An Ice Cream Break and Totem Cones in Juneau
“Are you from the Philippines?” AdventureMan asked the man behind the counter as he dished me up a cone of Huckleberry (Blueberry) ice cream.
“Yes, there are many of us here,” the man answered, and told us how one of the fastest growing demographics in Alaska is the Philippine community.
“At home, we are so poor,” he explained. We are lucky to have a one room shack for a family, and for water we have to walk a long way for running water. It is very bad.” He looked serious.
“How do you like it here?” AdventureMan asked, and the man grinned. “Life is good!” he said, with enthusiasm. He also mentioned the Mexican population in Alaska is growing almost as fast as the Philippine population. Who knew?
Normally, I don’t eat ice cream, but I have been craving something with either blueberries or rhubarb, two fruits that grew in Alaska when I was a kid, fruits we ate, jellied, froze, stored for later use. I had seen neither. Some might argue that huckleberries and blueberries are not the same. I don’t care. It is close enough for me. I also love that the cones are so extraordinary, artistic even, with their Alaskan Haida-esque sculptural quality:
And here is the proud cone-maker, also from the Philippines, who has a view to die for, the same view as from The Hanger on the Wharf, as she makes her specialty cones:
They insisted on giving us a 10% discount when they spotted my husband’s retired military ID card as he pulled out his wallet. They also shook his hand and thanked him for his service, a sweet and unexpected kindness in faraway Alaska.
The Hanger at the Wharf in Juneau
First, we really love eating at the Hanger at the Wharf. So does just about everyone else. Twice, we got really lucky. It is easier getting a table if you are just two people, and it is easier getting a table if you eat early. As we are still on Pensacola tummy time, we are in luck. As the Celebration 2014 parade ended, we zipped straight over and as larger groups waited, we were immediately shown to a table for two.
No wonder The Hanger is so popular. The food is terrific and this is the view – straight down the Gastineau channel with Douglas and the cruise ships. As the sun slides behind the mountain, it is a stunning view:
Some hardier souls were eating outside on the deck. I used to be this hardy, but my years in the Middle East have softened me, made me not so good at eating in cool and drafty places, even in the middle of the Alaskan summer.
Inside The Hanger: great, courteous, friendly and efficient employees
Every table taken, the bar is packed, and people are waiting in the hallway to be seated:
My halibut tempura:
AdventureMan’s halibut burger and fries:
We liked the food and atmosphere so well that we went back a second time during the ceremonial dances and were happy to see a lot of the dancers eating there, too. I had the first mate’s plate, with salmon and halibut and a berry chutney and AdventureMan had grilled halibut. We both left happy. We would go there again in a heartbeat.
There is only one little thing about The Hanger that makes me uneasy, and it has nothing to do with The Hanger. When I was a little girl, living across the channel, I would watch for my Dad to come home – this was the airport for the amphibious planes, Alaska Coastal Airlines (now part of Alaska Airlines) and Ellis Airlines. When his plane would land, we would all rush to the car and drive like crazy across the bridge to pick him up (no cell phones then, LOL). So I still feel a little frisson and feel the ghosts of the past when I eat there.
Nick’s Boathouse: A Happy Surprise
Here’s the truth – we were really headed to 5 Sisters, but when we got there and saw all the people lined up and waiting for tables, we thought “uh-uh, not for us” and headed on down the street. We’d wanted to try the new Nick’s Boathouse for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity.
We like the interior. It has different areas where you can sit, not one great big interior where everyone can see everyone. We like the privacy.
This is a view of the bar area:
The outside area looks like a great place to sit on a nicer day, breezy and covered, or to have a party or celebration of any kind.
I’m a sucker for seafood bisque, and Nick’s has a really good seafood bisque
AdventureMan says the gumbo is also awesone 🙂
The grilled chef salad was a total win for AdventureMan 🙂
And I adored the grilled salmon Ceasar 
On such a day, having such a good time, we can’t resist dessert, the molten chocolate, LOL and sadly, we tucked right in, neglecting to photograph it first. This is all that remains. Yes, we would do it again. 🙂
Nick’s Boathouse | 455 W Main Street Pensacola FL | (850) 912-8775
Nick’s is relatively undiscovered, so far. It’s not the see-and-be-seen kind of place that other downtown places – The Fish House, Jackson’s Steak House, Jaco’s, Global Grill – have become. . . yet. As of now, it is still quiet and private with great service. Go now, go quickly, before it changes into a go-to place with a line outside!
