Margaritaville North

 

By Mark Howell

 

Who knew that if one wanted a whiff of Key West while abiding in New England, there’s a most definite one one to be had at an establishment known as Margaritaville in a casino called the Mohegan Sun, located in Uncasville, Connecticut.

 

Built in 1992 after the Mohegan gained official recognition as a people, the native-American owned and themed Mohegan Sun is in fact one of the largest casinos in the United States. Its 364,000 square feet of gaming space on 240 acres along the banks of the Thames River, it features a 12,000-seat capacity arena, home of the state’s women’s national basketball team, plus a 350-seat cabaret theatre known as the Wolf Den and, of course, a casino that offers slot machines, poker and blackjack tables plus Caribbean stud poker, also a race book offering live horse and greyhound racing from around the U.S., England and Australia, as well as wagering on jai-alai from Florida.

 

The economic recession took a heavy toll on receipts and only now are both of southeastern Connecticut’s tribal casinos, the Mohegan Sun and its sister, Foxwoods, emerging from deep debt.

 

One of the Sun’s most thriving establishments is its Margaritaville restaurant, licensed by Jimmy Buffett himself. This is the latest in a string of establishments licensed by the business that originated on Duval Street in Key West and spread to Orlando and 29 other locations around the world today (“Margaretville is wherever you want it to be” goes its latest slogan).

 

The one in the Mohegan Sun offers among its appetizers a “Drunken Shrimp Skillet” and a “Key West Chicken Quesadilla with griddled flour tortilla, Oaxaca and Monterey Jack cheeses served with lime crema, guacamole and pico de gallo,” both for $13.99 (with no taste clue as to which neighborhood the Key West chicken called home”.

 

Among the entrées is a “Landshark Lager Fish and Chips hand-dipped in batter and served with jalapeño tartar sauce, French Fries and cilantro lime coleslaw” for $16.99. There’s also a “Jimmy’s Jammin’ Jambalaya of Cajun rice loaded with shrimp, chicken and Andouille sausage simmered in a spicy broth” for $18.95.

 

Plus, of course, a “Cheeseburger in Paradise” for $12.99.

 

To wash it all down are a variety of “Margaritas and Boat Drinks,” including a “Bahama Mama” containing “a variety of spiced and coconut rums, Cruzan aged dark rum, crème de la banana, pineapple and orange juices, shaken and served over ice with a splash of grenadine” for $10.50.

 

Very nice.

 

It was also out of town that we found first news of the latest book by Key West resident and scholar Brewster Chamberlin. It’s called “The Hemingway Log” and is a chronology of the life and times of inarguably the greatest of all Key West’s authors.

 

Published this spring by the University Press of Kansas, it has already been widely and well reviewed. “None have come close to attaining Chamberlin’s achievement in ‘The Hemingway Log,’ a veritable daybook companion to the man, with incisive interpretations and literary asides beautifully interwoven — a work of art of a certain kind,” writes Paul Hendrickson, author of “Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life and Lost,” himself a scholar and familiar figure to Key West readers.

 

Scott Donaldson, another literary scholar, commends Chamberlin for knowing the territory, “especially Key West,” and calls the log “wide-ranging and witty,” adding that it “retouches the portrait by correcting dozens of biographical errors.”

 

That’s our Brewster!

 

Quote of the Week:

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. But when the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”

— Ernest Hemingway in “A Moveable Feast”

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]