Bob McElhenney is often referred to as a living legend by the surf community on the Island. He was here when most of us weren’t. He was here when North Florida was just an afterthought, a place you drove through to get to the part of Florida where people vacationed or moved. When Disney World, Cape Canaveral, and everything south of that were the popular destinations. North Florida was just another part of the South back then, and Fernandina was more like a small Georgia town than a Florida beach vacation spot. The old adage about Florida, “The further north you go, the more south you get.” was very true.
Bob was born in Jacksonville and mostly grew up in Fernandina Beach. His family moved around a bit here and there, but at the age of 9 he was in Fernandina and learned how to surf. It was just after the summer of love, 1968, the beginning of the short board craze. Bob remembers boards were getting shorter, and hair was getting longer. He says one summer we all had longboards, the next summer we all had shortboards. Main Beach Park didn’t exist as it does today. Tarpon Avenue wasn’t built and North Fletcher went straight through to the North End from Atlantic. Growing up here in the 70’s there was a sense of Southern culture on the skids. Everybody knew everybody, even more so than how it is today. Living on the North End as a kid, when Bob got in trouble, his surfboard was taken away as a consequence. But having friends like the McCarthys a few blocks away meant that he could walk down to their house and borrow one of their boards. One of those times Bob’s mom called the McCarthy’s house looking for him. Mrs. McCarthy, being empathetic to the surf life of the boys, took a blow dryer to Bob’s hair before she sent him home so he wouldn’t get in trouble for surfing when he was already in trouble. Needless to say, that didn’t work.
In the 70’s Bob competed in the Eastern Surfing Association’s Junior’s and Men’s Divisions in the North Florida District. The competitions took place in Jacksonville and he surfed against legendary Jax Beach locals like Tom Rosborough and Mitch Kaufman, who he has remained friends with to this day. In 1970 the census for Fernandina was less than 7000, there were only a handful of local surfers, popular surf spots had been non-existent, but the jetty at Huguenot was now on the map, and the break at Talbot Island had just been discovered by the locals. Those days everyone that surfed drove around with boards on their Barrecrafter surf racks, and would follow each other in an attempt to find where the sandbars had set up and the surf was good. Bob remembers trying to keep Talbot a secret by telling other surfers they were going somewhere else, like American Beach. They would turn down the road to American Beach, wait for the other car to go by, then head back out to A1A and down to Talbot. It was a secret spot for more than a decade. Bob was growing up living a life I only dreamed of while I slowly melted away in the Arizona heat. Surfing began to take a back seat as he got older and had kids. These days he’s mostly out in the water enjoying time with his youngest daughter helping her find the stoke.
For work, Bob supported himself by gravitating towards jobs that would allow him time to surf during the day. That meant working at night in the food service industry. It’s what brought him to where he is today. New South was a dream that he shared with his friends Matt and Catherine who offered to invest and partner in the project. The initial idea was to open a restaurant, but by the time Covid came and went, brick and mortar real estate prices downtown made that unattainable. They made an offer on one place, but it fell through, somewhat to Bob’s relief because being a single dad he wanted to have a day job. Bob said “It was completely counter to why, as a young surf rat, I wanted to get into the biz.” The idea morphed into a food truck/catering business, which is now a catering/food truck business. The original plan was to have a 12 item elaborate menu with 5 people in the truck, but they had to tone it down to make it profitable. Running a food truck is a delicate balance between keeping costs down and keeping the truck open enough to bring in business.
The name “New South” started with the idea of using heirloom ingredients, heritage grains, and revived antebellum food that was around prior to the Civil War. The concept is influenced by Chefs from Charleston and Savannah, like Sean Brock and Mashama Bailey, at the forefront of bringing back nostalgic food. It’s bringing back the best parts of the Old South and infusing it with the best parts of the New South.
Bob brought in his friend and Chef Jared Malone, a top graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, whose strength is Asian/Hawaiian influence. They discussed using Southern food items with ethnic influences. One of the favorites that Jared invented is the Cali-Dina Bowl. It is local shrimp tossed in a spicy bomb sauce over jasmine rice with ponzu, avocado, Asian style pickles, and furikake. Another favorite is the Stony Baloney, which is grilled baloney with pimento cheese. “It’s nostalgic comfort food that your mom would make during the 70’s.” says Bob. For the pork dishes they use humanely raised pork from Beeler’s Farm in Missouri. The seafood on the menu is near shore species and shell fish that are sustainable, adding more of a sense of place and telling the story of local food. Bob and Jared plan to include oysters in the future and have been talking about making hummus with sea island red peas, a pea from West Africa that was around in the 1600s. Bob Says, “If it sounds like the food has an identity crisis it’s because it does. You can only do so much with fusion when you are using southern ingredients, but we found a way to do it.” He believes that in the future they will include more plant based and organics, but it takes baby steps, you have to remember you’re still in the South and it takes time.
Bob and Jared like to keep the menu fresh with weekly changes and new ideas. The catering side offers a fairly extensive menu selection, including a low country seafood boil. The New South food truck can be found on Fridays at Mocama Brewery. Check out their Facebook page and website for the latest information.
Words and Photography by Robert Milici
I fell in love with your Island when I first set foot on it. Your photography and stories draw me into its soul. I can’t wait for the next chapter!