One Third of World Now Clinically Obese
From AOL News/ Huffpost:
By MARIA CHENG
LONDON (AP) — Almost a third of the world is now fat, and no country has been able to curb obesity rates in the last three decades, according to a new global analysis.
Researchers found more than 2 billion people worldwide are now overweight or obese. The highest rates were in the Middle East and North Africa, where nearly 60 percent of men and 65 percent of women are heavy. The U.S. has about 13 percent of the world’s fat population, a greater percentage than any other country. China and India combined have about 15 percent.
“It’s pretty grim,” said Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, who led the study. He and colleagues reviewed more than 1,700 studies covering 188 countries from 1980 to 2013. “When we realized that not a single country has had a significant decline in obesity, that tells you how hard a challenge this is.”
Murray said there was a strong link between income and obesity; as people get richer, their waistlines also tend to start bulging. He said scientists have noticed accompanying spikes in diabetes and that rates of cancers linked to weight, like pancreatic cancer, are also rising.
The new report was paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet.
Last week, the World Health Organization established a high-level commission tasked with ending childhood obesity.
“Our children are getting fatter,” Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general, said bluntly during a speech at the agency’s annual meeting in Geneva. “Parts of the world are quite literally eating themselves to death.” Earlier this year, WHO said that no more than 5 percent of your daily calories should come from sugar.
“Modernization has not been good for health,” said Syed Shah, an obesity expert at United Arab Emirates University, who found obesity rates have jumped five times in the last 20 years even in a handful of remote Himalayan villages in Pakistan. His research was presented this week at a conference in Bulgaria. “Years ago, people had to walk for hours if they wanted to make a phone call,” he said. “Now everyone has a cellphone.”
Shah also said the villagers no longer have to rely on their own farms for food.
“There are roads for (companies) to bring in their processed foods and the people don’t have to slaughter their own animals for meat and oil,” he said. “No one knew about Coke and Pepsi 20 years ago. Now it’s everywhere.”
In Britain, the independent health watchdog issued new advice Wednesday recommending that heavy people be sent to free weight-loss classes to drop about 3 percent of their weight. It reasoned that losing just a few pounds improves health and is more realistic. About two in three adults in the U.K. are overweight, making it the fattest country in Western Europe.
“This is not something where you can just wake up one morning and say, ‘I am going to lose 10 pounds,'” said Mike Kelly, the agency’s public health director, in a statement. “It takes resolve and it takes encouragement.”
Sugar Eight Times More Addictive than Cocaine
This is from AOL News: “The rats go for the sugar and it is eight times more addictive than cocaine” in studies done on sugary foods.
A U.S. doctor is making it his mission to publicly highlight some scary effects sugar has on the body. The chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine says we’re becoming more dependent on sugary foods and drinks – saying they’re even more addictive than cocaine.
On”CBS This Morning,” Dr. Mark Hyman said, “In animal studies, they find that the rats go for the sugar and that it’s eight times as addictive as cocaine. Small amounts of sugar can be part of a normal diet, but most of us are addicted to sugar and don’t know it.”
Hyman himself has gone as far as calling sugar and sugary foods “deadly.”
He told the New York Daily News that “sugar is the new nicotine. And worse, sugar actually causes diabetes and obesity.”
The doctor’s trying to help people find ways to lessen their dependence on sugar with tips from his book, “The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet.”
On the book’s website, Dr. Hyman says 600 people took part in the diet, which encourages healthier eating habits. Together, they lost more than 4,000 pounds, and their average blood pressure fell by about 10 points.
Dr. Hyman told New York Daily News the average American eats 152 pounds of sugar a year. Whoa.
