How does a chef and restauranteur rejoice a milestone birthday? Within the case of “Panini” Pete Blohme’s sixtieth, a non-public get together with 100 or two shut associates, meals, drinks and a rocking band from Miami.
The Waterfront restaurant in Daphne was closed Saturday, Oct. 7, so employees may put together for Blohme’s party. Friends have been handled to an open bar, tasty bites like gumbo and cream-filled churros unfold all through the restaurant and music on the out of doors deck.
Blohme took to the microphone to welcome everybody and level out a few of his associates who had traveled to attend like Chef Brian Duffy, former professional soccer participant Stevie Brown and childhood associates from Fort Lauderdale.
All through the night, associates took to the microphone to talk. Chef Brian Duffy shared tales of how he and Blohme first met and about their friendship over time. Duffy is among the cooks who’re a part of the Mess Lords, a gaggle of cooks who journey the globe to prepare dinner for and with our army. It’s a group that Blohme began with Man Fieri and several other cooks from the primary couple of seasons of “Diners, Drive-In and Dives.”
A retired Marine and one of many voices of The Scuttlebutt Community, a radio present broadcast from the USS Alabama, Tom Claxton took to the microphone additionally. He thanked Blohme and Nick DiMario for his or her work for veterans and introduced them with a bit of the USS Alabama teak deck that was eliminated in the course of the ongoing deck alternative. The board encompasses a plaque and might be hung in one of many PP Hospitality eating places.
Blohme’s enterprise companion and longtime buddy DiMario additionally gave a brief however emotional speech.
Friends loved a slice of Blohme’s favourite German chocolate cake baked by Chef Julienne Roach of Fairhope Chocolate and danced the night time away to Miami-based band Xperimento.