H
erb-roasted duck and filet mignon on pizza,
hand-cut fries tossed in duck fat, Kobe beef
on a bun, “adultified” milkshakes…Who
does that?
This guy. And by this guy, we mean Joe Abston, a long-
time local of Pensacola whose time working various jobs
in the restaurant industry gave him the know-how to see
something unique and take everything he’d learned to
launch his own group of restaurants that were anything but
ordinary.
Even before the trend of craft breweries hit such heavy
strides in the area, Joe
recognized the emerging
potential of the craze and
decided to capitalize on it,
opening Hopjacks Pizza
Kitchen & Taproom in 2008
to fi ll a decided hole in the
market. He began with a
classic concept—pizza,
beer, and fries—and put a
whole new spin on every
component, topping his
freshly made pizzas with
imaginative ingredients that
were excellent in quality,
hand-cutting French fries
and making them even
more decadent with
duck fat, and offering
more than 112 beers
on tap—most of them
craft—in addition to
bottles and cans to satisfy
his steadily-growing masses
of thirsty diners. “When I opened
Hopjacks, there were absolutely no late-night food options
other than drive-thrus—and defi nitely nowhere to eat that
was serving craft beers in
Pensacola—and I really
could see that craft beers
were going to become a
big thing,” says Abston.
There have, of course,
been some growing pains.
But Hopjacks has proven
to be a huge success,
expanding their menu
to include handcrafted
burgers, sandwiches,
salads, and appetizers
that have been called
absolutely “addictive.”
Taps and Cow Bells
story by
Liesel Schmidt
|
photos provided by
Chris Woolf
50 | VIPPensacola.com
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3/25/18 1:34 PM