Riding the Wave of Success

What can be done with a five-foot by five-foot square hut equipped with only one overhead light bulb? "See what you can do with it," said Sea Pines Company's Bill Worsham in 1978. James D. Lisenby picked up the challenge and headed for success. It was not the then popular Hilton Head Inn location he requested, but with confident entrepreneurial spirit, he dug his toes into the sand at the Turtle Lane Beach Club. "I rigged the overhead socket to take a couple of blenders, rounded up a few large coolers for fruit and ice, hung a handwritten sign, and I was in business!" declared "Pool Bar Jim," the nickname he acquired during the early days of running Hilton Hotel bars in Myrtle Beach. Quickly proving that his exotic fruit blends attracted "beachers" of all ages, refreshing them in the sand and sun, Jim moved to the Hilton Head Inn location, where he remained until the 1980s when the inn was sold.

Sun, fun, relaxation and "Yum!" are synonymous with his extremely popular bar, which took him three months to design after obtaining beachfront space at Marriott's Grand Ocean Resort. Pool Bar Jim's has more than one light bulb, and "I know where every item and piece of fruit reside," Jim laughed-quite a feat when handling over 25 varieties of fresh fruits, which Jim personally shops for each day. Exceptional in its popularity, Pool Bar Jim's attracts both visitors, may not even staying at the Grand Ocean. They do not think twice about parking across the street, their mouths watering as they head for a frothy cooler, joining other anxious customers off the beach.

After 30 years, his healthy, cooling recipes have skyrocketed to over a thousand. Pool Bar Jim's rarely opens without its world-class owner who appears happily seven days a week from roughly 12 noon until midnight. "I go to work to see my friends," grinned the tanned entrepreneur, whose ingratiating smile and Hawaiian attire greet visitors and residents from around the world.

It's not often one connects bartending with a college education, but part-time evenings assisting a friend in his bar while obtaining a B.S. degree from East Carolina laid the groundwork for Jim's alternative path. Changes in world circumstances and a friend's invitation to join him in real estate in the Poconos dimmed Jim's thoughts of becoming a pilot. Disenchanted with the real estate market, after a couple of years, Jim stepped back into the world of hospitality as Food and Beverage Director for Beech Mountain, NC.

Yet the ocean waves beckoned to Jim's entrepreneurial spirit; and when the opportunity arose in Myrtle Beach to train and oversee the bars for Hilton Hotels, Jim seized it.

It doesn't matter how business acumen is applied. It's the insight to distinguish great oaks when they are tiny seeds, and Jim had those visions. His watchful eye observed bar business dropping. Realizing that many vacationers were choosing to make drinks in their rooms rather than pay for mini bottles, Jim proposed creating exceptional concoctions only to be found at their bars. "I hired a 55-year-old who had never bartended and I took over one of the outside pool bars," he said. "With lots of fresh fruits and blenders, we created unique, refreshing frozen drinks. And business took off. One extremely popular and early favorite was my 'Roseanna Banana Kabana.'"

Enchanted with the versatility of Jim's creations, visitors rang back requesting his delicious recipes. "You never know what a phone call might bring," smiled Jim. "A customer overheard me giving recipes to several people on the phone and quipped, 'You should write a book.'" Continuous interruptions drove Jim to a quieter Hilton Head Island in 1978. He collected recipes from around the world, published and sold 42,000 copies of his first black and white book. So successful was it, after even more research, he published a beautiful four-color, 350-page book containing more than 1,000 recipes, now found at his bar and on his Web site (www.poolbarjims.com.)

The dedication for the second book, Pool Bar Jim's Tropical and Exotic Frozen Drinks reads: "To my son, Daniel, who I love and admire very much and to all my faithful customers who thought this book would never get finished."

With 7,000 sold so far, this colorful book not only offers unique recipes from around the world, but insightful history of the Oreo cookie, shooters, margaritas and other fascinating subjects, including fun kid-friendly drinks, low-calorie recipes and the much-requested lava flows.

Even with the able assistance of Brenden and Jon, who have been with him four and seven years respectively, Jim's only break comes at the season's end. During that time, he takes his son, Daniel, a rising senior at University of Georgia, on a least one trip. "In all my travels, I've never found another bar quite like ours, and I'm happy to be part of the world's number-one requested resort, hosting all my international friends," said Jim.
With only temporary spills, Jim spotted the perfect wave and rode it all the way in!