Brunch at The Grand Marlin on Pensacola Beach
“Do you have any questions?” the waiter asked, and AdventureMan asked “Yes, what is a TGM hamburger?” and the waiter responded “The Grand Marlin; don’t be embarrassed, you’d be amazed, just about every customer asks that question.”
We thought it might be a brand name or something, and sort of it is.
It is Sunday, a glorious warm Sunday, and everyone is feeling it, everyone is ready for some sun and some heat after the devil of an ice storm that hit us at the end of January. The yards of the gardeners are heaped with devastation, and we are warned not to cut anything yet, wait until all danger of frost is passed. Cutting your “dead” plants signals them to send out new growth, and you don’t want them wasting energy sending out new growth until you can guarantee that the new growth will not be killed by another freeze.
Meanwhile, it is a glorious day, a perfect day for brunch at The Grand Marlin, where we are shown to a small private room that reminds us of similar lunches in Saudi Arabia, or Qatar, or sometimes even Kuwait where ‘families’ (women) might like to dine without prying eyes. There is even a curtain that can be pulled to insure privacy.
They have a great brunch menu, and the whole back side of it is drinks. You wouldn’t think people would be hittin’ the sauce at 0930 on a Sunday morning, but you would be wrong, LOL.
We had a great waiter, he took good care of us and could answer all our questions, brought us the extras we requested, made sure our cups and glasses stayed filled, all unobtrusively.
The coffee was noticeably good. As do many restaurants around here, The Grand Marlin has its own bottled hot sauce, Fire in the Hole, which warns you that it is very hot:
The restaurant fills up fast, even early in the day, with church goers and with beach goers, and so there is a wide range of dress from very casual to church-going chic. The live music starts early, too, around 1000, so there is also a wide range of ages, from kids to young adults, to some aging geezers around the bar, hitting it hard early in the morning.
When our breakfasts come, we are both delighted. I had intended to order the crab cake benedict, but when I saw Smoked Salmon Benedict on the menu, I was a goner. AdventureMan ordered a Vegetable Frittata and said it was one of the best. We were both very happy with our food.
Although by the time we left there were people waiting for tables, we were never rushed. It is an altogether civilized and enjoyable Sunday brunch, with lots of delicious temptations on the menu to try each time we go.
Refined Dinner at Fresh Catch Bistro, Fort Myers, FL
We were in the mood for a really fine dinner, not your beachy fish n’chips, but something nice, you know, like with a white tablecloth. Reading through reviews on Trip Advisor, we debated several and decided on Fresh Catch Bistro. It was only about 4 in the afternoon, but it was a Saturday night and there were a lot of tourists in town, so we bit the bullet and made a reservation.
After a little while, we decided to head over ‘early.’ We thought it was early. Evidently ‘early’ at Fort Myers Beach is all a matter of perspective, because the road into the beach was bumper to bumper, so much so that while we had thought we would have time to drive around, now we were wondering if we would even get there in time for our reservation.
Traffic narrows into alternating lanes, then down to one lane crossing a bridge into Fort Myers:
Sometimes you wonder just how many cars can fit on one narrow little strip of road and beach properties . . . Fort Myers transformed it’s turquoise and purple beach look with a little Christmas deco:
At Fresh Catch, the phone for reservations never stops ringing. We are glad we thought of it earlier in the afternoon, but even so, we weren’t early enough to snag an outside table. We were happy with the window table we were shown to, and the beautiful view of the sunset, which broke through the low-lying clouds:
Our waiter, Jason, was superb. He was knowledgeable about the specialties, and helpful. He took good care of us. One thing we really liked is that while the restaurant filled quickly, and had some large parties, and while the tables were fairly close, you could still have a private conversation without being overheard by the next table.
We ordered the bacon wrapped scallops first. The plate showed up with two scallops and a bed of small greens, but when we cut into the scallops – sheer heaven. They were the largest scallops I have ever seen, and one scallop was about eight bites of perfectly seared and spiced scallop. It was a divine way to start a meal.
As we ate our scallps, the sun was setting:
People can actually come to the restaurant from the beach side, and this parachutist beached just in front of the restaurant. There was a lot going on.
