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Bruce Farrell Rosen: He Brought Paradise to Paradise

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Listener Bruce Farrell Rosen tells us his favorite memory of Jimmy Buffett, who passed away last month.

The best cheeseburger that I have ever eaten–and I have heard from many sophisticated burger eaters that they have never had a better one anywhere in the world–was at a joint called Cool Cats Cafe on Front Street in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

The burgers were even better–and this place was good–than at the Cheeseburger in Paradise Bar and Grill, also on Front Street in Maui.

It had been truly paradise eating a burger on the deck of Cool Cats, the salty breeze just off the ocean across the street seducing the senses, a beer or root beer so satisfying after a full bite followed by their delicious fries. The location’s staff had done something with their onions, I know not what–or perhaps it was simply that the onions on Maui are just better that at most places.

Cool Cats and Cheeseburger in Paradise, which is owned by Jimmy Buffett’s corporation were just blissful places to be in the middle of the day or deep into the evening.

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Now after the deadly wildfire, Front street is in ashes. I pray that the people who worked at those places, and at so many others in Lahaina are still alive. I’ll never know.

Jimmy Buffet has recently died. In his song “Come Monday”, the lyrics “Headin’ out to San Francisco, for the Labor Day weekend show…” always connected with me. It captures a feeling of a time, a place and a longing. I thought about that song this past Labor Day Weekend. I thought about how nice it would be to see him play again. I had seen him at the Fillmore auditorium many years ago, and it was wonderful.

His music brought such rays of sunshine. And to hear his music at a bar or restaurant in Lahaina was pure paradise–he brought paradise to paradise. And it has been a hard time in the paradise known as Maui recently.

With a Perspective, I’m Bruce Farrell Rosen.

Bruce Farrell Rosen is an author and a retired investment portfolio manager. He lives in San Francisco.

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