The Sandshaker turns 50: How the beach bar became one of Pensacola's icons

A live music entertainment venue, a pool hub, a Blue Angel fly-over watch spot and the place to be for Pensacola Beach Marti Gras after-parties — 50 years later, and the Sandshaker has become about much more than a Bushwacker.

Pensacola's iconic beach bar, the Sandshaker at 731 Pensacola Beach Blvd. is a living time capsule. The memorabilia on the walls a hodge podge of all the people who once called it home. Polaroids hang like yearbook photos, sealing their spot in Sandshaker history.

The floor plaque under the bar stool commemorates Pensacola Beach’s unofficial mayor Bob Merriman. You’ll even find an antique Shaker sign hanging on the wall that was mailed back from a remorseful customer who stole it, then felt it was only right to return it.

In a slew of early-2000s disasters, from the aftermath of Operation Sandshaker drug bust to the fury of Hurricane Ivan’s fist in 2005, the bar’s physical body, and its future, were shaky. When its fate was left to the highest bidder in a government auction, it was intended to be torn down to become a condo complex. When the bidder discovered that would not be possible on protected land, bar regulars Sonny and Beverly Campbell stepped in.

Not only were they purchasing the bar as their new business in 2005, but they were taking on the responsibility of preserving the memories. They knew whoever took the bar into its next chapter had to know the bar’s culture, the people and the area that made it so special.

“Sonny came here in the '70s, and I started coming in the '80s,” Beverly said. “We love the bar. Love the people that came in here, great local crowd.”

They remember picking up the keys from the courthouse in the pouring rain, dredged their feet through the sand that piled up in their investment, sat down and poured themselves a shot from a stray liquor bottle left behind. They began dreaming up the Sandshaker’s next chapter, and then they got to work.

When previous owner Linda Taylor first purchased it in 1973, the Shaker wasn’t much more than a living-room sized bar attached to the Mai Kai Hotel when it got its start.

“The front bar was the only bar that was in here, and you would come through the front door, and register for a room,” Sonny said. “The motel closed in the '90s and they sold and later on it burned and then it just became the Sandshaker Lounge.”

Sometimes patrons would play a song on the jukebox, but most of the time, they picked their favorite bar stool and caught up.

“You can’t ever explain it, the Sandshaker is kind of mysterious in that way,” Sandshaker manager Joe Campbell said of the bar’s lure.

“It was beach bar year-round,” Sonny said. “One minute, it might be 15 people in here, the next minute, it would be packed. You couldn’t walk. You couldn’t walk in here.”

When then-bar owner Linda Taylor came back from the Virgin Islands in 1975 with a recipe for a certain frozen Kahlua coffee cocktail, the bar would never be the same. Even the most strict beer drinkers would find themselves knocking down a few.

Taylor would make the drinks to order, blender by blender, until the high demand required a frozen drink machine in 1980. Even so, all batches are made by hand to this day, using Kahlua as one of the main ingredients. Now, bars all over Pensacola have taken their own whack at it, making different variations based on preference and new alcohol developments, like the Stoli caramel vodka and peanut butter Screwball whiskey.

“She (Taylor) kept tweaking it, and finally got the recipe the way she wanted it and the recipe we use is the same one that she started way back then,” Beverly Campbell said. “Gradually, you stared seeing other places serving it because it became a popular drink and people started requesting it other places, is the way that I understand.”

Beverly doesn’t remember the year that she tried her first one, but she does remember that she loved it. Especially with the strong 151 rum, which is still a variation popular at the bar today.

The one drink put the bar on a path that would forever seal its place in history.

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"If friends of mine are coming here, the one place you gotta go — it's the Sandshaker. It's just the heart of Pensacola," said 40-year regular George Sitton.

He’ll tell you a visit to the Sandshaker isn’t a “fireworks show” but it’s the place that tourist and locals alike want to spend their time, contributing to the harmonious blend that makes it so rare, he said.

For some long-distance regulars, it’s their first stop after coming back in-town.

Luke Miller, a Texas resident, started coming 30 years ago after his brother signed up to play a show at the Shaker and ever since, he was hooked. He's been getting the same feeling of coming home after every visit.

Sometimes visitors will come, suitcases packed and all, like one group Miller remembers.

“Thank God (the Sandshaker) had a food truck, they hadn’t unpacked yet and they were sitting here drinking Bushwackers,” Miller said.

When the Campbells began making some of the greatest renovations beginning in 2008, like the observation deck, tiki bar and live entertainment stages, it took them into the next chapter.

“There wasn’t much in the form of entertainment back then, because there just wasn’t any place to do it. So, when we bought it, we decided to add some entertainment. Some bands, smaller bands in the beginning, then of course all that has grown,” Beverly said.

In 2019, they were even able to host country artist Luke Combs, the year that he was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Since then, Combs has gone on to receive six Grammy nominations including best country album, best country song and best new artist.

“As a music venue is really where we turned a corner,” Joe said.

At the beach bar’s recent 50th anniversary party, regulars dating all the way back to the beginning were moving and grooving to the music, the oldest T-shirt worn that day dating back to 1983.

“This place is iconic,” Litton said. “I think most locals will tell you the same. If they don’t, they’re not from Pensacola.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: The Sandshaker on Pensacola Beach turned 50. How it became an icon