According to the Palm Beach Daily News, Jimmy Buffett has sold his Midtown estate in Palm Beach, Florida for $18.5 million:

Jimmy and Jane Buffett’s Midtown estate has sold for $18.5 million, according to a deed filed today at the Palm Beach County courthouse.

The buyer has not yet been identified.

The Buffetts paid $4.4 million for the five bedroom-nine bathroom compound on 1.6 acres in 1994. The address is 540 S. Ocean Blvd.

The estate was originally designed in the Mediterranean style by Marion Sims Wyeth but was later remodeled into a British Colonial-style house by Howard Major. In 1969 the Garden Club of Palm Beach showcased the house as part of its annual house and garden tour.

For many years, the estate was the residence of Audrey Emery, the daughter of a Cincinnati industrialist who was married to the late Grand Duke Dmitri Romanov of Russia and later married Prince Dimitri Djordjaze of Monaco. Emery’s son, Paul Romanoff Ilyinsky, served as mayor of Palm Beach for many years.

It was also once the home to Amory and Annette Haskell, who named it Annetteamo. She was the daughter of Standard Oil exec Henry Morgan Tilford.

The estate features a tennis court, pool, guest house and ocean frontage.

The property is currently appraised for $23.3 million by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.

Update – Here is a Google Maps image of the estate. You can see Jimmy’s Green Tomato surf van parked in the driveway (click to enlarge photo):

(hat tip to Brad for finding that)

We’re only two weeks away from the opening of the first Margaritaville Cafe north of the border. The blog AccessNiagara has some recent photos of the construction:

Margaritaville Niagara is scheduled to open on June 18th. Visit the official site at www.margaritavilleniagara.ca

Two weeks ago it was big savings on Margaritaville Frozen Concoction makers, and now it’s huge savings on the Margaritaville Tailgating Grill!

Click on this link to save $200 off the grill… that’s half off!

The Margaritaville Tailgating Grill includes:

• Grill system includes: full size propane grill and heavy duty steel swing arm
• Heavy duty steel swing arm system fits into a standard receiving hitch
• Grill never goes inside your vehicle. It locks onto the swing arm and holds in place during transportation
• The swing arm swivels out once you arrive at your location. You can be grilling in less than 3 minutes
• 352 square inches of cooking space, porcelain cooking grate and 20,000 BTU burner
• Electronic ignition for easy start up, side tables, condiment tray and grill utensil hooks
• Die Cast Aluminum body

This great deal runs through June 6th.

Update – You must use this link and then once you click Buy Now on the grill it will show up in your shopping cart with the discount applied.

Congrats to Surfpirate for winning the latest Jimmy Buffett Caption Contest! Here was the picture:

And here was Surfpirate’s winning caption:

Yes I see her, and No, you may not sit at the back table with all of the other bitches”

Surfpirate won by just one vote, beating out Amy with “I thought I was going to sit next to Snoop Dawg WTF?”.

View the full results here.

Thanks to all who entered captions and for everyone for voting. We’ll do another caption contest soon.

Do you have a Buffett-related photo that you think would be good for a caption contest? Send it on over.