A Party With a Purpose

Videography by Moore Media

Near the top of MonoChrome’s playlist was its cover of Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration.”

You know the one: Celebrate good times, come on / There’s a party going on right here / A celebration to last throughout the years.

It is no surprise to find that the song is part of the Atlanta-based, electric-funk band’s repertoire — MonoChrome plays lots of weddings. But the number was as appropriate to the 2023 Best of the Emerald Coast Soirée, a celebration of businesses who were the top vote-getters in their categories in an annual readers poll conducted by Emerald Coast Magazine.

Photo by Moore Media

MonoChrome, led by their velvet-voiced front man, Dain Harris, got the party started and kept its energy at a high level.

Asked how the five-member band came together, Harris said that was God’s doing. In any event, their music was divine.

When the band took a break, Rowland Publishing associate publisher McKenzie Burleigh took the stage. There she shouted out love to soirée sponsors Florida Blue, Silver Sands Premium Outlets, Proffitt PR, John Gandy Events, Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, Sunbelt Rentals, Luke & Blue’s, Hawley Co. 30A Hat Bar, Sherwin-Williams, Beachy Blooms, Legendary Marine and Scout Boats.

And because this was a party with a purpose, Burleigh brought to the stage Staci Berryman and Heidi Blaylock, the co-founders of the Emerald Coast Autism Center, the soriée’s beneficiary.

Berryman thanked Rowland Publishing, all who supported the event and all who attended it. She made special mention of the Dugas Family Foundation, which is currently matching contributions to the center.

For celebration-goer Bruce Bickley, who made his living in the trust business (Pendleton Square) and who now lives in Blue Mountain Beach, MonoChrome was part of an immersive, multi-sensory experience that “coalesced everything that is good about living here — food, music and the arts.”

Bickley recalls being introduced to Rowland Publishing personnel at a holiday dinner held at the Ocean Club Restaurant in Miramar Beach.

“What I remember most about that night was how beautiful your employees are,” Bickley said. Hey, give that man a lifetime free pass to future Best of the Emerald Coast events!

Bickley was right about the arts/music/food trifecta. In fact, the event, held at Grand Park at the Grand Boulevard Town Center, was designed and intended to activate all five senses. People, as they arrived at the soirée, passed by five murals painted by area artists Daniela De Castro Sucre, Maxine Orange, Sarah Page, Morgan Summers and Lindsay Tobias. Taken together, their paintings represented hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch.

Photo by Epic Photo Co.

“I was honored to be included and was surprised at how well the murals went together,” said Orange, who brought to the party her new Mobile Splatter Studio, a tent wherein folks decorate a small canvas by peppering it with paint flicked from the ends of brushes or shot from squirt guns — much more fun than dipping earthworms into paint and releasing them to a white surface.

Restaurants including Harbor Docks, McGuire’s Irish Pub, Marrow Private Chefs, Taco 30A, Shunk Gulley Oyster Bar and Black Bear Bread Co. served small bites from stations that added up to a premium buffet.

Photo by Epic Photo Co.

For Chef Chris Gordaux of Taco 30A, the soirée provided a stark contrast to the circumstances that prevailed when he and Taylor Tucker started their business. Idled by COVID-19, the partners resolved to perfect the “art of the taco,” Gordaux said, and sell their shells by the Emerald Coast seashore from a food truck. Now, they also offer catering services.

Their secret ingredient: “We make tacos with a lot of love,” Gordaux said. They make everything fresh, including their sauces.

Caleb Steadman of Shunk Gulley Oyster Bar served dollops of smoked tuna dip topped with a tiny sweety drop pepper and placed on a square of flatbread.

Asked what makes Shunk Gulley’s tuna dip the best around, he unhesitatingly replied, “They’re made with love.” Huh, a trend, then? What kind of love fest is this?

Steadman touted Shunk Gulley’s wild oysters from Louisiana and the farmed “rattlesnake” oysters it gets from Apalachicola. No word if they are treated with love, but there are those,  of course, who believe that oyster consumption leads to lovemaking.

Richard McCord, the executive chef at Marrow Private Chefs of Santa Rosa Beach, heads up a business that both prepares meals at customer households and operates a commissary kitchen. Two favorites among his clients are the Fresh Gulf Catch, slathered in coconut cilantro cream sauce, and Pork Belly S’mores.

While Marrow is usually retained for special occasions, McCord recognizes that there are plenty of people who would like to use them every day.

“My wife’s one of ’em,” he said.

Photo by Epic Photo Co.

Perhaps the most talked about food item of the night was a savory puff pastry made with locally grown delicata squash, infused with sumac (of a non-poisonous variety) and prepared by the Black Bear Bread Co. It came about in an effort to arrive at a pastry that would relate to the fall season, said Chef Phil McDonald, who partnered with restaurateur and fellow surfer Dave Rauschkolb (Bud & Alley’s et al) to found the bakery.

At the suggestion that he must have a special knack for getting along with the sometimes cantankerous Rauschkolb, McDonald said his partner has “mellowed with age,” and winked.

To wash down the squash, there were plenty of libations to be had, supplied by Idyll Hounds Brewery, Distillery 98, Palm Folly, Timber Creek Distillery, Coastal Coffee Bar Co., Tipsy Mule Mobile Bar, Tarpon Cellars, Cantina Laredo Margaritas, Superb Wine International and Penta Tequila. 

Representative of the Best of the Emerald Coast award winners on hand was Gary Ellis, the owner of Coastal Cars & Carts, located in Panama City Beach. His is a family owned and operated business that has benefited greatly from the growing popularity of street-legal “golf” carts and the creation of communities like Watersound, Carillon Beach and Latitude Margaritaville Watersound.

Ellis and his wife Terri are new residents of Margaritaville. Dealing primarily in MadJax brand carts, they only occasionally sell a vehicle to someone who intends to use it on fairways. Their elaborate showroom includes a replica vintage Texaco station and houses mint ’37 and ’55 Chevys; it’s an attraction in itself. 

MonoChrome’s arrangement of a Temptations song turned the Ellises’ heads, and they headed for the dance floor.

“Get ready,” someone might have said. “’Cause here they come.”

To view, download and share photos from the event, please click here for photos from Epic Photo Co.* and here for photos from Moore Media.* 

*Photos are available to download for personal use only (please feel free to share on social media). Photos are not approved for reproduction or use in publication or professional settings without permission from Rowland Publishing, Inc.