Post #606431 by TikiTomD on Mon, Sep 12, 2011 12:27 PM

The building that later hosted the Islander Beef and Grog was formerly a restaurant known as the Oceanside Steak House. Steve Hall owned it and was also the manager from February 1970 until he sold it five years later to Richard Archer and Beverly Delaney, who then made it into the Islander Beef and Grog. In Hall’s story, told in an article below, he leased it to someone else prior to coming to Florida from Cleveland in February 1970, who “turned a German smorgasbord into a financial disaster.” I found several Florida Today ads from 1969, just prior to Hall’s arrival...

October 12, 1969

October 12, 1969

Here’s Steve Hall’s story...

Florida Today April 7, 1971

Here are some representative Florida Today ads (apparently Hall favored rhyme)...

December 24, 1972

March 11, 1973

April 22, 1973

Returning to the Islander Beef and Grog, in late February of 1980, Richard Archer and his partner (aka his wife) sold the restaurant to Dee Gunter, an Austrian expatriate who decided to drop the Polynesian menu specialties and replace them with European cuisine. Accordingly, he dropped “Islander” from the restaurant name, so it became just the Beef and Grog. Here’s Gunter’s story...

Florida Today April 1, 1980

And here is a Florida Today ad for the new Beef and Grog (the Tikis in the ad presumably reflect the exotic décor and possibly exotic cocktails, but not cuisine)...

April 4, 1980

Next, something entirely different arrives...

-Tom