The keys to Overseas change hands

Robert M. Parker, Jr. et al. posing in front of a building - Overseas Pub and Grill

On a recent Friday afternoon, a bit of history was made at the Overseas Lounge and Liquor Store. Timothy O’Connell accepted the Keys for his new venture from the estate representative, Joe Ardolino Jr.

It’s a big undertaking: the restoration of a 76-year-old building and business. The bar itself has been closed since 2008, and a the subject of a legal dispute between the City of Marathon and the estate over matters ranging from the right to sell alcohol, to an abandoned roadway, to wastewater hook up schedules. The new owner, O’Connell, said he hopes to replace the unpleasantness with a vibrant and thriving economic concern.

O’Connell and Ardolino, Jr., conferred on some history points when they met.

“Your dad bought the place in 1950?,” O’Connell asked of Ardolino.

“1951,” Ardolino corrected. “There were three brothers — Andy, Tony and my father, Joe. My dad was the youngest and he was the one that ended up staying here.”

Ardolino told O’Connell there used to be two neon signs advertising the business — one facing west and another facing east. The latter was knocked down in 1960 by Hurricane Donna, Ardolino said.

O’Connell said the toughest challenge still lays ahead — revealing and preserving the place’s history while transforming it into a modern-day money maker, another jewel in Marathon’s crown.

“Where the old package store was, we’re going to put a fast food restaurant — burgers, hot dogs, fish sandwiches, ice cream,” he said, waving toward the west end of the building. “And in front, we’re going to put a new package store,” he said, pointing to the part of the building that most recently housed a thrift shop.

He envisions a sit-down, inside restaurant and bar and an outside, rear-facing bar looking out on a grassy lot where some dilapidated trailers rest now.

“I don’t know exactly what, but I’d like to use this area for something — maybe some art booths or small retail booths,” O’Connell said.

The re-opening of the Overseas Lounge and Liquor Store is many months away. O’Connell said he hopes construction will start before the new year because there are plenty of structural issues that need to be addressed (new sections of roof and spalling repairs) before the fun stuff starts. The visualization will be gradual.

“I think it will take me a while to get the feeling of it,” he said. “I won’t even bring my wife down here until we’ve done some clean up.”

O’Connell and his wife of 41 years, Kathleen, were business partners before they married. In their lifetime, they’ve owned a college bar, an advertising business and a transport company in Buffalo New York. The pair have been vacationing in the Keys since the mid-’80s and lived here permanently since 2000, when they set up residence on a 60-foot motor yacht. They have two children — Casey a hematologist and oncologist at University of Southern California and Sandy, in the fashion industry in New York City.

 

Sara Matthis thinks community journalism is important, but not serious; likes weird and wonderful children (she has two); and occasionally tortures herself with sprint-distance triathlons, but only if she has a good chance of beating her sister.