Hubby’s Garden Salad with vinaigrette dressing was delicious:
As was my own Ceasar:
And then, the main course. AdventureMan ordered off the special menu where you choose your fish, choose the preparation, choose the sauce and choose a side. His tuna arrived perfectly seared, and huge – like three inches thick. It was melt-in-your-mouth perfection, although he commented some people might find it a little rare in the middle. The preparation allowed the full tuna flavor to shine:
I had the Mediterranean Shrimp, huge shrimp served on a bed of creamy risotto, with a sauce of sweet red peppers, pesto, capers, artichoke hearts and just enough cayenne to get your attention. It was a taste treat.
Sometimes, even when you are full, the experience is so positive that you just want to keep going. We looked at the dessert tray, full of enticing goodies like creme brulee’ and key lime pie and chocolate selections, but were entranced by a pear tart, modest and refined. AdventureMan chose it, and I was so glad he did! We miss France, we miss the art of preparing foods simply and exquisitely. This tart was about as close as we’ve been able to find in Florida to that artistry.
We ate too much. We enjoyed every minute and every bite. So totally worth it.
Killing the Golden Goose in Pensacola
Every place we have ever lived in has it’s own politics, and the politics in Pensacola are opaque, and to me, bizarre. We have a very pretty mayor – great for photo ops – but WHAT IS HE THINKING???? He displays some of the very worst traits of the old-boy way of doing business. What are those traits? How about telling one of the top grossing restaurants in Pensacola that they now owe $5M because they haven’t been paying a percentage of their revenue to the City of Pensacola? How about voting a Dollar Store into an upper level residential neighborhood? Singlehandedly re-naming a small airport without a single international flight Pensacola “International” airport? How about allocating all the food services at our “International” airport to bland chains, rather than some of our really good local vendors?
Lots of behind the scenes machinations, not putting items on the agenda – countering the spirit of the Sunshine Laws and making the deals in public – giving those who will be impacted some input on the measures.
It’s killing the golden goose. When something is working – and the Fish House restaurant is a go-to place in Pensacola, a place you meet up with friends and a place you take your out-of-town visitors to show off the city – LEAVE IT ALONE! When good people like the Studers and Collier Merrill are investing in downtown Pensacola, and building downtown up as a destination, let them make a buck or two – they are breathing life into the city! Do not kill the golden goose!
“The Emperor Has No Clothes!”
In contrast to some of the places we have lived, Pensacola has an outspoken paper – Our favorite newspaper, Rick Outzen’s Independent News has several wonderful articles this week. It’s where you find out what is really going on in Pensacola. His paper will bravely call out when the emperor has no clothes. I have shamelessly copied and pasted from his website at the Independent News:
How Not To Do Business
City vs. The Fish House
By Rick Outzen
The title of the Pensacola News Journal’s (PNJ) article on Tuesday, Nov. 26 could have easily been “Mayor Accuses Fish House of Cheating City Out of Millions.” It wasn’t, but that is how some interpreted the article about the default notice sent on behalf of Mayor Ashton Hayward to Collier Merrill, co-owner of the restaurant.
But PNJ readers didn’t know what Merrill knew—that the notice was a negotiation ploy by the city, unsupported factually or legally, according to his attorney. They also didn’t know that the notice itself was leaked, Merrill believed, to the media to hurt his business.
The notice demanded that Seville Harbour, Inc. (owned by Ray Russenberger) and Merrill Land LLC (owned by Burney, Collier and Will Merrill) pay as additional rent payments five percent of The Fish House and Atlas Oyster House’s gross sales since April 2000, plus interest—an amount that could total well over $5 million.
Seville Harbour, Inc. has the ground lease for Pitt Slip, the name given to the three parcels owned by the city that include the anchorage between the Port of Pensacola and Bartram Park. Merrill Land LLC bought in April 2000 the building on the property from Seville Harbour for $1.3 million and subleased the parcel upon which it was built.
The default notice stated that the two companies had 90 days to pay up or the city would terminate the master lease, which would shut down the two restaurants on Feb. 13, 2014.
