Photo: Ezra Millstein

Haiti: A Land Forgotten

By Dan Reiter

Last November, I took a charter flight into the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with Habitat for Humanity’s annual Carter Work Project. Our mission: to build 100 homes for Haitian families displaced by the 2010 earthquake. The quake — a result of 250 years of bottled-up stress on a Caribbean fault line — demolished nearly every building in the capital city, killed 316,000 Haitians, and exiled over one million people to homelessness among the ruins.

One-time President Jimmy Carter flew on the airplane with us. His eyes sparkled as he passed down the aisle to shake hands with each passenger. His voice was spritely and polished, his back slightly hunched. He moved much like a man on the campaign trail.

As we descended upon the island, our plane buckled in heavy turbulence. A nervous tremor rippled through the cabin. Below us, shadows passed wraithlike over scalped brown mountains, a white crescent reef, a turquoise sea. Someone bolted for the bathroom.

Photo: Ezra Millstein

Two years have passed since Haiti’s grande catastrophe. Two years since waves of the injured and the damned poured into tent cities. Since the world wept over Port-au-Prince’s mass graves. More avant-garde disasters have since taken center stage in the collective consciousness: the Gulf oil spill, the Japan tsunami, the Fukushima fallout.

Many countries who pledged aid to Haiti have reneged on their promises. Less than one third of international relief funds have been distributed. An estimated 98% of Port-au-Prince’s rubble remains where it fell. Refugees are consigned to pestilence and oblivion; they huddle under rotting tarps, without clean water, sanitation or food — vulnerable to outbreaks of cholera and malaria, those afflictions of a bygone age.

From above, rivers the color of spoiled milk snaked through the frayed fields at the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. As we descended onto the island, an urban wasteland stumbled into view, a crush of third-world stone boxes, rusted roofs, great mounds of garbage, legions of blue and gray tarps. We put down, taxied past an airplane abandoned in tall weeds. Trash bags fluttered on the barbed wire of the airfield wall. We filed down the steps, quietly, solemnly. Everything seemed hazed in steam.

Photo: Habitat For Humanity

Haiti has long been a nation on the brink of collapse. In 1804, it became the world’s first black republic, and was subsequently squashed under the thumb of sugarcane embargos, pre-packaged wars, and villainous political leaders. At the time of the quake, Haiti was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, already well acquainted with disaster.

A convoy of police cars and SUVs escorted our buses to our camp in Léogâne, near the epicenter of the quake. For two hours we bumped through some of the poorest slums in the Americas. The stink of garbage, the naked children bathing in sewage ditches, the half-dead dogs, the black, sickly goats tied around the necks, and the chronic rind of styrofoam and plastic, knee-deep along the embankments, were too much for some to bear. Others took pictures. Street vendors — beautiful, lithe women — crouched in the filth, hawked black plantains, honey, sugarcane, fly-infested meat. The children’s eyes, at once distrustful, spry and innocent, were yellowed, jaundiced somehow by the proximity to death.

We slept ten to a tent, barracks-style, on light-gauge aluminum cots with flimsy canvas straps. We had come to work, not take vacation. My tentmates were a scattered bunch, hailing from all corners of the continent. One, a computer engineer from Toronto, sat at the edge of his bed, brooding. “I can’t believe how bad it is. Broken concrete everywhere. You would have thought there would be more trees.”

Photo: Steffan Hacker

The old man on the cot next to me, who did not seem suited to a construction site, raised a bony finger. “The sugarcane companies clear cut the whole damn island,” he said. “Ain’t a damned tree left for lumber.”

A sturdy black fellow dressed in khaki unloaded his army-issue duffel bag and took up a more optimistic tone. “Life is calling you boys! Can you hear it?” His voice boomed throughout the tent. “It feels good to get out and help, don’t it?” This was Willie, maven of twenty Carter builds, ex-Peace Corps volunteer, Vietnam vet.

“Did you see the looks on the children’s faces?” the Canadian said.  ”How can they smile among all that devastation?”

“Left ‘em in tent cities with million dollar views,” the old man said.

“Just do what we can,” said Willie. He set his tool belt on the bed, careful not to test the frame. “Ain’t no more to it than that.”

That evening, a Haitian singing group performed for us on a makeshift wooden stage. President Carter provided a rousing introduction. It was a strange contrast — the Parisian mannerisms, the French pursing of the lips coupled with the dark, tribal dances. But Haiti is a country of contradictions. They are the poorest people in the world, but in many ways, the most lovely, living on an island in the middle of the hurricane belt, where drinking water is in short supply. The cities are desperate for reconstruction, and yet they sit atop a lode of concrete stone. A paradox, Haiti. Broken, fissured with incongruities.

We awoke before dawn, filed into the mess tent for bangers and mash, collected our tools, and loaded the buses to the job site. Thus commenced our weeklong toils in the sun and heat of Léogâne.

The work week blurred by. I hefted up walls, slammed thousands of metal twist straps into lumber, bloodied my fingers, soaked and dirtied every inch of my clothing, nearly died from heat exhaustion, sat in a delirium atop the aluminum roof, gloves torn, to bear witness to stunning sunsets over water-carved mountains. Pascal and Marie, two Haitian homeowners-to-be, worked alongside our team, thrilled with these shelters — the size of a small room, with no plumbing or electricity — where they would be living six to a box.

Photo: Habitat For Humanity

The President of Haiti, the copa singer Michel Martelly, appeared for a shining instant, his arm in a splint. Garth Brooks worked among the volunteers, sporting a Stetson hardhat, carrying a drill, a hammer. One sultry night, Garth and his wife, Trisha, gave an impromptu performance on the camp’s stage.

We sweat until we near fainted, waited blurry-eyed in meal lines, slept like the dead in our cots, ate beef and Guinness cottage pie. On Veterans Day, we stood in bowed silence as someone read “In Flanders Field” over a megaphone.

During a week of cold showers, blisters, bruises, and backaches, we became united by the rhythm of our labors, like some gang of mercenary carpenters. We knew we were building more than homes, more than a village. We were building an example. Camaraderie between nations. Good karma.

Jimmy Carter, at age eighty-seven, was proficient with the tape, the pencil, the handsaw. He worked the long days, proselytized the nights.

“We want to help the Haitian people in a way that doesn’t debase them, nor elevate us,” Carter said, his white hair shining in the stage’s spotlight.

“Say what you want about his Presidency,” the Canadian said. “But what a remarkable man.”

Photo: Steffan Hacker

I befriended a young Haitian carpenter, who regarded me with great love in his eyes and taught me how to chew the sweet black sugarcane. We sat under the shade of a Royal Poinciana tree, in a country mired in tragedy, overflowing with love and grace.

Tall palms sway above it all, the children sleep, dream, the sea roils, bright bougainvillea flourish among the wreckage.

In Haiti, the shortest way from one place to another never lies in a straight line. The politics are muddled, the land rights swamped in bureaucracy. But there are some who still believe. Dreamers like Harris Rosen, an Orlando hotelier, who envisions Caribbean kibbutzes, self-sustaining Haitian communes with modular, solar-powered homes. Or Jeffree Trudeau, of the World Bamboo Organization, who hopes to spawn a new lumber industry on these desolate hills. My Canadian tentmate, even, had his own revelation: “Why not just ship in a track hoe and some dump trucks? Gather up all the broken blocks and garbage?”

It all seems logical. The ideas flow into Haiti, but they are polluted somehow on their way into the cities, like the rainwater, sun-bleached by indifference, desiccated as those sickly white rivers.

On the last day, I gave up my tools, my boots, my bedding, and my extra clothing to my Haitian friend. I left camp with a bag as empty as my spirit. I hadn’t shaved or looked in a mirror for seven days.

As our plane soared away from Port-au-Prince, I said a silent prayer for the people of Haiti. I vowed to return. Maybe our 100 homes were a drop in the ocean, but they were tangible enough, proof of what can happen when man and material work in concert. They were sturdy things, anyway. And the roofs would not leak.

To donate to Habitat for Humanity, or to volunteer for the 29th Carter Work Project, which returns to Haiti in 2012, visit: http://www.habitat.org/cd/cwp/participant/participant.aspx?pid=93531977. All donations received will go directly toward the scheduled trip with a goal of building 250 more homes in Léogâne.

JACK BAKER’S LOBSTER SHANTY

Being a contrarian has its undeniable drawbacks, but when it comes to dining, the attitude can open up new worlds of possibility.

I’m glad, for instance, that I never heeded the advice of friends to avoid restaurants like the Cliff House and Alioto’s when I lived in San Francisco in the late ’90s. “They’re just for out-of-towners,” they said. “Locals know better than to bother.”

When I finally did visit those places, it was immediately clear that the naysayers hadn’t even given them a chance. I found the food to be excellent and reasonably priced and the waterfront views spectacular. I managed to convert a few natives before I left, and vowed to take the same approach wherever I moved or traveled to thereafter. It’s a practice that’s kept me in good stead ever since, and one that helped me discover the charms of Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty, a place that’s given similarly short shrift by locals here in Cocoa Beach.

The Shanty’s founder, New Jerseyan and avid fisherman Jack Baker, took up cooking while working at the Biltmore Hotel in Palm Beach. After marrying his Floridian wife and relocating to Point Pleasant Beach, NJ, Baker opened a tiny, four-top restaurant on the side porch of the family home. Cooking their daily lobster catch in a washing machine that had been converted into a gas-fired boiler, Baker and his father were soon swarmed by people loved their flair with seafood. Trading in the washer for a bathtub-cum-cooker, the Bakers expanded their business and built the first of many Lobster Shanties near the Baker residence.

There are two Lobster Shanties in Vero Beach and six in New Jersey, but the one here in Cocoa Beach is probably the best situated. Located on the Banana River since 1982, the Cocoa Beach Lobster Shanty is one of the few riverfront eateries in the area, and as such offers breathtaking sunset views.

Many locals have fond memories of eating here in their youth, usually for Mother’s Day or wedding anniversaries, but the Lobster Shanty isn’t just for special occasions. They serve a wealth of daily specials, and as tasty as their live Maine lobsters are, their many “turf” and pasta dishes are definitely worth trying. The fact is that the Lobster Shanty offers some of the best values on the beach.

Their popular combination platters are a good example of the kind of bargain you can expect. There are six to choose from, but a favorite is the “Side Splitter,” which comes with shrimp, haddock, a crab cake, scallops, and clam strips. For over a pound of fresh seafood, it’s a great deal.

Other dishes are just as generously portioned, from their  “Triple Treat” (salmon, grouper, and mahi fillets that can be broiled, blackened, or grilled) to their “smothered” lobsters, which get topped with sauteed shrimp, scallops, and mussels and a creamy garlic sauce. What’s more, they’re one of the few places around that can get hold of rock shrimp year-round.

Another favorite, the New England-style baked haddock, shows that this old institution is also very forward thinking. Baked in a Parmesan and bacon crust with a sun-dried tomato cream sauce, it’s one of many inventive dishes Chef Glen Dunham has introduced. There are coconut shrimp served with mango-jalapeno jelly, cashew-crusted tilapia with a coconut rum sauce, and a tasty crab and spinach dip.

However, the real surprises here are their steaks, an apricot-brandy chicken, and their excellent baby back ribs. There’s something here for everyone — even the pickiest eaters will find something to love — and kids have their own menu to peruse.

The Lobster Shanty is very family-friendly; kids will enjoy feeding the koi out front or the catfish from their spacious, open-air deck. And the weather couldn’t be more perfect for eating outside at the Shanty. While we were there, as the sun began its brilliant descent, we saw a pod of dolphin bounding southward. It’s at times like that, I reflected, that being a contrarian certainly has its benefits.

The Lobster Shanty is located at 2200 S. Orlando Ave. in Cocoa Beach. They open daily at 11:30 a.m. and offer lunch specials and a new early dinner menu. On it, you’ll find 14 dishes to choose from, all of which are served with one side, a choice of New England or Manhattan chowder or salad, coffee, tea, or milk, and dessert — all at a very reasonable price. Early dinners are served Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Lunch menu is available Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The spacious Lobster Shanty is also a great place to host large gatherings, banquets, and reunions. Call them at 783-1350. To view their full menu, log on to: www.cocoabeachlobstershanty.com

MIKKI KRAGELUND 

This January 12, beachside resident Mikki Kragelund and friend Nina Oosterveer — the “Sunny Cyclers” — will be biking the length of New Zealand to raise $5000 for the World Skin Cancer Foundation.

Mikki, whom many here know as “Michelle,” was diagnosed with stage-three melanoma nearly two years ago, but is currently cancer-free, thanks to early detection and treatment. Now living in New Zealand, Mikki came up with the idea for this ride as a way to raise awareness for one of the most deadly — and preventable — types of cancer out there.

Shortly after her birth in Denmark, she and her family moved to Cocoa Beach, where she spent most of her ”fun in the sun” childhood. “From a very early age I remember my parents emphasizing the importance of travel, staying active, and appreciating the outdoors,” she says. “Growing up in Florida was an ‘endless summer’ of year-round boating, camping, surfing and diving excursions — sometimes with sunscreen, sometimes without. It was an afterthought and a challenge to wear consistently when you are so active.”

At 24 and with less than a semester of college to go, a dermatologist appointment wasn’t at the top of her to-do list. But Mikki’s uncle and Southern California dermatologist, Dr. Bill Heimer, had a different idea. ”He makes regular visits to Florida and graciously provides family ‘derm’ checks while he is here,” Mikki says. “On this particular occasion, he was in between visits. He’d recently treated two patients the same age as me (and with a similar history as mine) that prompted him to think about me.”

It would be a few more months before her uncle would make another Florida visit. It was unusual, but for his peace of mind, he called to urge Mikki to go in for a skin check on her own. ”I was very touched by his concern and actually intended to follow through, but I didn’t. I was busy,” she recalls. “I had no symptoms and no real concern. He called again in two weeks to follow up then took it upon himself to schedule an appointment on my behalf. Three days later, I was handed a pathology report that revealed a stage-three melanoma.”

“The next month of my life was a blur of mixed emotions. Did I feel sorry for myself? Did I want pity from people? Did I even want people to know? Should I deny it? Ignore it? I felt ignorant and embarrassed because my Uncle had been begging me for years to be more careful in the sun and to have regular skin checks. Why hadn’t I listened?”

After numerous doctor’s appointments, 14 different biopsies, and one major surgery, Mikki was told that if she’d waited just four more months longer to get a skin check, her chances of survival — even with chemotherapy — could have been less than ten percent.

“It is a complete mystery as to why things work out the way they do in the world, but all I know is that my Uncle, and hero, caught it in time and was able to remove all the cancerous cells.”

Armed with the strong sense of optimism she cultivated while working for the Life Is Good Company, Mikki will join Nina on a 2,400-km bicycle journey to raise awareness for the importance of wearing sunscreen. She also hopes to show people that they don’t have to give up a life outside to avoid skin damage.

We spoke to her about the ride and the people who inspired her to give back.

You’re in Queenstown, New Zealand now. What do you miss most about Cocoa Beach?

I miss Cocoa Beach all of the time and I feel really fortunate to have it as my home base. The people and lifestyle in our little town is something I don’t think you can find anywhere else. At least I haven’t found it yet. I miss paddleboarding through the canals, camping out in the 1000 Islands, boating, playing bocce on the beach, surfing, stopping into the North End for a pint with Tom, or visiting Lolo at the Green Room… The list is endless! One of my favorite quotes is, “Man travels in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it.” I’m enjoying every moment I get to see somewhere new in the world, but I love that Cocoa Beach is the place I get to return home to.

What kind of training are you doing for your ride?

All kinds! Queenstown Gym has given Nina and I a free membership so we’re able to train during the work week. We are doing yoga, spin classes, weights, and circuit training. On top of that, we’re cycling and doing a ton of hikes. We’re really fortunate to be in a part of the world that offers so much outdoor opportunity to train.

Where does the route take you? What do you reckon will be the most difficult leg?

The route takes from Cape Reinga, located at the tip of the North Island, all the way to Bluff, the southernmost point of the South Island. It is about 1500 miles in total. We would be lying if we said we weren’t already looking forward to the ferry ride in the middle! The most difficult leg is going to be the west coast of the South Island from Greymouth to Wanaka. There’ll be lots of mountains and steep climbing there. I’m sure we’ll be hugging the pavement at some points and cursing the whole idea at others, but we’ll make it.

What kinds of bikes will you be riding?

Nina and I will both be riding a Specialized Sirrus Touring bike. Do I sound bike savvy? I’m not. It’s a bike designed for less-experienced cyclers who have trouble making it up big hills.

How did Nina get involved?

Nina and I arrived in Queenstown around the same time and found ourselves in the same circle quite often. Since Queenstown is as known for its partying as it is for its outdoor adventures, initially it was hard to meet people who wanted to be up early for a hike or rock climbing. Nina was and still is my “go to”! She’s always my first phone call because she’s always up for anything! The whole idea for Sunny Cyclers came about when we were hiking one morning. I was sharing my story with her and realized it had been one year since that melanoma diagnosis. I felt like doing something to celebrate and she just said, “Okay, let’s do it!” We laugh about it now, because she was thinking more along the lines of celebrating over a pint. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into.

Tell us about your diagnosis. Where was the spot found? Did nothing look suspect to you?

The spot was right on my chest. I had no symptoms and no real concern. I was one month from graduation, so in all honesty, a dermatologist appointment was the last thing on my mind! I was more concerned with “laying out” so I could have a nice base color for the ceremony.

What was your reaction?

I was bartending at Slow & Low when I got the call. I don’t fully remember my reaction, but I remember I had a plate of ribs in my hand and I was just staring at them.

What were your outdoor habits prior to being diagnosed?

Year-round boating, camping, surfing and diving excursions… sometimes with sunscreen, sometimes without. I was probably more inclined to reach for the ordinary “hat and shades” than sunscreen. I’ve been known to use tanning lotion and even spent the occasional 15 minutes in a tanning bed. In summary: My sun protection habits were terrible… Non-existent, even.

What do you do now when you’re outdoors?

A thick layer of sunscreen, a pair of hiking boots (with a high chance of mismatched socks), and some tacky ensemble of sun proof gear. And believe it or not, I’m single! We all love being out in the sun, and it’s hard to avoid, especially in Florida. The World Skin Cancer Foundation says it best: “Screen. Shirt. Shade!”

Above all, what have you learned from this experience?

I’ve learned that I’m not invincible and that a good tan isn’t nearly as important as my own health. I love to be outside. It definitely takes more effort to be safe in the sun, but it’s not impossible. I’ve also learned that I love to cycle!

You friend Barry offered you a lot of support after your diagnosis. How long have you known him?

I have only known Barry about three or four years now. I met him up in Boston while I was working for the Life is Good Company. He was diagnosed with cancer just before I was, however, his prognosis was much worse than mine. I remember him calling me right after I had just finished some diagnostic tests. I was in the stages of my diagnosis where I didn’t know if the melanoma had reached my lymph nodes yet, and admittedly, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. I answered the phone and the first thing out of his mouth was, “What can I have of yours if you go first?” I just doubled over and let the laughter pour out of me. His comment was so unnerving, yet it had exactly the light-heartedness I needed. He was a huge inspiration to me through the whole process. He has also fully recovered now and still causing trouble up in Bean Town.

You family has offered a lot of support too, of course. Tell us about them.

Mom’s hysterical. The older I get, the more I appreciate her wit and sense of humour. She is a beautifully free-spirited intellect who always encouraged commitment and urged me to create my own path, and she has, dare I say, a stronger sense of adventure than I do. Dad is a breed all his own. If any of you in town know Lars, I’m sure that’s enough said. He is a true sailor and waterman who found entertainment in strapping waterskis to my feet before I could walk and had a scuba tank on my back by the time I was 12. I hold him fully responsible for my complete love of the outdoors. And my Uncle Bill is my hero. What else can I say? At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. Between the three of them — and also my grandmothers, Gam and Boss, and my Uncle Donny — I had a pretty good support system.

And you’ve dedicated this ride, among other things and people, to your brother, Christian.

Christian is my best friend and my inspiration. If I could choose anyone in the world to travel, hike, surf, sail, bike, climb, camp, or explore with, it would be him. Every time.

How much money have you raised for the ride thus far?

So far we’ve raised over $3000 dollars. Our goal is $5,000, but we feel pretty confident that we’ll be able to surpass that. We have had unbelievable support here in New Zealand as well as back home. Absolutely Natural is a Melbourne, FL-based sun care line that retails all natural, chemical-free sun care products. Sunny Cyclers has partnered with Absolutely Natural and they will be the title sponsor for the ride. They’ve generously donated $1500 to our cause, 100% of which will go directly to the World Skin Cancer Foundation. They are going above and beyond to help us in our mission to raise further funds and awarenes. Nina and I both feel very fortunate to have them on our team.

What else are you in need of? Are you all kitted out for equipment?

We are ready to go! We have been fortunate enough to have organizations interested in sponsorships, so we have received our sun protection products from Absolutely Natural, bikes from Brazz, and panniers from Natural High. Outside Sports has supplied us with bike shorts and jerseys, and WSCF has even shipped over a tent for us to sleep in for the next two months! Thanks, guys!

How can people follow you or donate?

We will start our trip January 12, 2012. You can donate, follow our progress, and keep up with all of the adventures on our website www.sunnycyclers.com. All donations go directly to the World Skin Cancer Foundation — www.worldskincancerfoundation.com 

Silvestro’s

By Tobin Bennison
Photos by Rich Sullivan 

Since taking over last September, the new owners of Silvestro’s have had their work cut out for them.

There’s no delicate way of putting it: prior to their arrival, the restaurant was fraught with problems — exorbitant prices, imperious staff, and inconsistent food among them. But one of the biggest difficulties they’ve faced is less tangible: shedding Silvestro’s of its image as an exclusive aerie of the well-heeled. They’ve made impressive progress thus far, and their efforts to draw a broader-based clientele — and lure errant regulars back to the fold — continue.

