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!

Club Reports: Social Distancing?

Not a lot of social distancing was taking place last night in downtown Orlando and no one was wearing a mask. Check out our club report over on sister website Orlando Entertainment News here.

PI Update: Checking Out The Clubs Of Pleasure Island

Let's cross this bridge one more time to beautiful Pleasure Island. With everything reopening, we needed to check out the status of the Pleasure Island clubs!

Mannequins was looking splendid in the afternoon sun. However, it has not reopened yet and the revolving dance floor remains idled.

8TRAX is still there but it too has not reopened. I sure could use some 70's Disco and 80's Funk.

I know club Motion is back there somewhere but I never could find it.

Rock'n'Roll Beach Club was one of the first clubs demolished so it ain't reopening.

Adventurers Club is still mostly there but it remains shuttered. Where's the Colonel?

At West End Plaza, BET Soundstage Club looks a bit different than I remember it but it was not open anyway to check it out.

Ditto for Comedy Warehouse. Oh well, I'm sure the clubs will reopen soon!

Friday Funny

DS Update: The Reopening!

Day 1 of the Disney Springs reopening took place yesterday and of course the Blog was there!

Surface lots remain closed so guests must park in the Lime Garage or Orange Garage. Upon arrival at your respective Disney Springs entry portal, you are greeted by cast members who direct you to a temperature screening station.

Staff from Advent Health administer a no-touch thermometer scan to your forehead and then you're cleared for entry.

There really weren't all that many guests in the Springs yesterday. No Disney owned & operated establishments were open yet, only third party participants, and even many of those have not yet reopened.

In narrow passageways such as on the bridges, arrows cleverly tell you which way to proceed.

Disney Springs West Side was particularly bleak since so many of the venues are Disney o&o's. For instance, DisneyStyle, Star Wars Store, Marvel Store and Candy Cauldron were all consecutively closed followed by Sunglass Hut, Pele' Soccer and Sosa Cars which were open. The AMC theater remains closed as does Splitsville.

Beyond Splitsville, the future M&M World store is relocating from the Florida Mall so is not yet open but creates another large empty area.

Disney owned & operated NBA Experience and the NBA Store were closed.

I think City Works is 3rd party but has not reopened yet nor has House of Blues.

One of the animation team members scattered throughout Disney Springs. Their job is to create happy talk, dance, wave at you and make sure you keep your mask on.

Back on Pleasure Island and heading down Hill Street, you can see that guests did indeed keep their masks on. But it's not going to be easy. It's already really hot out there and Florida's famous drenching humidity is about to kick-in.

Disney owned stores and restaurants reopen next Wednesday, May 27th. We should see a lot more people out once that happens.

But it's a start and a good time was had by all.

This Weekend In Techno Town

Headed to Orlando this weekend?  Here's a list of venues we found open downtown last Saturday night after 10PM. This list is not meant to be exhaustive so if you're headed downtown, be sure to check your favorite venues yourself for status:

CHURCH STREET:

Kress Steakhouse

Harry Buffalo (take-out only)

PINE STREET:

Cocktails & Screams

Shots Orlando

Basement

Jimmy Hula's

CENTRAL AVENUE:

none

WALL STREET:

none

WASHINGTON STREET:

Planet Pizza

Elixir

ORANGE AVENUE:

Avenue Gastrobar

Orlando Pour House

Dapper Duck

MAGNOLIA AVENUE:

Harp & Celt

The Mathers Gathering

Downtown Update: Orlando Weekly Apparently Critical Of Downtown Reopening

This is Church Street this past Saturday night. As you can see, it was completely dead. If you missed our article posted in sister website Orlando Entertainment News, click here. Well evidently Orlando Weekly had a reporter out this past weekend too and she seemed to be taking exception with the opening practices of some of the venues based on reports by Orlando Police. Our understanding of the rules is that if you're primarily a restaurant, then you could reopen with capacity limitations but you could also serve alcohol. Primarily a restaurant means over the course of a year, 51%+ of your revenue comes from food, not from alcohol sales. If you're primarily a bar, you are apparently only allowed to sell alcohol to go.
One of my favorite downtown venues is Elixir. It truly is a restaurant by day (great wings!) and a bar/club at night. They were open Saturday night. Jimmy Hula's/Basement are side by side venues with the former being a restaurant, the latter a bar. When you're inside, there is no wall separating the two so they seem to be one venue, in our opinion. Ditto for Celt & Harp, side by side with one an Irish restaurant and the other an Irish pub. We believe they could be reopened under the current law status. We are not attorneys and have no idea what kind of licenses any of the venues in the OW article carry so no legal advice is being offered here. Read the Orlando Weekly article here.

DS Update: Phased Reopening Begins Wednesday

As you now by now from our article last week, Disney Springs will reopen this Wednesday under a phased reopening plan. On Wednesday, only several third party owned & operated venues will reopen while several Disney owned and operated venues will reopen beginning the following Wednesday, May 27th. Masks will be required except when eating. The Blog will have coverage. Map of venues opening here.  Full details here.

Downtown Update: Downtown Slowly Reopens

Downtown Orlando's "scene" is slowing coming back to life and last night we checked it out! DJ Chino (USA) on the decks at Elixir Bar playing House music. Our article is posted on sister website Orlando Entertainment News here.

CW Update: Partial Reopening!

Beating Disney Springs by nearly a week, CityWalk did a partial reopening on Thursday following their shut-down due to coronavirus. Here's an incomplete listing of what has reopened and what has not. As more venues reopen, you should check before heading over there.

Among the reopened venues is Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

Cinnabon is open.

As is Red Oven Pizza.

Voodoo Doughnut has reopened; NBC Sports Grill & Brew has not.

Hard Rock Cafe and Hard Rock Live remain closed. Toothsome Chocolate Emporium is open!

Lone Palm Airport was open for business!

Outdoor dining and the gift shop were open at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.

Cold Stone Creamery is open.

The clubs remain shuttered including CityWalk's main dance club, The Groove.

Pat O'Brien's was closed last night.

Same for Bob Marley's.

And Rising Star.

And Red Coconut Club.

Antojitos (formerly Latin Quarter) also closed.

Hot Dog Hall of Fame - closed.

Fat Tuesday closed.

The Cowfish was not open.

Breadbox was not open.

Moe's, Panda Express and BK Whopper Bar were all closed.

Quiet Flight is closed. Right now more is closed than open but again, check with your favorite venues to see if they've reopened over the coming weeks. Current hours are 4PM to 10PM and garage parking is free to all. Masks are required. CityWalk is located at Universal Orlando. It's great to see CityWalk coming back on-line and last night, a good time was had by all.