The impact of the article on The Fish House was immediate. Merrill tried to prepare his staff for any questions from customers.
“I had a meeting with the managers the next morning at 9:30 after the written article came out,” he said. “As much as you can say everything is fine, a few were a little hesitant. They were getting calls from other restaurants; one guy was offered a job.”
Jean Pierre N’Dione, the general manager of the two restaurants, said that the holiday business has been slower than prior years. He’s also dealt with questions from customers.
“The day of the article, a couple came in and said they were here to get a meal before the restaurant closed,” said N’Dione. “They were thinking we were going to be shut down in a few days. It was difficult to say if they were jokingly saying that or if they really believed it.”
The restaurant’s party and catering businesses have also been hurt by the city’s threat.
“We’ve definitely lost business,” said Merrill. “Over Thanksgiving weekend, there were brides in town booking their parties for next October. They didn’t want to take the chance that we might not be in business next year. People are now hesitant to book their Christmas parties with us.”
Why would the mayor’s office resort to such strong-arm tactics? Many would expect a default notice to be sent by Mayor Hayward only after his negotiations with Seville Harbour and Merrill Land had hit an impasse, especially when the notice is a public record that could hurt two landmark restaurants.
However, there had been no negotiations with the city, though Russenberger’s attorney asked for the leases to be combined in 2009. The leases were properly renewed in July 2011, and the mayor had never sent them any written proposals for the properties.
Merrill told the IN that he had only two meetings with the Hayward administration on the lease—one in 2011 with City Attorney Jim Messer and then Chief of Staff John Asmar, the other this past September with City Administrator Colleen Castille. Neither time did the city officials bring up anything about the restaurants owing millions in back rent. Never did the city ask for five percent of his restaurants’ sales.
“We have been waiting for the city to get back to us,” said Merrill. “We had no idea this was an issue or the mayor’s position on the leases.”
Pensacola Landmark
For many, The Fish House is an iconic Pensacola landmark.
The restaurant has hosted presidents, governors, senators, congressmen and other celebrities. During the 2008 presidential election, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson held campaign fundraisers there. This past election cycle, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, with McCain, actor Jon Voight and Mayor Hayward, held a rally on The Fish House deck, pictures of which appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times.
Chef and co-owner Jim Shirley has served his famous Grits a Ya Ya for dignitaries in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Pensacola native, former congressman and author Joe Scarborough has hosted his MSNBC show “Morning Joe” several times from the restaurant.
Three reality shows have been filmed there. The Travel Channel aired an episode of “Bizarre Foods” that featured The Fish House’s grouper throats. “American Pickers” also filmed an episode from The Fish House, which featured the Merrill brothers trading some of their memorabilia for a model of the USS Atlanta. This past August, Chef Emeril Lagasse showcased The Fish House as part of his show “Emeril’s Florida” on the Food Network.
The Fish House and Atlas Oyster House have made Pitt Slip a destination for many visiting our area, serving an estimated 500,000 customers a year. They also are part of what was one of the city’s first public-private development projects.
In the 1980s, the Pensacola City Council wanted a marina built on Pitt Slip, the inlet across from the town’s historic district and outside the gates of the Port of Pensacola. Three parcels were combined—the water area for the docks (Parcel 1), the area along Barracks Street that the city leased from the state (Parcel 1A) and the lot south of the marina (Parcel III).
The intent was to lease to a developer the parcels for 30 years with a renewal option for an additional 30 years. When the original lease was executed in 1985, the city learned that its lease for Parcel 1A with the state only had 27 years remaining. The city had to amend the original lease to adjust its end date. The state required that it be renewed for five successive five-year periods.
The history of the development was filled with ownership changes and business failures. The project never was as successful as the council had hoped until Russenberger and the Merrills got involved.
In January 1998, Chef Jim Shirley rented the space formerly used by the closed Beef & Ale House in the Seville Harbour building on Parcel 1A. He opened the Fish House with Brian Spencer and Dr. Roger Orth as his investors. By the spring, Merrill brothers stepped in as investors in The Fish House, forming Great Southern Restaurant Group of Pensacola, Inc. that put about $2 million into the restaurant, according to Merrill. Spencer and Orth focused on Jackson’s, a restaurant they were opening on Palafox.
