NASCAR photographer has a decked-out restaurant

There's a T-shirt at DJ's Deck in Port Orange, Fla. that you really don't want.

It's a shirt that's not for sale, either. You have to earn one. Yeah. That's the best way to put it. The shirt has to be ... earned. See, the casual restaurant features outdoor seating overlooking the Halifax River. It's a gorgeous view, out in the elements.

The elements include a cool breeze off the river, sunsets and seagulls. And where there are seagulls, there's ... well ... you know ... poop. The unfortunate souls who "encounter" a seagull while dining al fresco get a free T-shirt with the tongue-in-cheek slogan, "I Got Bombed At DJ's!"

"We do have the seagulls and we do have the birds to fly over," said DJ's Deck owner David Graham. "When a customer gets hit by a bird, we will actually give them that T-shirt. It's something for them -- not to remember the incident -- but to at least remember DJ's."

If there's a best way to describe the relaxed, casual atmosphere at DJ's Deck, it's that T-shirt. Jimmy Buffet may not actually be kicked back in a corner, wearing sandals and lazily strumming a guitar, but the effect is the same.

"We run the restaurant the way we want to be treated when we go out to eat," Graham said. "It's a very simple, very basic concept of customer service. Our whole attitude is that we want our customers to come in, relax and enjoy the scenery. We take a Key West attitude ... come in, relax and be yourself.

"I want our staff to be relaxed and have good time. If they're having a professionally good time, then our customers will be able to relax and have a good time, too. That's what we instill in them. We want, really, the customers to be able to call DJ's Deck home."

Opened in August 2000, Graham left a good job as distribution manager for Florida Power and Light to open the location with wife, Kim. The restaurant is best known for its seafood. The fish sandwiches are the bomb ... no, not that kind of bomb ... and the seafood gumbo won first place in a chowder cook-off the weekend of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Families are welcome at DJ's Deck.

"We're very family oriented," Graham said. "We consider ourselves more of a restaurant than a bar, even though we serve beer and wine. We value the families. We do have a kids' menu. When families come in with hungry kids and screaming kids, we give them something to color with. We try to cater to them, so that Mom and Dad can relax a little bit, too."

A longtime photographer in the NASCAR community, Graham balances work at DJ's Deck and a stringer gig with The Associated Press at Daytona and Homestead. He first shot an event at the 1978 Daytona 500, the first of three wins for Bobby Allison in the sport's biggest race.

He couldn't begin to venture a guess on how many races he's covered since. Graham's photography career in NASCAR has taken him as far as California and Las Vegas, and he's shot races at Talladega, Darlington, Charlotte and Atlanta, among others.

"Basically, I was a fan with a camera," Graham said.