CRESTVIEW — Sometimes Main Street chocolatier Julie LeFevre’s customers can’t get enough of her truffles, barks and clusters.

“I love to experiment with my chocolate,” Julie said. “People call me with their ideas for special mixes. Like my Mexican truffles. They have a pinch of cayenne and cinnamon in them. It’s kind of like my passion.”

It all began about 30 years ago when Julie was a military wife. “I raised our son, Derek, pretty much by myself,” she said. “I had to do something, so I started trying to mix different flavors with chocolates.”

Now, Julie sells her eclectic creations of smooth Belgian chocolate that has been mixed in small batches from her stall at Rustic Reflections on North Main Street.

“I try to do diverse things with my chocolate,” she said. “There’s so much to try. I keep switching it up. It’s endless.”

Sometimes, ideas just pop into her head, like her newest recipe. “It sounds really weird: it’s potato chips and pecans in a white chocolate cluster,” Julie said. “When I first made that one, I couldn’t keep up with the demand.”

And the demand keeps growing, she said. The Baron’s Tea Shop and Hub City Smokehouse have approached her about selling chocolates in their businesses.

The Green Bay, Wisconsin, native has lived all over the world, including Saudi Arabia — “The Saudis loved my chocolates,” she said — Dubai, Europe and the Pacific, but loves having settled down in Crestview near Derek and his children, Bentley, 4, and Landyn, 6, who live in Baker.

“Everyone’s got their niche and I finally found mine,” she said. “I’m really not making a lot (of money) doing it, but I just love it. And who doesn’t like chocolate? Well, I know a few who don’t. It’s a sad thing.”

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GOT CHOCOLATE?

Julie LeFevre creates special flavors and batch sizes to order, and caters parties, weddings and events. Visit Julie’s Sweet Kitchen stall at Rustic Reflections, 267 Main St. N., call 428-1223, or email juliessweetkitchen@yahoo.com.

Julie LeFevre creates special flavors and batch sizes to order, and caters parties, weddings and events. Visit Julie’s Sweet Kitchen stall at Rustic Reflections, 267 Main St. N., call 428-1223, or email juliessweetkitchen@yahoo.com.

GOT CHOCOLATE?

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Globe trotter brings chocolate treats to Crestview's Main Street (VIDEO)

CRESTVIEW — Okaloosa Master Gardeners Bob Bayer and David Stever are guest speakers for a local lecture.

The two will present information on the Okaloosa County Native Plant Trail from 10-11 a.m. April 20 at the Okaloosa County Extension Office, 3098 Airport Road, Crestview.

The lecture includes a quarter-mile stroll along the trail, weather permitting; a brief description of the trail's history; and information on how it provides compost project material.

If weather is inclement, a PowerPoint file of pictures taken during the trail's development will be presented.

There is no cost to attend but space is limited, so registration is required. Call 689-5850 to register.

For more on the Master Gardener lecture series, which lasts through October, see www.ocmga.org for additional information on topics, speakers and locations.  

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa Master Gardeners plan Crestview lecture, trail walk

Need something to do this weekend? Check out these fun events: 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 3 things to do this weekend in Northwest Florida

CRESTVIEW — When Hub City Smokehouse owner and pit master Mike Carroll couldn’t convince Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce Triple B Cook-Off organizers to extend the festival an extra block south, he organized his own event.

Families rolled around in KnockerBalls by Carroll’s South Main Street restaurant March 19 while others strolled the block-long “extra” event admiring classic cars and vendors’ wares, including the Crestview Community Garden’s member-grown plants and produce.

With barbecue’s aroma in the air, along with music, street vendors and outdoor tables, little differentiated Carroll’s block party from the Triple B two blocks north.

A disc jockey and the First Baptist Church of Holt youth band filled the block with music. The band’s director, Boe Miller, said the group checked last month if they could play at the Triple B but “but they were all booked up.”

As for Carroll, he may make the event a regular occasion. “We’re hoping to do this the first Friday of every month,” he said.

Former chamber president Derek Lott, whose wife, Valerie, is the chamber CEO, said organizers tried to get Carroll to participate in the Triple B, “but he didn’t want to.”

Carroll said after the Main Street Crestview Association extended the 2015 Fall Festival an extra block south, he hoped the chamber of commerce would do the same.

Though the Triple B in the past has stretched from the courthouse south to the railroad tracks, this year it stopped at Woodruff Avenue, leaving an empty block between the festival and Carroll’s event.

Had the Triple B extended south to encompass the extra block, Derek Lott said, Carroll couldn’t participate as a competitor out of his restaurant under the Florida Barbecue Association’s rules, which the Triple B follows. The FBA forbids pit masters from working out of their permanent locations. All competitors must set up mobile kitchens on Main Street the night before the festival.

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Correction: Two quotes from Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce President Valerie Lott were included out of context. We regret the error and have removed the quotes. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview restaurant's street festival could become monthly event (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

UPDATE: See the cookoff's winners at left (desktop) or at the bottom of this page (mobile users). 

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CRESTVIEW — The weatherman may have said rain storms but organizers of the 12th annual Triple B barbecue festival ignored him. And they were right.

