Here’s a roundup of our top stories from the past week.
With a subscription to the Pensacola News Journal, you will receive full access to the work done by our journalists and photographers as they head out every day to help inform and explain the important issues affecting your community.
Waldo’s Chicken and Beer replacing Tu-Do Vietnamese restaurant on Davis Highway
Tu-Do Vietnamese Restaurant, formerly located at 7130 N. Davis Highway, is being replaced by the Tennessee-based chain Waldo’s Chicken and Beer.
Escambia County property records show the owners of Tu-Do sold the parcel for $1.45 million in July, a little over $1 million more than they bought it for in 2005. In late April, Escambia County issued a permit to alter the 4,460-square-foot space and Pensacola-based general contractor Vision Construction which is renovating Tu-Dos’ former home for Waldo’s.
Jay Owens, senior project manager at Vision Construction, told the News Journal the new restaurant is slated to open in December.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and Rep. Alex Andrade aren’t speaking. Will it hurt the city?
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and Rep. Alex Andrade appear to be at odds over the handling of the city’s requests from Tallahassee, as the two have not communicated directly since early 2025.
Andrade is calling for the City Council to exercise more oversight over the city’s lobbying efforts, while the Reeves administration ignored Andrade altogether when it sent out its legislative request to the local delegation earlier this month.
The 2026 Legislative Session will be Andrade’s last regular session in the Florida House of Representatives. He is serving as chairman of the Health Care Budget Subcommittee, which oversees all state health care funding, including the Department of Children and Families and the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Shot in the dark: COVID vaccine available, but getting it in Florida isn’t easy. Here’s why
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, Marie Pokrant has made sure to get a vaccine, as well as regular booster doses, because the Pensacola woman travels often for work.
Until recently, access to the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida wasn’t a problem. She could just walk into a local pharmacy and get one.
To get the vaccine this time, she drove to Mobile, Alabama, after making an appointment online with a CVS pharmacy there.
On Sept. 23, the Florida Board of Pharmacy, which regulates Florida’s pharmacists, met and discussed the COVID-19 vaccine. The board said that prescriptions are not necessary for those patients who want to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Pickleball is growing and Pensacola can’t add courts fast enough
Pickleball has been around since the 1960s since emerging from a backyard court in Washington dreamed up by a future U.S. House Representative and Washington lieutenant governor.
But you would be hard pressed to find a pickleball player in Pensacola who has been playing the paddle sport for even 10 years, though we’re sure there are a few among the growing army of pickleball players who crowd area courts that have been created in the sport’s recent boon.
Next Maritime Park project could be entertainment complex with stores like Trader Joe’s
Developers of the Reverb by Hard Rock Hotel are in talks with Pensacola officials on the next Community Maritime Park project, which could be a major entertainment, shopping and residential development.
Developers are hoping to attract a small grocery store like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods or Sprouts along with restaurants along the lines of Cheesecake Factory and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, and entertainment options like a premium movie theater, indoor skydiving and even the potential for a “highly confidential” Top Gun aviation concept that would be backed by Paramount Pictures and Tom Cruise, according to a presentation sent to city officials and obtained by the News Journal through a records request.
Everything in the presentation in conceptual and tentative as the developers are pitching the idea to develop Lot No. 4 at Maritime Park. The lot is directly next to the Reverb Hard Rock development and used today as the main parking lot for Blue Wahoos Stadium.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola news you missed: COVID vaccines, Maritime Park plan and Waldo’s Chicken and Beer
Reporting by Brandon Girod, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
