Five Historic Pensacola Bars
Some people vacation to experience a new culture. Others like to visit historic landmarks. And some of us just want to party. Here’s a tour that can satisfy all three – but mainly that last group.
Pensacola’s Got Three Diners Serving Up with Nostalgia and Great Eats
Maybe it’s the smokey, rich waft of coffee vapors that greets you when you walk in the door. Or, maybe it’s the clink-clank of porcelain and silverware in motion. Maybe it’s because you know, pretty much without fail, that the butter is always melting on the grits just like you like them.
Talking about the great American diner. For sure, one of the best parts about a diner is the universality of the experience –food that is stick-to-your-ribs hearty, comforting and quick, as well as the smiling, sincere, consistent service that makes you feel like you belong.
It’s an itch that visitors to Pensacola have at least three opportunities to scratch at restaurants that both illustrate the culture touchstone of being a diner and provide their unique, local perspective: The Coffee Cup, Jerry’s Drive-In and the Scenic 90 Cafe.
Interestingly, all three are located along U.S. 90 (known locally as Cervantes Street and Scenic Highway), which was the main east-west highway in Pensacola in the days before the interstate system came to town. This just illustrates how tied to the idea of travel and personal freedom Americans experienced in the years after Word War II, a quintessential element of diner culture.
The Coffee Cup
The simplicity of the small white and red brick building, with the modest words “The Coffee Cup” on its tower, foretells this no-nonsense, unfussy locals’ favorite.This cafe is the epitome of classic diner tradition, dating to 1945 – feeding Pensacola’s growing military community after the war. Upon its 75th anniversary, the local newspaper observed, “the Coffee Cup is known foremost for staying just the way it is.
”The restaurant offers tables, booths and counter service, with front porch seating in good weather. The dining room is a clean white with red accents, with tile floor and solid-nickel counter stools, peppered with coffee-themed kitsch. Most of the fare served at The Coffee Cup is prepared on the traditional diner griddle right in front of guests.
The menu includes endless diner breakfast essentials, including every kind of egg, sausage, bacon and ham a truly hungry customer could crave, as well as waffles, biscuits, oatmeal and pancakes.
But even this salt-of-the-earth establishment has some more elevated options. The menu includes a selection of eggs benedict dishes (yes, with poached eggs, English muffins and Hollandaise sauce). The kitschiest one is the “BLT.” An homage to the diner sandwich classic, this bene swaps torn baby spinach for the “L.” Cute! And delicious.
Open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Coffee Cup menu includes a line of “quick lunch” sandwich options as well as a wide variety of down-home, traditional daily lunch specials like meatloaf with mushroom gravy, pork roast, and, of course, fried chicken. Although lunch is served until 2 p.m., the menu gives you fair warning: “Get here before 1 p.m.! We might run out!”
Jerry’s Drive-In
First opening its doors in 1939, Jerry’s Drive-In has fed eight decades of hungry Pensacola residents and visitors. It offers the predictable, consistent quality that diner-lovers crave.
Easily identifiable by its signature roadside giant pig sign, this the locals’ favorite is famous for offering an “appetizer” of saltine crackers topped with a squirt of Jerry’s Sauce (think: pale pink) and a sliced pickle. It’s a thing. Just trust us.
Situated in an unassuming yellow and brown building, the restaurant evokes the feeling of a lodge, with light wood panel and detailing, also with no-frills diner accoutrement like red straight-back booths. It’s decorated with lots of sports memorabilia as well as local artifacts, including real street signs that once hung at the intersection outside. In addition to booths, Jerry’s offers counter seating, draught beer and several televisions.
The menu at Jerry’s is dripping with diner tradition, including patty melts and burgers, as well as grilled cheese and hot roast beef sandwiches. There is a large selection of entrees and sides to build your own meal, like country fried steak, fried mullet and grilled pork chops, and more than two dozen sides.
Although Jerry’s doesn’t open until 11 a.m. it offers breakfast all day long, serving up all of the diner breakfast fundamentals, including eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes, grits, toad and several omelet options.
In true stick-to-basics form, make sure you bring cash, as Jerry’s Drive-In does not take cards of any sort. There is, however, an ATM onsite.
Scenic 90 Cafe
When you walk into the Scenic 90 Cafe, one of the first things you notice is the full-sized, glass-front cooler, filled with sweet things covered in frostings and meringues. Nothing is more quintessentially “diner” than the dessert display case.
Scenic 90 Café isn’t as old as the other two – although it has been feeding Pensacola for more than 25 years – it has taken great effort to call up the romanticized vision of what we think (or maybe what Hollywood has told us) a diner should be.
Outside, the chrome-plated, Airstream designed building stirs thoughts of sock-hops and malts. The interior of the Scenic 90 Cafe is as curated and stylized as the outside, with black-and-white checked floors and tile, turquoise cushion-lined booths, chairs and counter stools, and turquoise neon tubes illuminating the dining room.
Much like the atmosphere, the menu is classic diner fare with a wink at flare.
Breakfast starts every day at 6:30 a.m., with all of the requisite egg, omelet, bread and pancake options. But Scenic 90 Cafe also offers Belgian waffles and French toast, traditional eggs benedict and even a quiche of the week. Breakfast is served until close, which is 3 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays, and 8 p.m. the rest of the week.
Lunch and dinner also strum the diner cords while hinting at a more modern melody. Yes, there are lots of classic burgers and sandwiches to choose from, as well as satisfying hot entrees like chicken and dumplings, oyster baskets and chopped steak, but also dishes that stretch the typical diner palate, like seared salmon, crab cake remoulade and vegan “meat” loaf.
What about that dessert case? In there, you will find the most comforting members of the comfort food family, like lemon icebox pie, blueberry cobbler and banana pudding.
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