Sugar Bowl

The Sugar Bowl, known in the 1950s and early '60s as Old Baldy, was a bowl-shaped valley between a circular group of sand dunes located near the east end of Pensacola Beach, on the sound side, just west of where Portofino Condominiums was later constructed. For decades it was used as an all-purpose getaway for underage revelers, sunbathers, picnickers, campers, and for many high school graduates a rite of passage.

It's popularity was enhanced by the addition of the second 7-11 convenience store located several hundred yards west of it, on Via De Luna. The store was one of the last buildings that could be seen while commuting east toward Navarre, and where both locals and tourists could purchase necessities such as ice, also snacks and beverages, then enjoy an unforgettable time while basking in the semi-seclusion and pristine beauty of the gulf coast.

With residential expansion on the exact spot, commercial, apartment and other real estate management offices built nearby, enhanced law enforcement, closing of the convenience store, four-laning of Via De Luna, hurricane damage and construction of Portofino Condominiums came the slow but obvious decline in the popularity of the Sugar Bowl as a getaway destination, to the point where it's mentioning now only brings back decades-old memories of the golden age of life on Pensacola Beach.