Jeffrey's, a new locally owned barbecue and homestyle restaurant in Pensacola, guarantees to serve up hefty portions of some of the best pork you've ever had.
That may be a bold claim for other restaurants to make, but owner Jeff Shirk has some authority on the subject as the owner of a free-range hog farm in Jay.
"There's no antibiotics or steroids, I know everything that goes into these animals," said Shirk, who previously owned City Grocery in East Hill. "A huge portion of our pork is from our farm. Folks are going to immediately tell the difference."
Jeffrey's opened Nov. 1 at 9310 Baldridge Road, just off of Nine Mile Road. It's finally replacing Cock of the Walk at that location, which has been barren for nearly three years.
The restaurant occupies almost an acre of land between the Sonic Drive-In on East Nine Mile and the Kohl's on Baldridge. Seating nearly 200 people and offering a full bar stocked with local craft beers, Shirk said his new eatery is off to a great start.
He envisions Jeffrey's becoming the kind of casual family restaurant in Pensacola that people will visit frequently, no matter the occasion.
"I want this to be an everyday place. I don't want this to be a place that people get dressed up to come for their anniversary or their birthday or anything like that," Shirk said. "I'd love to have people come in for a meal two-to-three times a week."
In a Wednesday interview with the News Journal, Shirk talked up the portion sizes and affordability of his new restaurant, which also serves sandwiches, steaks and seafood.
"We give people what I think is a very sizable portion, I think we keep the prices very affordable, based upon the quality and quantity of food that you get," Shirk said. "We try and keep it more homestyle to where it's all good, single ingredients and nothing real fancy. But good, quality homestyle food."
Jeffrey's is taking full advantage of the exorbitant amount of land surrounding the building. Manager Bobbi Prater said they pull corn hole boards out onto the grass beside the pond adjacent to the restaurant on weekends. There's extra seating outside and there's also an area reserved for live music, which Jeffrey's hopes to make a weekly attraction.
Jeffrey's provides catering and recently debuted Sunday brunch. It also boasts a 55-seat private event room available for rent to host business meetings, military events and more.
Also the owner of Florida Community Mortgage, Shirk originally expanded City Grocery to the Baldridge location after its East Hill location closed in March. The restaurant even briefly opened as City Grocery in July, but Shirk said he had a falling out with his former management team and re-branded the place as Jeffrey's.
Shirk said he doesn't have much of a social life these days while overseeing so many different ventures, but he wouldn't have it any other way and looks forward to building a presence on Nine Mile through Jeffrey's fresh, locally sourced menu items.
"It's been really great, we still continually have people coming in going, 'Oh my Lord, this place is fantastic and I didn't even know you guys were back here. We just kind of stumbled across it,'" Shirk said. "We're still getting a ton of first-time people and they're giving us very good compliments, comments and feedback."
Jeffrey's is open from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. until midnight Fridays and Saturdays and 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant is closed Mondays.
Sunday brunch runs the entire time Jeffrey's is open Sundays. The bountiful brunch options include a full salad bar, a breakfast buffet, eggs to cook on order, a carving station, sides and much more.
Jake Newby can be reached at jnewby@pnj.com or 850-435-8538.
https://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/2018/12/06/jeffreys-homestyle-restaurant-owned-local-hog-farmer-opens-pensacola/2215167002/ 2018-12-06 12:00:00Z
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