Pete D’Amico, Favre Family Come Together for Thanksgiving Tailgate

Pete D’Amico poses with Brett Favre during Favre’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Lambeau Field in July 2015. Submitted.

When Brett Favre’s No. 4 is unveiled in the Lambeau Field Ring of Honor during the Green Bay Packers’ home game Thanksgiving night, it will mark more than the final piece of the legendary quarterback’s storied career in Green Bay – it will also mark the final Lambeau tailgate party for the Favre family.

Along for that party will be Ellison Bay resident Pete D’Amico, whose friendship with the family goes back nearly two decades to the midst of Brett Favre’s career with the Packers, when D’Amico owned the Tundra House in Jacksonport.

“We became friends with Stevie and Mable Haas, who owned The Broke Spoke down here in Kiln, Mississippi,” D’Amico said during a phone interview from Favre’s hometown of Kiln. “I used to make halftime phone calls to The Broke Spoke, which is a little roadhouse bar here in Kiln … and everybody in Jacksonport there at the Tundra House would do a shot with everybody down in Kiln, Mississippi. We put through the sound system so everybody in Door County could hear all the people down in Mississippi and we always talked about what each place was having for halftime food and that. It built up the camaraderie and the relationships … through that, we were introduced to the Favre family.”

The unifying factor between D’Amico and the Favres? Door County fish boils. D’Amico recalls Brett’s dad, Irv Favre, inviting him down to Kiln to do a whitefish boil – which, when all was said and done, “they didn’t think was spicy enough,” D’Amico laughed. So the Kiln crew, including Brett’s mom Bonita and his brother Jeff, along with Stevie and Mable Hass, came up to Door County to do their crawfish boils as a benefit for Door County charities.

Pete D’amico holds up Brett Favre’s bronze football commemorating the former quarterback’s induction into the Green Back Packers’ Hall of Fame in July. Submitted photo.

During the course of the next decade, D’Amico’s relationship was further cemented with a business partnership with Jeff Favre and Stevie Hass (with the opening of The Broke Spoke North in Muskego, Wisconsin) and his dedication to helping rebuild Kiln after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“We brought many crews of Door County volunteers down to the coast here – we made 25 trips … and we were able to help rebuild 55 families’ homes down here over the course of about three years,” D’Amico said. “All those things over all those years, and of course all those touchdown passes that Brett threw over the years, it brought us closer. A lot of people of Door County are a lot like the people down here; they’re blue collar folk, so I think it was easy for a relationship to form between us that way.”

The Kiln residents have been as keen on the relationship with Door County as D’Amico has been, even holding a shrimp boil at Beantown Campground in Baileys Harbor in August 2013 to thank those who lent a hand during the hurricane cleanup.

The tailgate at Lambeau Field, fittingly held on Thanksgiving Day, will be held in similar spirit.

While there are plenty of probable lasts designated that day, there is also a big first: the first time the Packers will play a Thanksgiving game at home since 1923. It’s the perfect opportunity to put a twist on the standard tailgate fare, particularly for a group from down South.

“Seeing it’s Thanksgiving and we’ve never had a Thanksgiving tailgate up there before, we’re going to deep fry some turkeys, do some jambalaya and some gumbo and some family favorite dishes,” D’Amico said. “We’re going to make corn stew and we’ll just have one last Lambeau Field tailgate party for everybody. We’re hoping some of his old teammates are going to stop by. It should be a lot of fun. We might boil some shrimp, maybe some oysters, whatever we bring up from the coast.”

As is customary for such a warm, welcoming group of folks from Door County and Kiln, Mississippi, the tailgate is open to anybody who wants to stop by. Door County rock ‘n roll band Dirty Deuce (Rob Atwood and Jamey Clark) is slated to play at the shindig, and may be joined by a couple musicians from Kiln.

The tailgate party will be held on the first six parking stalls of the parking lot off the Oneida Street entrance and will be marked with banners. Stevie Hass will also sell 400 commemorative green and gold Broke Spoke t-shirts with Favre’s stats on the back, along with a statement that is sure to be echoed not only among that particular group, but throughout the stadium that day:

“Brett, thanks for the memories.”

The Green Bay Packers will take on the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on Thursday, Nov. 26 at 7:30 pm.