Dishing Up Ft. Walton Beach
Decades of local high school yearbooks line the walls. Photos spanning the local history memorialize people and landmarks long past. On one wall is a Choctawhatchee High School majorette costume; on another is a camera that once belonged to Ft. Walton photographer Arturo Mennillo. The menu itself is a landmark to the local restaurants in which Tom Rice learned his trade. As you dine on “Pop’s Chili Size” or “Chicken Livers Perri,” you’ll likely be visited by the ghosts of Ft. Walton Beach residents who have found hospitality within these walls for nearly a century.
From Busboy to Business Owner
Tom Rice’s career in the restaurant business began, not in any culinary school, but while he was still in high school. “I was a busboy at Perri’s Italian Restaurant,” he remembers. “I pushed a buggy, cleaning tables. You started as busboy and then advanced to pizza maker and salad person.”
After decades of learning the restaurant business with the best hands-on education that hard work could earn, in 1996 Rice opened his own restaurant, a 50s-style diner called the Magnolia Grill. The menu for his first restaurant was reminiscent of the 1950s and 60s drugstore burgers and malts that Tom recalled from childhood trips to Rexall Drugs.
When a local dress store closed its doors after thirty years, the Rices rescued a large iron sign spelling out “Eloise.” “Miss Eloise was in business for more than thirty years,” remembers Rice. “When we were kids, we would have to wait in a chair while she took care of my mother or grandmother.” Incorporating this artifact and using it as a center divider in the diner was Rice’s first step toward becoming the collective memory of Ft. Walton Beach.
A New Beginning
A supermarket chain bought out Rice in 2001, and he went looking for a new location for his restaurant. He found the ideal home for his “museum that serves food” in the historic French house. The “catalogue house” had been quite literally ordered from a catalogue by Dr. G.G. French in 1910 and shipped from New York to Pensacola. From there, the structure made its way by barge to what was then known as “Camp Walton” where a four-bedroom house took shape.
The. French house required an extensive renovation, including a new kitchen and some roof work. “It took about four months to build the new extension,” Rice remembers. “And while we were waiting on the permits, we renovated most of the rest of it ourselves.” They wasted nothing; when a door was moved, the doorframe was dismantled and used as a chair rail in the dining room. They recycled from the community too. A sign for the “Ft. Walton Bakery Restaurant” – “where I used to get doughnuts as a kid” — was salvaged from a demolition project and installed in the new Magnolia Grill kitchen. A couple of booths were saved from the Rice’s fifties diner and found their way into one area of the dining room.
A rescued sign for Smith’s Town Shop found a place on the walls next to donated memorabilia from Nixon’s presidency. “That’s the upside of taking care of things,” Rice says, “because people bring you stuff.” Chandeliers and fixtures from both sides of the family were brought out of storage, as was Rice’s mother’s family crystal, china and silver.
Even “Eloise” once again took a place of distinction, overlooking the Magnolia Grill parking lot. “But it’s not really a sign now,” Rice points out. “It’s more a piece of art.” Altogether, the entire renovation project took 14 months, and the new Magnolia Grill opened in 2003.
Menu as Melting Pot
When asked about the origin of some of the restaurant’s menu items, Rice laughs, “Oh yeah, that’s right; we also do food!” But despite his light-hearted response, Rice is just as serious about his menu as he is about his museum.
There are several influences at work on the Magnolia Grill menu, and once again, these influences reflects the city’s and the family’s history. Perri’s Italian Restaurant, where Tom worked for seventeen years, contributes the Italian influence. There is also a touch of the fifties diner that Magnolia Grill once was, of course, as well as a hint of The Sound, where Rice served as kitchen manager and executive chef.
“When we first started the Magnolia Grill,” he says, “we were serving typical fifties diner food. But then someone came in and asked, Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½Tom, can you remember how to make Miss Aggie’s chicken livers?'” Pretty soon, the Chicken Livers Perri were a regular part of the menu, as were several other favorite Italian dishes from the Perri’s menu.
“I’d say our menu is now about 75 percent Italian,” he says, “but we’re not fancy Italian. We’re in the tradition of Perri’s — lots of red sauce. People come in and ask, Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½Why don’t you have rigatoni or vermicelli?’ Because we’re not an Italian restaurant; we’re an American restaurant that serves some Italian food.”
“Pop’s Chili Size” sandwich – an open-faced beef patty and chili on sourdough —represents another tip of the hat to local history and one of Rice’s former employees at the Sound, named Jerry Nichols, known as “Pop” to the locals. “Meghan’s Sandwich” is a fried chicken breast, cheese and pickle sandwich created by Rice’s daughter. “Seafood Camp Walton Style” includes mouth-watering dishes that run the gamut from traditional “Fried Catfish” to “Scallops St. Jaques.”
Customers continue to make requests that find their way on to the ever-growing Magnolia Grill menu. “I wouldn’t cross the street for meat loaf,” says Rice, “but people kept asking for meat loaf.” So meat loaf went on the menu. “Several dishes – like pork roast and pot roast – that used to be seasonal selections are now on the menu year-round,” Rice says. “I think of that as winter food, but people kept asking for it, so we keep serving it.”
Looking Forward
From the beginning of the renovation of the building in which he now works, Rice has been mindful of protecting the original structure of the historic house. The fireplace has been left intact; cupboards hide air conditioning units. Original pillars from the front porch are tucked away inside the restrooms. “I didn’t want to tear anything down,” Rice says, “I tried to build around it. That way, if in 50 years somebody wanted to take this place back to being a house, it’s all still here.”
Upstairs at the Magnolia Grill, a new renovation is taking place. Eventually, two bedrooms will be transformed into a high-tech meeting room. “We’re going to paint the floor and stencil it,” Rice says, “and then add a period rug and a couple of family dining tables.” A video screen will drop from the ceiling on demand to allow customers to make audio-visual presentations. This meeting space will give the Magnolia Grill an opportunity to serve an entirely different market.
But despite these modern innovations, it is obvious that Tom Rice’s heart lies with the history around him. Likewise, his favorite events at the restaurant are much more traditional. He glows when he talks about bringing out his mother’s crystal for a bridal luncheon or planning a party for the recent Ft. Walton Beach High School graduates.
Recently, he gave a tour to a group of local second-graders, accompanied by their high school-aged mentors. “We have a portable 1920 victrola,” he points out, “that Grandpa would have taken to the beach.” Rice showed each student how to scrape the needle with his or her finger, and then he played Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½Bye Bye Blackbird’ for them. “The kids pick right up on the music,” he beams. “I told them, Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½This was your great-grandfather’s Ipod!'” At Magnolia Grill, every day is another one for the history books.
