Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS) announced Larkin Stallings, owner of the Ritz Cafe and president of the Oak Bluffs Business Association, as this year’s recipient of the third Art Buchwald Award for Outstanding Community Service.
Stallings, who had served as a MVCS board member for nine years, said that he is honored to receive this year’s award, which pays tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Art Buchwald; Buchwald started Possible Dreams, MVCS’s largest annual fundraiser. The award celebrates individuals whose “generosity, perseverance, and dedication have strengthened the fabric of Island life,” as MVCS has said.
“Art Buchwald was the fabric of what community service looks like on the Island,” Larkin said, adding that the recognition was unexpected. “I could think of 10 other people I could give [the award] to,” he said. “I’m not even in the same category as [the other nominees].”
Born and raised in Northern California, Stallings first made his foray into the hospitality industry at just 19. Alongside his brother, the two started My Oh My, a nightclub for under 21-year-olds in Palo Alto, Calif. Stallings said that he used his profits from the venture to pay for his education at the University of Houston, where he studied hotel and restaurant management.
Stallings would go on to launch dozens of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs throughout Texas, where he still holds businesses. He currently owns Whiskey River Texas, a dancehall and saloon franchise, with business partner Todd De La Garza.
Stallings first learned about the Island from his wife, Jacqueline. Named after former First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, she was determined to live where Kennedy once owned the famous Red Gate Farm estate in Aquinnah.
“She absolutely manifested it,” he said.
After years of vacationing during the summer months, that dream came true when the couple purchased a home in 2006. In 2014, they bought The Ritz from longtime owner Janet King and relocated to the Island full-time. The iconic Oak Bluffs bar first opened in 1944.
Stallings said that the Island’s seasonal nature as a vacation destination makes business activity levels fluctuate more drastically compared to Texas.
“It’s dramatically seasonal here. It’s so grind and halt,” he said.
Stallings also said that the Island’s tight-knit nature gives more transparency into its local politics. “It’s a small, rural community that involves small town politics,” he said.
Stallings also believes that community members have an obligation to help each other in times of need. “We have to care for each other. When your neighbors are in trouble, it’s right there,” he said.
Aside from his role as president of the Oak Bluffs Business Association, an organization dedicated to promoting tourism and commerce, he’s also a board member of the Vineyard House, a sober living facility in Vineyard Haven.
Substance abuse recovery is a cause close to Stallings’ heart. It started in 2003, when he began completing required service work as part of his own recovery plan following 10 years of sobriety. He then spent a decade as a counselor at the Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas, where he supported inmates struggling with substance use disorder. He emphasizes the possibility for prosperity that comes with sobriety.
“When you start showing up, more opportunities show up,” he said.
Stallings said that it’s imperative for local business owners to be civically engaged because many challenges that they face, such as hiring employees and maintaining customers, are contingent upon broader issues, such as the Island’s affordability.
“Everything that happens to everyone on this island, happens to me,” he said. “We are absolutely encapsulated.”
Stallings will be honored at the 47th annual Possible Dreams fundraiser on Sunday, July 20 at Allen Farm in Chilmark. The event will be hosted by comedian and late-night host Seth Myers.