“At the time, my brothers and I had invested in several businesses downtown,” said Merrill. “We bought the Bass building on the corner of Palafox and Gregory and were the landlord to Jim Shirley and the Screaming Coyote. We bought Seville Tower on the corner of Palafox and Government streets, which is where my grandfather had his offices in the 1940s.”
He said, “We wanted to move downtown. At the time, our offices were near the mall at Madison Park. Though not a lot was going on downtown, we loved it and saw the potential.”
In 2000, Merrill learned Russenberger was looking to sell the Seville Harbour building. Merrill Land LLC, the brothers’ real estate development company, bought it for $1.3 million and agreed to sublease the ground lease for parcel 1A upon which it was built at the same terms of the master lease. The purchase and sublease were both recorded with the clerk of courts.
Great Southern Restaurant Group went from renting from Seville Harbour, Inc. to renting from Merrill Land LLC.
“Merrill Land got a loan to buy the building, on which it is still making payments,” said Merrill. “It’s like any business. It rents out spaces. We charge rent and hope that those collections are enough to cover our mortgage, lease payment to Russenberger for the ground lease, utilities, repairs and maintenance. At the end of the day, we hope to make a profit like any landlord does.”
Merrill admitted he has been surprised by how much he has come to like the restaurant business. He enjoys the positive feedback he receives from customers and is proud of the role The Fish House plays in the community.
“Maria Goldberg, our marketing director, and I get together once a week,” said Merrill. “We go over all the requests for donations from charities, and there’s always a stack of them. We try to help every one of them, from the high school booster clubs to the NICU at Sacred Heart.”
The Fish House caters events for charities, hosts parties and donates appetizers and the services of its chefs for other fundraising events. He said, “We’ve tried to be good citizens by giving back to the community, trying to get downtown going and helping to promote Pensacola.”
Legal Battle
The default notification from the city asserted that it was entitled to five percent of the gross sales of the restaurants because Merrill Land had been partially assigned the master lease when it bought the Seville Harbour building. The city claimed Great Southern Restaurant Group was a subsidiary or business combination of Merrill Land and therefore should have paid rent based on its gross sales.
Attorney Bruce Partington responded on Nov. 27 on behalf of Seville Harbour and Merrill Land LLC.
First, he made it clear that the leases had been properly renewed. According to Partington, the renewals required nothing more than delivery of a written notice. The letter exercising the renewals was sent July 21, 2011 by Leo Cyr on the behalf of Seville Harbour.
Seville Harbour never partially assigned its lease to Merrill Land.
“Seville Harbour retains multiple rights and duties with respect to the property sub-leased to Merrill Land,” said Partington. “The fundamental concept of an assignment is that the assignor’s entire interest is transferred to the assignee which did not occur here.”
He pointed out that the city had refused in 2000 to approve any assignment to Merrill Land, which is why the transaction was done as a sublease. He asserted that the city’s new position of the relationship between the two companies being an assignment was “irreconcilable and fundamentally inconsistent” with its position 13 years ago.
He pointed out the two restaurants are not owned by Merrill Land. The owner, Great Southern Restaurant Group, “is not, and has never been, a ‘subsidiary or business combination’ of Merrill Land.”
“Merrill Land has no ownership or other interest in Great Southern Restaurant Group, nor does Merrill Land receive any portion of the revenues from the operation of the restaurants on the property.”
Partington believed that the city’s position is without merit and based on “two dubious propositions which are unsupported factually or legally.”
He expressed Merrill’s concerns about how the daily newspaper got wind of the letter one day after the certified letter was received.
“It is extremely troubling that Seville Harbour’s multiple attempts over several years to meet with representatives of the city to discuss the lease were ignored,” wrote Partington, “and then, after years without a response, receive a notice of default, which was then leaked by the city to the media for dramatic effect.”
He put the city on notice that it was responsible for any damage that the leak may have caused Great Southern Restaurant Group.
