MAKING MEMORIES: A SMORGASBOARD OF PENSACOLA
From Historic Downtown Pensacola to the Flora-Bama Bar, my friend made sure I didn’t leave P-Cola without seeing the highlights. She didn’t hide the fact that she’d love to see us multiple times a year, instead of every once in awhile, so she pulled out all the stops.
The Driving Tour
Hunger problem solved, my friend drove us to Downtown Pensacola. They’ve done a great job of preserving the quaintness of the past. Row upon row of restaurants and shops beckoned, but we were just enjoying a drive by.
From there my friend took us to some of the more distinctive neighborhoods and showed us how people live in P-Cola. We got the impression she was interested in having us do more than visit.
Then we got serious about what would be for dinner and she took us to an amazing fish market called Joe Patty’s. What started as a guy selling fresh fish off the dock has turned into an institution dearly loved by P-Colers. Inside there’s a long ice filled counter offering every kind of fish and sea thing you can possibly imagine. Over to the side is a shop with spices of every variety and all kinds of gadgets and souvenirs. The lobster tank towards the back had some of the biggest monsters you can imagine trying to figure out how to climb out of the tank. If you want, they’ll steam your seafood right on the spot and take the work out of it, but my friend is an amazing cook, so we were glad she took the fresh fish home and made us an incredible meal.
The Story of the Flora-Bama
Yea, many long years ago a guy bought a huge piece of land near the border of Florida and Alabama. He had a vision that started with a package store virtually out in the middle of nowhere. That package store is still there and you can pick up some iced down brews to take home, but there’s also the kingdom of Flora-Bama.
The Flora-Bama bar itself is a huge wandering building that had to be created by a drunk carpenter – a carpenter that stayed drunk for decades. There might be a rhyme or reason to it, but it didn’t make much sense to me. There are beachside bars and dune side bars and inside bar and patios and dance floors and stages and who knows what all. There’s one room decorated with abandoned bras hung across crossed lines over the bar, as well as hanging off everything else in the room.
The Flora-Bama Bar is most famous for its annual mullet toss. I’m not going to try to explain it to you, but my friend tells me there is not a bare spot on the beach to stick your toe on mullet toss weekend.
But there’s more to the Flora-Bama than the bar and the package store. There are a number of other bars and restaurants all around with the Flora-Bama brand and all of them are pouring money into the pockets of that guy who bought the land and built the package store.
My friend likes the Flora-Bama Yacht Club best of what’s available, so that’s where we started our Flora-Bama tour. It really was a nice place to put your feet in the sand and enjoy a cold one of some sort. I had one of their signature drinks called a Bushwacker. They won’t tell you what’s in it, they say, “think of it as an adult milkshake.” It was interesting, but my drinking is either wine or margaritas, so I’m not the one to ask.
After our Bushwackers we strolled across the street and made our way around and through the original bar. I can tell I’m getting old, because I had no desire to be there for the mullet toss and I agreed with my friend that the Yacht Club was more our style.
The next morning we hung out a while, having breakfast and taking a dip in their pool. Then we headed for the next portion of our vacation. Come back next week and we’ll go to Navarre Beach.
jane sadek 