Land Shark Bar & Grill Coming to Myrtle Beach

Jimmy Buffett is expanding his business empire once again, this time opening another restaurant in Myrtle Beach. There’s already a Margaritaville Cafe in the resort town, but the Sun News announced today that Buffett will open a Land Shark Bar & Grill at the SkyWheel attraction in May:

The 3,000-square-foot restaurant will have mostly outdoor seating, said David Busker, president of Koch Development, which will operate the SkyWheel and is developing it along with Pacific Development. Busker declined to talk about the restaurant’s concept.

Officials are staying tight-lipped about the restaurant. Al Mers, a partner in Pacific Development, said this afternoon that he couldn’t comment about the restaurant until Dec. 15. The Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board likely will consider the restaurant’s sign requests during its Dec. 16 meeting.

There’s a Land Shark Landing restaurant in Pensacola, Fla., beside the Margaritaville Beach Hotel that serves items such as fish tacos, nachos and, of course, a Cheeseburger in Paradise fixed the way Buffett describes in the song by the same name. It’s unclear whether the Land Shark Bar & Grille in Myrtle Beach will serve similar food.

The restaurant will be part of the $12 million to $15 million SkyWheel complex emerging on the oceanfront. Crews are installing the 106 pilings that will support the nearly 200-foot-high Ferris wheel, which will have 42 glass enclosed, temperature-controlled gondolas that plan to operate year-round.

The Land Shark restaurant will bring a different kind of venue to downtown Myrtle Beach that will lure Buffett’s followers who are likely to check out downtown’s other offerings after stopping by the new restaurant, said Dave Sebok, executive director of Myrtle Beach’s Downtown Redevelopment Corp.

“It will offer something that is obviously new and has a different theme to it than what we have on the oceanfront now,” he said. “It’s a name that is nationally and internationally known so to me it’s likely to be able to attract customers and business downtown.”

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