It’s a daunting task, but the new team — comprised of Managing Partner Alex Koorbanoff, Manager John Larkin, and Executive Chef Brad Kennett — is more than up for the challenge. A small group of local investors, made up of concerned regulars, enlisted the experienced trio to turn Silvestro’s into a more efficient, customer-friendly eatery. Thankfully, the changes they’ve implemented haven’t affected its original reputation as one of the fine dining jewels of the Space Coast.

“We want to provide the best quality food at the lowest possible prices,” Koorbanoff says. Trimming the once voluminous menu down to it essentials was one of the first steps on the path toward that goal. They’ve shed a lot of the Italian-centric dishes to make room for more seasonal, Mediterranean-influenced items, and the result, surprisingly, is something much closer to the true roots of Italian cuisine. The wine selection has been similarly streamlined to accommodate smaller boutique wines and bottles from countries other than just Italy. As a bonus, the majority of them are available by the glass, and smaller batches are often obtained and offered as specials.

Chef Kennett uses only the freshest ingredients, and works what’s available into a menu that’s informed, as in Europe, by the seasons. All pastas — from the fettucine and tagliatelle to the tortelloni and ravioli — are made by hand, from scratch, daily. Kennett also makes his own gelato daily, as well as the bread and desserts. Imagination plays a strong part his cooking as well, and you’re just as likely to find plantains or lemongrass-infused dishes as you are to see traditional things like chicken Parmigiana, gnocchi, and spaghetti and meatballs.

Silvestro’s also prides itself on its excellent steaks and fresh seafood, which finds its way into zuppa di pesce, lobster ravioli, and their Land & Sea Carpaccio. Pescatarians will find much to love here, as will vegetarians. Whatever your taste, you’re sure to find something that will intrigue and astound you.

“We always have a new and interesting twist on the menu,” says Larkin. “But if you’re not feeling adventurous, you can always count on that classic you’d find in Grandma’s kitchen. We offer the best of both worlds here. You could eat a special a day here for a year, and never get the same thing twice. But we’re also more than happy to recreate something a customer enjoyed on a previous visit.”

This new approach — a mixture of bold innovation and adherence to tradition — has won Silvestro’s the approval of none other than the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, a society of highly discerning gastronomes established in France over half a century ago. A regional branch of the group chose Silvestro’s to host a seven-course dinner this past November, and the event was an incredible success. They also host monthly themed wine dinners, which feature specially prepared dishes to compliment a unique selection of wines.

Silvestro’s has also made efforts to reach out to the community, and a variety of local groups and charities hold regular meetings in the adjacent banquet room. Once a month, this room is transformed into a dance space, another well-received change that often begins with tango and foxtrot before giving way to disco by closing time. Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays host live piano accompaniment, and Wednesdays and Saturdays see performances by guitarist/vocalist Jose Lebron.

Locals and visitors have been won over by all these improvements, and the majority of lapsed Silvestro’s believers have been reconverted. “It’s great reconnecting with a lot of people who, for whatever reason, took us off their radar,” says Koorbanoff.

“As a manager,” Larkin explains, “it’s not the gushing compliments I seek out; I want the curmudgeon. It’s about listening to the bad as well as the good. We’re active in the conversation and are happy to hear about other ways we can improve. The onus is upon us to make our customers happy.”

Silvestro’s is located 2039 N. Atlantic Ave. (in Banana River Square) in Cocoa Beach. They’re open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Happy Hour at their bar is held every night from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The popular instructor-led dance nights have been put on hiatus for the month of December, as have their wine dinners, but both will resume in January 2012. This Christmas Eve sees the arrival of a special Italian-style seafood menu, inspired by that country’s Christmas traditions, and New Year’s Eve will center around a special Surf, Turf & Champagne menu and fresh lobster specials. Check Silvestro’s website — www.silvestros.com for more details. Silvestro’s is also renowned for their catering and banquet-hosting skills. Give them a call and they can help you create a special menu reflective of your tastes and financial needs for holiday gatherings both large and small. And if you’re wearing shorts with children in tow, don’t let the elegant decor turn you off. Silvestro’s is more family- and kid-friendly in its new incarnation. To make reservations, or to inquire about group luncheons, call 783-4853. View their entire menu and wine list online at www.silvestros.com.

Roger Burleigh of Green Gloves Garden Center
By Tobin Bennison 

Twenty-seven years ago, opening a nursery and landscaping company was probably the last thing on Roger Burleigh’s mind. Back then, skateboarding and BMX occupied most of his thoughts. The half-pipe he built in the backyard of his family’s Merritt Island home attracted Cocoa Beach groms like John Mayo and the Slater brothers, so it’s no wonder he soon added surfing to his list of consuming interests.

Burleigh remembers his mother, who was then a librarian at Tropical Elementary, taking him to 2nd Light almost every day and doing her schoolwork in the car while he surfed until dark. “My parents were in the process of splitting up, so I asked Mom if we could move to the beach,” he says. “In the summer of ’86 we were beach-bound.” So began a love affair with the beach that continues to this day.

Though he still surfs with a passion, Burleigh found a new way of expressing his enthusiasm for the beachside a little over one year ago. Through Green Gloves, the multi-faceted garden center he opened in August 2010, Burleigh and his crew cater to a variety of local landscaping needs. More than just a plant nursery, Green Gloves offers a wide range of landscaping and installation services — from trees and low-voltage lighting to full irrigation systems and decorative water features — and custom-builds outdoor furniture and garden structures like pergolas, pagodas, arbors, and unique trellises.

“We also offer bulk mulch on demand to our customers,” says Burleigh. “If you need five yards of mulch, we can have it delivered. If you need decorative rock instead of mulch, we can have it delivered and install it, too. We also have access to topsoils, potting soils, and pallets of sod on demand. We do brick paver walkways, decks, and driveways, and offer installation of the plants bought from our store. If we don’t have the plant you’re in search of, we can get it for you. And we deliver free to all our local customers.”

Since opening, Green Gloves has been warmly welcomed by the community. Much of its success is due to Burleigh’s landscaping and business skills, both of which he learned relatively late in life.

After graduating from Cocoa Beach High in 1987, Burleigh went to BCC in an effort to “figure things out.” “Not much was figured out there,” he laughs. “Afterwards, I found myself in the restaurant biz bartending for a good bit of 10 years until I was approached by one of the real estate brokers in town. ‘Romo,’ they call him. He took me under his wing and taught me a lot about the business. I learned that ethics was a huge part of real estate, and I continue to use those ideas in my business today.”

The idea for Green Gloves came to Burleigh while designing and installing landscapes with friend Shelley McKinney. “We didn’t get very far because it was a lot of work for the two of us,” Burleigh remembers. “In the meantime, Shelley bought a property on Pineapple in Melbourne, with plans to open a retail nursery and gift store. She was having issues with the City to change the zoning. I mentioned to her about a property in Cocoa Beach that was available and an easy opening. It was once a nursery for 25-plus years. They sold plants and had an outdoor power equipment shop that did quite well back in the ’80s. Shelley wanted to make things work where she was and she finally got her store open. It’s now called Elbow Creek.”

“I kept thinking about how there wasn’t a plant nursery in town and how much we could use one here in Cocoa Beach. I showed my parents the property and they were more excited about it than I was. It seemed like a great idea, and wouldn’t you know it, it was. It’s a lot of work with all the different projects we have going on, but it’s an interesting way of life. We’ve had a lot of local support that we greatly appreciate. It’s tough to meet everyone’s needs, but we certainly try to go the extra mile to keep our customers happy.”

Green Gloves is also built on a solid foundation of advice and help from friends, one of whom, Jerry O’Shea, put Burleigh on his landscaping crew back in the ’80s. “That was a fun job that I actually liked doing,” Burliegh recalls. “Other than that, I didn’t have a whole lot of experience. I was fortunate enough to meet a couple who own a nursery in Lake Washington, Bryan and Colleen. They’re true horticulturists who know a heck of a lot to do with landscaping. Bryan basically took me under his wing and mentored me for the first solid
year. I still call on them every week for advice and to see if they have plants I’m in need of for a customer.”

Thanks to them, and furniture designer and artist Don E. Scroggs, Burleigh has come to regard landscaping as more of an art than a profession. “You have to have an eye for it or learn to develop the eye for it. Bryan, Colleen, and Jerry have all given me a lot of advice in this department. I also couldn’t have done this without Don. I think I’m starting to catch on,” he says modestly. “I tend to look at landscaping on a whole different level now that I’m in the business. If I see a kick-ass landscaped house, I’ll stop and take a closer look and take some pictures for future reference.”

Photos are a big part of each project’s initial approach. “We offer to come to the customer’s house to see what their property looks like, take photographs, and create what the property could look like once the landscaping is complete,” Burleigh explains. “We use the photograph with a landscape program that allows us to install plants in the areas of interest. This helps put the customer’s mind in the right direction. We offer them different ideas about Florida landscaping, but we also want to know what they think of their neighbor’s landscape. We can get pretty close to what they’re after once we’ve settled on their the likes and dislikes.”

Burleigh has also seen his fair share of challenges, something he always welcomes. “The biggest challenge was the first job, the Cocoa Beach Community Church addition. We were so very blessed to have the opportunity to tackle that job. I think there’s a challenge in all landscaping jobs. Every job calls for a different need and everyone has different taste. But we like tackling problems. We had a customer who wanted a beach in their backyard. That was a fun challenge. That one had tons of coquina rock and crushed coquina and beautiful white sand like you see on the Gulf Coast.”

Back at the nursery, Burleigh stands amid a verdant burst of herb and vegetable plants, unusual succulents, and beautiful, brief-blooming Apostle’s Iris, musing on the power of plants. “The best thing about this business would probably be the common love for plants that we all share,” he says. “They’re all around us and they are a gift from the higher power. We are so very fortunate to live in a place where we can enjoy the beautiful colors they provide us with.”

Green Gloves Garden Center is located at 160 S. Orlando Ave (just south of City Hall) in Cocoa Beach. They’re open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m. to “2ish” on Sunday. Call 403-4390, or log on to: www.greenglovesgardencenter.com

Estonia: Land of Song
By T. Bennison

“So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow.
But the sound wasn’t sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Whoville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!”

It’s uncertain whom Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel was thinking of when he created the Whos — they’re most likely a composite of several disenfranchised peoples — but he would have found much to inspire him in the story of the Estonians.

It was 1957 when Seuss published “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and the small Baltic nation, then under the heel of the Soviet Union and largely forgotten by the rest of the world, was making barely a peep. But in 1990, something incredible happened: Against overwhelming odds, Estonia won its long-yearned-for independence, not through war, but through resounding song.

Estonia has long prided itself on its rich choral tradition. In the city of Tartu’s Literary Museum is a collection of over 1.3 million folk songs, the second largest behind Ireland. It’s estimated that one in three Estonians is active in a choir or vocal society, and the national anthem, “Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm” (“My Fatherland, My Happiness and Joy”), springs quickly to the lips of both young and old.

Written in 1869 by journalist and poet Johann Voldemar Jannsen, “Mu isamaa” sparked what is now known as the Estonian National Awakening. Twelve years earlier, the first Estonian language newspaper appeared, and in its pages can be found the first use of the term Eestlased (“Estonian”) as a new way for people to identify themselves. Prior to that, maarahvas (“country people”) was generally accepted, despite its hickish connotations and roots in serfdom under the Russians.

Though they’ve existed as a distinct people since the age of the Roman historian Tacitus, who described them as abjectly poor, but “so well content that they do not even need to pray for anything,” Estonians have rarely been masters of their own land. The smallest of the Baltic nations (the two others are Latvia and Lithuania), Estonia is also the richest in the region, both in terms of its natural resources and strategic position on the Baltic Sea.

Exploited almost continually since the 4th century by Slavs, Danes, Teutons, Swedes, and Russians, the country didn’t get its first taste of independence until 1905, when the All-Estonian Congress convened to demand autonomy from Tsarist rule. A potential revolution was soon quashed by martial law, but in 1918, one year after a demonstration by 40,000 workers in the capital of Tallinn, Estonians declared independence. Struggles between rival factions ensued, but Estonia succeeded in adopting its own constitution in 1920, followed by admittance into the League of Nations one year later. Lasting freedom, however, was to be short-lived.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, an agreement forged between the Soviets and the Nazis, resulted in Russia’s absorption of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in exchange for a promise of non-interference in Hitler’s push eastward. Occupied by Soviet troops and with tens of thousands of its people carted off to Siberian work camps, Estonia became a republic of the USSR in 1941. When the Nazis ignored the Pact later that year and invaded Russia, Estonia naively welcomed them as liberators. But by the end of Word War II, the country had lost over 280,000 lives as a result of the German occupation. Of that number, some 75,000 were shot or died in concentration camps. Countless others who weren’t conscripted by the Nazis fled to Finland.
During the Stalin era, Estonia was flooded by Soviet immigrants in a move to Russify the country and rape it of its timber, fisheries, and vast mineral deposits. Seuss’s Lorax would have wept at the scene: pristine lakes reduced to fetid cesspools, whole forests cleared, and an impenetrable, gray pall of pollution hanging over its towns and cities.

At the height of Gorbachev’s Glasnost reforms in 1987, Estonians began a strategy of gathering en masse for impromptu “singing” demonstrations, culminating in the 300,000-strong “Song of Estonia” festival held in Tallinn’s Song Festival Grounds. Anthems and folk tunes hitherto forbidden by the Communist regime reached the ears of the international community, and the sight of more than a quarter of the country’s population joined in song stirred Estonia’s Baltic neighbors to hold similar peaceful events.

In 1989, on the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, over two million Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians linked hands in an uninterrupted human chain that spread some 370 miles across the Baltic. Deterred from restoring order at every turn by peaceful demonstrations and human shields, Russia began withdrawing its troops from the region in 1991, and by 1994, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were granted independence.

Theodor Geisel surely witnessed these events unfold before he died in 1991, and it’s tempting to imagine his pleasure at having inspired, if not presaged them. His gentle, peace-loving Whos, whose weapons were their indomitable spirits and voices, would have been pleased as well.

Ted Taylor of Ted Taylor’s Fitness
• Tobin Bennison 

Ever since he moved here from Baltimore, Maryland in 1995, personal trainer Ted Taylor has been a well-respected and very visible member of the Cocoa Beach community.

You’ll often see the incredibly fit 70-year-old walking on the beach with his wife, Susan, or stepping out of his downtown gym to Juice N’ Java next door for a smoothie.

Though he cuts an imposing figure, Ted is a soft-spoken man, the kind who downplays the many interesting events that have helped shape his life. He was a bail bondsman and bounty hunter for 30 years and has won 11 major bodybuilding titles — including Mr. America, Mr. World, and Mr. Universe — and countless other fitness awards. He has hung out with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the late, great Jack LaLanne, and has probably been told that he should write a book more times than he cares to remember. Fortunately for us, he has.

Part memoir, part fitness manual, “Stay Fit for Life: How to Make Healthy Living Easy for the Rest of Your Life” is full of fascinating anecdotes and outlines Ted’s own 90-day body transformation program. The book also explains his simple “50/50″ eating plan, in which eating whatever you want on alternating days helps turn your body into a more efficient fat-burning machine.

Above all, “Stay Fit for Life” encapsulates a philosophy that has improved Ted’s own life and the lives of many others who’ve come to him for guidance. “What I offer through my book and at my gym is the whole package,” he says. “This is a fat, out-of-shape country. I have some film clips of people walking around in the 1960s and compare them to what I see now on a regular basis. I look around me now and I think, ‘Who are these aliens?’ Right now, 80% of Americans are overweight and 40% of them are obese. We indulge ourselves way too much in this country.”

With the holiday season right around the corner, it seemed like a perfect time to get some of Ted’s insight and advice.

You’re originally from Baltimore. What brought you to Cocoa Beach?

The weather. (Laughs.) I did a lot of business down here. I was a bail bondsman and bounty hunter and a lot of the people from up north would come down here to jump bail. I came down so much that I got an office. I started noticing that prices were cheap on real estate and there were some good investments around, so I bought a hotel — the Beach Place — and retired here in about 1995. I kept that until 2001. I had a gym in the hotel, and when I sold it I moved the gym here. I’ve been here in this location for about 11 years.

But you got your first taste for bodybuilding back in Maryland. What got you interested in fitness?

When I was 14 years old, I had some… Well, I wouldn’t call myself a juvenile delinquent, but I had some problems. My father wanted to punish me for the summer — you know, just keep me inside. So I said, “What if you let me join the YMCA? When you go to the office you can drop me off and pick me up on your way home.” I just wanted to get out of the house. I went downstairs — they called it the boiler room — and they had a weight room there. I was so impressed by the people there and that’s why I started. That was in 1955. I stuck with it and entered my first competition in 1959 and won Mr. Teenage Maryland. I was about 18 years old at that time.

What did your father think of that? He must have been very proud.

He looked at it positively because he was grooming me to be a bail bondsman and bounty hunter like himself. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps and take over the family business. He understood firsthand that you didn’t have to use a weapon if you had a strong physical presence.

And you did follow in his footsteps eventually.

Yes. He was my idol. But even then, you had to go a long way to get a compliment from him. I saw that his psychology was that you shouldn’t praise people too much. We had 99.5% apprehension rate working together. If I missed one person I never heard the end of it. Success was expected of me and he was tough as nails. Nowadays, everyone gets a trophy. Have you noticed this? They’ll say: “My daughter came in 9th place!” Now I believe in praising your children, but not to the extent we are today. But raising children is the hardest thing in the world.

You have children of your own. Does your passion for fitness run in the family?

I have two daughters, Lauren and Michelle. Lauren lives in Baltimore, Michelle in Atlanta. They’re both in great shape. I never pushed them hard, but I started a plan with Lauren when she was 14 and her body started to change. My wife Susan, who is 63, is in excellent shape. We’ve been married 24 years and she’s the love of my life. I have a sister who is 81 and in perfect health. My brother just passed away at 75. He was world-class artist who studied under Norman Rockwell, but he was also a gymnast and was the guy I looked up to. My father died at 95 — and he smoked 18 cigars a day and drank whiskey. But growing up, I started the interest in fitness, actually. After I started, many of my family members got involved. My niece is a world champion and my nephews all admired me growing up. They were always pretty proud of “Uncle Ted.”

You must have been a formidable bounty hunter.

I did it for 30 years and did quite well. Like I said, we had a 99.5% apprehension rate. That’s better than Dog the Bounty Hunter. In the ’60s, this was place was like the Wild West. I had more authority than an FBI agent and I had the full authority to go into any dwelling under any suspicion. If I suspected someone behind that door, I could bust it down. I could pull you over and take your car to chase someone else. But when I was younger I was a little arrogant. I think I took it further than I had to sometimes. As I grew older, the pressure started taking its toll. That kind of work takes its toll on your sleep schedule and your eating habits. The element of surprise is your greatest advantage, but I got into plenty of scrapes. I’ve been shot, stabbed, hit by a car, thrown out of a window… I still have trouble sleeping sometimes.

What are your thoughts on steroid use?

You know, it’s like anything out there — like smoking pot and graduating to heroin. If you do it in moderation and just be reasonable, it’s good for getting a jump start. But it’s also a falsehood, because when you stop taking them, you lose what you gain. Some guys start doing them and can’t work out unless they’re doing them because they’re dissatisfied with the results. I think that the best way to go about it is the natural way. If I had to impress two words upon people they would be moderation and consistency in training.

Over the years, fitness trends have come and gone, but yours seems more rooted in tradition. You don’t seem like the kind of trainer who screams and berates his clients.

You’ve seen trainers do that, hmm? Young guys, right? (Laughs.) I don’t do that. I still have a passion for this and I’ve got over 55 years of knowledge working with me. But with these trends you’re talking about, they have to sell magazines, right? They have to keep coming up with something different to sell you. That’s the American way. I saw one recently with this guy pulling these heavy chains. Have you seen this? Good god. But at least it’s getting people to the gym. But there are a lot of bogus things out there. I believe in the basics and the way it started. When I started, it was Steve Reeves. Remember him, the first Hercules? I just try to get people back to basics, starting with nutrition. I’ve never counted a calorie and have never been on a diet. I eat what I want to eat. This is part of my 50/50 plan. You can eat what you want to eat every other day — you just can’t pig out two days in a row. Every time you run into a problem is on the weekend. Pig out on Friday or Saturday, but not both. If you do it every other day, you’re body knows what’s happening. It takes two days for the fat to get stored. I don’t believe in diets. They don’t work. I’m sure you’ve seen people go on crash diets and lose 50 pounds and then gain it back. What I do is monitor and critique people’s eating habits and oversee a half-hour workout three days a week. It takes very little of your time to do this and you get guaranteed results.

And things must get particularly difficult during the holidays.

It’s the danger time. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, the average American gains 7 lbs. and loses four of it. So in 20 years, they gain 60 pounds they never get rid of. Every day, everywhere you go during this season, there are temptations to overeat or graze. Cookies, fruitcakes, sweets, alcohol — you really start eating and drinking out of boredom or to relax from all the stress. It’s a miserable time of year. I hate it. For me, the holidays were always a moneymaking time when I was a bounty hunter because that’s when criminals came home. My wife hates when Christmas comes around because I get so grumpy. She calls me “The Grinch.” But this is also a really strategic time for me and my clients. I’m with them every other day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve to give them some encouragement. It’s all about moderation. And remember that the short time you derive pleasure from junk food will stay with you much longer through your life.

What’s your own regimen like?

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I get up at 4:30 a.m. and I’m here by 5:30. I stay all day long with a one-hour break. But I work out five days a week for several hours. I like to be regimented. I think it’s something I picked up in the military. If I have a break in my schedule or something doesn’t go as planned, I don’t like it. I also bike, swim, and landscape. This place is very conducive to body building and exercising.

You work with a surprising number of senior citizens here as well.

