Child’s Restaurant stayed vacant for more than a decade across from the old Escambia County Courthouse on Palafox. For years, the restaurant was a favorite lunch spot for downtown merchants, attorneys, judges and county employees.
Then in 1999, Geneva Davis and her son Mike Ashby bought the building from Clark Thompson for $225,000 and began demolition and renovation. Ashby came up with the name “Intermission” because it was located between the Saengar Theater and Pensacola Cultural Center. To carry out the theme, movie posters were displayed on the walls, and Broadway lights were installed on the outside canopy and mezzanine balcony.
Intermission opened on March 17, 2000 and could accommodate 175 people. The backroom was called “The Sports Bar” and had two pool tables, two dartboard, video games and “compact disc music player,” according to the News Journal’s coverage of the grand opening. The place served food – 65 menu items.
Ashby created the longest bar in town for Intermission, telling the PNJ, “I’ve been a bartender for 11 years, and my dream was to have a solid oak bar with a lot of mirrors and the look of a long, big city bar.”
When Inweekly located to downtown Pensacola, Intermission was a favorite spot. The food service had been replaced with occasional bowls of pretzels. The video games had been moved to the front area, and I don’t know what happened to the “compact disc music player.”
Intermission was where Duwayne Escobedo and I created the first Ballsy Plan with the help of architect David Alsop and a bucket of Coronas. Ashby sat in on the discussion and offered suggestions in between rounds of beer.
In City of Grudges and Blood in the Water, Walker Holmes ends up at Intermission several times, often getting punched by a “Legacy Boy,” county employee or someone else upset with his writing and attitude.