Northwest Florida Getaways 2008 - (Page 4) shorts WHAT’S HAPPENING by Amy Nance Dive into New Restaurants and Events in the Pensacola Area Yes, you can dive with your bride in Pensacola, where underwater weddings off of the retired aircraft carrier USS Oriskany are now available. Say your “I Dos” amid the world’s largest artificial reef with Pensacola Dive Company. While you can get married anytime of year, reserve April 4-6 for the 2008 Beulah Sausage Festival, featuring top country music, arts, rides and nearly three tons of sausage. This year’s JazzFest (the first week in April) is held in Seville Square and includes headliners like Butch Thompson’s Big Three and The Jazz Guardians, a truly big band (at 18 members). Clockwise from top left: You never know who will turn up at this wedding. Here, a gentle whale shark; dive leader Capt. Ron Beermunder at the USS Oriskany; and diver on the USS Oriskany. Images courtesy of Pensacola Dive Company. Stay at The Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front, recently upgraded and boasting a new four-star restaurant. For hip, in-the-know travelers and locals alike, there’s 600 South, a wine and martini bar in a boutique hotel on Palafox Street. The restaurant offers a perfect mix of downtown spirit within the comfortable, cozy environs of the newly renovated New World Inn. Want your shopping to be just as cool? Head to Scout, a trendy new shop carrying Max Mara, Tory Burch and Theory, as well as Paul and Joe makeup. Nightlife beckons. If it’s blues you want, hit the newly opened Blues Café situated in downtown on South Alcaniz Street. The café gives local blues groups a stage nearly every night. Two new restau- rants give diners a reason to celebrate: Finnegans Wake Irish Pub & Eatery (in the old New Market Steakhouse on West Nine Mile Road) offers a spate of Irish standards like bangers and mash and fish and chips. Try a “Mary Anne” house drink or relish a nice stout. And check out downtown’s new HopJacks Pizza Kitchen & Taproom, where a lounge scene meets yummy pizzas. Information at: 600 South, 850-434-7736, www.newworldlanding.com/600south.htm; Beulah Sausage Festival, 850-944-3167; Blues Café , 850-439-9033, www.pensacolabluescafe.com/; Finnegans Wake Irish Pub & Eatery, 850-477-6600, www.finneganswakepub.com/; The Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front, 850-916-2999; HopJacks Pizza Kitchen & Taproom, www.hopjacks.com/; JazzFest, 850-433-8382, www.jazzpensacola.com/; Pensacola Dive Company, 850-4-DIVING, www.pensacoladivecompany.com/; Scout, 850-607-7105. Top left, Jazz Festival poster by William Rabb, courtesy Pensacola Jazz Festival. Left, Pensacola’s Palafox Street. Below and right, the 600 South wine & martini bar. 4 VISITFLORIDA.com/northwest http://www.newworldlanding.com/600south.htm http://www.pensacolabluescafe.com/ http://www.finneganswakepub.com/ http://www.hopjacks.com/ http://www.jazzpensacola.com/ http://www.pensacoladivecompany.com/ http://VISITFLORIDA.com/northwest
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