Yes, both men and women. It’s quite satisfying to see an 80-year-old bench press 200 lbs. He has no confidence when he comes here and he’s bowling over with enthusiasm by the time he leaves. In three months, I can get an 80-year-old to double his strength. I’ve got a got a 95-year-old who comes here. I really enjoy helping the seniors here. And they’re so amazed by what they can do and the results they get. More and more older people these days are staying in shape, living longer, and improving their quality of life. I have a plan to get as many local seniors in shape as I can. I met Jack LaLanne when I was 19 and he was 53. Back then, he offered $10,000 to anyone who could keep up with his workout. I tried it and lasted for about 15 minutes. When he was 59, he swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco handcuffed and shackled. Being in his presence, you just knew that you were in special company. He had a 28-year-old German Shepherd! Dogs aren’t supposed to live that long. I think he died prematurely. He expected to live to about 115, and I think he could have done it.

You’ve won loads of trophies over the years. What’s the last title you won?

Mr. Space Coast Over 70. I’m proud of it, but after all those other titles, it’s really no big deal. And I don’t mean to sound arrogant. Many of the other guys competing were just no comparison. I just go at it a lot more. Most of them do maybe two or three days a week, but I put in five when I’m training for a contest. It’s a lot of stress to put on your body, but for me, nothing’s an effort. I just love what I do.

Ted Taylor’s gym is located at 73 N. Orlando Ave. in downtown Cocoa Beach. Drop in or call 960-7778 to make an appointment.

The Legend of the Seagullmen

How does one go about explaining the Seagullmen phenomenon? With great difficulty.

Conceived by brothers Frank, Chris, and David Dreyer and a group of close friends, the Seagullmen are a fascinating fusion of live music, performance art, cutting-edge theater, puppetry, 3-D film, and folkloric folderol.

Originally from Philadelphia, the Dreyer brothers moved to Cocoa Beach in 1977 when their father came to the Space Coast to start an advertising agency. “Each of us have been pursuing creative careers since we graduated from Cocoa Beach High,” Frank says, “and sometimes our talents are brought together on projects like ‘Legend of the Seagullmen.’”

David, the youngest, had been in bands since before graduation and has made his mark as a production designer for films, TV, and music videos in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Chris is the founder/director of the 3D Film Festival and has produced several movies over the years. Frank, the eldest, is a creative director/film producer based in Los Angeles and is also known as the performance artist Heinous Bienfang.

“Our professional careers have helped fuel the development of our artistic projects, giving us a chance to utilize each others talents,” Frank explains. “Even though we live in different cities, we all take turns staying in Cocoa Beach where our mother still lives. We’ve been helping her fight through stage-4 breast cancer for the last five years. She has a great support group in Cocoa Beach, but sometimes it gets tough. David has had to spend the most time back here. Our friends, especially the Mowreys, help her a lot when work takes all three of us away. Our mother, Angela, is a very inspiring person, courageous in her faith, and has always supported us to step up to what we think we would want to accomplish creatively.”

As the Seagullmen, the Dreyers and their comrades have created a local seasonal tradition with the riveting shows they put on each November.

We asked Frank via email to help us unravel the mystery of the avian heroes in preparation for their November 25 show in downtown Cocoa Beach.

It might be best to start off with an explanation of the Legend of the Seagullmen. Recount it for us.

This is a 400,000-year-old story with pirates, sailors, a rock band, and mythical sea creatures, officially qualifying it as a legend. The song, “The Legend of the Seagullmen,” go figure, tells the story. Four hundred thousand years ago, a league of pirates, led by Captain Red Beard, sold their souls to the Seagull God King, who in turn granted them an immense treasure and the power to live forever. However, just as Red Beard was reciting the chant, “We are the aire, we are the Seagullmen,” he was stabbed in the back by Man o’ War Man, who wanted the power and treasure for himself. The Seagull God King felt pity for the pirates and granted their souls eternal life as seagulls. So whenever you see a seagull on the beach it contains the soul of pirates long lost. Since that time, the Key has been hidden from the Man o’ War Man by a collection of sailors and pirates. Recently, the Key and the Legend were in possession of the Skipper, but that changed during a poker game gone bad at the lair of the Asian Pirate, which is located on an island off the coast of Cocoa Beach. The dying Skipper entrusted the Key and the Legend to Crusty the Sea Captain, with instructions to swallow the Key and give the Legend to a band of mercenaries waiting in Casablanca. The Skipper blew himself up rather than be taken by the Man o’ War Man and his Ghost Crab Army, and Crusty escaped. He made his way to Cocoa Beach, and being a drinking man, didn’t realize the Skipper meant Casablanca, Morocco, not the dive bar in Cocoa Beach. It so happens that a band called the High Voltages was playing at the bar that night, were mistaken for the mercenaries, and were told to travel with Crusty to the Seagull God Temple. They chartered a boat and followed the instructions of Crusty to become the new Seagullmen. Now, their arch enemy, Man o’ War Man, will stop at nothing to get back the Key and the power of the Legend.

How did you guys come up with the concept?

You may imagine that if you spend enough time in Cocoa Beach against your will, you either learn to love it or go crazy. The Seagullmen is all about doing both and embracing the subtle joys of our mythically world-famous hometown. We’re famous for a fictional TV show that was never shot on location here, for God’s sake. I don’t know if any of the three of us would be spending this much time here if our mother didn’t need us; we do have a love/hate relationship with Cocoa Beach. Imagine if Kelly Slater could only surf the waves here… He’d get quite bored. But it’s a great hometown. But with the Seagullmen, it’s mostly about David’s actual adventures playing with his band, the High Voltages, and how one night after a show at the Casablanca in downtown Cocoa Beach they met up with a crusty old sea captain who spun a tale of the Legend and gave them the Key to unlock the transformative super powers the Seagull God King gave them. Because they were a rock band, the powers come out when they play shows. You really just need to see the movie.

The story has been unfolding and progressing for some time now, right? Is it recapped for newcomers each time? At what stage is the Legend now?

As with all good long tales, the audience is introduced to the Legend of the Seagullmen at each show. How many bands start off a show with a 12-minute introductory movie? We always add more to the story every time we tell it. And if you’ve seen the show before, you haven’t seen the next one.

So it’s more than just a concert. How would you describe it?

The Seagullmen is a true 360-media phenomenon. More than just a band, it’s a story that is lived and told with film, video, music, art, and performance. The Seagullmen have cast a spell over the inhabitants of Cocoa Beach, and when they hear the music rise over the salty ocean breeze sweeping down Minutemen Causeway, everyone crawls out of their holes like ghost crabs to come to the show.

Who is currently in the lineup?

David, also known as “The Doctor” on guitar/vocals, Steve “Jewop” Caglianone on drums, and Dave “Gravy” McCullough on bass are the High Voltages. They wield the power granted by the Seagull God King to become the Seagullmen, and play their shows with Crusty the Sea Captain on keyboards and the Seagull God King on guitar. They must fight off villains like Captain Red Beard, Man o’ War Man, and the Ghost Crab Army. During the show, other creatures, pirates, and people join them onstage to help, including Manatee Man, who loves the Seagullmen but hates humans, as you can imagine. There’s Bloody Bill, the marine biologist who murders in the name of science, and the Asian Pirate… or whatever he is. Personally, I’m waiting for the Jellyfish Queen to make an appearance.

How did Brent Hinds of Mastodon come to be involved?

As a good friend of ours from Atlanta, Brent came with David to Cocoa Beach for some R&R a few years ago. He learned his true calling in life and is now a part of the Legend of the Seagullmen. His other bands — Mastodon, Fiend Without a Face, and West End Motel — are just excuses for him to travel the world and hunt for the Man O’ War Man. You really need to see the movie. It will all make more sense. Mastodon is playing the House of Blues at Lake Buena Vista on December 1. I highly recommend going.

Seagullmen shows have become a kind of seasonal tradition around here. How well does it go over with the Art Show crowd? I’ve heard some people were initially perplexed but were won over by the time it was all over. 

For the last few years, we’ve played shows on the Friday after Thanksgiving, before the Space Coast Art Festival, and they have been insanely popular. That Friday night is also big for the reunion crowd from Cocoa Beach High. We’re fighting with the City to allow us to hold our concert downtown, but it’s still in negotiation at the time of this interview. Each time the Seagullmen have played, they’ve overwhelmed the venue. Shows at Casablanca and at the North End Pub couldn’t hold everyone, and the bartenders are left crying in fetal positions after the show due to the massive thirsts of the crowds. Last Mother’s Day weekend we played an outdoor party in the field next to Mai Tiki and packed that place, too. I mean, you’re in Cocoa Beach, and if you miss the Seagullmen show, it’s like missing a shuttle launch — you have no excuse, just walk outside! If anyone was perplexed before a show it was intentional. That shouldn’t stop you from just showing up. Does a Ghost Crab ask what the hell that piece of dead flesh is on the beach or does it just start eating it?

What can people expect from the November 25 show? 

The band spent most of August and September in Los Angeles filming “The Legend of the Seagullmen Movie” in 3D with an expanded story line — so this will be much different than the last show we had for our “Seagull d’Mayo” party at Mai Tiki. So, 3D projection is in order, and we’ll have glasses for everyone with admission. (Please note: subject to be in 2D without notice…)

How long does it take you to prepare for a show?

Usually about three months to plan a major event, build the props, and make the movie. This time we’re going from a big show at the 3D Music Fest in Hollywood in September and Atlanta’s Little Five Points Halloween Parade and Festival in October to this show in Cocoa Beach on November 25. So we’ve been working on this show officially since August, but planning it since the day after the last show in May. It will take us all week just to set up the show and bring in the performers from out of town. Not to mention that the last 24 hours are usually spent with a dozen or more people not sleeping, just to get in all the last-minute details. Having it right after Thanksgiving means our whole family will be on hand to work on the show. I have four kids, and my wife and oldest daughter, Alex, help quite a bit. We hope a few of our cousins show up again. Last time, our cousin, who was the Sheriff of Atlantic City County, showed up unannounced and helped us with security… actually mostly with the authorities. The cost to put on a show this size is much more than any average band or event, with the props and equipment, not to mention the cost of making a short film. The citizens of Cocoa Beach have been very generous in their support, making it all worthwhile. And we hope to get a lot of ghost crabs to come out again this time.

What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve had to face for this performance — and past performances?

Projectors, Projectors, Projectors! Anyone have a 3D projector we can borrow to avoid us having to ship one from Los Angeles? Everything is done DIY, which can be liberating, but it also means that there are a lot of logistical challenges. But I think that spirit adds to the atmosphere. It’s chaotic at times and we don’t know what will go wrong, but after putting on shows and performing for 20 years together, we all know that anything can happen, so we just roll with it.

Tell us more about the film. And what does else does the future hold for the Seagullmen?

It depends on whether the Seagull God King wants us to spread the Legend more or not… In Hollywood this is also know as “raising the budget.” We’re satisfied with just letting our friends in on it, but we think there are a lot more people out there who need to hear the story. Most of the backstory has only been told in film, and we do plan on developing the current adventures of the Seagullmen as they do battle with Man o’ War Man and try to escape the revenge of Captain Red Beard. Most of these stories are told during the live concert, but in the future we could easily see comic books, a TV series, and a feature film. I’ll leave you with the chorus from the song, “Legend of the Seagullmen,” because if you read this far into the story you deserve to hold the Key: “That’s right, this is entertainment/We don’t know why, we can’t explain it/It’s the legend and the power of the Seagullmen.”

The Seagullmen perform on November 25 in downtown Cocoa Beach at an as-yet-undisclosed venue. Check their websites online — www.theseagullmen.com and on Facebook: “Cocoa Beach Seagullmen” — or check www.thebechsideresident.com for further details as they emerge. You can also see video samples of their performances and short clips of the planned film.

Bok Tower Gardens
• Vern Hobbs

This month, as we honor our veterans and observe Thanksgiving, consider a destination, not far from home, that represents one man’s gratitude to his adopted nation. Bok Tower Gardens, near Lake Wales, Florida, was conceived by Edward Bok as a symbolic gesture of appreciation to the United States for providing him with opportunities that transformed him from an impoverished immigrant into a wealthy entrepreneur.

Bok arrived in New York from Holland at the age six. Seven years later, with only a minimal education, he left school to work as a Western Union messenger boy, but soon landed a job with Scribner’s Sons Publishing. Through hard work and determination, Bok learned the publishing business from the ground up, becoming Scribner’s advertising manager, and later, editor of The Brooklyn Magazine. Eventually he founded his own company, Bok Syndicate Press, which produced The Ladies’ Home Journal. Though his achievements made him wealthy and influential, Edward Bok never took these gifts for granted. Striving to share his good fortune, he became a prolific philanthropist who established numerous charities. Still, he wanted to create a physical symbol of his appreciation to the American people, and believed that a place of beauty, serenity, and peace would be the perfect gift.

To create this most personal endowment, Bok purchased 250 acres near Lake Wales and commissioned famed landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead, Jr. to morph this pine-covered sand hill into “a spot of beauty second to none in the country.” Olmstead worked continuously for the next five years, creating a world-class botanical garden that is nothing short of inspired artistry. Seasonally arranging the native foliage, he insured that some portion of the park would always be in bloom. Terracing the gardens along the slope of the curving hillside, he created a pleasing illusion of depth and height far greater than nominal elevation rise would suggest. Bisecting these terraced gardens with shaded, meandering pathways and gently flowing pools, he created the atmosphere of solitude Bok insisted the park must purvey.

Edward Bok was no doubt pleased with Olmstead’s grand creation, but being a man driven to superlatives, he felt the park needed something more. Recalling the carillon towers of his native Holland, Bok resolved to complete his votive park with just such a structure — a singing tower.

Carillons, numbering fewer than 600 the world over, are not merely bell towers, but huge musical instruments in their own right. Bells of various sizes — 60 in the case of the Bok carillon — are positioned within a stone tower. At the base of the tower a mammoth keyboard controls clappers which strike the individual bells, producing resounding yet clear and gentle tones. Skilled musicians known as carillonists, themselves quite rare, produce music by striking the giant keys with their feet and fists. The result is a sound totally unique, and once experienced, totally unforgettable.

Olmstead was joined by noted Philadelphia architect Milton B. Medary and a select cadre of stone cutters in 1927. Edward Bok decreed that the crowning jewel of his garden would be no mundane or uninspired tower, but rather a magnum opus. Railroad cars delivered blocks of Georgia marble and north Florida coquina, as well as the one-of-a-kind bells, ranging in size from 16 ounces to 11 tons. Celebrated New York sculptor Lee Lawrie soon joined the crew, and was charged with creating sculptures and bas-relief impressions befitting the grandeur of the monument and celebrating the creatures native to its surroundings. The magnificent project was declared complete on February 1, 1929, when President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the tower and gardens to the American people.

Eighty-two years after “Silent Cal” spoke what were certainly few words, Bok Tower Gardens remain open to the public every single day of the year. Edward Bok’s inspiration, a quote from his grandmother, is spelled out above the visitors’ center archway — “Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.” Those simple words are the credo faithfully upheld by the professional and volunteer staffers that maintain the gardens today. Serenity embraces you the moment you begin to saunter along the shaded pathways. The cacophony of modern life recedes, supplanted by gentle fragrances, shafts of sunlight filtering through the leafy canopy, and the lilting song of birds. Just as you imagine the moment could be no more beautiful, the crystalline notes of the carillon waft through the air.

In addition to providing a place of respite from a hurried world, the gardens are dedicated to learning and environmental preservation. Garden Campus Programs offer interactive educational opportunities through universities and local schools. The horticultural staff has recently created the Endangered Plant Garden to showcase their efforts to save threatened native flora.

Bok Tower Gardens receives limited funding from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, but is sustained principally through private donations and memberships, and operates as a non-profit organization governed by a board of directors.

Despite escalating costs, admission is only $10 for adults and $3 for children. Fees are sometimes increased for special events, but throughout the year free-admission days recognize select groups, such as grandparents, and anyone is admitted without charge on their birthday. A gift shop is located on the grounds, and while The Blue Palmetto Café offers light, healthy fare, picnicking is not only allowed, but encouraged.

Autumn is a wonderful time to visit Bok Tower Gardens, and special events are scheduled throughout November. The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra performs their Sunset Symphony Fall Concert, November 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. A musical salute to America’s veterans is set for November 11, from 1 to 4 p.m., and you can join visiting astronomers on November 18, between 7 and 10 p.m., to observe the Leonid meteor shower. Thanksgiving is celebrated November 24 with a carillon concert from 1 to 4 p.m. Special events continue through December. Learn more at: www.boktowergardens.org.

In this month of remembrance and reflection, treat yourself to a Bok Tower Gardens visit. Stroll up the hillside until you reach the reflecting pond and stand before the splendid carillon tower. As the shadows lengthen and the sunlight plays on the marble, remember that this place was created — out of pocket and at great expense — by a man who simply wanted to say “Thank you” to a benevolent nation. In the presence of such a legacy it becomes impossible not to consider the many things for which we are individually thankful. For most of us, as it was for Edward Bok, the list is long.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Smokehouse Foods
• Tobin Bennison

It’s 11:15 a.m. when we arrive to meet Smokehouse Foods owners Wes and Jackie Meadlock, and the dining room of their Port Canaveral eatery is already starting to fill up. When we emerge from the kitchen after a 10-minute tour and demonstration of their indoor smoker, the line to the counter is twelve deep.

To say that Smokehouse Foods is one the most popular lunch spots in the Port is an understatement. This is the preferred stop of fishermen and nearby engineers on their lunch breaks, and it also attracts other locals who’ve been let in on the secret.

The Port might seem an odd location for an authentic barbecue joint, but regulars are happy the Smokehouse is somewhat concealed. Because here, hidden in plain sight amid a huddle of seafood grills and tiki bars, you’ll find some of the best barbecue in the county. When you learn that the Meadlocks also smoke hundreds of pounds of locally caught fish daily, the location starts to make a lot more sense.

Charters regularly bring in large catches to be smoked and vacuum packed here for safe travel. Customers get to keep half the catch, and the other half is kept by the Meadlocks and either sealed and sold individually, or turned into some of their excellent smoked spreads. In their large refrigerator case, you’ll find shrimp, conch, and salmon spreads, mussels, and golden brown filets of smoked yellowfin, mahi, tilapia, wahoo, amberjack, and kingfish. All seafood is slow-smoked on the Meadlock’s 500-lb. outdoor smoker; a 600-pounder inside is reserved for succulent chicken, beef, and pork, different cuts of which are also stocked in the take-home case. Choose from ribs, tri-tip, whole chickens, breasts, and wings, plump turkey legs, pork butts, Italian sausage, and even alligator.

Originally from North Carolina, Wes lived in Alabama for 13 years, so the Smokehouse barbecue style reflects a mixture of both those states’ traditions, in particular those formed in Eastern Carolina and Northern Alabama. As such, Wes uses vinegar-based barbecue sauces (used only after the smoking stage is complete) and tops many of his sandwiches with homemade coleslaw. As for the wood they use, Wes likes bay for its white smoke, the light, subtle flavor it imparts, and the deep golden color it produces. And we did find that unlike hickory-smoked meats, the Smokehouse’s is suggestively rich rather than overpowering.

A lifelong barbecue aficionado, Wes began to hone his technique in 1995 while cooking at Eau Gallie’s Charlie & Jake’s, which Jackie then co-owned. Now in this location since 1997, he and Jackie seem to have found a comfortable niche, and their easygoing, uplifting personalities have become just as famous as their fantastic food.

We tried one of the Smokehouse’s top sellers, the packed Smokehouse Ultra, a pulled pork sandwich topped with coleslaw, sliced pickles, jalapenos, mustard, and their signature barbecue sauce. We’ve tried a lot of barbecue sandwiches, but this creation, with its harmonious blend of tang, salt, and sweetness, sets a new standard. The Ultra and the Alabama Slammer (pulled pork, vinegar slaw, pickles, and spicy sauce) are two favorites with regulars, but the Meadlock’s fish tacos are downright legendary. Wrapped in a soft tortilla with cabbage, onions, tomatoes, salsa, and shredded cheese, they can be prepared with smoked fish of the day or smoked salmon.

The Smokehouse also offers smoked sausage, pork, beef, chicken, or turkey tacos, and wide selection of wraps — from smoked fish, tuna salad, and a Costa Rican veggie style with Lizano to ham, chicken caesar, tri-tip, and pulled pork. All meats and seafood can be served as traditional sandwiches as well. Also on the menu are five special platters, including things like half chicken, pork loin, wings, and ribs.

Sides include barbecue beans, potato salad, chips and pickle, macaroni and cheese, steamed vegetables, authentic dirty rice, and either creamy or vinegar slaw. There are two other intriguing sides here: Canaveral and Texas caviar, both of which are salsa fresca-style mixtures of fresh beans, vegetables, and spices. Brunswick stew and New England clam chowder are also on hand, as well as large chef’s salads, which can be topped with smoked fish, salmon, seafood salad, or any of their meats.

By the time we leave, every table inside is full and each of the four outdoor picnic benches has been claimed. Business should start to slow down around 1:30 p.m., Wes says, but he and his staff will just begin the real push, preparing more meat and fish for tomorrow. Smoking such a wide variety of food is demanding, exacting work, but witnessing this much enthusiasm for your final product has to be well worth the effort.

Smokehouse Foods is located at 525 Glen Cheek Dr. in Port Canaveral. They’re open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call in your order ahead for pickup — 784-9300. The Meadlocks smoke all their fish and meats on the premises and vacuum seal a selection in their refrigerator case for dine-in or take out. They also sell all of their own bottled sauces, as well as several other brands, and a range of deli sundries. Call 24 hours in advance for catering orders; Wes and Jackie can help you put together platters and a selection of side items for business meetings, weddings, and other large gatherings. Order well in advance of Thanksgiving smoked 20-lb. smoked turkeys and 6-lb. hams.

