"That will knock your socks off,” says an older voice on the overhead public address system.
After all, he's a little brash.
"Tell her to change the water in the Mackinaw red,” barks the man with the flattened beret.
The same man can be short tempered.
"LEE! Straighten this out here. Here!” he commands.
Yet, the man behind the microphone, who acts like he owns the place, helped build his own seafood empire.
"Madam, you got enough of that?,” he asks a visitor from across the counter. “Go take care of that lady there” he then instructs an employee.
Who is he? The legendary 84-year-old Frank Patti of Pensacola.
"I was born in the fish market,” Frank said. "I use to go shrimping with my father when I was 6 or 7 years old."
Just off the Gulf of Mexico in Pensacola, awaits Joe Patti Seafood Company. The company founded in 1933 still bears Frank’s fathers name.
"Mom and daddy started it. They raised us during the Depression, when there was nothing. We ate shrimp and pasta, fish and pasta, all pasta,” Frank recalled.
While growing up, Frank was hesitant to leave the shore for finding a catch in the Gulf.
"It was hell getting away from the beach, because I like chasing the girls too," he said with a laugh. Eventually, while father Joe was in the market, Frank headed out to sea to catch the fish his family sold.
Today, you’ll find almost everything that lives in the ocean behind the counter and on ice. From pompano to red snapper and even jumbo crab claws.
Frank can often times be found sitting behind the microphone, calling customers by number to the counter.
"Number 69!” he shouts, scouring the room for the holder of the winning ticket. The additional comments he adds while on the overhead address system gained him notoriety.
“That one is Andy. Andy is a pretty fish,” he tells me while petting a salmon from Norway.
Frank will also share that he spent three years in the Navy during the Korean War and more recently, five years in a Texas jail for tax fraud.
Back home in Pensacola, orders at the seafood company are filled by those known as "Patti Girls." Each wears a red T-shirt with “PATTI GIRL” scribbled across the back. Joe claims ladies like salmon the best.
“They live and love longer,” he said.
Over the years, the length of the seafood display counter has changed. Today, it’s about 120-feet-long. However, one thing will never change. Frank said that's the name up on the roof is a tribute to his father.
"I love daddy's name up there. And it will stay up there,” he said with authority. “And my son, and his son will see to it that it remains there."
When you leave, if Frank is on the microphone, you’ll hear a seasoned voice say, "I want to say thank you for coming and shopping at Joe Patti's."
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