A sunny, breezy day greeted attendees at Main Street’s biggest event Saturday and as the day went on, the Blackwater, Bluegrass and BBQ Cook-Off crowds grew bigger.

“Nobody thought it was going to be this nice,” Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Valerie Lott said. “We thought it was going to be all wet and yucky, but it turned out great.”

The weather may have cooperated, but it was a neighboring event that drew some of the hoped-for barbecuers. Pensacola’s seventh annual Smokin’ in the Square ran the same day.

“We have seven competitors this year,” Lott said, noting the number was down from the 2015 Triple B’s 17 competitors.

GETTING SANCTIONED

“It’s amazing what was lost this year because of Pensacola having theirs the same day,” Boy Scout Troop 773 parent leader Mike Banks said. The troop is an annual fixture at the Triple B, selling camp cards as a fundraiser.

But that may change next year. Lott said.

“We’re looking into getting sanctioned (by the Florida Barbecue Association) next year,” she said. “Membership would guarantee us competitors. But it’s a long process.”

That’s one of the main reasons the festival remained unsanctioned, though it follows Florida Barbecue Association rules, said Cal Zethmayr, one of the cook-off’s founders. Another reason is it allowed the then-small local event to draw non-member backyard smokers, he said.

Today, many pit masters only compete in officially sanctioned cook-offs, Lott’s husband, Derek, a former chamber president, said.

Among the barbecuers who appeared in Crestview again this year was “BBW-ologist” Po Wigg, whose Two Brothers Barbecue came up from Fort Walton and drew a long line outside their family-run food stand.

LONG AND SLOW

Like other pit masters, Wigg had set up Friday and evening and started smoking. The secret to good barbecue is taking your time, “long and slow,” he said.

“You don’t come for the grill,” he said. “You come for the barbecue. We’ve been cooking all night.”

Annie and Robb Bush and their six children savored barbecue from the Little Smokehouse with a sugar-dusted funnel cake for dessert, clustered around a shady patch of sidewalk near the bounce houses.

“We frequently come to the festival,” Annie Bush said. “It’s fun for the kids, and this was good brisket.”

With lots of “long and slow” barbecue and festival food to choose from, and vendors including community service organizations, crafters, martial arts academies, auto dealers and politicians seeking votes, there was plenty to do for families strolling up and down Main Street.

“It was a great day for us,” chamber Triple B committee chairman Mike Roy said.

Grand Champion: Ranch House

Reserve Champion : Little Smokehouse

People's Choice: Little Smokehouse

Chicken:

1st place: Two Brothers BBQ

2nd place: Ranch House

3rd Place: Matthews BBQ

Ribs:

1st place: Two Brothers BBQ

2nd place: Ranch House

3rd Place: Little Smokehouse

Pork:

1st place: Little Smokehouse

2nd place: Ranch House

3rd Place: Matthews BBQ

Brisket:

1st place: Little Smokehouse

2nd place: Ranch House

3rd Place: Matthews BBQ

WINNERS

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Triple B BBQ festival fills Main Street (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

CRESTVIEW — This year’s Triple B CookOff is expected to attract more than last year's 13,000 people, but the event didn’t always draw a crowd.

Here’s a timeline of the festival’s growth.

2001: Mike Wright Reynolds, a barbecue judge and photographer, founds the event, part of the former Family Fun Day festival in Spanish Trail Park.

2002: Community leaders Ken Frost, Mike Holovack and Cal Zethmayr notice throngs of people sweltering during the Spanish Trail Cruisers Club car show on Main Street and decide to move the barbecue festival there.

Then-Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Wayne Harris, despite initial doubts, agrees to let the committee try one more festival, this time in the downtown location.

The event becomes a cooperative effort between the chamber of commerce and the Main Street Crestview Association, with help from the city.

2008: The Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce’s Professional and Inspired Leaders of Tomorrow, or PILOT, committee are primarily responsible for organizing the Triple B. As the festival grows, it needs its own organizing committee.

2009: A second entertainment stage is added near the railroad tracks, bracketing with music the food and festivities in between.

2010: The Triple B adds the People’s Choice award.

And unlike many “professional” competitions, the local festival remains a community event at which the people get to enjoy the fruits — make that meats — of the pit masters’ labors as much as the judges do.

2013: The chamber's former Arts and Culture Committee becomes involved, expanding the festival’s cultural aspects.

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DID YOU KNOW?

The Triple B Cookoff evolved from Family Fun Day, a 1990s event held at Old Spanish Trail Park.

Family Fun Day waned, but after two years, a committee of local business leaders endeavored to keep the event’s barbecue competition portion alive by moving it to Main Street.

With a new venue, the committee believed the event needed a new name.

"We talked about calling it the Bluegrass Music and Barbecue festival," Cal Zethmayr, one of the event’s founders, has said. "Then somebody tossed out, ‘Let’s call it Blackwater.’ Blackwater, Bluegrass and Barbecue. We liked it. It had alliteration."

While some may say the Blackwater River and Blackwater State Forest are miles from Crestview, the city sits in the middle of another "black water," Zethmayr said.