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Transylvania
• By Dicky Funston •

“… Sometimes, as the road was cut through the pine woods that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us, great masses of greyness which here and there bestrewed the trees, produced a peculiarly weird and solemn effect, which carried on the thoughts and grim fancies engendered earlier in the evening, when the falling sunset threw into strange relief the ghost-like clouds which amongst the Carpathians seem to wind ceaselessly through the valleys…” — from Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)

Had Bram Stoker never chosen Transylvania as the backdrop for his Gothic masterpiece, it would still be a strangely foreboding place. As it is, this mountainous region of northwest Romania is forever linked in our minds to the vampire myth.

Stoker himself never set foot here, instead relying on travelogues and secondhand accounts he found in London libraries for his descriptions, but he should be commended for accurately capturing the mystery of what was then — as now — one of the wildest and most misunderstood corners of Europe.

Girt by the Carpathian Mountains to its east and south, Transylvania contains the highest concentration of large carnivores in Europe. It is home to half the continent’s bear population and a third of its wolves. As early as 2004, two hikers were mauled by a rabid bear within sight of Brasov, Transylvania’s metropolitan hub.

Roughly 86 miles to the south, in Bucharest, Romania’s teeming capital, officials are at pains to downplay the threat of roving packs of wild (often rabid) dogs, the numbers of which are estimated to be between 100,000 and 200,000.

But it’s really in Transylvania that one feels the unsettling closeness of untamed nature. Elsewhere, societal order and civilization can be seen to encroach on the surrounding forests, swamps, and moors. Here, the opposite seems true. It’s as if the walls encircling many of the cobbled, medieval hamlets were built less for protection than for a delusionally comforting peace of mind, a kind of admission that nature will win out in the end.

Known as Dacia to the ancient Romans, Romania has long had a reputation for wildness. To a 3rd-century legionary garrisoned near the Transylvanian frontier, the embattled Welsh marches must have seemed a veritable Club Med by comparison.

In the centuries following the Roman withdrawal in AD 271, Transylvania bore incursions from Goths, Huns, Saxons, Slavs, Mongols, and Magyars before being put to the yoke by Ottoman Turks in the 1400s.

Vlad III, the inspiration for Count Dracula, was the son of a Wallachian duke who led a fierce resistance against these occupiers. Known as Vlad Dracul (or “dragon,” from the Latin “draco,” an honorific bestowed by the chivalric Order of the Dragon to which he belonged), Vlad III’s father named him Draculea, or “Son of Dracul,” shortly after his birth in 1431. It was much later that he earned the epithet Tepes, or “Impaler,” due to his predilection for the brutal practice.

Imprisoned in Turkey as a youth, perhaps as part of a ransom, young Vlad no doubt suffered at the hands of his captors. That he was regularly raped by members of the Turkish court is likely fantasy, but might explain why, years after his release and return to his homeland, he put so many of them to the stake in this way. It’s said he impaled between 40,000 and 100,000 Turks and Greeks for harrying the borders of his realm.

The practice was by no means unusual for a 15th-century warlord, but Vlad seems to have employed it with particular relish. Done in such a way as to avoid piercing any vital organs, victims might hang aloft in agony for up to two days before succumbing. However ruthless he may have been, Vlad ultimately succeeded in staving off a full-blown Turkish invasion during his fitful reign.

Today, Transylvanians regard Vlad as a mixture of folk hero and founding father. Mention of Stoker’s Dracula, however, is usually met with bemusement, if not outright disdain. Still, locals — especially those from Sighisoara, the town where Vlad was born — play along gamely in the many shopping and tourist districts, hawking vampire-themed mugs and t-shirts with a verve normally accorded to the sale of saintly relics.

Interest in Dracula accounts for a high percentage of visits to Transylvania, and Romania as a whole has come to depend on the income vampire tourism brings in.

After landing in Bucharest, morbid pilgrims usually head north toward Bran Castle, otherwise known as “Castle Dracula.”
The purported site of the fictional castle is open to debate — Stoker seems to have made it an amalgam of several citadels — but Bran does features several decidedly fanglike turrets in the midst of some breathtaking, heavily forested terrain.

Vlad Tepes’s real castle — or at least one of the ones he frequented — is miles away in the southern region of Wallachia.

Yet everyone here gives a collective shrug when faced with the facts of Bran’s connections; it’s been attached to both Dracula and Vlad for far too long to merit emending the legend.

Myths of all kinds hold powerful sway over Transylvanians, but the same could be said of any other people with strong ties to their land. It’s just that in Transylvania, somehow, the walls separating fact from fiction are, much like those surrounding the hillside towns here, put up as a courtesy, to delineate rather than defend.

And if the odd ravenous wolf skulks through the town gates in search of a meal, so be it.

This is, after all, his domain.

Terri McCutchan
• Tobin Bennison •

For Cocoa Beach artist Terri McCutchan, nature is “God’s palette,” a gift to be appreciated in all its forms.

Terri was born in Miami to parents who encouraged her creativity from the start. Her mother, an artist herself, was particularly supportive of her interests, and it was she who taught Terri to see art in everything around her. To this day, Terri credits her mother with opening her eyes to the boundless beauty of nature, and her work is still informed to some extent by the landscape and architecture of Miami and the Keys.

Terri’s first after-school job was a position at the University of Miami’s Art Museum. “I was invited by the art instructor to help assist her with the pre-school art program,” she says. “This was my first up-close experience with a gallery and it was love at first sight. I knew back then that I always wanted art to be a part of my life.”

In 1984, at the age of 15, Terri and her family moved to Brevard. In college, she majored in art while working part-time in the graphic arts department at the Florida Solar Energy Center. During this period, she also found time to volunteer with an art therapist who worked with the elderly, many of whom struggled with Alzheimer’s. It was an experience that
opened Terri’s eyes to the healing properties of art, but one that also pulled her in a new direction.

“It was at that point that the spirit led me on a different career path into the nursing profession,” she says. “My art was put on hold for a time in my life when my husband and I were also blessed with the gift of parenthood and our children. Being a full-time mom and part-time nurse was the priority.”

A few years ago, Terri’s husband created a studio space for her in their garage and encouraged her to pick up her paint brush again. Once she did, she fell in love with painting all over again and knew she needed art back in her life. Now it’s the beauty of Cocoa Beach that inspires her.

“Living by the ocean and being surrounded by all the vibrant natural beauty of the barrier islands is such an inspiration for my art,” Terri tells me. “Painting is my passion. It frees my spirit to feel one with God’s abundant beauty in nature.”

“It’s still a challenge to make the choice to let go and carve time out of my busy schedule to paint,” she admits. “But when I do pick up my paint brush, I know I made the right choice. My artwork is what helps keep me balanced. It refreshes me, and I feel so connected to God and his amazing energy in our environment.”

Terri also says that once she starts painting, her mind shifts to “a very personal space” where outward distractions seem far away. “I wear hearing aids and usually remove them to enjoy the quiet. Painting to me is a lot like meditation. It enables me to slow down, center myself, and see with a different awareness.”

Many of her current paintings are acrylic or oil translations of personal photographs that capture this sense of heightened consciousness. Beginning with several rough sketches, Terri then combines them until the composition feels right. “I will do a slight sketch directly on my canvas, then just dive into the canvas with my paint. Usually, before I finish one painting I’m already throwing ideas around in my head about what to do next. The interesting part is taking an initial idea, developing your own interpretation, and then seeing if they develop and change as you work through the piece. The end result is usually somewhat different than how I first envisioned it.”

Two paintings that best represent Terri’s technique and vision also happen to be among her personal favorites. The first, called “Livin’ Easy,” was inspired by a photograph she I took of her bicycle on the boardwalk at Lori Wilson Park. “Riding my bike on Cocoa Beach has always been a great way to spend a lazy afternoon,” she explains.

The other, “Summer Breeze,” stems from a snapshot Terri took at Rockledge Gardens. “The pathway leading you into the painting is so inviting. I gave the owners of the Gardens a print as a gift and they told me that the big coconut palm in the painting actually wasn’t there anymore,” she recalls. “It had been lost to a winter frost. So I felt it was cool to have captured the palm while it was once still a part of the landscape.”

Over the past year, Terri has been honing her technique by working with Renee Decator, one of her favorite local artists. From Decator, she’s learned about using complimentary hues and working from a limited palette of color. The lessons help challenge Terri to enhance her current style. “I’ve learned that being in the presence of other artists is very important to nurture your creative side,” she says.

As a member of the Brevard Cultural Alliance and part of their ongoing “Art in Public Places” initiative, Terri has displayed her work at Holmes Regional Medical Center and Space Coast Cancer Centers in Merritt Island and Titusville. Recently, she was also invited to participate in the Fifth Ave. Art Gallery’s “All 4 Love” charity exhibit, the proceeds from which went to the local Sentinels for Freedom, which provides assistance to soldiers returning home with life changing injuries. Throughout November, a collection of Terri’s work will be on display in the Cocoa Beach Library.

To view more of Terri’s work, visit www.terriartwork.com

Juice ‘N Java
• Tobin Bennison •

Ask a group of friends to describe the ideal café and it’s likely you’ll hear some wildly different answers.

What’s sure is that they’ll all find something to love at Juice ‘N Java.

Both expansive and suitably cozy, this favorite local spot pleases the social butterfly and solitary thinker in all of us. There’s enough room outside for a sidewalk patio, and plenty within for large and small works of art, a performance space, full kitchen, a wine bar, and a bona fide coffee roaster. In many ways, Juice ‘N Java is the ideal café, but it also offers so much more than just muffins and mochas.

This January, owner Jenny Pruett will celebrate two years in business, but it seems much longer. This must be due to Jenny’s positive spirit, which flows through every corner of the place — so much so that it’s hard to remember a time when she wasn’t at its helm.

Many will remember Juice ‘N Java’s first incarnation in the Bailiwick Mall, one block to the west, and the way it was under subsequent owners in its present location, but it’s under Jenny that the place has truly come into its own.

Characteristically, Jenny credits the original owner with having set a solid foundation for her success. The rest she chalks up to business basics and her strong sense of faith.

“This was just meant to be,” she says, citing the fortuitous way she came to learn of its availability, the uncommon loyalty of her beloved staff, and the warmth and swiftness with which locals accepted her.

“I know things aren’t great out there, economy-wise,” she admits, “but you wouldn’t know it sitting in here. We are truly blessed to have wonderful customers and to be part of such a great community.”

And giving back to the community is a central tenet of Jenny’s philosophy, as evinced by her support of local artists like Rick Piper and Sheri Stewart, who hosts children’s art classes and activities here from time to time. A bulletin board keeps regulars in touch with civic developments and events, and of a weekday morning, surfers and students can be found mixing with local politicians and businesspeople over coffee and smoothies.

But Jenny’s desire to make Juice ‘N Java an alternative to nocturnal, downtown enticements has ushered in a spate of canny changes here. Having recently earned professional barista certification in San Diego, she hopes to revitalize the café’s standing as an Eden for coffee aficionados. She’s also turned her attention to her wine bar and will soon introduce a revamped menu, which is sure to pull Juice ‘N Java closer toward the realm of upscale bistros.

A special “After 5″ menu will debut later this month, and will feature items like 6- and 10-inch personal pizzas, quesadillas, and nachos. What we’re most looking forward to, however, are some of Jenny’s flatbread creations. There’s a pear and Brie version, drizzled with a Balsamic glaze; a Venetian style, with pesto, grilled chicken, Roma tomatoes, and goat cheese; a simple “Vintage,” topped with grilled onions, oven-roasted garlic, and melted butter; and an Asian chicken flatbread customers are raving about already. Topped with chicken, grilled onions, melted mozzarella, sweet peppers, and an orange mandarin ginger sauce, it’s easy to see why.

The menu will also compliment the café’s well-attended wine bar with an artisan cheese platter, served with crackers and marinated olives, which includes wedges of vintage Van Gogh, Mezzaluna Fontina, Gran Cru Gruyère, Red Spruce Cheddar, and buttermilk Bleu.

Before 5, things are just as interesting. Choose from a number of spring-mix salads like the creamy curry chicken (with Madras curry, craisins, almonds, and honey), the avocado-laden Cobb, the Aloha (which incorporates coconut flakes, mango, and pineapple), and the Piper Crunchy, a perennial favorite named after Cocoa Beach painter Rick Piper. All come with a choice of over 10 house-made dressings.

Juice ‘N Java is also renowned for their deli-style wraps and sandwiches, all of which are prepared with Boar’s Head meats. Paninis can be made with sourdough cheese bread, multi-grain, sun dried tomato bread, or ciabatta. Two of our favorites are the Milano (turkey, Brie, mango chutney, creamy garlic aioli, spring mix, and tomatoes and onions) and the Ultimo, made with turkey, honey maple ham, roast beef, sharp Provolone, and pesto. They also serve excellent tuna and crab melts. If you’re ever in doubt as to what to choose, local favorites are handily indicated.

But breakfast is what many come here for, and their selection of bagels, bialys, and breakfast burritos is one of the best in town. You’ll also find waffles, granola bowls, oatmeal, French toast, smoothies, and of course, a full range of your favorite coffee concoctions made from their espresso machine. Coffee is roasted fresh every Saturday, and the comforting smell draws people from miles around.

More than just a café, Juice ‘N Java is a way of life for many beachside residents. It’s where they love to start their days – and now – it’s also a great evening alternative the next time you find yourself strolling downtown.

Juice ‘N Java Café is located at 75 N. Orlando Ave. in the heart of downtown Cocoa Beach. They’re open Monday and Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. (with live music from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.); Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. They routinely host special events, tastings, art openings, and offer live music on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Check their Facebook page for updates and scheduled events. Look forward to their new menu later this month, and expect wine flight night in the near future. They offer a wide range of baked-in-house breakfast treats and several rotating coffee flavors as well. Call 784-4044 for more information.

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Jillian Burghardt of The Rossetter House Museum
• M. Alberto Rivera • 

The history of the Rossetter House is the history of Brevard County. Overlooking the Indian River in Eau Gallie, on a property shaded with live oaks and sea grapes, this home has witnessed more than 150 years of change in the community.

The property was owned and developed by three different families, each of whom made lasting contributions to the county. When John Carrol Houston arrived in what is present day Eau Gallie, there were precious few towns nearby. It wasn’t until 1877, when commercial steamboat transportation became a reality, that there was significant growth in the area.

The Houstons called their homestead Arlington in 1859. It is believed that John Carroll Houston had his slaves build the first structure on the property where the Rossetter House now stands. From this site, he operated a refuge and staging area for blockade runners transporting goods from the Indian River to the St. Johns River during the Civil War. During the Reconstruction, Houston served as a Brevard County Commissioner while he and his family played hosts and hunting and fishing guides for wealthy northern sportsmen and naturalists. Houston also established Brevard’s second post office in 1871.

Upon Houston’s death in 1885, the property went to his daughter, Ada Louise Houston. The back portion of what is now the Rossetter House was built after her marriage to William R. Roesch, who went on to become Eau Gallie’s first Mayor and founder of the city’s first newspaper, The Eau Gallie Record. Sadly, five of the Roesch’s six children died between the years 1887 and 1895. They are buried in the Houston Cemetery nearby.

The current configuration of the Rossetter House now stands on the property James Wadsworth Rossetter purchased in 1904, and is restored as it stood in 1908. Rossetter’s fish company was one of the largest consumers of gasoline in Eau Gallie, which is how he came to be the Standard Oil agent for South Brevard County. When Rossetter died in 1921, his eldest daughter, Carrie, took over her father’s agency and ran the business successfully for 62 years, ultimately becoming the longest running Standard Oil agent in the country.

Dr. Ben Brotemarkle of the Florida Historical Society offers some insight into just how incredible Carrie’s feat was for the time. “She (Carrie) went up to Louisville, Kentucky, where Standard Oil was based, and she went to the board of directors of Standard Oil and asked to take over her father’s operation,” he says. “Keep in mind, this is a young woman, and this is within months of women having received the right to vote in this country.”

“The way she told the story is that she listened in at the keyhole as the board of directors went back and forth behind closed doors and finally someone said, ‘Let the little lady have it. She’ll fail within a year and we’ll give it to a man.’”

In 1991, Caroline and her sister, Ella, donated their family home and collection of Victorian antiques to the Rossetter House Foundation as a monument to Eau Gallie’s past. Visiting this beautiful home-turned-museum is a must for anyone hoping to get a glimpse of a simpler, less-hurried time.

Jillian Burghardt manages the historic site and was good enough to sit down with The Resident to discuss its unique appeal. After reading this, you won’t have an excuse not to visit.

How did you become involved with the Rossetter House Museum?

Historic cemeteries have always interested me, and I began as a volunteer about four years ago to help maintain the Houston Family Cemetery, which is part of the Museum. The craftsmanship and charm of historic homes and stories of the lives of the people who lived in them is always fascinating to me.

The Museum hosts various community events year round, from Santa’s arrival in December to an Easter egg hunt in the spring. Is there one you enjoy most and why?

All the events involving children are most enjoyable. It’s our way to connect with our community, to cultivate young children’s interest in history and the Museum through a fun family event. The fall “Trick-O-Treat Scavenger Hunt & Fall Festival Bake Sale” is one of my favorites. What could be better than costumes, hunting for candy and decorating a cupcake with the Cupcake Witch? Ahh… to be a kid again!

Featured fall events like the Ghost Tours and Witches Garden Teas sell out very quickly. What’s one of the more interesting stories you can share from the Ghost Tour?

The Ghost Tours are based on a visit by two local psychic mediums who shared their impressions of what lingers on the property. The tour includes our two historic houses and the cemetery. According to the psychics, we have energies on the property. One of the psychics saw the apparition of a woman hovering over the foyer in the Rossetter House. The apparition said, “There’s too much commotion in my house.” Others while on the tour have shared some interesting occurrences; someone heard the name “Sam” whispered in their ear in the cemetery. Interestingly, there is a grave, missing a headstone, of Samuel Houston there. Others have taken photos of strange mists and possible orbs of light. Also, strange voices (EVPs) have been recorded.

The Murder Mystery Tour has become a very popular event as well. Is it the same mystery to be solved each time? Who’s responsible for writing the play and who are the performers involved?

The Rossetter House Murder Mystery Tour is a family-friendly event performed three times a year. (Upcoming Mysteries in 2012 are set for March 17, July 7, and September 1.) The Museum staff and volunteers write the murder mystery, which is based on the “Clue” board game. We choose a time period for the mystery — the last one in September was set in 1943. Volunteers, some of whom are professional actors, and staff perform as suspects. The mystery is never the same. We change different aspects of the mystery, such as the murder weapon, the room, and who committed the crime. Upon completion of the tour you can solve the mystery: Who did it, with what weapon, and in which room. If you guess correctly, your name is entered into the drawing for our Mystery Grand Prize!

The RHM is special in that the items in the Museum are all from the same collection, and weren’t donated or acquired from various sources. What are some of the more unique pieces visitors can see on display?

In the Ladies’ Parlor we display a Victorian Brass Bird Cage with a bird in it that tweets. An item I think is most surprising to visitors is our 1931 Model A Ford, which is displayed in the small garage on Hector St. on the north side of the Museum property. There are many antiques, from furniture, books, china, and silverware to small collectables on display throughout the house. When groups of young children visit and we explain what the chamber pot that sits on the floor by a bed is, that gets the biggest reaction!

What is RHM’s role in EGAD (Eau Gallie Arts District)?

The Rossetter House Museum is located in the Eau Gallie Arts District and is the south-end historic anchor for the district. The museum one of the few remaining preserved historic landmarks of the town of Eau Gallie. As a member of EGAD, we support the revitalization and preservation of the District. The Museum contributes to and is evolved with EGAD events. For example, in November we participate in the EGAD Scarecrow Challenge and in December for the upcoming Razzle Dazzle event, for which we’ll host four holiday tablescapes in rooms throughout the Rossetter House. Also, participating in the Eau Gallie Founder’s Day Fish Fry, coming up on February 18, the Museum creates an eye-popping History Tent display, featuring a wall of historic photos of Eau Gallie from the 1800s through the 1960s. Also, our Ghost Tours, which run February through October, coincide with the First Friday EGAD events. Our participation in EGAD events helps to provide visitors with the opportunity to explore the many unique historic and cultural treasures the District has to offer.

The RHM has become increasingly popular with for weddings and private functions. Can you tell us about what’s available to people looking to host an event here?

The rental of the grounds and gardens of the House are available for weddings, receptions, and other events. Expansive lawns, a charming courtyard patio surrounded by gardens, and tranquil ponds create a vintage ambience for any special occasion. Fall, winter and spring are the most popular seasons for weddings at the here. We also provide private garden teas for groups or organizations (20-40 people). In addition, the Roesch Parlor is available to rent for small gatherings, parties, and showers or meetings. Tea service is available (maximum 20 people) as well.

The Historic Rossetter House Museum and Gardens, which is managed by the Florida Historical Society, is located at 1320 Highland Ave. in downtown Eau Gallie. They’re open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Ghost Tours are held every Friday through the month of October at 7 p.m. Reservations are required; call 254-9855. Cost is $10 per person. A Witches Tea will be held on Saturday, October 29 from 2 to 4 p.m. Wear your finest witch hat and enjoy an afternoon tea in the garden, tea leaf and palm reading, and a ghost tour. Call to make reservations. Cost is $20 per person. Visit them online at: www.rossetterhousemuseum.org

The Fat Snook
Tobin Bennison 

Back in August 2007, four months after the Fat Snook first opened, we raved about their excellent dishes, predicting they would set a new dining standard by which all other local restaurants would be judged. Four years on, the Fat Snook has fulfilled that prophecy well beyond those high expectations.

Four years is a long time for any restaurant to be in business, but when you factor in a lagging economy and the precarious future of the area, the span translates into several eons. That the Fat Snook continues to please a fickle, often cash-strapped public is a triumph in itself. That they continue to challenge our taste buds and still garner enthusiastic plaudits must be due to the courage and creativity of owners John and Mona Foy.

