Change is on the menu at LuLu's, a coastal Alabama landmark

LuLu's, the Gulf Shores business founded by Jimmy Buffett's sister Lucy Buffett , isn't just a restaurant: It's a destination familiar to vacationers from all across the state. And change is coming.

LuLu's is an institution with sister restaurants in Destin, Fla., and North Myrtle Beach, S.C. Lucy Buffett announced Monday that she'd picked someone new to oversee all three as president and chief operating officer: Johnny Fisher, a figure well known on the coastal Alabama culinary scene.

It's a sea change for a business that Buffett started as a small, out-of-the-way burger and gumbo shack on Weeks Bay in 1999. (The move to bigger things came in 2003-2004; according to a Mobile Press-Register from the time, preparations including a festive 17-mile voyage in which a barge ferried "palm trees, gazebos, a car and a live band" from the old location to the new one.)

It's also a homecoming: Fisher managed the Gulf Shores restaurant from 2005 to 2012. He, Buffett and her business partner Mac McAleer all say that fans of the restaurant have no reason to fear. This isn't a rebranding, they say, it's a revitalization. And they're not chasing peak business – their goal is peak happiness. They want to put the music back in LuLu's, literally and figuratively.

"We're trying to kind of circle back," said Buffett. "It's more like a reset, I think ...What Mac always says is, we're putting the band back together."

"The really great part about it is that when I was here, she gave me the freedom to create," said Fisher. "And that was something that I cherish because it allowed me to color outside the lines, you know, and she embraced that creativity. We were on the same page in the direction we wanted to go. So that was a really special part of that time. And we created a culture here that was unlike any restaurant I had ever been a part of."

"So we're gonna shift the sails a little," he said. "And we're gonna get back to the roots that really make LuLu's what it is. And we're also going to chart a course for the future on how we can keep getting better."

A visit to LuLu's these days finds it looking much as it ever has, and if the lunch rush is subdued that's only to be expected in the off-season. It's a big, bright, open-air restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway. You might see a million-dollar sportfishing boat cruise by on its way to a weekend out in the Gulf as you dine, or you might catch a wave from a child on a passing pontoon boat. But it's not just a restaurant, it's a campus. There's at least one outdoor bar, a gift shop, sandy play areas for children young and old.

There's nothing about LuLu's that screams the need for a makeover. Still, Buffett and McAleer and Fisher have a sense that LuLu's lost a little of its sparkle over the last decade. Events beyond their control had a big part in that, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent turbulence in supply chains and the labor market. Buffett offers an interesting point of reference: LuLu's had its best sales numbers in 2021 but that's not a time she wants to revisit. People were rebounding from the pandemic shutdown and had money to spend, "but it was not a happy season," she said. "Everybody still had a bad attitude. A lot of bad attitude. It was just hard."

Sales might have been lower in 2019, but the vibe was better. "I like to say 2019 was our best year and that's what we keep shooting for," she said.

Prior to 2005, Fisher had been director of restaurant operations at the House of Blues in New Orleans. His ventures since 2012 have included co-founding and co-owning The Gulf restaurant, Fisher's at Orange Beach Marina and Playa, all in Orange Beach; and working as Director of Florida Operations for Juan's Flying Burrito, a chain based in New Orleans.

"I learned so much from the time that I spent away from LuLu's and I grew so much," he said. "So I know the type of leader that I want to work for, and I want to be that type of leader."

If that sounds a little abstract, some of the changes will be ones that patrons can see on their plates. Buffett and Fisher said they don't plan to throw out the current menu, with its fried green tomatoes and cheeseburgers and seafood. But they do plan to go over the menu looking for ways to make everything pop, scrutinizing how it's made and how it's presented.

"We had a chef's meeting yesterday with all the kitchen managers from all three locations," Fisher said. "They have been going through Lucy's cookbook, you know, looking for inspiration and [for] some sleepers in there that we haven't done yet that we can add. I mean, she's obviously got dozens of recipes in her cookbook. She brings the food and that's her talent. So it's always going to be revolved around her vision for what's in her kitchen."

"We might tweak stuff, take some off, add some, but it's about the coastal cuisine of my grandmothers," said Buffett.

