Buckingham Blues Bar - Blues Music Venues-Florida

Buckingham Blues Bar

5641-Buckingham Road
Fort Myers, Florida U.S.A.
(239) 693-7111

Two years ago, the Harley Owners Group newsletter ranked the Buckingham Bar as Lee County’s Worst Watering Hole.

“It had by far the worst ventilation system in town,’’ says Jack Bennett of Fort Myers, who wrote the critique for HOG Caller. “In the summer, the bar turned into a smoke-filled oven.’’

The Buckingham Bar, 12 miles east of downtown Fort Myers, has been a landmark since it opened in 1957.

It didn’t age gracefully. “The ceiling tiles, what you could see of them, were totally nicotine-stained,’’ Bennett says. “About the same color as most of the patrons’ teeth. “Those that had teeth.’’

Gritty. Enter the savior. Tommy Lee Cook (no relation), a 22-year Buckingham resident, couldn’t do much about dental repairs — but the general contractor used a craftsman’s touch for his rundown bar. Cook, 48, bought the bar and property for $80,000 in August, renovated it for 3 1/2 months and opened Nov. 14.

“They took a flame thrower and a bulldozer to it,’’ says Dan Shepard, whose Blue Mercury blues band plays the bar tonight and Saturday. “And Clorox,’’ Cook says. Cook even upgraded the name to the World Famous Buckingham Bar.

World Famous? Out here in the sticks?

“We’re on our way to making it that way,’’ says Cook, laughing and sipping a Coors Light. “We’ve had people here from Australia, England and France.’’ In Buckingham, no less. Were the tourists lost? “No. We get old people, bikers and yuppies,’’ he says. “A biker will sit down next to a guy with a tie and they’ll just shoot the B.S. “There are no attitudes here — everybody leaves them outside.’’

Cook is turning this once dark, dingy and scary bar into a tiny slice of Lee County Nightclub Americana. How dark was it? “When Tom renovated it he probably found people under the bar we haven’t seen for 10 years,’’ says Bruce Strayhorn, 50, a lifetime Buckingham resident.

How dingy? “I came in here and had to shoot pool on a dirt floor,’’ says Patrice Ditusa of LaBelle. “After that, I never came back.’’

How scary? “I had long hair, so I wouldn’t go in there,’’ says Derek Sliman, 36. “But I was on a traveling dart team. My dart teammate’s girlfriend drove. I met her for the first time at the Buckingham Bar. “Damned if I didn’t end up marrying her.’’

Buckingham, which had 927 residents three years ago, is expected to add 3,500 families by 2010, according to real estate experts. Did Cook, who worked three years for Big Daddy’s bar chain in Gainesville, build for the boom? “No. The area needed something, a place where you could hear music. Basically it’s a blues bar,’’ says Cook, who plays the guitar and sings in his own band.“It needed to remain the Buckingham Bar. There is too much history here.’’

Bar manager Susan Smith, who has served beer at the joint since 1989, says her boss’ timing was perfect. “People were ready for a change,’’ she says. “I’ve seen more people from our area who never came in before.’’

Did local drinkers object to the spruced-up look? >“Some told me: ‘Damn, don’t make it too pretty. Don’t make it too clean,’ ’’ Cook says. “As it was being done, people said, ‘I’ll never come back.’ “Once the doors opened — other than one or two — they’re all back. Curiosity got them. They’re enjoying it like everyone else.’’

Cook got a social commentary of what there is to do in Buckingham while he was closed for remodeling. Six people sat out in the parking lot on Friday nights while the bar was closed and drank two cases of beer,’’ says Sammy Nail, a Buckingham Bar regular for 10 years.

Nail, 55, whose Confederate dollar was the first buck spent in the new bar, says the customer mix is diverse. “You can come here at happy hour and might see the same people,’’ he says. “You come back at 10 o’clock and it’s a whole new crowd.’’

Every bar has its special touch and Cook added his. He turned the 1.6-acre area behind the bar into a park. “You’re away from the city lights and can see all the stars,’’ says singer-guitarist Shepard, 46. “There’s that whole backyard thing.’’ It includes a bonfire, barbecue pit, picnic tables, horseshoe pits, grassy knoll, a bandstand and — a mule.

“Now, it doesn’t even remotely qualify to be on the worst-watering-hole list,’’ biker Bennett says. “At best, I’d give it an honorable mention as the most-improved watering hole.

“The back area is great for sitting and enjoying a cold one or listening to bands.’’

Just honorable mention? “The inside has lost all its character,’’ Bennett says. “Too antiseptic.’’

Sam Cook’s column appears in the Fort Myers News Press, Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call 335-0384 or fax 334-0708.