Ten years ago, many of us would have laughed a place that served banana polenta out of town and celebrated its retirement at Fuddruckers. Now, thanks to a shift in eating habits brought on by the Internet, increased travel, the Food Network, and innovative chefs like the Foys, we’d probably do the opposite.

As unlikely a combination as it sounds, the Fat Snook’s banana polenta makes perfect sense on the palate. Even though it’s just one component of their seared, jumbo scallop appetizer, it’s just as delicious on its own. Eaten with the scallops and a bacon-maple marmalade, it transforms a simple dish into a flavorful revelation. It’s also just one of the new items on a recently revamped menu that offers many such experiences.

With that, we had a wild blue crab feature with a chilled avocado purée, and house-made, sweet onion dill bread with orange honey butter. With so many permutations of flavors going on in just these three dishes, you’d be forgiven for expecting the odd clash or misstep, but everything worked wonderfully — so much so that you wonder why no one had ever thought of blending them before.

Other new appetizers suggest similar promise, and read like excerpts of psychedelic gourmet verse. There’s seared, island-spiced tenderloin in Jamaican rum sauce with sweet potato hash and crispy shallots, grouper cheeks escovitch, and grilled Harissa shrimp with cilantro mint raita, to name just a few.

Beautifully presented entrées follow this light and colorful Caribbean-influenced theme. Look for seared jumbo scallops and Florida Shrimp Newburg with jasmine rice; blackened chicken breast with black beans, chorizo, jasmine rice, Manchego, and crème fraîche; and pablano pesto shrimp with pumpkin cheddar grits and chorizo cream sauce.

Their Cuba Libre-braised pork belly (with yucca mofongo, jicama salad, and candied lime zest) was excellent, as was the catch of the day — in this case, a thick fillet of cobia — served with forbidden rice (a nutty, black variant of the grain) and a fresh dragon fruit and carambola salad. Both were fine examples of an approach that is highly original without ever seeming forced.

Other entrées include a grilled duck breast (served in a pinot noir-blackberry and fig reduction with duck cracklings) and a grilled salmon pinwheel with fried green tomatoes, mustard aioli, and a warm squash salad. Vegetarian diners can opt for the free-form goat cheese lasagna, and meat lovers will have a hard time deciding between the filet mignon, a Sriracha marinated flat iron steak (served with a bittersweet chocolate demi-glaze), and the 28 oz. “cowboy cut” ribeye, prepared with a Kona coffee rub, and guava barbecue sauce.

The Foy’s insistence on using fresh, local ingredients lends every dish a taste that’s hard to describe. More of a feeling than a taste, it’s like a slight electric shock — a pleasant jolt of life and vibrancy. Though the core of each recipe remains the same, notes and sub-flavors change according to the seasons and what comes freshest from local farms and vendors.

The Fat Snook recently expanded its dining room as well, and the sight of full tables from our vantage point at the bar was a testament to the loyalty the Foys enjoy. Trust is a hard thing to earn in the restaurant business — especially with recipes this adventurous — but the Foys pull the feat off effortlessly.

The Fat Snook is located at 2464 S. Atlantic Ave. in Cocoa Beach. They open at 5:30 p.m., seven days a week, and offer select draughts and a discerning list of boutique wines by the bottle and glass. Call 784-1190 to make recommended reservations. View their entire menu online at: www.thefatsnook.com

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Southeastern Arizona
- In the Footsteps of Buffalo Soldiers, Gunslingers, and Miners

By Vern Hobbs
www.flying-fish-creative.com

“Draw, varmint!” I said in a low voice, bent slightly at the waist, eyes squinted, right hand poised inches from my Colt Peacemaker. I couldn’t help myself!

I was standing in the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, the very place where the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday settled matters with Ike Clanton and his gang. Uttering a cliché derived from hours of sitting dangerously close to the black and white TV of my childhood seemed totally appropriate.

Our tour of southeastern Arizona, a pilgrimage to visit familiar places and rekindle old relationships, began a few days earlier in Tucson. Often overlooked as a travel destination, Tucson offers an inviting blend of cosmopolitan sophistication and southwestern charm. There are many things to see and do in the “Old Pueblo,” but two should not be missed: Old Tucson and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Located just 15 minutes from downtown, Old Tucson will have you saying, “I’ve seen this place before!” If you’ve ever watched a western, chances are you have. The rugged, cactus-strewn mountains provided the perfect backdrop for many films, convincing Columbia Pictures to construct their rendition of the quintessential Wild West town here in 1939. Such classics as “Rio Bravo,” “Cimarron,” and more recently, “Tombstone,” were filmed here. Despite the declining popularity of westerns, Old Tucson remains a significant filming location, and the baby-boom generation’s penchant for nostalgia has made it one of the southwest’s leading tourist destinations.

While Old Tucson is a “wild west fantasyland,” The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum brings us intimately close to the very real beauty of the southwestern desert. Best described as a zoo, natural history museum, and botanical garden all rolled into one, the museum provides interactive learning experiences that cement an appreciation for the unique ecosystems that thrive in this seemingly foreboding land. Ecologically sensitive trails course through the arid landscape, allowing visitors to experience the desert firsthand — seeing, touching, and smelling the diverse flora while observing the native wildlife in spacious, protective enclosures that replicate the animals’ natural habitat.

After our visit to the Museum, it was time, as Mark Twain once said, “to light out for the territories.” First stop: Fort Huachuca, to honor the memory of some all-but-forgotten soldiers. Logic (and a rental car’s GPS) would suggest an eastbound drive on Interstate 10. “I know a better way,” said my native Arizonan wife, Sally.

Highway 83 departs the more traveled I-10 just outside Tucson and winds through the hills and ravines of the Sonoita Grasslands. Here is the Arizona celebrated for some 85 years on the pages of “Arizona Highways,” the state’s official monthly photo album, known for its breathtaking pictorials from contributors like the late Ansel Adams. Yellow, diamond-shaped road signs displaying the black silhouette of a steer, and the written warning, “Open Range,” remind us that the day of the spring roundup and the working cowboy have not yet passed from these vast, unfenced ranchlands.

At the town of Sonoita, comprised of little more than a few ranch houses and cattle pens, we turn left on highway 82 toward Huachuca City. Halfway there, an imposing mesa flanking the highway’s south side induces that same sensation of déjà vu experienced at Old Tucson. Known locally as Turtle Rock, this promontory has “starred” in a multitude of western movies and TV shows.

Nestled in the foothills of the mountain range from which it takes its name, Fort Huachuca represents and divergence of the historic and the futuristic. Testing ground for the Army’s most sophisticated cryptographic and intelligence gathering systems, it seems ironic that this modern military installation began as a rough-and-tumble cavalry outpost. Established in 1877, Fort Huachuca was once home to the 10th U.S. Negro Cavalry Regiment, better known as the “Buffalo Soldiers,” a title of respect given them by the Indian warriors against whom they fought. Today, “Old Fort,” a quadrangle of stone barracks and officers’ quarters surrounding the cottonwood-lined parade ground, is preserved in memory of the Buffalo Soldiers. Their hard life and heroic exploits are showcased at the Military Museum, which is open to the public, free of charge.

Departing the Fort, we headed north again to follow the old stagecoach route to notorious Tombstone. Tombstone’s place in American pop culture has been indelibly forged by a century of cinematic renditions of the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Filmmakers have unanimously decreed the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday the heroes, standing for law, order, and American virtue, while the Clantons will forever represent corruption, vice, and general disgracefulness. Most historians, however, consider the fabled feud to be more akin to the gang wars of 1920s Chicago. Whatever opinion you favor, the physical trappings of the legendary shoot-out remain largely unchanged since that fateful day in the fall of 1881. The Crystal Palace Saloon, where the Earps and Doc Holliday gathered before going to face the Clanton gang, is still serving drinks. The O.K. Corral itself is preserved, along with the Bird Cage Theatre and the Cochise County Courthouse — all just as ol’ Wyatt would remember them.

While Tombstone was shooting its way into history, nearby Bisbee was rivaling the big cities of the east for wealth and opulence. Site of the Copper Queen Mine, which produced ore containing an incredible 23% copper content, as well as the most sought after turquoise on the planet, Bisbee literally became richer by the shovelful. The city fathers imported culture from back east in the form of operas, ballets, and the most popular stage performers of the time. They also built magnificent examples of Victorian era architecture that remain today. The Copper Queen continued to produce for an amazing 95 years, but by 1975 the resource was exhausted. Mining ceased and the local economy faltered, but like its neighbor, Tombstone, Bisbee was too tough to die. Today, the city is engaged in an ambitious renaissance, transforming itself from an old mining town into a modern center for the arts.

Circling the Chirichaua Mountains on highway 191, we took the long way back to Tucson so we could pay respect to perhaps the greatest figure in Arizona history: the great Apache chief, Cochise. Caught in the vortex of radical change, Cochise both fought and negotiated with the advancing European races, always seeking the best possible compromise for his people, and likely preventing their extinction. His final resting place remains unknown to any white man. Apache folklore declares that his distinctive silhouette took shape in the peaks of the Chirichauas. On the face of a splendid Arizona sunset, I saw for myself that the legend is true.

Ryan Speer
Tobin Bennison 

Unlike most artists who adopt aliases, Ryan Speer came up with his “Speerbot” character as a way to unite rather than separate his creative and private selves.

Conceived, according to legend, after Speer decapitated himself in a freak X-Acto blade accident while racing to complete an art project at UF, Speerbot is a capsule-like robot outfitted with Speer’s fortuitously preserved head.

But for the Satellite Beach-based artist, the character is neither a clever marketing gimmick nor an alter ego he feels safe hiding behind. Speer is Speerbot, and vice versa, and the human-machine hybrid was born out of Speer’s desire to embrace a pursuit he’d long resisted.

“As a kid I used to draw comic book characters, build animals out of clay, and basically anything else creative I could get my hands on,” Speer says, “but I didn’t really have much of an awareness of myself as an ‘artist.’ It wasn’t until I enrolled in the Fine Arts program at the University of Florida that I started to gradually become aware of this whole different world where you could sit around and take this sort of thing seriously.”

Even then, however, Speer existed on the periphery of the arts scene there due to a keener interest in partying. “Even though I was starting to explore my identity as an artist, I was never fully immersed,” he admits.

After graduating and moving back to Brevard, Speer became the creative director for 321 Agency, a Melbourne-based marketing firm. During this period, he describes himself as having “stumbled” back into art — that is, the kind of art Speer defines as “a direct reflection of self,” as opposed to the more detached approach graphic design requires.

“I loved the idea of being an artist, but I didn’t consider myself one,” Speer tells me. “Over the years, we (321) produced several art shows and the first, ‘The Fine Line,’ is when I started meeting a lot of the local artists around town — Derek Gores, Cliffton Chandler, Christopher Maslow, Jeffrey Noble, Matt Noble, Casey DeCotis, John Sluder, Dave Burton. The time period between ‘The Fine Line’ and the two subsequent ‘Robot Love’ art shows was when I first really started exploring art as much more than just class assignments.”

“Before I met those artists, art was something ‘other’ people did,” Speer continues. “As a kid and into my teens, I hardly showed anyone the art I produced. I wouldn’t say I was embarrassed of being creative, but I guess there was some sort of realization that something was somehow different about how my brain processed information. Meeting other people who were just as bizarre as me was what really unlocked the desire to take the creative things I had always been doing out of compulsion and to assign a purpose to art, which is for the artist to share his or her own uniquely screwed up way of looking at the world. That’s what makes art interesting to me — sharing your subconscious and being brave enough to admit how screwed up the stuff going on inside there is. We all know we have this repressed chaos hiding inside us; artists just have the guts to admit it, and even beyond that, to turn it into something they are actually proud of.”

For Speer, that proud moment came in 2010, when he created an intricate sculpture of Speerbot for the well-received “Robot Love v.2.0″ exhibition. Called “Speerbot in Its Natural Habitat,” it’s a piece Speer considers to be one of his crowning artistic achievements, and one he now regards as the physical manifestation of a strained time for him, both as an artist and professional designer.

“That Speerbot sculpture is a very important piece for me personally,” he tells me. “‘Robot Love v.2.0′ was an interesting time for me and everyone else involved. For many reasons it was a very tumultuous time, but it was also a huge turning point in my life. To be quite melodramatic, the Speerbot sculpture is a physical manifestation of this turning point.”

Up to that point, Speerbot was simply a sketch he’d doodle from time to time. After parting ways with 321 Agency, the character became something much more. Recalling the sculpture, Speer describes the “nature-meets-warehouse” scenery surrounding Speerbot. “(There were) little birds made out of newspaper and metal wire suspended high up in the air, grass and sticks I found in the back alley, and a dead tree. We used a massive scissor lift to suspend the tree from the concrete walls and ceiling beams … it must have been 20 to 30 feet tall once it was done. In a very weird way, the sculpture itself became like a living thing. My girlfriend’s daughter used to put a blanket over him at night to keep him warm!”

Now a freelance creative director, Speer uses “Speerbot” as the name for his graphic design company. It’s also the alias under which he creates the imaginative art he once kept separate from his professional life. As Speerbot then, Speer has come full circle with a diverse range of skills at his disposal. As well as being a talented illustrator, designer and musician, he’s also adept with photography, videography and music production, making him well suited to approach design problems from several different angles.

“A vague solution to a problem can sometimes be seen through the haze,” Speer says, “but usually by the time I’ve reached the final destination, I’m surprised by what I find. Each project is a brand new start, and because I never limit myself to certain materials or artistic style, the process is usually a unique process of excruciatingly rewarding trial by error. Each creation is a completely fresh challenge.”

See Ryan Speer’s work online at: www.speerbot.com. You can also see some of his art in the flesh at The Standard Collective in Melbourne Square Mall.

Lear Bunda Writer/Director of “The Space Coast” Movie
Interview by M. Alberto Rivera; Photos by Jason Maris 

Over the years, Brevard County has served as the backdrop for a number of space-related films. But in each — from “Apollo 13″ and “Space Cowboys” to the unintentionally hilarious “Armageddon” — the Space Coast comes across as just that: a backdrop. Rarely do moviegoers get much insight into the soul of the area, much less the people who live and work here. Local filmmaker Lear Bunda, however, is about to change all of that with “The Space Coast,” his first feature-length film.

One of Bunda’s first memories was witnessing the Challenger disaster from his bedroom window. The event affected him deeply, and he’s been fascinated by the space program ever since. “Me and a lot of my friends were ultra space enthusiasts,” the Melbourne Beach native says. “We’d follow everything about NASA.”

As writer and director of “The Space Coast,” Bunda attempts to capture the wonders of our unique environment the way only a resident could. Though shooting for the independent comedy is still in progress, it’s safe to say that many Brevard landmarks will play as prominent a role as the film’s space-obsessed teenager, Dustin, who struggles to fulfill his dream of becoming an astronaut against all odds.

“Dustin tries everything under the sun to get out of his small town on the shuttle, but he runs into obstacles like surfer gangs, police in the surfer gangs, the football team, and a father who enjoys partying more than his own son,” Bunda explains.

“It started off as a book about the 50 most ridiculous stories that have ever happened on the Space Coast,” he says, “but when I realized I was witness to about half of them, it was the perfect opportunity to draft a screenplay incorporating some of these events into it. One of the best things about the movie is that it’s drawn from real life. I always think that stories that happen in real life are way funnier than ones you make up, and this movie is filled with true stories.”

From the age of 11, Bunda has made over 50 short films informed by his childhood experiences and humorous observations. Now 28, Bunda lives in Atlanta, where he works as an editor for Adult Swim.

We spoke with Bunda there via email to ask him about “The Space Coast,” blowing up dishwashers, and unsung comedic genius Steven Seagal.

You live in Atlanta now. What do you miss most about Brevard?

As you may know, Atlanta is landlocked, which is sort of a nightmare not being able to go the beach after work or on the weekends. I try to get down to the Space Coast every other month. I genuinely miss the amount of nature you get to see and experience on a daily basis. Oh, and breeze. You all have breeze and it’s not fair.

Which Adult Swim programs do you work on?

I’ve worked editing at Adult Swim for nearly six years. I edit “Squidbillies” and “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” How do you edit a cartoon, one might ask? Traditionally, shows are made using storyboards and animatics before being sent to Korea to be animated, but that’s not how we do things. The producers record a script and hand me all the voiceovers for the entire show. Then they say, “See ya,” and for the next few months I build the entire show on my own — the action, the backgrounds, the timing, and the sound effects. Then we fine-tune until it’s ready to get animated. So what I put together is ultimately how it will air. I make, essentially, a very detailed moving animatic. It’s like making an infinity-piece puzzle. That’s what makes it so rewarding!

How did you first get into filmmaking?

I did TV production at Melbourne High School, which gave me access to equipment and an audience. I was only interested in comedy and it allowed me to perfect jokes and timing like a chef bakes brownies. Filmmaking is an art form that lets you share the way you way you see things, especially if they don’t exist yet or are ludicrous. It’s world building, and the Space Coast is a larger-than-life place where it’s normal for teenagers to build their own rockets and launch them into space off the beach.

What are some of the main challenges in working on “The Space Coast”?

It’s challenging to make this film with a low budget, which is essentially what I can afford. We have actors from all over the country I’m trying to get involved with the project, so it’s a real coordinated effort to get people here and on the same schedule to get some shooting accomplished.

Is it primarily a collaborative effort at this stage? Had you written everything beforehand or is it unfolding and changing as you go?

I had a sound, 90-plus-page script that I’ve worked on for about two years that I was really happy with. But once you get shooting I like to use it as a blueprint and see what interesting directions it can take while we do it. Actors make it come to life, so it’s good to give them the keys and let them run with it.

How much access do you have to the space center and technical props?

You’d think it’d be easier to get access to the space center, but they pretty much only help people out who are involved in movies like “Apollo 13″ and have a $100 million budget and a guaranteed distribution. You’d think they’d enjoy the promotion. But when life throws you lemons, you have to improvise. We’re going to be making a giant rocket out of dishwashers and free appliances we find off Craigslist. Then we are going to explode said rocket.

How many of your own experiences went into the character of Dustin?

I wouldn’t call it a biopic, but there are a lot of real elements about me and people who are playing themselves in the film. I saw Challenger blow up when I was four and the experience sort of stuck with me.

You mention that the idea for your film stemmed from a compendium of ridiculous Space Coast events you witnessed. What were some of those?

The most ridiculous stuff though was the surfer gangs — adults in their late 20s who would show up at high school parties with fake papers claiming they were STD-free. And these things would work… It was shocking. Oh, and I found a dead orca whale on the beach when I was like eight years old. It was in the paper and stuff.

At what stage in the filming process are you now? Is there a timeline for completion?

I shot a good 20% of it back in May with the talented Dana Snyder (Snyder voices the character Master Shake on “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”) and am currently in the middle of putting together an edit of what’s completed. The main actor at the last minute got into NYU film school, so we’ll have to hold off on shooting until he can get back. I plan on a serious shoot near year’s end when things cool down.

What are you in need of to carry on with the film? Backers? Technical help? Extras?

We will be needing extras when we go to shoot some of the larger crowd scenes. We have a really solid crew of industry professionals that are eager to take on a project this big. When we shoot, we can definitely use food. I’m looking for interesting props. Who knows, someone may have like a moon rover in their garage they’d let us use… We have a few private backers but we’re very interested in finding others who want to be involved at that level. We plan on bringing this to every major film festival and travel the country with it.

You’re a big fan of the movie “K-PAX.” What’s made you see it over 200 times?

“K-PAX” may be the greatest movie of all time. …But you’re only allowed to watch it as a comedy. Completely ridiculous movies that try to be serious amaze me because I can’t watch them seriously. A lot of times people never try to watch, say, a Steven Seagal film as a comedy. You should try it.

Any other films or directors you admire?

I’m a huge fan of Terry Gilliam, Kubrik, the Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Robert Zemeckis, Jim Henson, nearly every sci-fi film ever made, and all the “Saturday Night Live” films of the ’90s.

You’re a musician as well.

I’ve written and recorded a lot of music over the years. Making theme songs is a hobby of mine. We did a song a few years back called “In Melbourne” sung to the tune of “On Broadway.” The first line was: “Put your beer in Styrofoam and drive in Melbourne, beachside…” I’m currently recording an album for a new band I’m fronting called Spacewalker. It’s a space-themed indie rock/jazz/metal/pop band. I’m currently looking for someone who can make a space shuttle-shaped guitar that can have flames come out of the booster rockets.

Were you here for the last shuttle launch? How did it make you feel?

I filmed the last launch on the beach up in the Cape. I got a great view of it with a large crowd in the foreground. I felt like I was apart of the mission, having driven down for it and knowing I had once last chance to get it captured. I wouldn’t say I felt same thing the astronauts were feeling with all the gravity and whatnot, but it was pretty close.

Learn more about “The Space Coast” on Facebook and at www.thespacecoastmovie.com. View the trailer at www.indiegogo.com/the-space-coast-movie

Discovery Beach Cafe

There are a number of good reasons to try Discovery Beach Café — great food, very reasonable prices, secluded location with beach access, and a full bar — but the best is that you may get to reconnect with proprietor and principal chef Frank Morrell.

To say that Frank is a Cocoa Beach legend is something of an understatement. Originally from Brooklyn, he started cooking in 1956 while in the service, and got into the professional restaurant business 15 years later. After relocating beachside in 1976, Frank went on to open the CocoaCabana (now Gregory’s) at the Ocean Landings Resort and the first incarnation of Discovery Beach here on Barlow Ave. in 1990. But it was during his ownership of the iconic Dino’s on 520 that he first earned the adoration of locals.

