Post #606546 by TikiTomD on Tue, Sep 13, 2011 6:13 AM

In October 1980, seven months after dropping “Islander” from the name and Polynesian from the cuisine, the Beef and Grog was sold for $450,000 by Richard Archer and Beverly Delaney to Peter and Darlene Cunningham. Apparently, the original Islander Beef and Grog owners retained title to the property or else it reverted back to them when the Beef and Grog failed. The Cunninghams extensively remodeled the building, opening as Desperado’s Mexican Restaurant and Saloon in November 1980. Here are several articles that tell their story...

Florida Today November 21, 1980

Florida Today November 13, 1981

And here are some representative Florida Today ads over the years...

July 3, 1981

October 25, 1981

June 8, 1984

January 18, 1985

February 22, 1985

October 25, 1985

Desperado’s was deservedly a very popular Space Coast beachside eatery for nearly two decades. Pat and I can personally attest to that based on our own dining experiences there. Near the end of the 1990s, it succumbed to a scourge that killed off many a popular establishment along the coastlines of the Florida peninsula and the Keys: condo development. Prime waterfront land was far more valuable as a condominium site than as just about any other kind of business. Very few landowners could resist the riches offered by the developers if they sold. So sell they did. In the case of Desperado’s, it was demolished to make way for the Palmas de Majorca Condominium, constructed in 2000 and still there today...

-Tom