Follow the fish’s head Featured in AMI Sun
The fun new sign is just one of many exciting changes taking place at The Seafood Shack
By: Joe Hendricks | AMI Sun | Published on: April 29, 2015
CORTEZ – If you’ve driven down Cortez Road lately, you may have noticed a new roadside attraction as you approach the Cortez Bridge: the giant grouper’s head that is now the focal point of the recently remodeled Seafood Shack sign.
The fresh artistic elements added to the longstanding billboard sign were created and assembled by Davis Murphy, an artist who hails from South Hampton, N.Y.
Murphy cast the grouper’s head in sand and molded it from fiberglass in a process that took approximately one week to complete, according to Seafood Shack Marketing Director, Liza Kubik.
“I love it,” she said.
Delving deeper into the thought process that went into the sign, Kubik said, “The messaging was two-fold. There’s definitely the very apparent denotative message, which was the location of the restaurant, letting you know where we are located and that we’re all about waterfront dining, and there’s the eye-catching and engaging grouper head as well. It couldn’t just be a pure piece of artwork; it had to have a message and a functionality as well. Davis did the design, but it was a collaboration with our owner, John Vandyk, and they both tend to go for the flair in order to get people’s attention.”
Folks who visit The Seafood Shack on a regular basis will see more of Murphy’s work as time goes by.
“This was the first one, but Davis is going to be doing other signage on our property, as well as a sign for the Island Pearl sightseeing boat,” Kubik said.
The new sign is one of many improvements taking place in and around the restaurant and property purchased from founder and former owner Ham Jones, who built the original 150-seat restaurant in 1972.
According to Kubik, the sale of the six-acre property included 1,000 feet of shoreline, the 100-slip marina, 20,000 square feet of restaurant and banquet hall space and the land that houses Annie’s Bait and Tackle, H20 Watersportz and Waves Boat Club.
Offering an impeccable view of the Gulf Coast, the newly renovated second story banquet space will be unveiled during the Mother’s Day Brunch Buffet taking place Sunday, May 10. For more information, call 941-794-1235.