Alabama Jack's, the Card Sound Road Landmark, Is for Sale at $4.9 Million, Conch Fritter Recipe Included

Alabama Jack's, the open-air waterfront bar and restaurant that has fed bikers, anglers and Keys-bound tourists for decades on lonely Card Sound Road in north Key Largo, is on the market for $4.9 million. The price buys the business, its name, its equipment, its T-shirt and merchandise operation and the recipe for its well-known conch fritters, but not the ground underneath it.

The land at 58000 Card Sound Road is leased from the federal government, and a buyer would take over that lease along with the restaurant, according to the Miami Herald, whose report by Luisa Yanez was syndicated Oct. 16, and Hoodline. Listing agent Curtis Skomp of RE/MAX All Keys Real Estate told the Herald the bar had been listed before, was pulled off the market and has now been relisted, drawing "several serious bites."

What a buyer gets

The property is made up of two parcels totaling 41,602 square feet, a little under an acre, along the water at the north end of the Card Sound Bridge. The Herald, citing the listing, described about 7,026 square feet of restaurant and covered outdoor space, more than 360 linear feet of docks, direct water access and a small apartment above the restaurant.

Commercial listings for the property describe the package as including the business name, its domain names and social media pages, the retail T-shirt business, proprietary recipes, and all furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Skomp told the Herald that prospective buyers have indicated they would likely keep the place running as it is, conch fritters and Sunday night clogging included. He called it a unique property in the wilderness between South Dade and Ocean Reef, and the listing pitches it as a chance to "buy a piece of Keys history."

A lease, not a deed

The biggest caveat for any buyer is the land. The site is leased from the federal government, and the Herald reported that the lease was last renewed for 20 years in 2021. A CommercialSearch listing for the property says that renewal runs through 2041. Skomp told the Herald that renewals have always been approved, though that is the broker's account of the history rather than a guarantee of future terms. None of the reports reviewed by The Florida Press named the federal agency that holds the lease.

That structure explains part of the pricing. A buyer is paying for a going business, a brand and roughly 15 years of remaining lease term, not for ownership of waterfront land in the Florida Keys.

Listings don't all agree

Online listings for the property show several discrepancies, which is common when a property has been marketed more than once.

The $6 million figure appears to reflect the earlier listing, and the most recent coverage and the listing agent put the current ask at $4.9 million.

How "Alabama Jack" got his bar

The restaurant takes its name from Jack Stratham, who, despite the nickname, was from Georgia. Keys Weekly has reported that he was born around 1901 in Sumter County, Georgia, worked construction around the world, including on the Empire State Building, and picked up the name "Alabama Jack" from a foreman who had several Jacks on the same crew and singled him out by his Southern accent. He first came to South Florida on vacation in 1924, according to the Herald.

Stratham and his wife, Alice, took over a lease on the Card Sound shoreline from a Miami plumber, initially as a weekend spot to keep a boat, according to the Florida Keys History and Discovery Center. They converted an old railroad building into a home, set it on pilings partly over the water and added docks, windows and counters. Before long, there were seven boats tied up, and the place grew into a full-service fishing camp.

Accounts differ on the year it all started. The Herald reported that the bar has been open since 1947. The Florida Keys History and Discovery Center dates the construction of Alabama Jack's Place to about 1953, and Keys Weekly has reported that Stratham sold the fish camp around 1973, about 20 years after he created it.

Betsy, a barge and a string of owners

Hurricane Betsy, which struck the Keys in September 1965, knocked the building off its pilings, destroyed two rooms and took out hundreds of feet of dock, according to the Herald. The restaurant was rebuilt on a barge and reopened in March 1966. It still sits on barges today.

The business changed hands several times after Stratham sold it. Keys Weekly has cited a 1976 Miami Herald story reporting that Howard Jacobs had owned Alabama Jack's for about two years. Phyllis Sague and her son, Mike, have owned and run it since 1980, according to the Herald; some accounts give the purchase year as 1981.

Over the years the bar drew famous visitors along with the regulars. Jimmy Buffett stopped in during the late 1970s, the Herald reported, and Billy Joel and Kathie Lee Gifford also visited, Gifford frequently during the years she owned property at the nearby Ocean Reef Club.

The road less traveled

Card Sound Road is the quieter of the two routes between the mainland and Key Largo. It follows the path of the original State Road 4A, part of the first Overseas Highway that opened in 1927, according to the Herald. The modern Card Sound Bridge opened in 1969, and Monroe County's Card Sound Toll Authority collects tolls electronically; cash is no longer accepted. The county set the SunPass rate for a two-axle vehicle at $2.13 beginning Oct. 1, 2025, with higher toll-by-plate rates, according to the authority.

The road's isolation is much of the appeal. With the main route on U.S. 1's 18-Mile Stretch carrying most Keys traffic, Alabama Jack's has long been a detour destination for South Florida motorcycle riders and weekend day-trippers from Miami-Dade, as well as residents of the gated Ocean Reef Club community at the top of Key Largo.

What's next

No buyer or contract has been announced. Any sale would need to account for the federal lease, which runs into the next decade if the CommercialSearch listing's 2041 date is correct. For now, Alabama Jack's remains open, and the broker's message to buyers is that the best-case outcome is that nothing much changes, fritters and all.