Why are we so obsessed with Flanigan’s?
Are those lunch specials? The ribs? The big green cups? The nautical look? All sports on TVs?
Or maybe it’s just because the bar and grill is a South Florida thing.
Flanigan’s was still released a line of merchandise. And a few years ago, it won the Miami Herald’s most popular restaurants contest. Diners say it’s a peaceful place for comforting food and drinks.
But it wasn’t always easy for the company, which filed for judicial recovery in the mid-1980s and had to change the original name of its new restaurants in a court case.
Let’s take a look at some photos and history of Flanigan from the Miami Herald archives:
The founder
The food
The green cups
The customers
The workers
Flanigan over the years
Death of founder: (Published January 29, 2005) When Joseph “Big Daddy” Flanigan was a crewman on a U.S. Navy minesweeper in the 1950s, he could not have predicted his future success. Even with his passion and enthusiasm for his work, he could not have dreamed that his rugged, bearded face would become the symbol of Flanigan’s Bar and Grill – a South Florida icon. Flanigan, 75, died at his Sea Ranch Lakes home after a two-year battle with cancer. Flanigan, a former stockbroker and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, opened the first Big Daddy’s Liquors in Hialeah in 1959, teaming up with two former customers from his stockbroking days.
Bankruptcy: Beginning in 1985, Flanigan’s spent two years under the protection of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. It emerged in December 1987, but lost money for four consecutive years. Flanigan maintained the reorganization process throughout. It has shed most of its out-of-state salons and package stores and placed more emphasis on the restaurant side of the business.
Birth of a restaurant: (Published November 13, 1989) The sign outside Conch Key Joe’s Seafood Bar and Grill is graced with a portrait of a smiling Irishman, a reminder of the restaurant’s pedigree. The face is Big Daddy Flanigan. Until recently, the West Davie Boulevard establishment was a Big Daddy’s cocktail lounge and liquor store. But now it’s a Big Daddy’s with a difference: the food service, from oysters on the half shell to shrimp and ribs. The Conch Key Joe’s restaurant concept is profitable, says Joseph G. Flanigan, the real-life Big Daddy. It’s the answer to his company’s post-bankruptcy problems, he believes.
Name controversy: (Published December 12, 1989) Flanigan’s Enterprises is expected to change the name of its Conch Key Joe’s restaurants as a result of legal action filed by a Martin County restaurateur. Fort Lauderdale-based Flanigan’s must remove the name “Flanigan’s Conch Key Joe’s Seafood Bar and Grill” from 10 restaurants over the next 18 months and must refrain from using the name in any new restaurants, according to an out-of-court settlement achieved Friday. The company will simply call the restaurants Flanigan’s, said President Joseph G. Flanigan. The settlement ended a two-year legal battle between Jensen Beach-based Conchy Joe’s Restaurant Inc., which registered the Conchy Joe’s Seafood name with the Florida Secretary of State in 1985. Under the terms of the settlement, Flanigan’s also must pay nearly $75,000 in legal fees to the Jensen Beach company. Publicly traded Flanigan’s, owner of Big Daddy cocktail lounges and package stores, built its South Florida restaurant chain as part of a tough fight to regain profitability after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection two years ago. years.