The Leak
Merrill admitted that when he first received the letter from Daniel he was not that concerned. He was surprised the attorney brought up gross sales, but believed that the restaurants were on solid legal ground.
He said, “I wasn’t really worried about it. I don’t even think I told my brothers about it because I knew it was baseless.”
He sent the letter to Stephen Moorhead, Russenberger’s attorney, to review. Then on the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 21, Merrill received a call from the PNJ saying that they had heard about a letter sent to him saying The Fish House owed the city millions of dollars. The reporter would not tell him how they got that information, but he admitted they had not yet seen the letter.
Merrill called City Administrator Colleen Castille, who denied any responsibility for the leak. “Colleen, I don’t think you understand the severity of this. This is going to be a front-page story and I’m going to lose business immediately.”
A meeting was set up for the following morning between the daily newspaper, Castille and Merrill. He hoped that the City Administrator, whom he had given the details of the leases in September, would say the letter was wrong. That did not happen.
According to Merrill, she said the letter was a negotiating tool.
“I said that’s fine if you want to sit down at the negotiation table. We’ve been wanting to do it for years,” Merrill recalls what he told Castille at the meeting.
“But to say something that bad about my business is just wrong. I told the City Administrator that to send out a totally baseless letter with inaccurate facts to hurt my business is almost criminal.”
The IN asked the city for an interview with Castille for this article. The city’s communications director, Tamara Fountain, replied the following week, “Colleen has decided not to do any further interviews.”
The city did not offer for anyone else to explain the mayor’s decision to send the default notice or talk about the negotiations and did not give the paper permission to talk to its attorney Nix Daniel.
Who does Merrill think leaked the letter?
“Obviously it had to come from the city. It was either someone with the city or they gave the information to someone who then leaked it to the News Journal,” he said. “The last thing I wanted was this inaccurate letter to come out, because it’s hard to get that genie back in the bottle. I knew people were going to think The Fish House owes the city millions and the city was going to shut us down.”
Merrill said that the city knows the letter is totally inaccurate. “We’ve paid every bit of rent we owe. We’ve shared our financial information. I’m shocked that the mayor’s office would use this tactic. We sat down with Colleen, explained all the details of the leases and we thought it was all good—until we got the default notice.”
He said for the city to send out a default notice demanding millions of dollars without any discussion is unconscionable. “We properly and legally renewed our leases in July 2011. We got a letter from the city attorney that our attorney responded to almost immediately. We received nothing in writing until two years later and it’s a baseless default notification about something that the city has never mentioned to us was even an issue.”
Merrill asked, “What kind of message does this to send to businesses looking to invest in Pensacola and possibly partner with the city?”
Editor’s notes: •Collier Merrill owns a five percent interest in the Independent News. Ray Russenberger owns 2.5 percent of the paper. Neither has, or has ever had, any control over the paper’s editorial coverage.
•At the time of print, the mayor and his attorneys had scheduled a meeting for Monday Dec. 9 to discuss Pitt Slip with Ray Russenberger, Collier Merrill and their attorneys.
———————————————
Don’t Forget The Airport
Mayor Hayward has been in a dispute with The Fish House over the food services contract at the Pensacola International Airport.
Hayward recommended to the city council at its Sept. 26 regular meeting the 10-year concession contract should be awarded to OHM Concessions—which included Chick-fil-A, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Surf City Squeeze and Corona Beach House. Collier Merrill’s The Fish House had joined forces with Bagelheads, Varona’s, and Pensacola Bay Brewery to offer a more local option that had placed second to OHM during the selection process.
The issue was tabled at the meeting when Merrill, the other local business owners, their employees and citizens spoke out in favor of their proposal. Since then, Mayor Hayward has pulled the item off the council’s agenda twice.
Those familiar with council politics say the mayor simply doesn’t have the votes to win approval for OHM. Did the mayor’s office leak the default notice to the daily newspaper to tarnish the image of Merrill and The Fish House to gain the one or two votes needed to bring Chick-fil-A to the airport?
“I certainly hope not,” said Merrill, “because I would hate to see them use those tactics (the notification of default and subsequent leak to the media) to win on a completely separate issue and to punish my 250 employees and my family.”
