Pat McClellan, the Heart of the Flora-Bama, Dies at 77
Pat McClellan, who co-owned the Flora-Bama for four decades and turned a beach bar into a Gulf Coast institution, has died at 77.
Pat McClellan, who spent four decades turning a weathered beach bar on the Florida-Alabama line into one of the most famous honky-tonks in America, has died at 77.
McClellan, co-owner of the Flora-Bama Lounge, Package and Oyster Bar, passed away peacefully in his sleep on a Wednesday evening in late July, according to an announcement from the bar’s operators. News of his death brought an outpouring of tributes from across the Gulf Coast within hours.
A Bar Without a Marketing Budget
McClellan joined founder Joe Gilchrist as a partner in the early 1980s, when the Flora-Bama was still a rough-and-tumble beach bar perched on the Alabama-Florida state line on Perdido Key. Together the two men built it into a landmark known as much for its character as its cocktails — a place where fishermen, tourists and songwriters drank side by side under ceilings papered with dollar bills and business cards.
John McInnis, who became a co-owner alongside McClellan in 2009, said the first thing he learned after coming on board was that the business had built its fame entirely on the personalities of its owners.
“The first thing we kind of figured out is they didn’t have any marketing budget, and they didn’t spend any money on marketing,” McInnis said. “We’re just kind of wrapping our heads around how you become world famous and you have no marketing budget and no real marketing team. Joe and Pat were literally the marketing team, and they were just such great people and loved other human beings unconditionally to the point that they just created a spirit in the company and in the Flora-Bama, where it was contagious.”
More Than a Bar
Under McClellan and Gilchrist, the Flora-Bama grew into the anchor of a stretch of coastline that now draws visitors from across the country. The bar’s annual events became institutions in their own right: the Interstate Mullet Toss, which draws thousands each spring to fling fish across the state line; the Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival, which fills the rooms with writers from Nashville and beyond each November; and a calendar of charity events that runs year-round.
The bar weathered hurricanes that flattened much of the surrounding key, including Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and rebuilt each time — a resilience regulars came to see as the place’s defining trait.
“His legacy will live on,” McInnis said. “The things that he started there, most of the events raise money for charity, and we have over 200 events a year, and those things will go on forever. And it’s just amazing to see what the impact two people could have.”
Family members remembered McClellan in a statement as proof that the best places in the world “aren’t found on a map. They’re built by people who love others well.”
Details regarding a celebration of life service had not been announced as of press time. The bar said it plans to carry on the traditions McClellan built, on the same sand where he spent the better part of five decades.
Related coverage from South AL News
- Sixty Years at the State Line: The Flora-Bama's Journey From Package Store to Legend
- Flora-Bama Lounge Toasts 62 Years Straddling the State Line
- Flora-Bama to Host Celebration of Life for Co-Owner Pat McClellan
- Big Earl and the Sexual Biscuits: The Flora-Bama's Weekend Institution That Kids Get Asked to Leave