Dino’s, which he transformed from a dingy dive into a classy, 3,000 sq. ft. supper club and jazz lounge, attracted residents from all backgrounds. Under his management, Dino’s was beloved for its effortless mix of upscale dining and working class warmth. When Frank sold it in 2007, many locals felt bereft — not so much for the closing of the place itself, but for the absence of Frank’s ebullient, big-hearted soul.

After enjoying a brief semi-retirement from the restaurant business, Frank took back the reins of Discovery Beach Café three years ago this August 1. Since reopening, he’s refurbished it extensively and peppered it with decorations and paintings many will remember fondly from Dino’s. He’s also put in a Boar’s Head deli case and has resurrected many of his fans’ favorite recipes, like his original Lobsteraki rolls, fantastic wings, and what I’d say is the best filet mignon in town.

It would be fair to say that Discovery Beach distills all the things everyone has always loved about Frank. And when he’s busy cooking (as he often is), diners can console themselves with the presence of his equally affable fiancée Mary Lacina, who has helped perfect the homemade soups and sauces found here. From the pepper Parmesan wing sauce and au jus that accompanies the French dip sandwich to the marinara that compliments the many Italian dishes found here, Mary’s efforts help Frank’s dishes shine the brighter.

At the Café, you’ll find a wide selection of lunch items — from hot dogs and hamburgers to salads, subs, and great sandwiches (like the club, a perennial favorite) — and appetizers that range from potato skins and alligator tail (!) to escargot and succulent Maryland crab cakes. As far as dinner items go, you’ll find steaks (6- and 8-oz. filet mignon; 8-, 10-, and 12-oz. New York strip, and 10-oz. top sirloin, all of which are hand cut), fresh seafood items (Frank’s seasoned salmon filet was fantastic), pork schnitzel, and authentic German bratwurst with sauerkraut, as well as chicken prepared à la Parmesan, Piccata, Marsala, or Francaise. The Café is very family friendly; kids can choose from a variety of smaller-portioned items.

If you’re not looking for Discovery Beach Café, you might miss it. Located at the Discovery Beach Resort at 300 Barlow Ave., the Café offers plentiful parking, an exclusive entrance by the pool, and access to the beach. There’s also an adjacent outdoor tiki bar set to open soon and a pick-up service window. The Café’s relatively obscure location lends it the kind of secretive status locals love having on their list of dining options.

Whether you’re looking to enjoy a drink in a quiet place away from the crowds, have a hankering for one of the best steaks in town, or just in search of a hearty deli sandwich, Discovery Beach Café is well worth the search.

Discovery Beach Café is located at 300 Barlow Ave. in Cocoa Beach (just take a left at the Dunkin’ Donuts on A1A and head due east) at the Discovery Beach Resort. They’re open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays from 11:30 to 10 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. (Closed Mondays throughout the summer.) On Wednesdays they prepare an outdoor cookout (to which the public are welcome) for hotel guests from noon to 1 p.m. (the Café reopens for dinner service at 4 p.m.) Lunch is served throughout the day and night, but dinner service begins each day at 4 p.m. Outdoor seating and a service window are available as is video game arcade for kids near the lobby. Check back with the Resident for news about their planned tiki bar. Cold cuts and cheeses are available from their deli case for picnickers. Frank offers many daily specials as well as themed-dinner specials throughout the week. Tuesdays see barbecued ribs and chicken, Wednesdays are Italian night, and Fridays offer fried haddock and shrimp specials. Order any dinner entrée throughout August and get the second (of equal or lesser value) at half price. Happy hour is held daily from 11:30 to 7 p.m. Call 783-1766 to order ahead. View their entire menu online at: www.discoverybeachcafe.com

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Dr. Ben Brotemarkle of The Florida Historical Society
Interview by M. Alberto Rivera

Nestled beneath the shade of several live oaks on the corner of Brevard Avenue in Downtown Cocoa Village, the Florida Historical Society headquarters sits patiently, waiting for you to stop in. Chock full of maps, books, memorabilia, and photo albums, the FHS is part museum, part research facility and library. Anyone wishing to do research for school project or personal curiosity is welcome to visit and make use of the vast materials and speak with a volunteer or staff member.

Founded in 1856, The Florida Historical Society is the oldest cultural organization in the state and the only statewide historical society. It’s dedicated to preserving Florida’s past through the collection, archival maintenance, and publication of historical documents as well as other materials relating to the history of Florida and its people. The Society also operates the FHS Press, which publishes a diverse collection of books, maintains the Library of Florida History with its extensive archival collections, and manages the Historic Rossetter House Museum in Eau Gallie.

Because history need not be a dry collection of dates and distant locales, the FHS sponsors events to make the past come alive by demonstrating the relevance of past events to our lives today, and presents a variety of educational public outreach programs, including the Florida History Film Festival and the Discover Florida Lecture Series.

Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is the current Executive Director as well as the host of the weekly “Florida Frontiers: the Weekly Radio Magazine of the Florida Historical Society” on local public radio stations. He was happy to sit down with the Beachside Resident and discuss the origins of the organization, its plans for the future, and all things pertaining to the Sunshine State.

Who founded the Florida Historical Society?

It was a group of folks from St. Augustine who were interested in preserving the history of Florida. They realized then we had a rich history that needed to be preserved. They started collecting documents and publishing articles about the history of the state and holding annual meetings — all things that we still do today.

How did you become involved with the Society?

I’ve been involved with the FHS since the late 1990s, first as a member when I wrote my first book in 1999. I came and spoke as part of their lecture series and started attending annual meetings. Later, I was asked to be a board member of the FHS and I did that for about four years. And then three years ago I was asked to take over as the executive director.

What are some of the more common things people come to the FHS for?

We get a real variety; it’s as varied as the state itself. This year we’ve had a lot of interest in the Civil War, because it’s the 150th anniversary of the start of that conflict. And a lot more happened than people realize. We played a vital role in that conflict, supplying beef to the Confederate Army, and there are interesting stories about the sinking of the Union ship, the Maple Leaf, on the St. Johns River. … The only real battle that happened (here) was the Battle of Olustee. That was the major conflict that took place in Florida. We get people asking about the early Spanish colonial era. The 500-year anniversary of the naming of Florida takes place in 2013. People are gearing up about that. There’s a big debate about Ponce de Leon and where he actually landed. There’s a sign the state put up in Melbourne Beach; this is one of the probable sites where he landed. Then there are people in St. Augustine who say it was there. … We get people interested in tourism, interested in seeing old postcards and old photographs, and talking about the old roadside tourist attractions. We get a wide range of people wanting to discuss pre-history tribes to Spanish colonialism and pioneer settlement up to modern tourism and the space industry.

What are some of the functions the FHS sponsors?

We have a lot of activities. Because our statewide headquarters is based here in Brevard, a lot of the things we do are based here in the county, but we also have a statewide presence. Our “Discover Florida” lecture series takes place about once a month for most of the year. We bring in authors of books of interest to Florida history. We sometimes show films and have had film festivals based on Florida history. We also operate the FHS Press, which publishes about ten books a year. Some of them are obviously non-fiction, but we’ve also published fiction that’s heavily based on fact as well. By talking to teachers and the general public, we find that publishing historical fiction setting makes it more accessible. For example, this past year we published “The Trouble with Panthers” by William Culyer Hall. It won the Florida Book Award for best popular fiction. And he was up against some popular writers. We’re very proud that he won that award and that he won the Patrick D. Smith Award for Florida Fiction. Recently, we published “Florida’s Freedom Struggle: the Black Experience from Colonial Time to the New Millennium.” We have a wide variety of subject matter with the FHS Press and the Florida Historical Quarterly, which is our academic journal. It comes out four times a year, and is the primary benefit of membership. We also manage the Historic Rossetter House Museum in Eau Gallie. It’s a great facility. … The main focus there is the history tours. We also do the murder mystery theater there. They have all sorts of interesting programs that have helped make it the anchor of the Eau Gallie Arts District. We also are the proud hosts of the Florida Public Archeology Network, East Central Region. There are eight different regions around the state .. our area is one of the richest in the entire state for archeological discoveries and research, most notably for the Windover dig. It happened in the 1980s. It’s been called one of the most important archeological discoveries in the world.

Where is that located exactly?

It’s in Titusville, near the intersection of I-95 and SR 50. Back in the early 1980s there was a backhoe operator named  Steve Vanderjagt, and he saw this round sort of brownish object and he realized it was a skull. He had uncovered not just one, but several skeletons. It was quickly determined that this wasn’t some mass murder gravesite; these were old bones. They brought in anthropologists from FSU, Dr. Glen Doren came down, and they realized these were some pretty old bones. They knew these were at least 300 to 400 years old. Then they carbon dated them and discovered they had uncovered skeletons that were between 7,000 and 8,000 years old. So this is 3,200 years older than King Tut and 2,000 years older than the great pyramid. It’s a significant find. And so they did three different archeological digs over a two-year period in the ’80s and discovered hundreds of ritualistically buried bodies. They were almost all buried in the same exact way and they were woven in some of the oldest fabric found in the world. These same people had used this site at a Windover Pond for hundreds of years and they did DNA tests to establish the familial relationships. … The anaerobic peat bog environment preserved the bones and the fabric remarkably well. They could determine what the contents of one woman’s stomach were. Her last meal was berries and fish. … We have a lot of Indian mounds around here. The mission of the FHS and the Florida Public Archeology Network meld so well, (so) when we had a chance to host, we jumped at it. We maintain our archives here, at our building in Cocoa Village. We have an incredible resource here with our publishing arm and archives. We have thousands of rare and hard-to-find, out-of-print books. We have maps dating back to the 1500s and postcards, photographs, and genealogical materials. Finally, I need to mention that from here we also produce our weekly radio program, “Florida Frontiers,” which airs on various public radio stations around the state.

I was going to ask you about the radio show and you beat me to it.

Even though we’re the oldest historical organization in the state, I found that there were a lot of people, even history teachers, who weren’t aware of the FHS. They would ask, “Well, what do you do?” So we had a real public awareness problem. I had a background in public broadcasting. I had been in public broadcasting for 13 years in Orlando. I knew the public radio audience and the potential audience, that there was a lot of common ground there. I developed “Florida Frontiers” as a half-hour weekly radio magazine with NPR-style produced features and some straight interviews. We started off with four weekly broadcasts and now we’re up to nine weekly broadcasts around the state. We’re all over Florida, in Pensacola, the Treasure Coast, and down into South Florida. We’re not totally statewide yet, but pretty darn close. You can also listen to “Florida Frontiers” on our website so you can hear it any time around the world.

You’ve had a myriad of people on the show. Who would you like to get?

We had Patrick Smith on as our first guest. We’ve had really well known people, Maya Angelou talking about Zora Neal Hurston and Tim Dorsey. But some of my favorite pieces have been some everyday people who lived here giving their personal history. This week we had women who, during WWII, took over jobs men traditionally held while the men were away at war. Some of those stories are fascinating. Stories of everyday people I find really interesting. I also enjoy speaking with authors and people who are active in archeology and researchers. We have a wide variety of people on the program. And we make sure we go all over the state too, to museums to hear talks and collect sounds from all over the state. We keep up with all the latest research going on. If something interesting comes up, we try top cover it. Brian Owens is going to be on an upcoming show. (He made) a brand new sculpture in St. Augustine honoring the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers, the 100 people who participated in the civil rights demonstrations in 1964. … Dr. Martin Luther King came there and called St. Augustine the most violent city in America. (It’s) ironically in front of the old slave market, so you have this market in front of the Bridge of Lions, right in downtown St. Augustine where human beings, African Americans, were bought and sold. … Many people say (the Foot Soldiers) helped lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, because the legislation was sort of stalled out at this point. Until the actions in St. Augustine gave it momentum again and allowed it to be passed.

What do you enjoy most about your work here?

I love everything about my job. I’m a big fan of Florida History. I like reading the latest research. I get the first look at some of these manuscripts. Seeing somebody’s book that comes to publication is always gratifying.

What’s your own personal favorite period of Florida history?

That’s hard to say. I find the whole gambit fascinating. The ancient pre-historic people are fascinating. … The Native American tribes, the Temucah, the Caloosa, who were probably the most artistic tribe. … The Spanish colonial period and what it took to come here and colonize this foreign land. … It’s all fascinating to me. But particularly here in Brevard County. It’s amazing we start with the pre-historic Windover dig and in the shadow of the Space Program, where every manned space flight this country has done was launched just miles away from this mortuary pond. From pre-history to the future, it’s all fascinating.

The Florida Historical Society is located at 435 Brevard Avenue in Cocoa Village. The building is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tune into “Florida Frontiers” locally at 90.7 FM WMFE on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. or at 89.5 WFIT on Sundays at 7 a.m. To learn more, visit www.myfloridahistory.org. 

Dr. Donna Ragona
Tobin Bennison

For many, medicine and art reside at opposite ends of the disciplinary spectrum. For Donna Ragona, the two share more natural similarities than dictated differences.

As a veterinarian, Dr. Ragona practices integrative medicine at her newly opened Animal Wellness Center in Cocoa Village. By blending conventional Western techniques with holistic Eastern alternative therapies like acupuncture, massage, Reiki, and nutritional-based treatment, she’s set a new standard for local vets.

As an accomplished artist, Donna is just as inclusive, combining classical composition with Native American symbology and a decidedly spiritual frame of reference. With animals as her principal subjects, Donna further melds her professional and artistic lives into an integral whole, one that compliments aspects of both to dissolve their limiting distinctions.

Born in Elmwood Park, Illinois, Donna always dabbled in the arts, but was especially drawn to animals and science from an early age. “The thought of becoming a veterinarian was always a dream I had,” she tells me, “however, I never pursued it until I tried other professions.”

After financing her undergraduate education by working as a sheet metal worker for the Air Force, Donna went on to become a successful kitchen and interior designer. “I enjoyed those jobs,” she says, “but they didn’t stir my spirit. I needed to to be fulfilled, and I realized that working with animals was my only true professional goal.”

Her early interest in art served her well. Financing her veterinary studies at the University of Madison by painting commissioned pieces and limited edition prints, Donna was at last able to see her dream come to fruition.

“I always turned to art as a child to fill my time,” she says. But it wasn’t until the eighth grade, under the tutelage of her abiding inspiration, art teacher Barb Wheeler. that her talents fully blossomed. “No longer did my artwork mirror the work of my fellow students. I lost myself in my work and it truly made me happy to draw. It brought me to a place where I could feel totally at ease.”

Then, as now, inspiration for Donna’s art usually begins during the wee hours of the morning. Though she admits that she has more experience with pencils and pastels, she began painting with acrylics just four years ago. “At first,” she recalls, “switching mediums terrified me. But the words of my art teacher and my children were encouraging. I try to set an example for my children. If I expect them to try new things, then I had better do it too!”

Explaining her approach to a new piece, Donna says that she first tries to conceptualize what she wants her finished product to look like. She begins by searching for reference photos and live models for source material, then pencil sketches the form before transferring it to a workable substrate. “I always start with the eyes,” she says, “because if I don’t have them right, I can’t move on.”

Ultimately, Donna is most devoted to bringing to light all the nuances of life around us we so often ignore. “The detail of a feather, the soft muzzle of a horse… This is what I think of when I have my brush on the canvas,” she tells me. “How can I bring this beauty forth?”

As far as other challenges are concerned, having enough time to devote to her practice and raising her children is the most trying. “I try to find a balance between the two because of my strong love for both. I do need to squeeze in time for my artwork too.”

“I’ve tried in the past to give up my art because sometimes it’s too much to handle everything,” she reflects. “But if I haven’t used my creative side or worked on something creative in a couple of months, I start feeling that something is missing”

Through both her veterinary practice and her art, Donna Ragona celebrates the unique human-to-animal connection. At her Animal Wellness Center in Cocoa Village (224 Forrest Ave.), Donna employs a mixture of both Western and Eastern treatments. In addition to caring for shelter animals from the Central Brevard Humane Society, she operates a mobile practice and offers client-patient educational seminars throughout the year. Call 684-7060 to schedule a visit, or log onto: www.cocoavillageawc.com. Dr. Donna is available for commissioned, original artwork through www.vetmedart.com, where you can view an extensive gallery of her creations. As an avid surfer, ocean lover, and Surfrider member, Dr. Donna will be be giving presentations on natural alternatives to animal healthcare and her paperless business practices at the Surfrider-sponsored “Green Living Fest” set to take place September 17. Check this issue’s “Word on the Street” section or visit www.spacecoastgreenlivingfest.org to learn more.

The Mothman Festival, Point Pleasant, W.Va.
M. Alberto Rivera

If all you know about the Mothman comes from that unwatchable snoozefest of a film starring Richard Gere, then take a moment to wipe it from your memory.

The legend of the Mothman, as it pertains to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is as follows: On November 15, 1966, two young Point Pleasant couples, the Scarberrys and the Mallettes, along with a younger cousin, Lonnie Button, were driving past the abandoned World War II-era TNT factory. They noticed two red lights near the old generator plant by the factory gate. When they stopped to investigate, they realized the red lights were the glowing red eyes of a man-shaped creature that stood “six and a half, maybe seven feet tall with big wings folded against its back,” according to testimony from Roger Scarberry. Naturally terrified, they drove to Route 62 where they were pursued by the creature at speeds of over 100 mph.

There were other sightings of a winged creature that same night and they would continue with increasing regularity over the next few weeks. Most people who reported seeing it never tried to cash in on or seek out publicity for themselves and their credibility has never been in question. On January 11, 1967, the Mothman was reported to have been sighted hovering over the Silver Bridge, which spans the Ohio River and connects the towns of Point Pleasant and Gallipolis, Ohio. It was seen repeatedly over the bridge throughout the remainder of that year.

It’s said that the Mothman appears before disasters in an attempt to warn people of imminent danger. When the Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, 1967, investigation of the wreckage pointed to the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain due to a small manufacturing defect. When it collapsed, the bridge was full of rush-hour traffic and resulted in the deaths of 46 people.

There are as many theories as to the origins of the Mothman as there are people who know about the creature. Some learned and sober-minded people will tell you it’s a specimen from another planet, escaped from alien visitors. Others back the claim that it’s the ghost of an Indian shaman. After all, the local Shawnee tribe used to adorn themselves with feathers to create wings for their Eagle Dancer ceremonial costumes. The TNT factory also happens to be built over a Native American burial site. There are enough “X-Files,” “MonsterQuest,” cryptozoology, “in search of” theories, both for and against, to fill several volumes of texts. So what’s a town to do when it’s been burdened with a strange legacy? Throw a party and have a good time.

Behold the Mothman Festival, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary this September 16-18 in downtown Point Pleasant. The Festival was started in 2002 by Jeff Wamsley, Carolin Harris, and the community of Point Pleasant as a response to the enthusiasm for the entity known as the Mothman. The Festival has grown exponentially since its inaugural event with visitors coming from around the world to attend. This year’s event will feature guest speakers, a hayride through the TNT factory area, vendors, live music and, of course, a Miss Mothman Pageant. An estimated 200,000-plus visitors come annually to the area in an attempt to get a glimpse of the elusive nocturnal creature.

Located at 411 Main Street in Point Pleasant is the Mothman Museum. It features movie props, a great selection of swag, information on the Silver Bridge collapse, including handwritten accounts by witnesses, and lots of different artist renderings of what people believe they saw. Around the corner from the nearby giant silver Mothman statue sits the Point in the River Store, which also has many unique shirts, hats, and Mothman-related regalia that can’t be purchased anywhere else. Run by retired trucker Robert E. Landram (who seems to have walked straight out of “X-Files” central casting), the Store is a great place to hear stories that will make you wish they rosary beads and holy water as well. He and his son Robert L. Landram are personable and well-informed on all things related to the Mothman. And when all of this still leaves you wanting more? Visit Village Pizza (3004 Jackson St.) and order, what else? “The Mothman Pizza.”

The nearby The Lowe Hotel opened for business in 1904 and is the oldest family-owned hotel in West Virginia. It sits across the street from the Mothman statue, and is well rumored to be haunted. ”I don’t mind people coming here because of the ghost stories they’ve heard, but I can’t guarantee they’ll see one,” says current owner Rush Finley. “I can guarantee clean rooms and good service.”

Finley admits he’s never seen any ghosts, but has heard guests say they’ve seen a small child riding a tricycle on the second floor hallway. Finley maintains a sense of humor about the stories surrounding the building and himself. “I’ve seen where people refer to me online as ‘the Little Ol’ Man,’ which is fine, because I am.” He and his wife bought the hotel after retiring. Finley enjoys the fact that the Lowe is not another “cookie-cutter hotel” and says the part of the job he enjoys most is being able to give guests his personal attention.

Don’t let your belief in ghosts (or lack thereof) keep you away from the Lowe Hotel. The turn-of-the-century craftsmanship inside is extrordinairy. The staircase is made from Italian marble and the fireplace in the lobby was made with highly collectible Rookwood ceramics. To quote Mr. Finley, “Someone came and appraised the fireplace (and) told me it was worth more than the whole building.” The hotel also boasts several period pieces, such as the old-fashioned telephone operator’s switchboard on display in the lobby. The windows in the upstairs dining room are original Tiffany’s, installed when the building was completed in 1904. ”The morning light streaming through the glass is particularly beautiful,” says Finley. For rates and availability call (304) 675-2260 or visit them online at: www.thelowehotel.com

After the original eatery was featured on the Travel Channel’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” Hillbilly Hotdogs now has three locations within the vicinity. The original is located in Lesage, the second in downtown Huntington, and the newest store can be found just across the river in Chesapeake, Ohio. Adorned inside and out with country and junkyard finery, the menu offers more than 20 different types of hot dogs and the featured entrée/eating challenge: “The Home Wrecker,” 15 inches of all-beef hot dog stacked high with all the fixings. Consume it in under 12 minutes and you’ll receive a free Home Wrecker t-shirt; beat the current record and get your Home Wrecker free as well. The current time to beat, should you accept this ingestion challenge, is 2 minutes, 50 seconds. Hillbilly Hotdogs is definitely worth the 50-minute drive from Point Pleasant.

