Club Reports: Cash's Faux Pas, Victor's, Brannigan's, Nightown (Fort Walton Beach)

When my employer transferred me from Chicago to Fort Walton Beach so many years ago, I initially thought it was going to be a backwater Bible Belt town that zipped-up its sidewalks on Friday afternoons. No, it turned out to be a wild & crazy place full of Spring Breakers in March and April and summer tourists from May to September!  I had occasion to revisit last week on a day trip from Orlando.

Now called Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, Destin (seen far off on the horizon in the photo above) now gets top billing over Fort Walton Beach. The airport terminal leases land from and uses the runways of Eglin AFB. The approach here is over Valparaiso, Florida which is the source for the airport's IATA code VPS.

My visit allowed me to reminisce way back to my youth. Located on Okaloosa Island, Cash's Faux Pas is the only club open then that is still open today! That's amazing!

During the mid-80's and earlier, this was the place!

Owner Cash Moore had quite the personality with slogans such as on this truck, "Getting America laid and happy since 1965." With three USAF bases in Okaloosa County, there is no shortage of customers! (Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field, Duke Field)

Now called The Block, when I lived in Fort Walton Beach this place was called Victors.

The Blog visited a few years ago and it has a Top 40 room, Country room and Karaoke room. Back in the day, the club played a lot of 80's (because it was the 80's, get it?)

A great Thursday night Ladies Night could be found at Brannigan's. I can still remember dancing to "Funkytown" on their raised dance floor. It's been a number of unsuccessful ventures since then.

Lastly, Nightown in Destin was a megaclub that dominated the Emerald Coast club scene for close to three decades. It finally closed down a few years ago and is now a church.

The real reason you'd want to visit the Fort Walton Beach-Destin area is for their amazing sugar white sand beaches. Other places brag about their white sand but it's nothing like this!