The county name, proposed by founder W.H. "Bill" Mapoles, is a Choctaw Indian phrase describing the Yellow River, according to Betty Curenton and Claudia Patten’s book, "Crestview: The Forkland." "Oka" means water, the book states, and "loosa" means black.

The Triple B Cookoff evolved from Family Fun Day, a 1990s event held at Old Spanish Trail Park.

Family Fun Day waned, but after two years, a committee of local business leaders endeavored to keep the event’s barbecue competition portion alive by moving it to Main Street.

With a new venue, the committee believed the event needed a new name.

“We talked about calling it the Bluegrass Music and Barbecue festival,” Cal Zethmayr, one of the event’s founders, has said. “Then somebody tossed out, ‘Let’s call it Blackwater.’ Blackwater, Bluegrass and Barbecue. We liked it. It had alliteration.”

While some may say the Blackwater River and Blackwater State Forest are miles from Crestview, the city sits in the middle of another “black water,” Zethmayr said.

The county name, proposed by founder W.H. “Bill” Mapoles, is a Choctaw Indian phrase describing the Yellow River, according to Betty Curenton and Claudia Patten’s book, “Crestview: The Forkland.” “Oka” means water, the book states, and “loosa” means black.

DID YOU KNOW?

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: TRIPLE B: Move to Main Street saved the Crestview cookoff

CRESTVIEW — From the Okaloosa County courthouse to the railroad tracks, music will mingle in the air with the aroma of smoking barbecue at the Triple B festival.

Organizers sought popular regional festival bands and performers to draw attendees from throughout Northwest Florida, Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce President Valerie Lott said.

Expect all sorts of music — and genres — from a variety of bands, including smooth jazz, R&B, soul, indie pop, acoustic and, not forgetting the Triple B’s roots, southern bluegrass.

Here’s who’s performing:

Florida Lottery (North) Stage:

●10:30 a.m. Continuum: Destin-based indie-pop band

●12:10 p.m. The Good Lookings: Destin-based acoustic rock band

●1:50 p.m. Dismal Creek: southern tradition bluegrass band from the Florida-Alabama line

●3:30 p.m. The Okaloosa Sound: Fort Walton Beach-based soul, funk, blues, jazz, rock and Caribbean sounds

Crestview Centennial (South) Stage:

●10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Simply D’Vyne: Smooth jazz, R&B and pop music from the Panhandle

●3-6 p.m. Dose of Johnny C.: Fun and music from the local disc jockey

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: TRIPLE B: Crestview festival's entertainment will span bluegrass to soul

CRESTVIEW — Response to the new North Okaloosa Community Band has exceeded organizer Lee Emerson’s expectations.

“Our first night's rehearsal was an epic success,” Emerson, who works at UpBeat Music in Crestview, said. “Four more people signed up the next day. We already have over 20 members.”

The band, which rehearsed March 14 in Shoal River Middle School’s band room under Mustangs band director Kim Whaley and Paxton band director Lindsey Stuart’s direction, is preparing for its Fourth of July debut at the Crestview Centennial Old-Fashioned Family Picnic in Twin Hills Park.

The musicians are practicing patriotic music, including John Phillip Sousa marches, and an armed services salute, Emerson said.

The band is open to adult musicians of all skill levels, and 11th- and 12th-grade student musicians with their school band director’s written permission.

What: North Okaloosa Community Band

When: Rehearsals are 6:30-8:30 p.m. Mondays

Where: Shoal River Middle School band room, 3200 Redstone Ave. E., Crestview

Notes: Open to adult musicians of all skill levels, plus 11th- and 12th-grade band students with their band director’s written permission. Call Lee Emerson, 398-4009 or lee@upbeatmusic.com, for more information

WANT TO JOIN?

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: New North Okaloosa band quickly adding members

CRESTVIEW — Attendees seeking a convenient parking spot will have to come early, but their reward will be one of fewer than 20 prized downtown spots just steps from the heart of the event.

The First Presbyterian Church of Crestview’s American Cancer Society Relay for Life team will offer parking in the church’s lot, between Courthouse Terrace and Beech Avenue, for $5 per car.

“In the past, people have just come in and used our parking lot,” pastor the Rev. Mark Broadhead said. “We thought, why not have them kick in for a worthy cause?”

The lot will be blocked off the night before the March 19 event “to allow for a fresh start the morning of the Triple B,” Broadhead said.

Parking attendants will be on duty beginning at 9 a.m., and spots will be available first-come, first-parked. Oversized vehicles or vehicles with trailers requiring two spots will be charged for each spot occupied. No re-entry will be allowed.

“Relay for Life is a worthy event,” Broadhead said. “This is one way for us to support the cause.”

Learn more about the American Cancer Society’s Crestview Relay For Life at http://www.relayforlife.org/crestviewfl.

FYI

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: TRIPLE B: Convenient Crestview parking available for donations

CRESTVIEW — A Special Olympics torch run is March 30 in Crestview.

The 9-10 a.m. run starts at Publix in south Crestview and continues to the Okaloosa County Courthouse on Main Street.

The Crestview Police Department will escort runners during the event.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Special Olympics torch run scheduled in Crestview