To find out more about the 10th Annual Mothman Festival, visit: www.mothmanfestival.com

Juan Arboleda
Tobin Bennison

You wouldn’t guess it from looking at the elegant, hand-carved signs he makes, but one of Juan Arboleda’s strongest influences is French graffiti artist Christian Guémy, more popularly known by his “tag,” C125.

Granted, Guémy’s intriguing use of stencils informs Arbodela’s separate series of pop art-inspired images, but Arbodela’s interest in the visual immediacy of graffiti and traditional signage fashions an unlikely arc between the two poles.

Born in Colombia, Arbodela and his family moved to Jersey City, NJ when he was seven. He remembers always having doodled from a young age, and took up painting in high school, where he first came into contact with the abstract work of Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. “My art teacher was an abstract artist himself and introduced me to other artists he knew in SoHo,” he reflects.

While continuing to paint, Arboleda began carving decoys and shorebirds with his father-in-law in 1988 and soon after entered into an apprenticeship with sign carver Martin McNulty in Wildwood, NJ. After college, Arboleda joined the Coast Guard as a mechanic and was assigned to an icebreaker stationed in Virginia City, NC. He traveled extensively throughout his two-year stint, often sketching sights and subjects in his cabin. “When I wasn’t working, eating, or sleeping I was drawing,” he says. “It helped kill the time.”

Arboleda particularly relished visiting European ports of call, where he picked up art books on the Old Masters and contemporary movements. “I’d get back on the boat and try to emulate the different techniques,” he tells me. It was after visiting these cities that he developed an affinity for Paul Klee and Cuban abstract artist Wilfredo Lam.

Settling back in Wildwood after being discharged, Arboleda continued making signs on the side to supplement his income as a mechanic. After his teacher McNulty passed away, Aroboleda took on his sign business part-time, honing the techniques that make the North Eastern varieties such distinct examples of a long and august tradition.

Since he moved to Merritt Island in 2004 with his wife Sherry and sons Corban and Nick, Arboleda has continued to create the hand-carved, gold-leaf signs that first earned him fame in back in New Jersey. Go to places like Nutley, Arboleda advises, and you’ll see why these gilded Victorian signs are considered art forms unto themselves. Often, the signs are just as important a part of the urban landscape as the old restaurants and bed and breakfast inns they indicate.

Working with prized wood like mahogany an d redwood, which he sandblasts to bring the natural grains to the forefront, Arboleda consults with customers to develop a hand-chiseled logo before embellishing it with 23-karat gold leaf. The results of 20 years of experience have earned him a wealth of local clientele. He’s made signs for Café Surfinista, R&D Surfboards, and celebrated painters Frits Van Eeden and Heather Everett.

When he’s not juggling sign work and a position with Brevard County, Arboleda’s busy working on a new series of black-and-white stencil silhouettes of famous subjects such as Picasso and Basquiat, along with images of musicians like Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. The bold simplicity of their form harks back to another of Arboleda’s curious influences, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. You can see a selection of these at the Pizza Gallery in Viera starting July 24.

The opening night reception for Juan Arboleda’s black-and-white series takes place at 8 p.m., Sunday, July 24 at the Pizza Gallery (the Avenue, Viera). To commission a hand-chiseled sign from him, email: juansignart@yahoo.com

South of The Border: Hamer, SC
M. Alberto Rivera

It’s hard to beat South of the Border for classic, roadside Americana kitsch. If you’ve ever driven on I-95 in either North or South Carolina, then you’ve driven past a billboard announcing the storied landmark and all it has to offer.

Built in 1949 by Mr. Alan Schafer, it was originally known as South of the Border Beer Depot. Situated adjacent to dry counties in North Carolina, business here boomed. A few years later, a 10-seat grill was added and the business was re-named South of the Border Drive-In. In 1954, 20 motel rooms were added and the name of the business was shortened to South of the Border.

Presently there are around 175 billboards located north and south from the Virginia/North Carolina state lines to the South Carolina/Georgia state lines. At one time there were as many as 250 from Pennsylvania to Daytona Beach, all of them designed by Mr. Schafer himself. Love them or loathe them, they are memorable and plentiful.

Here at South of the Border there’s the distinctive 97-foot Pedro statue standing adjacent to the Mexico Shop East and the Sombrero Restaurant. He stands 18-feet deep in solid clay and has become the well-known public face of SOB.

Whether you stop just to gawk and purchase some knickknacks from the SOB Sno-Globe — refrigerator magnets or your very own Pedro doll — or pull in for the night, SOB offers much more than anyone can process in a few moments flying by on the highway. They sell most anything imaginable, and then some. T-shirts, mood rings, beach towels, magnets, shot glasses and hillbilly couture — there’s something for every price range if not every taste.

Fort Pedro and Rocket City sell fireworks for those who are stuck living in states with unrealistic statutes concerning explosives. Here’s your opportunity to stock up on everything from sparklers to mortars with which you can display your patriotism and scare birds off your property at the same time.

Recently added is the Crocodile Conservation Institute’s Reptile Lagoon, which boasts the largest indoor reptile exhibit in the U.S. Nearby Pedroland has an assortment of fun rides just for the kids. Some of these diversions include a carousel, the SRV Reality Ride (a simulator), Mini-Himalaya, Ferris wheel, train, Quadzilla, antique cars, Red Baron airplanes, video arcade, and bumper cars. Pedroland Park also features two championship miniature golf courses with 18 holes each. There’s also an air-conditioned arcade if video games are your preference. The El Toro Arcade is located at the base of the Sombrero Tower, with others dotted throughout the complex.

Accommodations include a motor hotel with two pools, one of which is indoor and heated year round. There are 200 rooms available, all state of the art, built circa 1971. Wi-fi and cable are available in each room and continental breakfast is included in the price of the motel stay. For the more adventurous, there’s also a campground equipped with 100 hookups. Propane is available on the premises, as well as use of the pools and all the available facilities. Five restaurants ranging from fine dining to diner and fast food fare are all within walking distance. There’s also a drugstore on site and two full-service gas stations/service centers.

Very little of South of the Border is slick or gives the feel of the 21st century, but everything — every store, restaurant, and restroom — was immaculately clean and the staff were all refreshingly polite. There are people who grouse about the need for SOB to be updated and modernized, to which I can only ask the question, “Why?” The prices are reasonable. The buildings are well-maintained, and nobody needs a high-tech interactive Pedro. SOB comes from a simpler time, and should be allowed to exist in that unhurried temporal state.

When South of the Border gets mentioned in conversation the usual reaction is, “I stopped there as a kid,” followed by vivid memories and recollections. It has managed to maintain its distinct charm after all these years, and for those among the populace who don’t get it, just keep on driving.

Whether you stop long enough to fill up, stretch your legs, buy a souvenir or stay for several nights, there is only one South of the Border — and it should be experienced at least once in a lifetime.

For rates and reservation information call toll free: 1-800-845-6011, or visit them online: www.thesouthoftheborder.com

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Pastor Dan Bailey of the Seafarers Ministry
M. Alberto Rivera

Often when people think of sailors in port, the image is one of tattoo parlors and seedy dives where bar fights are more common than beer nuts. What else is available to a sailor disinclined to indulge in vices with three days in an unfamiliar town?

The Space Coast Seafarers Ministry is a non-denominational ministry supported by the Southern Baptist Convention, and their mission is to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the international crewmembers that visit Port Canaveral. Port Canaveral is the second busiest cruise ship terminal in the world and sees a great deal of cargo ship traffic as well.

Pastor Dan Bailey leads the Seafaring Ministry here and addresses the unique challenges of assisting a congregation whose members change weekly. There’s helping a sailor or crew member get in touch with distant relatives because of a birth or a death in the family, or visiting with crew member whose been put ashore to recover from an injury.

Pastor Dan enjoys the ever-changing aspect of his job and was good enough to help shine a light on what he does through the Seafarers Ministry.

How did you get involved in the Seafarers Ministry?

I was preaching in a traditional church and I felt I was preaching to a bunch of people who already knew the Bible pretty well. So I began to pray and talk to God and ask him to give me a place where I could go talk to people and minister to people who didn’t have a pastor.
I learned about Port Ministry and found a place in Brunswick, Georgia at a ministry there. I hung out with a chaplain there, learning what they did. I began to look for a place and this opened up in Brevard County.

How long has this chapter been around?

The ministry (serving Port Canaveral) has been open about 14 years. We used to have a small place off of Church Street. We’ve been here at this facility since 2001.

When was the Seafarers ministry founded?

The Seafarers ministry as a whole was started back in the 1700s by the British chaplains and pastors when the clergy used to go and visit the crews of the old sailing ships. The Baptist association with the Port Ministry has been around for the past 45 years.

What are the biggest challenges you find here that you don’t find in a more traditional ministry?

There’s a wide variety of needs we try to meet. We have crew members we minister to who are off the ships due to medical problems. (There’s also) the limited amount of time they’re here. We need to minister to them quickly. Then we also have to meet all the security requirements. There are security concerns with the badging, making sure that’s done properly.

Like what kinds of needs? When they come to you spiritually, what are some of the more common concerns?

Sometimes they are dealing with guilt. They’re away from their home 8 to 9 months at a time. Sometimes they get involved in relationships and they feel guilty. They’re married. So we get to talk to them about forgiveness through Jesus. Other problems they face is they get discouraged. They get depressed. They need to be reassured that God is there with them and for them. Encourage them to read their Bibles and to pray. Sometimes just being there to listen to them helps.

You’re dealing with a lot of different cultures and religions. Do they ever have any prejudice or preconceived notions about you?

Yes. Some of them are suspicious as to what we’re doing and why we’re doing it for free. They have ideas about America, Americans, and Christians. So it’s satisfying to see them change their views and even tell us… After we’ve become friends, they’ve changed their minds about us. They discover we have a lot in common. That people are basically people… We found that Muslims and Hindus are pretty receptive. We explain to them, that when we pray, we pray in the name of Jesus. When they need prayer they don’t seem to mind. They find comfort in someone else willing to pray over their particular needs. That’s usually their response.

How do you get around the language barriers?

Sometimes we’ll have a volunteer come in and help us out. But usually on the cargo ships they have at least one person who knows English well enough. And sometimes you just need a few words or a gesture and that’s enough.

Have you seen any changes in any of the individuals who come through here regularly?

We saw 25 people accept Christ last year. We had a Muslim guy here recently. He’d been hurt and spent over a month in a hotel recovering. We helped him with phone cards do he could call home while he was laid up. Initially he was aloof and suspicious of us. Then, after a while, he realized we just wanted to help him and be his friend. He ended up coming to church with us in Merritt Island and started coming to chapel services here. He had a change of heart and he became a Christian before he headed home. His name was Yusuf.

Do you see any significant differences between the crews on the cargo ships versus those from cruise ships?

Pretty much the same. With the cargo ships there are more language difficulties. On a cruise ship they have to be able to speak English, at least well enough to instruct a passenger on how to get off the ship in the time of emergency. On a cargo ship, they tend to not have as much money and are more likely to get some used clothing, whereas the cruise ship personnel will go to the mall and buy what they need new. They all have the same basic human needs – a desire for acceptance and love and to communicate with their families back home. It’s a chance to rest and relax away from the pressure of the ship.

What do you enjoy most about this type of ministry?

Meeting different people from all around the world. I enjoy the honesty of the crew members. They’re very straightforward with you. You know where you stand. When they realize we’re trying to help them, they see that genuineness. There’s a real appreciation. They express their thanks.

Can you tell me about this facility you have here? If I were a sailor just into port, what would I find here?

We provide free transportation to and from the ministry, and also to the mall and Walmart. We have 17 computers with Internet connections they can use as well as Wi-Fi for those who have their own laptops. We sell phone cards and phones that they can use to call home. We have different churches that bring in food so they can have a free lunch. There’s always coffee and cookies for them to snack on. There’s a clothes closet for those that need to pick up second hand clothing, and there are billiard tables and basketball hoops outside so they can blow off some steam.

What do you see are the challenges for the immediate future?

We have some plans to expand the back porch and add a deck. Funds are becoming a problem right now. Only three of us are paid. The rest are volunteers, which helps to keep costs down. We’re looking for ways to provide for the increasing number of crew members coming to Port Canaveral. As the Port grows, we’re expecting more crew members come and visit us here. I’m very, very thankful for the volunteers who give their time to make this place a successful hospitality center for the crew members. I’m also thankful for the funds and resources people and churches give that allow us to offer these services to crew members for free.

Marco & Cinta Auddino’s
Tobin Bennison

In the interest of furthering the development of the beachside community, I’ve long thought of opening a bakery. Not the quaint, nibbly variety you find in college towns mind you, but a European-style outfit, or the kind of blue-collar café hybrid you find in Italian-American areas throughout the North East.

The one thing keeping me from seeing my dream become a reality, however, isn’t my lack of funds, but the simple fact that I can’t baker worth a damn. Oh, I’ve whipped together a few yeasty things resembling loaves, but only after several years worth of mistakes. What I’d need, I realized, was the pedigree, the experience of at least a generation behind me. This project would take a while…

Thankfully, for the sake of beachside residents, Marco and Jacinta “Cinta” Auddino beat me to it.

It’s hard to compete with a guy whose first toy was a ball of dough. Marco Auddino’s father, Mike (or “Bubba” to his family), started his own bakery in Columbus, Ohio in 1968 with the help of a $500 bank loan. With that money, Mike bought some equipment, including a Hobart mixer (which is still in use), an oven, and a display case, and rented out a 500 sq. ft. space to begin practicing the art he studied in Europe. Originally from the Calabria region of Italy, Mike oversees Columbus’s largest privately-owned bakery, a cultural landmark with on-site flour silos that occupies an entire city block.

It was there that Marco learned the craft of baking from an early age. Though his two brothers and mother still work with the Auddino patriarch at the original location, Marco and Cinta decided to open their own bakery here in Port Canaveral after falling in love with the area while on their 2006 honeymoon. Following extensive remodeling of the space they found, installing a water purifier, and meticulously adapting old recipes to match the new warmer climate and lower elevation, Marco and Cinta opened their doors in May of last year.

Here at the spacious facility, Marco has the ability to produce over 1,000 dozen pieces of dough and hour and bake 100 dozen every 10 minutes — 600 dozen in an hour. He delivers his creations, which cover everything from Italian loaves, cookies, and pastries to Kaiser rolls, onion buns, and focaccia, to a number of local restaurants, including Milliken’s Reef, Discovery Cove, Drifters Subs, Juice N’ Java Café, and the King’s Duck Inn in Merritt Island. Another client, Fishlips, saw their bread and roll sales increase 35% since using Auddino’s versions.

But the really interesting thing about Auddino’s is the way they wed the efficiency of mass production with the relaxed atmosphere of a small-town café eatery. In the morning, at the long counter and tables within, locals enjoy authentic espresso and cappuccino, excellent fresh-baked doughnuts and pastries (including fried croissants, a Columbus specialty), and come back later for fresh subs and sandwiches, pizza, and Cinta’s baked pasta.

Pizzas come in two sizes — 7″ and 14″ — with toppings like pepperoni, onion, sausage, bacon, ham, pepperoncini, and sliced tomatoes. Our pizza dough was perfect — yielding, elastic, and crisp at the same time — and leaving the crust on the plate was simply not an option. What’s more, the Auddinos make a pie that’s flavorful all the way through — from the sauce to down to the the crust. The same hold true for their hot sausage and meatball subs, as well as the Italian, which includes capicola, pepperoni, ham, salami, pepperoncini, Provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, and Italian dressing.

The prize though, has got to go to their muffuletta, a fantastic sandwich comprised mortadella, salami, capicola, ham, onion, pepperoncini, Provolone, and oil and vinegar dressing between two pieces of olive tapenade-spread focaccia. If it’s a mouthful to describe, it’s even more of one to consume, but the delightful mingling of flavors has made it one of Auddino’s most popular items. It’s a perennial special here, along with several other rotating items like eggplant Parmigiana and lasagna.

It’s hard to leave without sampling a few of the beautiful treats in the dessert case, a collection that covers a whole range of influences and styles. If you’re not drawn to several flavors of authentic gelato and granita, choose from staples like cookies, brownies, cream puff and horns, fritters, turnovers, and cheesecake to hard-to-find traditional items like delicate sfogliatelle, amaretti, biscotti, pizzelles, Napoleons, cannoli, tiramisu, and cassata cake. Cinta, who learned baking from Marco’s father as well, shows impressive skill with the hand-decorated cakes she bakes for special events and occasions. Cinta often puts together colorful pastry and cookie trays for up to 50 people.

Marco and Cinta’s is also an incredibly friendly place, exactly the kind of spot I envisioned for the area. And they do it so much better than I ever could have.

Drop in and try them out. You won’t regret it.

Marco and Cinta Auddino’s Italian Bakery is located at 523 Glen Cheek Dr. in Port Canaveral. They’re open Tuesday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays from 7 p.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Mondays. The Auddino’s can also cater any event, large or small. Call to order in for pick up: (321) 205-1210.

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Ideally, good restaurants should provide something much more than just edible sustenance.

Our favorite eateries certainly serve food we like, but we often return to the same place for a great many other reasons — the atmosphere, the people, and the comfort and sense of community they offer. We go to them to get our bellies filled of course, but we also go to feed our spirits.

Scores of locals and returning tourists agree that the Green Room Café in downtown Cocoa Beach is one such restaurant. More than just a place to grab a quick smoothie or healthy organic wrap, the Green Room is also a vibrant social hub, somewhere families can go for a meal, where school teams relax post-practice, or where yoga groups or vegan clubs gather for convivial meetings. The lure, it seems, stems from the positive energy the Green Room and its staff exude.

Message cards distributed inside explain the Green Room’s philosophy: that simple acts of kindness are contagious, and that however insignificant they may at first seem, they also have a wonderful habit of reverberating and multiplying. Recounting a time when a usually cheerful regular came in rather downcast, the card describes a Green Room server taking notice and buying the customer’s meal for him. Owner Deborah Wright noticed the transformation in his demeanor and seized on the idea of making up cards commemorating the moment to promote the café’s devotion to spreading positivity.

To Deborah, this event is part of the Green Room’s adherence to “the big picture.” “It’s about making the extra effort,” she explains. “It starts with the organic ingredients we use and the time we take to prepare the food, but it’s also about being kind to one another — both our staff and our customers. Much of what we do is not cost-effective from a business standpoint, but everything — from the preparation, the serving, and the locally, hand-crafted bowls we use and to all the recycling we do — is all integrated into the bigger picture here.”

This “all-in” sustainable approach has proved successful, given what Deborah reckons is “easily an 80% rate” of return customers. “We want people to come in and have a good time,” she says, “and to leave feeling full of warmth.”

That the Green Room serves some highly creative and healthy, organic-based dishes certainly helps as well. With an emphasis on sandwiches, wraps, homemade soups, salads, and real fruit smoothies, the Green Room goes the extra mile by providing tasty vegetarian and vegan choices and wheat- and gluten-free alternatives of each — including organic baked desserts from Heavenly Bake Shop.

Both filling and surprisingly light, Green Room wraps are what most folks come for. And though the lone true-meat wrap, “The Secret Spot” (made with black beans, brown rice, cheese, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and seasoned organic chicken), is easily its most popular, cranky carnivores are easily swayed by the vegetarian options that make up the fresh soul of the Green Room’s menu.

“The Yogi” (hummus, avocado, cheese, and fresh vegetables) runs a close second in popularity, but the six other versions (all of which are served with tortilla chips and salsa) are just as delicious. There’s “The Golden Fold” (brown rice, carrots, pineapple, sesame seeds, spinach, cabbage, and tofu); “Mavericks” (vegetarian chili, brown rice, and tomato and cheese); “The J-Bay” (corn, peppers, zucchini, black beans, brown rice and cheese); “The Bendalong” (grilled with cheese, spinach, tomato, carrot and mushrooms, and served with honey mustard); and “The Pure Life” (hummus, tomato, carrot, cucumber, spinach, cabbage, mushrooms, and baby greens). Another excellent choice is “The Bondi,” which derives much of its rich flavor from seasoned Quorn beef. Made from mycoprotein, Quorn does an excellent job of approximating the texture and flavor of ground beef. When its joined, as it is here, with black beans, brown rice and cheese, even the most avowed meat eaters will fall for its tasty charm.

Fresh sandwiches include “The Viejo” (a veggie patty topped with cheese, tomatoes, sprouts, carrots, cucumbers, and mayonnaise and mustard); “The Inlet” (Quorn chicken substitute, mayo, lettuce, sprouts, and tomato and carrots); “Spanish House” (grilled smoky tofu, Provolone, tomatoes, chipotle mustard, and veggies); two tuna choices in “The Oceanside” and “The Sunset”; “The Ruebio,” the Green Room’s tofu-based take on the classic Reuben, and the excellent “Local,” served with yogurt and built with peanut butter, banana, pineapple, cinnamon, brown sugar, and granola.

The Green Room wouldn’t be green without a selection of fresh salads, and there are five types to choose from. Our personal favorite is “The Zimzala,” comprised of baby greens, celery, Mandarin orange segments, and walnuts topped with slices of meatless chicken filet, goat cheese, and poppy seed dressing. They also serve fresh-squeezed juices, wheat grass shakes, coffee drinks, and house-brewed tea, and 13 styles of smoothies made on the spot, seven of which are prepared with Sambazon acai berries. Acai also plays a big role in the Green Room’s berry bowls, which are always a great way to start the day.

You can look forward to a new selection of “Weekend Changeup” specials on Fridays and Saturdays, but kids can always rely on the favorites made just for them — things like the “Go Bananas” (peanut butter, banana, and honey), “The Gidget” (cheese quesadilla with or without meatless chicken), and the “Lil’ Gremmie” (imitation chicken soft taco with cheese, lettuce, and tomato). Children here aren’t simply catered to as they are elsewhere in deference to their parents; they’re counted as customers themselves.

