We reported back in December on the possibility of a Margaritaville Cafe opening in Nashville and now it’s being confirmed by The Tennessean:

The legendary entertainer’s chain of beach-themed restaurants will open its first Tennessee location by the end of the year on Lower Broadway in the building formerly occupied by Planet Hollywood, Buffett and the owners of the building said Thursday.

Buffett said he’d been thinking about a Nashville location for a long time, considering his own roots here, where his career began. There is enough diversity in the Nashville music scene to support a venue that isn’t based on country music, he said.

“I know about all the people that have lived there who aren’t run through the aperture of country hit radio,” Buffett said. “It’s a very diverse place, and it’s a natural thing to put a stage in, because we have them everywhere else, and you never know who’s going to show up. But we don’t pursue name acts or anything like that. You let your customer dictate what they want, not what you want.”

The 18,000-square-foot building at 322 Broadway has two floors, both of which will be used by the restaurant. It will be operated by Buffett’s Key West, Fla.-based Margaritaville Holdings.

“We have signed a lease and we’re ready to roll,” said Mark Bloom, a principle in the Corner Partnership, which is involved in several other downtown properties including the Hilton and Union Station hotels. Other partners are Ronnie Scott and Larry Papel.

“Buffett wants to make music a big part of the venue here, and the café is going to appeal to the young crowd, locals and visitors to our city,” he said. “Besides the food and special drinks synonymous with Margaritaville, the music will be a special attraction.”

At street level there will be a restaurant, bar and three live-music stages. The second floor will house another bar, additional restaurant seating, and a “small concert hall with state-of-the-art lighting and sound system,” Bloom said.

Total seating capacity is 350, with about 200 in the concert hall upstairs.

Live music will be featured daily. The café will be open from 11 a.m.-3 a.m. seven days a week, Bloom said, and the entertainment will include “a nightly showcase of newcomers.”

The building has been vacant for nearly a year since the most-recent tenant, the Global Café, closed. It’s a prime downtown venue, Bloom said, with the Ryman Auditorium nearby.

“We’ve had several offers from people wanting to lease the building, but we wanted to find something that would create vibrancy downtown and be a big landmark draw,” Bloom said. “It will create a lot of excitement downtown.”

Construction will begin in late April, and will involve a “multimillion-dollar renovation” of the building “from top to bottom,” Bloom said.

It will be the 10th U.S. Margaritaville Café, but will be different from the others in that it will be “more Nashville-centric,” Bloom said.

Buffett said most of the members of his band, the Coral Reefers, live in Nashville. The restaurant will have a circular staircase with a family tree paying tribute to past and present members of the band.

Read the full article here.

Buffett is treating Nashville well this year. In addition to building the restaurant, he’ll perform at the Sommet Center on May 1st. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 am CST through TicketMaster.

In 2007 Jimmy Buffett and several partners formed Last Mango Racing Stables, a horse racing owners group.

Last Mango is hoping to field their horse Daddy Forty Nine in this year’s Kentucky Derby:

A total of 366 three-year-olds are nominated to the Derby and the other Triple Crown races, from two-year-old champion Lookin At Lucky, to a long shot gelding co-owned by Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees, to a full brother of ill-fated 2006 Derby winner Barbaro.

The Derby field is limited to 20 starters, and it’ll be the prep races from Arkansas to Arcadia, Calif., New Orleans to New York, and Gulfstream to Keeneland that determine who ends up at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

The usual Derby-driven trainers dominate the list of nominees. Four-time Derby winner D. Wayne Lukas has 19 nominees, two-time Derby winner Nick Zito has 15 and three-time Derby winner Bob Baffert has 13. Todd Pletcher tops them all with 20 as he seeks his first Derby winner (he’s 0-for-24).

Brees’ Derby hopeful is Daddy Forty Nine. The gelding is owned by Last Mango Racing Stable, formed by New Orleans Saints vice president of communications Greg Bensel. Other partners include Saints coach Sean Payton, singer Jimmy Buffett and the Monday Night Football announcing crew of Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden.

The owners group enjoyed limited success in 2008 with a horse named Pulaski County.

In January it was announced that Jimmy Buffett would open his first Canadian Margaritaville Cafe in Niagara Falls this summer:

Margaritaville Canada Ltd. has signed a lease with the owners of the Skylon Tower to open the 14,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant on Fallsview Avenue, across from the Niagara Fallsview Casino and Resort.

The restaurant is moving into the site of the former Wolfgang Puck’s Cafe, which closed last summer.

Margaritaville Canada is investing “several million” into the Niagara Falls project, Davidson said. The restaurant is the first of several the Calgary-based company has planned for Canada. The company has the exclusive Margaritaville rights for Canada.

This week there was an official press event to announce the construction of the restaurant. Watch a video report of the event below:

Margaritaville Foods has been coming out with new products left and right lately, and today they announced another offering: