St. Augustine, Florida
End Of The Line
January 2025
St. Augustine, Florida is the nation’s oldest city, founded in 1565. In such a place you’d expect to find lots of landmarks. One of those is in a round about facing the Bridge of Lions over the Matanzas Bay. That is Ponce de Leon Circle, containing a life-sized statue of Florida’s first tourist, 4-foot, 11-inch Juan Ponce de Leon. He was the first European to stumble onto the peninsula in the year 1513.
Just down the way at 124 Charlote Street lies another landmark associated with an additional person well-known for his connections to the Sunshine State. That address houses the Trade Winds Tropical Lounge that for years was rumored to be an establishment from which Jimmy Buffett was fired. The truth, however, is a bit different. Early in his career, Buffett did audition to play on the lounge’s music stage, but was turned down because they didn’t feel his music was right for them. Over the following decades, Jimmy did return to the lounge as a performer and customer on differing occasions.
The Trade Winds traces it history back to the spring of 1945, when former Merchant Marines John Meigs and Kenneth Dow opened the South Seas Lounge on Avila Street. In 1954 Elizabeth Leonard Clark and her husband Rex bought the establishment, beginning an on on-again, off-again ownership by the Leonard family that culminated today in Janet Leonard being the proprietor.
In 1964, due to historical restoration work, the bar had to move to its present location and changed its name to the Trade Winds Tropical Lounge. The lounge maintained its South Seas flavor, even featuring some items the original owners had shipped home during their travels in that part of the world. Those include the teak bar, the grinning idol and the bamboo decorating the establishment.
Today the lounge offers daily live music, leaning heavily toward rock ‘n roll with a tinge of country. But you never know what to expect until you check out their schedule of musicians. Weekends feature regional and national acts, while during the week the focus is more local. Those rotating weekday acts take the stage at 1 p.m., 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Filling in any blanks is the house band Troy Locke and Matanzas.
While listening to the music, you can slack you thirst with beer, wine or from the full bar featuring tropical and traditional cocktails.
The bottom line is, the Trade Winds Lounge is a great place to finish out your day of angling around St. Augustine or ride out a stormy day that keeps you off the water. For more details, click here to visit their website.