Fisher has always championed fresh ingredients: Back in the day, he literally made headlines with his efforts to develop a year-round supply of fresh Alabama-grown tomatoes, and to source Alabama-raised beef for all those cheeseburgers in paradise.

That kind of thing is tougher now. Buffett says it's gotten particularly hard to find quality crabmeat at a manageable price. Fisher said that food costs in general are "out of control." But you can't just indiscriminately spend more and pass it along to the customer, and you can't cut easy corners to gain efficiency.

"Value, I think, is more important now than it's ever been," he said.

In that environment, it's critical for LuLu's to offer something more than just a meal and maybe some entertainment. Fisher said he thinks its strength is that it provides an oasis.

"It's a place to escape to, you know, it's a place to get away," he said. "With this particular time, with inflation being high, and just the cyclical effects of an election, the uneasiness that people have throughout every election cycle, [we're] just providing a safe harbor for people. You know, they can come and relax. You forget about the world for a minute, enjoy great food and great people and great scenery. We call it fun, food and music, and that's what we do."

One change already visible is that LuLu's has a new stage, with all-new sound equipment. That is McAleer's doing. It's not huge, but it's a big step up from the old "boat stage." It gives LuLu's the capability to host bands as well as singer-songwriters, something Fisher is keen to do. He's an avid music lover and can reel off a list of nationally known artists who have played LuLu's – again, back in the day. Brandi Carlile. Matt Kearney. Anders Osborne. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Gatemouth Brown. The Tedeschi Trucks Band.

"We're gonna get back on the circuit," said Fisher.

"I just love the feel of rejuvenation," said McAleer.

That feel has a sense of both an ending and a beginning for Buffett. She's not retiring, but she's turning 71 soon and has decided that managing day-to-day operations is not living her best life.

"It's time for me to spend some time with my grandchildren," she said. "You know, I want to sit on my porch in Key West and write some poetry. I haven't been able to do that. I bought a house in Key West 11, maybe 12 years ago. I was going to semi-retire. That has not happened and it's still not going to happen for a little bit. But, you know, in the wintertime I can go down there, which is great.

"I do think I'll write more and I do think there's one more book," she said. "After that last cookbook I was like, that's it. I said I'm never doing another one, but I think there's another book in there about, I'm not sure what, but it'll be about food, and life. I will self-publish it. I went down that road of getting a New York publishing firm and you don't have to do that anymore."

All that said, she thinks that down the road there might be a chance for expansion, maybe some franchising. A 500-seat restaurant in a seasonally driven market is a tough proposition, but maybe there's a place in the world for a smaller version of LuLu's, a model than can take the food and the vibe into more markets.

"There's always been people who want to do another LuLu's and Johnny would be able to do that," Buffett said.

"It's definitely a question that we're playing with," said Fisher. "Right now there's a lot of work that needs to be done ... We've got to get all three of these locations back and really where they need to be."

He clearly enjoys the task.

"If you work smarter, you can certainly enjoy all the great things that this industry gives us," Fisher said. "I mean, we're throwing a party every day. People come here to have a good time and we have a responsibility, too, especially in the summer, because the people that come here have saved up for a year and they've been looking forward for this vacation for a year and they're driving down, you know, from hundreds of miles away and they finally get to the end of the road and they can't wait to go to LuLu's. So that is a big responsibility for us."

He also wants people to understand that what's good about LuLu's comes from "just how great Lucy is."

"I mean, really, that's the reason I'm here," he said. "She's just so kind, so gracious. She has such a big heart. And it's the reason why you have three big successful restaurants. When you look at what she's done for the communities over the years, it's just like, that's who you want to work for, you know, that's who you want to be on the front line with."

The feeling is mutual.

"Johnny Fisher is a good human being," she said. "And I knew that, and I needed a good human being who would care about LuLu's, and that means you're caring about the customer and the team. Through the last 20 years, I've had some good people and I had some people that didn't care, that were just doing a job or that were there for a paycheck. And anyway, I couldn't be more thrilled to have him come back."

"I want her to be able to relax in Key West and know that her baby is good," Fisher said. "That's my goal and she has earned it."