Jim Shirley

Co-Owner
Great Southern Restaurant Group

Jim Shirley is co-owner with Collier, Will, and Burney Merrill of the Great Southern Restaurant Group, Inc., which owns The Fish House, Atlas Oyster House, and The Fish House Deck Bar in Pensacola, Florida, and is co-owner—along with the Merrill’s—of the Great Southern Café in Seaside, Florida. For years he wrote a weekly column, Good Grits!, for the Pensacola News Journal, and now writes on a regular basis for the newspaper’s columns Chef’s Corner and Wine Time.

Chef Jim is a member of the state board of directors of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association (FRLA) and vice president of the Northwest Florida Chapter of FRLA, founder and president of the Society of Great Southern Chefs, and a member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. As an active community leader, he dedicates time to many charities, including the Children’s Home Society of Florida (a board member of the Western Division) and is a board member of the Autism Society of the Panhandle.

Jim opened his first restaurant, Madison’s Diner, in Pensacola in 1995, opened the Screaming Coyote in 1997, and the Fish House in 1998. His style of cooking is one that he calls modern Southern cuisine. As the son of a Navy pilot who was stationed all around the world, Jim learned to enjoy a variety of cuisines from many cultures. But he always went back to his roots—his grandmothers’ traditional Southern cooking. His expertise is combining different flavors in ways unlike anyone else. He has appeared on the Travel Channel’s show “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.” He was also chosen to go to Washington, D.C., to feature his signature dish, Grits à Ya Ya, in “A Taste of the South” event.

Jim uses Southern accents with great skill and spirit, traveling far afield to graze and glean, absorbing culinary ideas and selecting wines. As a Pensacola native, Chef Jim uses his knowledge of local waters and his families’ farming history to promote the “new ruralism”, a movement to promote sustainable agriculture at the urban edge. Jim is the author of “Good Grits! Southern Boy Cooks”.

Please describe your restaurant concepts.
My restaurant concepts are based on the early experiences of my life. I was raised in a Southern family, and my father was a Navy pilot, so when I was young, my family and I traveled all over the world. I have taken all of those experiences — the sights, sounds and flavors — and pulled them together with my heritage as a Southerner and turning that into my Southern seafood experience.

What is it about your restaurants and the Gulf Coast that inspires you?
The seafood along the Gulf Coast is the top. The best seafood in the world. It’s easy to be inspired when you go out and catch the seafood, bring it straight back to the restaurant — that experience can’t be beat, especially when you mix in great local produce fresh off the farm. Combining the freshest in local seafood with outstanding right-off-the-farm produce is something I am passionate about. One of the new enterprises we have going is Great Southern Farms. We are fully planted. We are working with all local farmers to ensure that our restaurant has the freshest ingredients literally from farm to table. Being able to provide local flavor — this regional taste experience — for our guests is what I am very passionate about.

What are some of your most popular menu items?
Grits à Ya Ya. Our world-famous Grits à Ya Ya is a delectable Southern specialty of smoked Gouda cheese grits smothered with a sauce of fresh cream, sautéed Gulf shrimp, spinach, portobello mushrooms, applewood-smoked bacon, garlic and shallots.

What is your “sizzle” — signature dishes, “specialties,” unique food presentations, or new ideas you are using?
Taking the fundamentals of Southern cooking and respecting the fact that it has been influenced by many different cultures over many decades. I’m for paying tribute to those cultures by highlighting one theme in the middle of a Southern dish. By doing so, I find that you can bring out the genuine taste of the flavors that make up the Southern food experience.

To what do you attribute your success?
Surrounding myself with great people.

Did you grow up on the Gulf Coast?
I did. I grew up here fishing. But we also traveled, due to my dad’s job.

What is your favorite dish to eat that you’ve created?
We recently wrapped up snapper season, which was great. We had a snapper stack. Provided all kinds of fresh vegetables. My favorite dish is anything that is coming right out of the water and right out of the garden. My likes change with the seasons.