The next week in his “Upwords” newsletter Hayward criticized Merrill and the others who spoke out at the council meeting claiming they “ambushed” the council.
“It is a terrible idea to disregard our objective business processes in response to a few influential people politically strong-arming our elected officials,” said the mayor.
Merrill was dumbfounded by the mayor’s comments.
“I spoke before the city council because City Administrator Colleen Castille said that was what I should do,” he said. “She said she was going to let the Airport Director, Greg Donovan, stand on his own. We could make our argument and then we let the council make the decision.”
After the newsletter, he met with Castille and City Attorney Jim Messer and asked for explanation of the mayor’s comments.
“I asked Colleen, didn’t I do what you told me do?” he told the IN. “Basically she told me that she didn’t think we would be that organized.”
On Tuesday, Oct. 15 at his first “Mornings with the Mayor” session, Hayward bristled when asked about his “ambush” comment.
“That’s what I called it,” said Hayward, “It was an ambush.”
The IN asked how so, especially since Merrill had been instructed by the City Administrator to make his case at the council meeting.
“They did, but in my opinion I said it was an ambush,” said the mayor.
Mayor Hayward said of the upcoming council vote on the issue, “We will see what happens. They might win. If they do, we will move on. We’re going to support them and we’re going to say let’s make Pensacola a better place. I’m a big boy. Sometimes you win ’em; sometimes you lose ’em.”
When the council agenda for its Oct. 24 meeting was released, the food services contract was on it. The following Sunday, Hayward supporter Bob Kerrigan wrote a viewpoint in favor of OHM getting the contract. Ads appeared in the daily newspaper supporting the mayor’s proposal. A website was set up for Hayward supporters to send emails to council members.
Then at the council’s agenda review meeting, City Administrator Castille, on the mayor’s behalf, unexpectedly pulled it off the agenda. The mayor appeared no longer willing to lose on the issue.
The airport food services recommendation was not on any of the council’s agenda. On Dec. 2, Merrill received an email from the city that stated the issue would not come up in December either.
“Please be advised that the Airport Director will not be bringing the Food and Beverage concession lease agreement to the Pensacola City Council during its December, 2013 meeting,” wrote Airport Administration & Contracts Manager Michael Laven. “Both the Director and the Mayor will be out of the country on business. We believe that the scheduling of this concession will take place in January or February of 2014.”
Stay tuned.
The Green Parrot on Panama City Beach
Our first day in Panama City Beach, I watched AdventureMan’s head swivel 120° to the left as we drove down the main drag.
“Did you see that?” he exclaimed! “A ‘Mediterranean’ restaurant!! Woooo HOOOOOOO!”
We’ve come to learn that ‘Mediterranean’ is code for comfort food. It is not Mediterranean-Italian, or Mediterranean-Greek, it is Mediterranean like Lebanon or Syria or Palestine . . . it is comfort food.
Sigh. Or close enough. There is no machboos, and sometimes the felafel aren’t home made. Still, we know we’ll give it a try.
On our last night in town, it is the perfect night to go. 
The owner is a delightful Lebanese import named Hani, and he is a word-of-mouth phenomenon on Panama City Beach. He has many fanatically loyal customers, and people recommend him all the time. We can see why. He loves what he is doing, and it shows.
Mixed appetizers/Mezze
His food is DELICIOUS 🙂
Everything tasted so good. We can understand how he is developing such a following – his food is really good.
Schooners For Dinner
We usually start our stay at Panama City Beach with dinner at Schooners, a very local beach bar with a aid back atmosphere. It is a cold cold windy night, the bar is packed, but there is a table for us.
We start with the smoked tuna:
AdventureMan has a Cuban with so much meat he can’t even eat it all:
I have the seafood gumbo, perfect for a cold night; sticks to your ribs kind of food, LOL:
Recent Comments
Catherine on Donna Leon Crossing Cultu… intlxpatr on Ignoring the Law thani on Ignoring the Law Anon. on British Soldier Kidnapped, Esc… Reeva Mills on Cahors to Bordeaux, Preparing… Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 