On a recent afternoon in Pensacola, Linda and I met a friend for lunch at BarSteak on Palafox Street. When I walked in the door, a man and woman sitting near the front called out, mistaking me for a friend of theirs. They must have been thinking of George Clooney or Brad Pitt. I get that a lot, so I took the opportunity to stop and introduce myself. 

As luck would have it, Willa Licata works at the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, and I was excited to meet her. Her lunch companion that day was Aaron Ball, who owns and manages MediaTech Direct, a provider of video books, brochures, and QR-enabled promotional products.

After our pleasantries, I made it to our table to peruse the menu and talk business with Antoinette Savoie. She is not only a lifelong friend, but also our social media director and has done a wonderful job growing our Instagram and Facebook followers. She also has a culinary degree and is a foodie. While deciding what to order, I noticed a gentleman eating at the bar and working on his laptop. BarSteak is a happening place.

We looked at the menu, but with so many delicious choices, we asked our server for guidance. I ordered the Cubano with thin slices of jambon ham and slow-roasted pulled pork with gruyere and Dijon mustard on a pressed panini served with house-made chips.

Linda decided on the Jambon Beurre, thinly sliced ham with truffled Euro butter served on a fresh baguette. Toinette won the prize with the Iberico De Bellota Bacon BLT. After lunch, owner Johnny Mascia came to the table. We told him how much we enjoyed lunch and pledged to come back for dinner, which by all reports is amazing.

For more than four decades, Johnny has dedicated his life to connecting through food and beverage — from the height of the New York restaurant and nightclub scenes in the radical 80s to a string of successes in Boston, NYC, and Los Angeles. He has a mountain of national magazine covers highlighting his nightclubs, chefs, and restaurants. 

He’s graced the covers of Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, GQ, Esquire, Boston Magazine, New York Times, and Art Culinaire to name a few, but there’s much more to Johnny. This same man has helped raise more than a million dollars for women’s homeless shelters.

I mentioned Scenic 98 Coastal to Johnny and he suggested that we come back at 4 p.m. that afternoon for a visit. When we arrived, the gentleman at the bar we saw at lunch was still there on his computer. I said, “Weren’t you here at lunch?” He responded, “No, that was my brother.” We had a good laugh and Linda sat down to order a fresh Paloma, while I sat with Johnny at a back table.

BarSteak is a beautiful restaurant that fronts Palafox Street and opens to a well-appointed patio in the back. The long bar along the side reminds you of something you might see in an old New York establishment. And there's a good reason for that. 

Johnny tells me he grew up in New York and cut his teeth in the bar and nightclub business on the East and West Coasts. He launched an award-winning pizza concept that he sold after three years. 

Next, he partnered with a group that specialized in licensing boutique brands and putting them in airports. He managed the East Coast division and grew it to almost 50 million in revenue. He then began working with a group of sports bars named Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill, which had establishments between New York and Boston.

When that company sold, Johnny took some time to spend with his teenage son, traveling the world seeking high adventure including white water rafting, extreme mountain biking, and deep-sea fishing.  Before his son entered the Honors program at a prestigious high school in Massachusetts. They concluded their excursion in East Africa by summiting Mount Kilimanjaro.

Johnny began researching restaurant concepts in cities that seemed ripe for execution. He discovered a chef through Google and Facebook who had been a chef for the Grateful Dead. Chef Charlie was taking care of his elderly father in Pensacola. Johnny flew to Pensacola to meet him. 

“When I arrived, Charlie was scheduled to pick me up from the airport,” said Johnny. “He wasn’t there and I was frantically trying to text him when I saw this guy waving me down. It was Chef Charlie, and he said there had been a change of plans. He tells me we are going to his uncle’s 91st birthday party, none other than Frank Patti of Joe Patti’s Seafood fame.”

Johnny was amazed at his good fortune. He had drinks with the second, third, and fourth generations of Frank and Alice Patti, along with all the nieces, nephews, and cousins at their home in East Hill. This all happened within the first hour of his arrival. After a few days, Johnny was sold on Pensacola. 

“I liked the vibe, the people, and especially the weather,” said Johnny. “I secured a place for a restaurant on Palafox and a place to live. I returned home to pack my stuff and traveled South with my dog. When I arrived, my accommodations had fallen through and I spent my first four days living in my car with my dog.” 

Johnny met everyone he could in his early days in the city. He tells me he’s working on a couple of other restaurant concepts. One is a deli that will offer sandwiches with specialty meats flown in from Katz’s Delicatessen and Carnegie Deli in New York, which will be open on the other side of the breezeway next to BarSteak. 

The other is a drive-through salad bar being built in an old bank drive-thru a block away on Jefferson Street. We walked over to meet the equipment installers. Boxes of brand-new restaurant equipment were being unpacked and Johnny was instructing them exactly where he wanted it to be placed for maximum efficiency. Johnny makes decisions quickly. It was impressive. 

As we made our way back to BarSteak, Linda was talking to the gentleman at the bar with the laptop. It turns out he is in cybersecurity and works remotely unless on a project site. He also has an interesting story, and we agreed to circle back for a visit another time. BarSteak is proving to be a fruitful place to meet new and interesting people.

BarSteak opened to great reviews in October. Johnny tells me he sources fresh, local produce, the best cuts of meat, and freshly caught seafood. We haven’t been for dinner, but we have heard wonderful things and plan to return soon. 

We talked for a minute about building his staff, and he said he has been very fortunate to attract an excellent executive team and servers who tell him they can’t wait to come to work. “I’ve made good hires and have made a concerted effort to meet all the chefs in town. I see tremendous potential for the food scene in Pensacola, and I’m excited to be a part of it.” 

It all sounds delicious! Thank you, Johnny, for sharing your story. Best of luck for the future!