General Manager, Jean Pierre NDione Photo: J.D. Hayward Photography

October 2011

At our house, we are excited to welcome fall and the beginning of the holiday season. October is also the month for breast cancer awareness. At our house, and across the globe, cancer sadly affects us all. Our employees decided this year to do a little something to raise awareness for breast cancer. We are all very proud of them and hope that you will take a minute to read below about their fund-raising idea.

October also celebrates Halloween. We are kicking off the Halloween weekend with our famous Girls’ Night Out — Halloween style. Girls’ Night Out is the place to party every Wednesday night with live music and $2.00 you-call-it drinks for all girls 21 years and older. This year we are having our first Ghouls Night Out Costume Contest offering a $1000.00 cash prize for first place and a $500.00 prize for crowd favorite (details below). For the actual Halloween Weekend, we are offering seasonal specials at The Fish House and Atlas. We welcome all costumed patrons at our house — but please feel free to come as you are! Remember that we also serve a late-night menu into the wee hours in case you get hungry after all of your partying.

We had some out-of-town company drop by our house since we last visited:

We were thrilled to have Mr. Hal Holbrook come to dinner at our house last weekend. Mr. Holbrook was in town starring in his one-man show depicting Mr. Mark Twain. Our server, Pranee Adams, took care of Mr. Holbrook and his assistant during his visit. He commented that his dinner was amazing!

Mr. Hal Holbrook and our sweet server Pranee Adams

Mark W. Davis peddled over for lunch. Mr. Davis is cycling across the country in order to raise money for his granddaughter. The former Army command sergeant major’s 3-year-old granddaughter was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia shortly after her first birthday. Inspired by his granddaughter’s courage, Davis decided he had to do more than just donate money to an organization. An avid bike rider for more than 30 years, the retired soldier created the Ride for Lilly.

Our favorite hometown television superstar, Joe Scarborough, and co-host Mika Brzezinski of the popular MSNBC’s Morning Joe show broadcast live right from our deck! It is always a great treat to have him come home. He has always done his best to promote our hometown whenever possible. He interviewed our mayor, Ashton Hayward, and our owner, Collier Merrill, about Pensacola. They had a lot of nice things to say about our city, and we were all thankful for the exposure.

We also had our governor swing by for some grits. Gov. Scott was passing through Pensacola coming back from Gulf Power’s Annual Economic Symposium. He announced that Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties would receive state grant funds. That’s good news!

We were proud to host the Independent News’ Best of the Coast awards ceremony and honored to receive nine awards including best restaurant overall!  To check out the photos of everyone who won, click here. To learn more about the weekly Independent News, click here.

Don’t forget to book your holiday office party soon. It might seem early, but we have many calls already coming in. Melissa and Bianca are standing by ready to assist you with the details. (850) 433-9450.

We hope you and your family enjoy a lovely fall season. If you need anything from our house, remember — we are always here for you and you are always welcome at our house.

Jean Pierre NDione – General Manager

The Deck Bar Music Minute

Jared Ashley

Meet Jared Ashley:

Amazing fans with unparalleled energy and a honky-tonk sound, Jared Ashley began his career by packing Nashville’s World Famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge for more than three years with the Dirty South Band. A long list of well-known recording artists have frequently jammed with Ashley on stage, including Merle Haggard, ZZ Top, Blues Traveler, Toby Keith, Joe Nichols and Tracy Lawrence.

Born in Hobbs, New Mexico on May 16, 1976, Jared relocated at age three to Newnan, Georgia, where he spent most of his childhood. At barely five years old, Jared received his first guitar for Christmas. The gift, which sported a picture of Mickey Mouse, became his favorite toy. When Jared was in the 10th grade, his family returned to Hobbs and Jared found himself spending more and more time playing guitar and writing music.

After graduating high school, Jared joined the US Navy, where he served for four years in Yokosuka, Japan. Following his dream to play music, the charismatic sailor played weekend gigs at George’s Country Bar in Tokyo, fronting the house band. While in the Navy, Jared also played two Persian Gulf DOD tours for over 20,000 military personnel and toured in more than 10 countries around the world.

After completing his Navy career, Jared made the big move to Music City. Once in Nashville, Jared picked up the house gig at the World Famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. Jared and the Dirty South Band have been called the top band on the SEC college circuit, playing at universities all over the South. Jared also caught the eye of a Hollywood casting director who flew him to Los Angeles, where producers of the popular ABC network series “The Bachelor” considered Jared as a finalist for its Fall 2005 season.

Jared continues to win critical praise for his brand of high-energy country rock, and his fan base continues to grow. As a finalist in the fourth season of USA Network’s Nashville Star, Jared is looking forward to bringing his music to millions of country music fans and having the opportunity to showcase his ability to entertain.

Come watch Jared August 18th part of our Summer Country Jam 2011 series on The Deck!

Meet James Wesley:

James Wesley

“I’ve always been a big believer in tradition,” declares James Wesley. “A lot of the old ways are the best ways: family, God, treating people right, doing what you’re supposed to do. I think it’s time to come back to what’s real. That’s what country music is about.”

James Wesley puts those core values into his music with a whiskey-smooth voice and a timelessly winning way with a great country song. Wesley sings directly to real people about real things that profoundly affect real lives—and from his small-town upbringing to his blue-collar work ethic, he has a deep understanding of what those folks are longing to hear.

“I know there’s more people out there than just me who want to hear something that grabs you and makes you go, ‘Wow, that’s me—that’s how I feel, that’s my day, that’s my family,’” he says. “When you swing a hammer every day, when you’re out there doing what you have to do, you learn a lot of compassion for the people that do it day in and day out.”

Wesley grew up in tiny Mound Valley, a community of about 200 people in Southeastern Kansas. He first discovered country music via his grandmother’s record collection, which included heaping helpings of classic crooners like Marty Robbins, George Jones and Ray Price. “We’d go over there on the weekends,” he recalls. “She’d have the console set up and the records stacked up and we’d listen to them as they dropped. Those guys back then, they could sing. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’” (more…)

…photo of the morning!  One of our “go-to” guys, Luke Edge is quite the photographer.  We recently found out that every morning when he gets to work the first thing he does is to stand at the corner of our deck and photograph the sunrise.  We have asked Luke to share his photos on our Facebook page.  Here’s the first one that he took.  Thanks for taking time to greet each morning for us Luke!

Sunrise over Pensacola Bay by Luke Edge