Southern Living Names Flora-Bama Alabama's Best Dive Bar

Article by Betsy Cribb Watson of Southern Living - March 6, 2024

Flora-Bama Is Alabama's Best Dive Bar, According To Our Readers

You don't become the Gulf Coast’s most hallowed beach bar without a bit of divine intervention. “When you look at where God put the Flora-Bama, it’s in the middle of where all kinds of demographics gather—that’s what makes it special,” says co-owner and lifelong Alabama native John McInnis III. “You’d have fishermen and locals mixed with tourists, bikers, and military personnel from the [Pensacola Navy] base. All of a sudden, they were hanging out together in this little shack by a liquor store. That’s what it looked like in the late seventies and early eighties.”

Now in its 60th year, the destination’s siren call of live music, fresh oysters, and boozy milkshakes (known as Bushwackers) attracts the same ragtag band of revelers it beckoned in its early years. But the snowbirds, spring breakers, and all the groups in between have one thing in common, says co-owner Cameron Price, an Army Airborne Ranger veteran who first visited the area as a grad student fleeing the Massachusetts winter: “Every single person who walks into the Flora-Bama wants to have a good time." And that’s not hard to do there—it's no wonder our readers voted Flora-Bama the best dive bar in Alabama in our 2024 South's Best awards.

What To Expect At Flora-Bama

You’ll see white sand between the floorboards, love notes penned on the walls in permanent marker, and a clothesline of ladies’ unmentionables strung above the dance floor (this is a dive bar, after all). Kids can enjoy the scenery till 6 p.m., and everybody else can hang around until they close at 2:30 a.m. On Sunday mornings, you can come back at 9 or 11 a.m. for church. At the Flora-Bama, everyone’s welcome, and for many folks, their first pilgrimage to this sprawling shack on the beach begets a second one—and maybe a hundred more after that.

The beloved dive has been a fixture on the Alabama-Florida line since 1964 (a couple of years after the states were connected by the Perdido Pass Bridge), when a local family built an unassuming package store there. The late Joe Gilchrist bought it in 1978 and transformed it into a live-music venue, recruiting country artists on the rodeo circuit to come down and play. Once Pat McClellan joined him as a partner in the mid-eighties, they began adding some of the bar’s signature events, like the annual Interstate Mullet Toss (people throwing fish in the name of charity, which raises thousands for area youth organizations each year) and the Frank Brown Songwriters’ Festival (the largest and oldest of its kind in the country, which brings in big names in music).

Overcoming Obstacles

Like most places that have good stories, the Flora-Bama has seen some tough times along the way. After Hurricane Ivan walloped the area back in 2004, there was nothing left of the original beachfront building. For about three years, the bar operated out of a collection of tents and trailers. But the faithful patrons still kept showing up. “You probably had close to a million people a year going through there and having the times of their lives,” says McInnis, who became a majority owner along with Price in 2009. “That’s love.”

They then built up the Flora-Bama again—this time constructing the rambling wooden shack 22 feet above flood level. Beyond that, they haven’t altered much. “Our goal was to make it better without changing it because it’s such an iconic establishment,” says McInnis. That means a continued commitment to supporting charitable organizations (they give to more than 30 groups annually, from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation) and a devotion to redefining hospitality, providing a welcoming spot for all kinds of sunseekers to gather season after season.

“You’re more a shepherd of the Flora-Bama than you are an owner of it,” says Price. “When you look at all the people who have made memories here over the years, that’s the magic of this place.” 

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