Gary Cannon: Living green in Dewey

Gary Cannon is passionate about his work. But, he said, he wishes he could spend more time at the beach.

“I’ll have been within 100 yards of the beach all day, and not once did I make it down there,” said the owner of the Gary’s Dewey Beach Grill recently. “I’ll be like, ‘What was I thinking?’”

Cannon, 52, is well over 6 feet tall and still has the neck and shoulders of a college football player – he played at University of Delaware in the 1980s. He said he loves hitting the beach early on a summer morning when the waves are beginning to kick up.

“The beach is so cool at 8 a.m. in the morning. The lifeguards are working out, there are people walking, the beach hut girls are getting ready, ” he said, adding he makes a point to get out from time to time. “If it means getting up half an hour earlier, I will. I’ll sleep during the winter.”

Cannon grew up in rural New Jersey, but he's been spending summers at the beach his whole life. He lifeguarded for five summers on the Jersey shore before discovering Dewey Beach during college. He said he had never heard of the town until he followed some of his college teammates down to the small beach town 30 years ago. He got a job working at the Bottle & Cork and has been in the area ever since.

The town was still finding itself, Cannon said, with a you-know-what-I-mean laugh. There was still drinking on the beach, and it had just become incorporated, he said. Dewey has long been an end-of-the-road destination for the young-at-heart, but it was incorporated in 1981, making it the youngest town in the state.

Cannon opened Gary’s 25 years ago. For the first five years, the restaurant, on the northeast corner of New Orleans Street and Coastal Highway, was open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. After Labor Day, Cannon said, there was nobody around. During the winter months those first few years, Cannon spent time as a personal trainer in Aspen, Colo.

Cannon said Aspen was a place where people were active year-round and had like-minded thoughts on living through environmentally sound practices.

“It’s an environmentally friendly place, and I always thought Dewey could be one of those places,” he said.

Cannon practices what he preaches. He takes pride in the fact that Gary’s began recycling long before the state required it. Cannon said up until not too long ago, he would take the restaurant’s daily recyclables to the state's closest recycling containers. He said he always thought it was cool when other people were there recycling too.

“It was like our own little sub-society of tree huggers,” he said, again laughing.

Cannon said he’s not a yeller about recycling, but at the same time, he said, there won’t be any plastic cups in the trash bins.

“They know if I see one, I’ll reach in and pull it out,” he said, and you guessed it, while laughing.

Cannon said people have questioned his interest in recycling, but he sees it differently. He said he doesn’t understand why someone wouldn’t recycle.

“That type of stuff drives me crazy,” he said.

Cannon said he was happy when Dewey decided to go smoke-free on the beach. Some people were worried it could hurt business.

“We’ve never allowed smoking. I think it’s fantastic that people can’t smoke on the beach,” he said.

In addition to environmentally responsible practices, Cannon takes pride in Gary’s being one of the first restaurants in Dewey to offer healthy food choices. He said the idea behind his establishment when he first opened was to be a healthy beer drinker’s paradise.

“Chicken Ed’s was probably the healthiest place to eat when I first opened up,” he said. “I wanted to bring something to town with a more healthy concept.”

He estimates he’s sold thousands of turkey burgers and turkey cheesesteaks. Ten years ago, Gary’s introduced sushi, because, Cannon said, he liked it.

“We didn’t go crazy fancy, but people are still eating it,” he said.

Catching rays, not waves

Six years ago, Cannon turned his passion for the environment and sound sustainability practices into another job, when he joined as a partner to form CNC Solar, a solar panel installation company, in Rehoboth Beach.

Cannon said he entered this field because he believes in it. He said he realizes it’s going to be nearly impossible to get completely off oil and natural gas as energy sources, but, he continues, as solar technology improves and prices continue to decline there will be a slow balance in energy needs.

“Solar’s not going to be 100 percent, but it should be at least 20 percent,” he said, adding the sun produces more than enough energy to satisfy human need. “We just need to find a better way to catch that energy and harness its powers.”

Cannon said using state-level grants and federal tax credits makes solar panels a better investment for businesses and families. In the beginning, he said, solar panels were not a good investment, but people were OK with breaking even because they were doing something good for the environment.

Now, because of the lowering costs, Cannon said, people are realizing 15 percent to 20 percent returns on their investment. He said there’s been a 70 percent reduction in costs associated with solar panel installation – from $8 per watt to $3 per watt – in the past few years.

Cannon has solar panels at Gary’s, and they’re providing two services. First, the panels are doing what they were installed for – turning unused energy into useable energy. Second, the panels provide the shade for the outdoor patio.

“People don’t even know they're here,” he said.

Doing something good

Cannon and his wife, Ava, have three teenage daughters, Coryn, 18, Mary Grace, 15, and Jackie, 14, but, he said, he considers the hundreds of high school- and college-aged employees who have made their way through the restaurant to be like his kids too.

Cannon said he’s tried to instill a good work ethic in his daughters and employees by working hard himself. He said he still loves getting behind the grill at the restaurant on weekend nights.

It’s about being here and teaching the kids how to run a business, said Cannon. He said life is going to involve work, but it’s how a person approaches the work that makes a difference.

Having a good attitude and working the right way is all part of Cannon’s persona. He said providing healthy food at his restaurant, recycling as much as possible, and the solar panel adventure are about being part of a larger community.

He said he likes to ask himself, “Did you do something good today?” And on those early morning beach days, when Cannon has a chance to reflect, he can confidently respond, “Yes.”