Much more than your average restaurant, the Green Room Café puts the “neighbor” back in neighborhood in ways you’ll be surprised to discover.

The Green Room Café is located at 222 1st St. N. in downtown Cocoa Beach. They’re open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Green Room also serves beer and wine and can cater for special events. Call 868-0203, or visit www.greenroomcafecocoabeach.com

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On June 30, the Space Coast Idol benefit series will draw attention to the Central Brevard Humane Society and the Animal Safehouse of Brevard, an amazing non-profit organization devoted to providing temporary safe placement of pets who, like their owners, need to flee from domestic violence situations.

While there are shelters for women and children, there are currently no facilities for their pets. Most women with pets will not leave their abusive homes if they cannot bring their furry loved ones along in fear of retaliation. Leandra “Leila” Preston, Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Central Florida and avid animal lover, founded the Animal Safehouse in 2008 after recognizing the desperate need for a safe place for pets who are also subject to abuse while their owners seek safety. With the help of a network of volunteers and people like erstwhile Resident photographer and “Pet of the Month” correspondent Kate Flack, who is also currently an agent with Perrone Realty, the Safehouse has helped approximately 75 pets and their owners since its inception.

The Safehouse currently relies solely on private donations and fundraising to stay in operation. “Friends and family help, and my sister’s and mom’s companies match donations,” says Leila, “and Brevard NOW allots funds from Take Back the Night each year and that pretty much got us through our last year, along with other help. Once we have our 501(c)(3) designation, we will then be eligible for and apply for grants.” And while they work closely with the Domestic Violence Task Force of Brevard, the Salvation Army domestic violence program, and the Serene Harbor Shelter, the Safehouse hopes to soon be a more solid component of the County’s domestic violence system. Ultimately, Leila and Kate would like to see one of the domestic violence shelters in Brevard build a kennel on-site.

You may have seen folks from the Safehouse at local events like Paws in the Park and Veg Fest, but they’ll have their greatest exposure at the June 30 Idol event at Milliken’s Reef in Port Canaveral. Organized by Kate, this local singing competition brings the community together while raising awareness of groups like the Safehouse. “The series spans several months and benefits several non-profits that all complement each other…a rather synergistic approach,” she explains.

We spoke with Kate and Leila about their extraordinary work on behalf of all victims of domestic violence — both the people and the animals that get caught in the middle.

Tell us about how the Animal Safehouse of Brevard first came about.

Leila: In January 2008, I read an article in ”People” about Christine Hartline from Rancho Coastal Humane Society and her pet safehouse program fostering pets for women in domestic violence shelters. I had been working as an anti-violence advocate and was involved with the Brevard County Domestic Violence Task Force at the time. As a domestic violence and animal advocate, I brought the issue to the Task Force and learned that there were no such similar services. I conducted extensive research and talked to other programs in other areas doing this work, and spoke with both domestic violence shelters and animal shelters in Brevard to envision the best approach and assess the kind of support I might receive from other community agencies. Essentially solo, I decided to let the local domestic violence shelters know that I would start taking animals. I solicited fosters and volunteers, but initially it was mostly me and friends and family members fostering. I was spending my own money and really just being an activist doing what I felt needed to be done. It quickly became clear I would need help, and Kate suggested using MySpace (since that’s what was “it” back then). Later, my friend Arielle Schwartz became an essential part of the groundwork of our organization. I would say I ran it solo for a year before realizing I needed substantial help, which is when Arielle and Kate became more involved.

Tell us about your role in the organization, Kate.

Kate: When Leila and I became friends in 2008, I had a great appreciation for what she was doing and wanted to help. My initial involvement was primarily listening to her vision, and I then used my tech-savvy prowess to jumpstart the MySpace page, generating over 700 followers. I have past animal rescue experience as an adoption/volunteer coordinator and foster and marketing person, and it just felt natural to help generate exposure for this cause. Mainly, I try to raise awareness, solicit volunteers and generate community interest and involvement. I have done so through creating the website (www.animalsafehousebrevard.org), maintaining a presence on both Facebook and MySpace, and coordinating with businesses and individuals in Brevard to participate in events that raise awareness, funds and volunteers. Such events include Fiesta Brevard, a large-scale community rummage sale, and the Space Coast Idol Benefit Series, which is ongoing. Right now, my primary focus is generating foster and transport volunteers that are so desperately needed.

What are your duties there, Leila?

L: Whatever needs to be done. My primary role (and focus) is handling each foster situation as it arises. A domestic violence shelter calls me when a woman is in need of our services and I talk to her to find out the details of her animals so I can secure a foster and, if needed, a transporter to pick up the animal from the shelter, or another designated meeting place. I am often also the foster and transporter. As Kate mentioned, we are desperate for these types of volunteers. On the front page of our website, there are links on the right-hand side for foster and transport volunteers. Arielle has been my right hand person for the past few years in terms of hands-on work, but she recently moved away for law school. Even from afar, she continues to help when necessary and/or possible. We’re currently seeking a core volunteer who can be hands-on at a moment’s notice to take Arielle’s place. For anyone attending college, we have a service learning program where students can earn credit for volunteer hours in both Brevard and Orange Counties.

Describe a typical day at the offices of the Safehouse.

K: A typical day for Leila would be grading 100+ papers while trying to write one of her own while she works towards her PhD when suddenly the domestic violence shelter calls. They have a woman (possibly with children) needing to flee a violent setting but she won’t until she knows her four-legged child/children will also be safe. This is what it is all about. The buzz begins: First text messages, then a Facebook blast, then several phone calls… Whatever it takes to find someone who can meet the woman at the Palm Bay domestic violence shelter to transport her pet to safety, and to also find a good qualified fit for a temporary foster home for the pet(s). Often, Leila ends up dropping her own work to do the transport. Staying up late to get work done versus the possible consequences of subjecting anyone to violence for a single second longer than necessary is a no-brainer.

L: (Laughs) That pretty much sums it up. We don’t have an office, really. My house is the temporary shelter for dogs until we find a foster, and often becomes the foster home. Cats are more difficult because I have dogs and am allergic, but my front porch often suffices or they stay wherever we can keep them until we can arrange a foster, which is typically within 2 to 48 hours. Arielle or I get the incoming calls, get on the phone and internet, and between Kate and the rest of our “people,” we get the word out very quickly and work hard until we have the animal(s) in foster. We are about as grassroots as it gets.

How does the retrieval process itself work?

L: It varies. Typically, the animal is either at the domestic violence shelter, with a friend or family member of the victim, or still in the home she fled. If the animal is at the DV (domestic violence shelter), we try to retrieve the animal as quickly as possible since the shelters do not permit animals. Me or a volunteer will go to the shelter, talk to the victim about her pet(s), explain our program to assure her that her pets will be safe, have her sign our contract, and then bring the pet to its foster. If the pet is still in the abusive environment, Animal Control and/or law enforcement typically retrieve the animal and meet us in a neutral location nearby so we can retrieve the pets safely. Sometimes I meet the victim with a victim advocate in a neutral location, depending on the situation. Some situations are more dire and dangerous than others. We have also retrieved pets from Animal Control, usually the case if the woman leaves in the middle of the night and fears for her pets’ safety, requiring an immediate Animal Control pickup. The DV shelters work closely with law enforcement and we work with Animal Control North and South shelters. Approximately 60% of the pets we take in are reunited with their owners, many within our 90-day contract period. Some stay around a bit longer, like the foster I had for over six months who was eventually reunited with her owner. Others are given up for adoption by owners who don’t feel equipped to provide for them given their current circumstances. Some are abandoned, as domestic violence survivors often return to the abuser before finally escaping (or being killed) and we find new homes for those animals, as well. We see return clients on occasion. We have driven to Savannah, the Florida/Georgia border, and Naples, FL, to keep pets and their owners together. We also shipped a dog to Oregon once. My easiest situation was a client who retrieved her dog within a week. The longest we have had an animal was nine months (two cats who were eventually rehomed).

What happened with the dog you shipped to Oregon?

L: We had a dog in foster and the owner called me to tell me she was at the airport in Atlanta about to go to Oregon as that was her only safe place and she had to flee the county. (Domestic violence abusers often go to great lengths to track down and maintain control of their victims.) She desperately wanted to keep her dog but had no resources to get it to Oregon. I posted a message to the national Pet Safe Havens listserv to drum up ideas and support and was given the names of various national organizations and individuals who would assist in our endeavor. I contacted various airlines to find the best rate for transport and used Animal Safehouse’s meager funds to purchase a plane ticket for the dog. The problem was that the airport was approximately 200 miles from the survivors’ new location and a snowstorm was underway. A man from a local breed-specific rescue transport group in Oregon drove through the night to meet the dog at the airport and transported him through horrible snowy conditions the entire next day to reunite him with his owner. Talk about taking a village. This was one of the most challenging tasks I faced logistically and financially, but it was also one of our greatest successes.

What are some of the typical problems you face from case to case?

K: Animals staying in the program longer than anticipated, lack of funds to properly vet the animals and individuals who return to their abusers. We have had to find new forever homes for some of the pets because the women either went back to the abuser or couldn’t handle the responsibility. That is the most challenging part — that and the fact that we never know in advance when we need to act. That one phone call takes a lot of courage and it may be the only one made.

How often do you keep in contact with some of the people you’ve helped, if at all?

L: I was initially keeping in contact with many if not most of them, but over time I have had to create boundaries and “let people go,” since I get emotionally and personally invested with each case. I have a couple of folks I still talk to from time to time, who call to tell me how they are doing, or sometimes call for other types of help. But for the most part, I try not to maintain contact since I deal with so many people, tend to be overly compassionate in general, and am just very busy with my various other responsibilities. (Ten minutes after the interview, Leila emails The Resident): Ironically, one of my very first clients (the person whose cat we drove to Savannah) just called me and we talked for awhile and I realize that, ya know, I do keep in touch with my early clients it seems. I guess they have been “grandfathered” in.

Any final words?

L: Definitely. Domestic violence is more complex than many people realize. It is generally dangerous and difficult for a woman (and her children) to escape. Economic, psychological, safety, and other issues play a significant role in creating situations that increase the danger and difficulty. Domestic violence does not affect one “type” of person — it transcends boundaries. Abusers often use pets as tools of abuse and control to manipulate and scare their victims. The most dangerous time for a woman and her pet is when she leaves, so acting fast and confidentially is essential.

K: If people want to help, monetary donations are preferred and the Central Brevard Humane Society (636-3343) is set up to accept donations specifically for Animal Safehouse to cover vet care at their new onsite clinic. You can also donate directly online via Paypal on our website. With our upcoming participation in the Space Coast Idol Benefit Series, businesses can donate gift certificates or any items that would be appropriate for raffles and silent auctions for our events, or even participate as a headline sponsor. Call or email me (795-7595; kateflack@gmail.com) to arrange pick-up/delivery.

Find out more about the Animal Safehouse of Brevard at: www.animalsafehousebrevard.org or on Facebook: “Animal Safehouse of Brevard.” The Space Coast Idol event benefiting the Safehouse and the Central Brevard Humane Society takes place Thursday, June 30 at Milliken’s Reef (683 Dave Nisbet Dr. in Port Canaveral).

“It’s the part that looks like a lobster claw,” my wife said, explaining Cape Breton Island’s geographic relationship to the rest of Nova Scotia. It was time to escape the equatorial heat of deep summer, and Sally’s Internet search for places cool in both climate and character had led her to NovaScotia.com, where the notion of a road trip had taken root.

“There’ll be seaside towns, rustic taverns, lighthouses. We’ll see whales, seals, puffins…”

“Puffins?” I interrupted. She had me at tavern, but puffins? Who wouldn’t drive around one of the most remote parts of Maritime Canada on the off chance of seeing a wild puffin?

Several travel options were appealing. If we wanted a real road trip we could simply hit I-95 North to Bar Harbor, Maine, then take the ferry to Nova Scotia. A variation of that plan involved flying to Boston and renting a car. Flying directly to Halifax saves a few days, some frayed nerves, and with today’s gas prices, possibly a few dollars. Most major airlines offer service from Orlando at round-trip prices ranging from $282 to $556. Non-stops are not available; all flights require an intermediate connection.

We were pleased to learn that an international driver’s license is not required to drive in Canada; our Florida Class Es and a major credit card were all we needed. It was, however, a good idea to review our auto insurance policy before leaving home. Coverage to plug up the few gaps we found was affordable and available from the rental agency. Canadian traffic laws are very similar to those back home. The few exceptions, such as no turns on red in certain areas, were outlined in the rental company’s brochure.

Following a relaxing night in a Halifax hotel, our road trip began. Three hours later, we crossed the Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island. Baddeck, our first overnight stop, was another 44 miles away, but the breathtaking beauty encouraged us not to hurry. Pristine meadows dappled with wildflowers and grazing sheep swept away from picture-perfect farmhouses and storybook barns. Simple, unadorned wooden churches, testaments to Nova Scotia’s protestant heritage, patiently awaited the coming of Sunday morning. Forests of shimmering birch and white spruce punctuated the pastoral landscape. The country was open, scarcely developed — no neon signs or fast food franchises as far as the eye could see.

We reached Baddeck as both nightfall and a fast moving storm approached. The gracious hostess at our shoreside bed and breakfast insisted we stay indoors as gale-force winds and heavy rains were forecast. The storm intensified through the evening, the wind howling and rain rattling against the windows. Despite the rising crescendo, we felt safe, even cozy, in the old two-story Victorian. We awakened to bright sunshine and a cloudless sky before continuing our journey. Situated on the Bras d’Or Lake, an inland sea connected to the Atlantic through a series of natural channels, Baddeck is a tiny town with a large cultural relevance.

Present day Baddeck was the spiritual center of the aboriginal Mi’kmaq Nation, and nearby Mniku Island remains an important First Nation pilgrimage site. French missionary Abbe Maillard was the first European settler, building a mission here in the late 1600s and establishing a tradition of peaceful coexistence with the Mi’kmaq that has endured for four centuries. Scottish immigrants began arriving in 1790, bringing with them a strong Celtic culture that remains to this day. Perhaps the most fascinating Baddeck resident was noted scientist Alexander Graham Bell, himself a Scottish immigrant, who constructed a summer home here in 1886.

Bell’s Scottish roots may have drawn him to Baddeck, but the broad, protected waters of the Bras d’Or kept him here. Remembered for his invention of the telephone, Bell also designed hydrofoils and was instrumental in the early development of seaplanes. The Lake was the perfect proving ground for his experimental water and aircraft, prompting Bell to attach a research laboratory to his summer house. Glenn Curtiss, Bell’s associate and test pilot at Baddeck, went on to found his own company and develop the first ship-launched aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Bell’s house and laboratory are open to the public.

Just a few miles north of the Bell home, the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts dominates the tiny village of Saint Ann’s. Founded in 1938 by A.W.R. MacKenzie, a Cape Breton native who was alarmed by the erosion of Scottish culture, the College is now considered the foremost Gaelic language school in the world.

Baddeck also marks the start of the Cabot Trail, a 185-mile scenic route around the perimeter of Cape Breton — the perfect road trip highway. Following the rugged east coast of the island, the Trail slices perfectly through that magical boundary between landscape and seascape. Every few miles we careened onto the shoulder, grappled for binoculars, and marveled at seals surfing the crashing swells.

Ingonish, a picture-perfect maritime village famous for fresh lobster, snow crab, and its long crescent beach, is the gateway to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Here, the Cabot Trail turns inland, but not before affording sweeping ocean vistas at Neils Harbor, White Point, and Dingwall. The informative Parks Canada website said sightings of moose and lynx were not uncommon in the highlands, so we proceeded slowly with eyes peeled. The Trail morphed from a coastal byway into serpentine mountain road before depositing us on Cape Breton’s western shore where the prominent Celtic culture gave way to something totally different.

On the outskirts of the hamlet of Chéticamp, a funky roadside café advertised “Moules et Frites,” marking the beginning of Cape Breton’s “French Coast.” Though proudly French Canadian, the locals here are quick to proclaim themselves, Acadian, not Quebecois, and may mention that their nearest North American cousins are more likely to reside in Baton Rouge than Montreal. In 1763 the British seized control of what is today Canada, demanding that all formerly French citizens swear allegiance to the English monarch. Many of the staunch Acadians of Cape Breton chose a self-imposed exile by migrating to Louisiana and adopting the less formal moniker, Cajun. Others remained, defying old King George by jealously preserving their rare heritage in language, food, song, and dance.

Whether of French or Scottish influence, music is a common passion throughout Cape Breton. In Ingonish we were invited to a caleigh at the Presbyterian Church. These raucous song and dance parties, often lasting all night, are a centuries old Celtic tradition. In Chéticamp, fiddles and accordions blended to produce jaunty tunes that celebrated Acadian history, told of life in this rugged land, and invited even the stodgiest party pooper to shuffle his feet. In Mabou, our innkeeper boasted of her nieces’ angelic voices. Only later did we learn that these girls were the Rankin sisters, celebrated vocalists who helped mold “the Cape Breton Sound,” a surging genre embraced by many American musicians, including Emmylou Harris.

All too soon our Cape Breton road trip was over. We had discovered a spellbindingly beautiful island, one inhabited by hardy people who are fiercely proud of their diverse cultures. It’s an island that welcomes you with songs, both happy and haunting. And yes, there were puffins!

Chris McCall comes from a long line of brewers and beer enthusiasts.

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, McCall put Cocoa Beach on the microbrew map when he and his wife Tracy opened the Cocoa Beach Brewing Company here in the summer of 2008. With solid roots in the South- and Midwest, he could have easily overlooked this humble beachside town as the spot for his popular brewpub. But like so many other visitors who fall for its charms, McCall instinctively felt that Cocoa Beach was the perfect place to live out his dream.

“I’ve always liked Florida,” he says. “I came to Cocoa Beach on a side trip when I was on a family vacation to Disney World. My wife and I both immediately felt like this was home. Cocoa Beach is just different than the stereotypical Florida beach town.”

McCall, who first began brewing beer at home in 1996, had been kicking around the idea of starting his own brewpub for several years before that first visit. “When I came to Cocoa Beach everything just clicked, and I said to myself that this was the time and place to pursue my dream.”

He and Tracy had come back to Cocoa Beach several times after their first visit, checking things out and looking for the perfect place to build their brewery. Ironically, the very first building they looked at was where they ultimately opened up. However, it took about a year of looking and negotiating on other properties before the McCalls finally came full circle and chose their current location.

“My favorite beers in college were Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale,” McCall reflects. “I had developed a taste for craft beers, and the idea of brewing a beer that was exactly what I wanted to drink really appealed to me. I had seen those ‘Mr. Beer’ kits and given the idea a lot of thought, but I wanted to do more than just mix some ingredients together out of cans.”

It was the passionate owner of a small homebrew shop called What Ale’s Ya in Glendale, Arizona who first helped McCall put together a recipe for a pale ale. “For being my first batch of home-brewed beer, it was pretty fantastic,” he admits. “I went back a week or so later and wanted to brew the same batch of beer again, but the owner refused to sell me the same ingredients and forced me to start experimenting with recipes. After that, I learned pretty quickly how little changes could produce different qualities in your beer and started perfecting beers to taste exactly the way I wanted them to.”

Years on, McCall’s cozy beachside brewpub offers three finely crafted beers on tap — one of which, the flagship Cocoa Beach Pale Ale, is a direct descendant of that very first specimen he brewed at home. That Pale Ale recently came away with a gold medal from the Best Florida Beer Championship, which is held yearly in Tampa. McCall’s two other entries, Not Just Some Oatmeal Stout and 888 India Pale Ale, both won silvers at the event, which judged over 100 beers in 12 categories from 30 different Florida breweries. Last year, the Cocoa Beach Brewing Co. produced 1,441 gallons of beer, and they’ve already brewed more than 1,000 gallons so far in 2011. With their recent expansion, McCall and his crew have the capacity to produce about 10,000 gallons of beer annually. All their beer is handcrafted on site.

Brewing is a very simple process that is several thousand years old. We asked McCall to explain his technique — without giving away any secrets. “Basically, malted barley is soaked and then rinsed in hot water — around 155 degrees or so. This make a very sweet, molasses-like tea which is then boiled for around an hour. During the boil, hops are added to temper the sweetness as well as add hop aroma and flavor, which can range from floral to pine or citrus-like. After that, the liquid called wort is cooled and yeast is added. Yeast eats sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Depending on the beer style, this takes from a week to several months. After that, the beer is then basically ready to keg or bottle and serve.”

“Our recipes are always kind of in flux,” McCall tells us. “We have about 15 of them right now that we serve from time to time. We try to maintain consistency in our Cocoa Beach Pale Ale, Not Just Some Oatmeal Stout, and 888 India Pale Ale, however. All of our beers are a little bolder and hoppier than other beers. Our Cocoa Beach Pale Ale, for example, is a little too bold and hoppy to fit into the traditional guidelines for an American Pale Ale. Our India Pale Ales are off the chart. But we find that is what brings ‘hop heads’ and beer connoisseurs to us from around the world.”

And come to the Cocoa Beach Brewing Co. they do — in droves. The brewery also currently distributes bottles of Cocoa Beach Pale Ale and Not Just Some Oatmeal Stout. They’re available at ABC Fine Wine and Spirits, Total Wine and More, Downtown Produce, Sunseed Coop, the Green Turtle Market, and several other independent stores around Florida. The best way to try McCall’s beer, however, is to drop in and order one straight from the tap. Talk with other aficionados and the McCalls themselves. When you meet them, thank them profusely for making Cocoa Beach a force to be reckoned with in the world of beer.

The Cocoa Beach Brewing Company is located at 150 N. Atlantic Ave. Pub hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. (Closed Sunday and Monday.) Call 613-2491, or visit them online at www.cocoabeachbrewingcompany.com