Alabama Jack’s is being offered for $4.9 million, but a buyer would acquire the restaurant business and its lease—not the land beneath the Key Largo bar. The listing covers two parcels totaling 41,602 square feet at 58000 Card Sound Road, according to CommercialSearch’s listing records.
The federal-government lease was renewed in 2021 for a 20-year term through 2041, CommercialSearch reports. The Miami Herald’s account of the sale says the package includes the restaurant business, the Alabama Jack’s name and brand, equipment, merchandise operation, and the conch fritter recipe along with other house recipes. The Herald also reported that listing agent Curtis Skomp said the site’s lease renewals had always been approved; that is his account, not a guarantee of future renewal.
The listing describes 7,026 square feet across enclosed restaurant space and covered areas. CommercialSearch breaks that down as 2,297 square feet of enclosed space and 4,729 square feet of canopy, and lists more than 360 linear feet of docks, an apartment, an unused private boat ramp, a desalination system and a backup water truck with a storage tank. The Miami Herald also reported direct water access and the apartment above the restaurant.
Skomp told the Miami Herald that the property had attracted several serious inquiries after returning to the market and that interested buyers had indicated they would likely keep the restaurant operating. Alabama Jack’s remains open, and its conch fritters are part of the business being offered, according to the Herald’s sale report.
Regional context: roads and tourism
The Florida Department of Transportation says it is studying alternatives for the Card Sound Road Bridge and describes Card Sound Road as an alternate route into and out of the Florida Keys and an emergency evacuation route. Monroe County’s FY 2025 Tourist Development Council annual report says visitors spend approximately $3.5 billion on the Florida Keys each year, generating almost $400 million in tax revenue and supporting more than 24,000 local jobs; those regional figures do not describe Alabama Jack’s revenue or prospects.
A waterfront business shaped by storms and rebuilding
The bar’s history is closely tied to Jack Stratham, a Georgia-born construction worker and fisherman who first visited South Florida in 1924. Keys Weekly’s historical account describes Stratham acquiring a lease along Card Sound and turning an abandoned railroad building into a place for fishing friends, adding pilings, windows, doors, counters and docks.
Hurricane Betsy damaged the establishment in 1965, taking out rooms and hundreds of feet of docks. Stratham rebuilt the bar on a barge, and it reopened in March 1966, according to Keys Weekly’s history and the Miami Herald’s account.
Phyllis Sague arrived at Alabama Jack’s in 1980 planning to pursue real estate, but bought the business instead. She later developed its conch fritter recipe, according to Lifestyle Media Group. The Miami Herald reports that Sague and her son Mike have operated the business since 1980.
