Panama City Beach- Two local men received one of the top honors in their field Thursday night. Johnny and Jimmy Patronis were inducted into the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association's Hall of Fame in St. Petersburg.

The brothers came to Panama City in 1953, as managers and part owners of the Seven Seas restaurant in downtown Panama City. In 1967 they bought Capt. Anderson's restaurant from Max Anderson, and built it into one of the most famous restaurants in the southeastern United States.

Over the years the restaurant has been named one of America's Top 50 Restaurants, "Best Seafood Restaurant" by Southern Living, an award of excellence winner by Wine Spectator, 1 15-time Golden Spoon award winner from Florida Trend magazine, and inducted into Florida Trend's Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2005.

Each year a quarter of a million people don't consider their trip to Panama City Beach complete without a visit to Capt. Anderson's. So Thursday's induction into the Restaurant and Lodging Hall of Fame was certainly deserved. But what many people don't now is the large amount of philanthropy work the Patronis' have performed here in Northwest Florida. Our congratulations and thanks go out to the entire Patronis family.