Dixie Crossroads manager has lifelong connection to iconic Titusville seafood restaurant
There is an enduring cosmic connection between Greg Holladay and Dixie Crossroads, because Holladay has had a serious life-long relationship with the Titusville destination restaurant. As a kid, he grew up eating at Dixie Crossroads. As a young man, he met his future wife there. Now he is the general manager.
Question: What is your history, Greg?
Answer: My hometown is Titusville. My parents moved to Brevard so my mother could be close to her parents. My grandfather got my father a job at Rockwell at NASA before they were bought out by Lockheed.
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Q: How did you get into the restaurant business?
A: I started out in food industry at age 16. I started busing tables for Chili's in Huntsville, Alabama. At age 18, they moved me up to server.
At age 21, I went to Applebee’s then to Outback. In between, I moved to Florence, Alabama, to go to the University of North Alabama. I still continued to work in Huntsville at Outback. I moved back to Huntsville and finished school and got out of the restaurant business and started my career traveling and installing telemetry equipment in hospitals in the Southeast. My degree was in computer networking with a minor in electronics.
I moved back to Titusville and started installing MRI heart monitoring equipment in Orlando. Two years later, I decided it was just too boring to do the same old thing every day, so I went to work waiting tables at Dixie Crossroads around 2000.
I worked here for eight years and a friend in Huntsville asked me to help him out at Grille 29, where he was the head chef, so I went back and started managing there. I worked there for three years and transferred with the same company to open Sloppy Joe’s Restaurant in Daytona.
At the suggestion of Clay Townsend of Dixie Crossroads, I moved back to Titusville. I started managing the Dixie Crossroads kitchen and then went out front to learn every part of the restaurant. After a year-and-a-half, Clay Townsend and Laurilee Thompson made me general manager.
I had always wanted to work at Dixie as a kid. I would come here in the early '80s. My family and I lived very close, and I would walk down here and put our name on the waiting list. I would walk back home and an hour or two later, we would come back to sit down. It was always a very busy place. I am very grateful to Clay for giving me the opportunity here at the restaurant.
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Q: Signature dish at Dixie Crossroads?
A: The Cape Canaveral Special: two dozen Cape Canaveral rock shrimp, half-a-pound of scallops and one dozen Cape Canaveral boat-run shrimp. Comes with two sides.
Q: What must first-time visitors try?
A: The rock shrimp. We are world-famous for them. They look like mini lobster tails and taste, in my opinion, better than lobster. Much sweeter.
Q: What is special about Dixie Crossroads?
A: The history of the restaurant makes it unique. (Founder) Rodney Thompson discovered ways to use rock shrimp. At the time, people were throwing these shrimp back because they couldn't open them to eat them. He invented a machine to saw the shrimp open, put butter on them and broiled them.
It is fresh shrimp from the ocean to your table. The shrimp boats catch the shrimp, bring it to Wild Ocean Market in Port Canaveral. They sell it to us, and we sell it to our customers. Our shrimp usually comes from the east coast of Florida.
Q: Family?
A: My wife, Lindsey, is a nurse at Parrish Medical Center. We met at Dixie Crossroads. We were both servers here at that time. We have two kids. Eli is 9 and Gracie is 3.
My parents and my wife's parents live here in Titusville. Both sets are retired. I have a brother, Keith, who is an accountant and a sister, Kerri, who works here as a bartender in our Gazebo.
We also have our dog Harley, a boxer.
Q: Hobbies?
A: Most sports; golf, tennis, volleyball, surfing.
Q: Three words that describe you?
A: Fun, open-minded and encouraging
Q: What is in your bucket list?
A: Travel to Europe, go hiking in the High Sierras, go surfing in Hawaii, take a private tour of the Galapagos Islands and go in an RV with my dad across the United States.
Q: Famous person you’d love to see at Dixie Crossroads?
A: I would love to see Tim Tebow come in to the restaurant. I'm a huge fan of his.
Dixie Crossroads
Where: 1475 Garden St, Titusville
Call: 321-268-5000
Web: dixiecrossroads.com
Hours: 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The restaurant closes on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Of note: Starting at 11 a.m. every third Thursday, Honor Flight hosts a luncheon at Dixie Crossroads. The restaurant extends a 15 percent discount to anyone who attends the event. It is not unusual for more than 100 veterans to get together during these luncheons.
Email toastofthecoastfloridatoday@gmail.com.