolis bars claim to have created this delightful burger, which is simply two burger patties crimped together, with the cheese inside. Matt’s Bar, the one with the Jucy spelling, says they added it to their menu in 1954. The 5-8 Club, the Juicy folks, also claims to have invented this dish in the 50’s. They offer 4 different cheese options, where Matt’s only offers American cheese. Who wins in this battle? We do. We all do.  

So next Monday, on National Cheeseburger Day, no matter what your favorite burger is, smash or thick, Jucy or Juicy, cow or bison or turkey or Impossible, on a bun or lettuce wrap or Melba Toast, let’s all raise our greasy hands up and celebrate Jimmy Buffett.  

Selected Content: Do I Need to Transfer at Five Points? 

Buffett’s band of talented musicians is the Coral Reefer Band. The reefer reference obviously refers to reefs, obviously. Reefs are ridges of rocks or sand, often coral skeletons, that provide a habitat for aquatic life. While many are naturally made, including the Great Barrier Reef, the largest structure made by living creatures on our planet, other reefs are created by humans.  

When old oil drilling platforms are decommissioned, they are often sunk down to become the base of reefs. Old ships, bridges and even a Rolls Royce have been used to make reefs. Reef Balls are not a side-effect of an ill-fitting wet-suit. They are custom made structures, created with special concrete additives with a PH similar to sea water, that mimic natural reefs.  

Last week, Atlanta announced that decommissioned Marta train cars, from their mass-transit system, will be dropped in the Atlantic to serve as reef bases. In partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Reef Project, older rail cars were stripped of hazardous materials and contaminants and will be dropped into the sea about 23 miles east of Ossabaw Island. Initial feedback is that while the reef trains are way more convenient than driving during rush hour traffic, they do kind of smell like pee.  

If this has stirred a sense of love and admiration for reefs in you, well good news! You can be part of a reef! The Neptune Memorial Reef off Key Biscayne Florida blends cremated remains in with a natural concrete substance, and then molds it into various artistic structures. More good news: you can bring your cremated pet with you as well. Make it a family affair! Daddy, what happened to Grandpa Luca? Well honey, Luca Brasi swims with the fishes! Aw!!  

The most famous resident of the Neptune Memorial Reef columbarium? Julia Child!