Pensacola

Walker Holmes and Big Boy are Los Angeles Dodgers fans. In both City of Grudges and Blood in the Water, I researched the actual games that were played during the…

The reconstruction of the former home of Gussie’s Record Shop and WBOP Radio Station by Rishy and Quint Studer jumpstarted the renaissance of the historic Belmont Devilliers district when it…

While it may be hard to believe, Palafox Street, which the American Planning Association named as one of “10 Great Streets in America” in 2013, was one of the seedier…

Child’s Restaurant stayed vacant for more than a decade across from the old Escambia County Courthouse on Palafox. For years, the restaurant was a favorite lunch spot for downtown merchants,…

The restaurant has hosted presidents, governors, senators, congressmen and other celebrities. During the 2008 presidential election, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson held campaign fundraisers there. In 2012, GOP…

Reporters like bars. In New York City, Jimmy’s Corner Bar is their hangout, and New Orleans has Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop. Until Inweekly came around 1999, News Journal reporters drank at Trader Jon’s.

But in 2003, New York Nick’s opened on Palafox and the “pub n grub” quickly became the late night spot for our staff and the younger writers for the daily newspaper.

Blood in the Water adds a few more Pensacola locations that weren’t in the first Walker Holmes novel, City of Grudges. The one that becomes the hideaway for Walker, Gravy,…

In City of Grudges, Walker Holmes and Big Boy jog past the San Carlos hotel –“The Gray Lady of Palafox.” Built in 1910, lumber magnate and shipbuilder Frasier Bingham envisioned…

A challenge with City of Grudges was explaining Bangkok Garden to my editors. My description was too unbelievable from them. Once again, photos won them over. The restaurant was in…