Chances are, if you’ve been to Ocean Delight, you’ve met my brother and fellow Whiteway newbie-turned-devotee, Joe, aka Joe Friday. When we bought these cottages, we were quite ‘green’ to the industry and didn’t know how much work was entailed – and knowing what we know now, there’s no way we could have gotten through this summer without his help.
Like me, Joe left Torbay as a young man looking for something new, and found it as a bartender in Nova Scotia. Also like me, 40 years later, he found himself in Whiteway and knew his life was about to change. He came out to help me paint a cottage and I couldn’t get him to leave. He fell in love with the community and the people and the lifestyle, as everyone is wont to do when they discover the magic of the place (or when the Wizard of Shag Rock casts his spell over them).
He stayed with us in empty cottages until more guests started arriving with the warmer weather, and we needed a better solution. He found the perfect one – a cottage just up the road which we call Joe Friday’s Cottage on Joe Friday’s Beach. Then after performing his first screech-in, our guest Geoff gave him the jacket you see above. It’s so cool, you have to call him ‘Joe Merlot.’
And ‘Joe Merlot’ is particularly fitting, as he now makes wine in the winery we set up in the basement of The Gannet. Joe Merlot intends to expand the winery to make beer. Do I see a Joe Labatt coming? I don’t know how many Joe’s there will be here in the future, but there’s one thing for sure – Ocean Delight sure has one Joe Cool.
We love having him around. Whether he’s Joe Byrne, Joe Friday, Joe Merlot, Joe Labatt, or Joe Cool, we love all of them and don’t care which one it is – as long as we still get plain, ol’ Joe! And thanks, Joe, for all that you do – you’ve made life out here even better, and that’s hard to do!
You’ve heard us rave so much about Joe Friday that you’d be forgiven for thinking he can turn water into wine. Well, not quite, but almost – he’s set up a mean wine making station in the basement of The Gannet instead. Of course, when he’s tinkering away in Joe Friday’s Winery (see above), then we call him Joe Merlot. There’s lots of Joe’s to keep track of!