End to lease shuts Buffett restaurant

Parrotheads will soon bemoan the loss of their leader’s restaurant and surf museum in Waikiki.

The Jimmy Buffett restaurant in Hawaii will close after about 5 1⁄2 years in business.

Margaritaville Holdings LLC, parent company of Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber, and RP/OE Waikiki Beachcomber LLC, an Outrigger entity, "have jointly agreed to an early lease termination for the restaurant space located inside the Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber Resort, effective Aug. 31," said Nancy Daniels, director of public relations for Outrigger Enterprises Group, which manages the Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber Resort.

"RP/OE offers a sincere ‘mahalo’ to the restaurant’s management and staff for providing its patrons with terrific food and entertainment for the past five years," she said.

The last day of service is unclear, as no local restaurant officials, executives from the corporate offices in Florida or its California-based public relations contact responded to calls or emailed queries from the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser.

The restaurant’s Facebook page Monday morning invited fans to enter the Margaritaville Summer Vacation Sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to Destin, Fla., where the company has a Margaritaville restaurant.

Margaritaville Holdings established owned and franchised restaurants, hotels, vacation clubs and casinos across the U.S. and in Australia, the Caribbean, the Virgin Islands and Mexico.

In April, Margaritaville Holdings’ restaurant assets were acquired by a franchisee, International Meal Company Holdings S.A. The two agreed to establish a joint venture in which additional Margaritaville locations will be built in the U.S. and Latin America, with airport locations being the priority.

Back at the Beachcomber, managed by Outrigger, Daniels said the company "intends to continue the tradition of having a high-quality restaurant at this venue and is now exploring various restaurant options with both local and national companies to secure an eatery that will be enjoyed by hotel guests and the Waikiki community at large."

The plan to build and open Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber was first announced in February 2008.

The room that housed Don Ho’s show in his final years was converted to the eponymous Jimmy Buffett’s, rather than to his better-known Margaritaville chain.

It opened in January 2009, with a restaurant, entertainment venue, retail store and the Hono­lulu Surfing Museum, which contained a collection of artifacts, videos and surf-inspired items from Hawaii and around the globe. The retail store sold Jimmy Buffett or Margaritaville-branded merchandise.

Later that year it was announced that the restaurant would host Saturday morning live broadcasts of the "Perry and Price Show" on KSSK-FM 92.3/AM 590. The show has since moved to the Jade Dynasty Restaurant at Ala Moana Center.

Hawaii residents and visitors often confused two Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants on Maui and Oahu as being owned by Buffett in the late 1990s, as they were named after the title of Buffett’s popular 1978 song.

He had no ownership stake in those restaurants and sued Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant founders Edna Bayliff and Laren Gartner. Bayliff and Gartner were allowed to keep the name on the original two restaurants, but all others they established could not. A second location in Waikiki, for instance, was named Cheeseburger Waikiki.