The reconstruction of the former home of Gussie’s Record Shop and WBOP Radio Station by Rishy and Quint Studer jumpstarted the renaissance of the historic Belmont Devilliers district when it opened in the spring of 2010.
Cecil Johnson of CJ’s Kitchen fame rented the space and opened the soul food restaurant and jazz/blues club with his sister and named it for his mother Jeanette and her four sisters, Cora, Sara, Dorothy and Margaret. The place quickly became known for its music and Southern classic dishes—fried chicken, ribs, pulled-pork sandwiches, red beans and rice, collard greens and potato salad.
Cecil retired in 2015. The Great Southern Restaurants – which includes other Pensacola favorites, The Fish House, Atlas Oyster House, Jackson’s Steakhouse and Angelena’s – and Jean Pierre N’Dione, the general manager for The Fish House, took over Five Sisters.
On Jan. 18, 2018, the Belmont-DeVilliers neighborhood was honored with a Mississippi Blues Marker celebrating our rich Pensacola blues history. The marker, No. 203, is located right outside of our front door and can be found on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
In 2003, the Mississippi Blues Commission was created to promote the understanding of blues history, primarily by installing Mississippi Blues Trail markers across the state to identify significant contributions to the Blues’ musical heritage. The Belmont-DeVilliers is the second marker in Florida and one of only a handful outside the state of Mississippi.
The marker recognizes Pensacola, as an important early center of blues, ragtime, vaudeville and jazz activity, which developed into a regional cornerstone of the “chitlin’ circuit” in later years. The Belmont DeVilliers neighborhood served as a stopping point for touring musicians, such as B.B. King, Junior Parker and Sam Cooke, and a place where local musicians could develop.
In the Walker Holmes books, Walker is close friends with the fictional owner of the restaurant, Theodore Ware – a man “so tall he had to duck through every doorway he entered. His callused hands swallowed up mine when we shook hands. His face always had a smile. When he wasn’t smiling, you ran.”
The most-asked question about City of Grudges is whether Five Sisters has a tunnel. It’s a great opener when you visit the restaurant.