After vacationing in Bonita Beach this May, my family will spend the night in Perry on the way home to Norch Carolina. The night we're in Perry will be my dad's birthday, and I'd like to find a nice restaurant that preferably has southern style food. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks for your help.

Look at
http://www.perryga.com/restaurants.html
As I suspected, there are not many choices (any choices?) that are not either (a) chains (b) on the highway or (c) both. You are more likely to get good BBQ than anything else, though not at Sonny's, an undistiguished chain.

Wow. It's been over 20 years or so, but our usual stop from Ohio to Florida was Perry, and a nice dinner at the "New" Perry Hotel in town was always a special treat. Is it still?

The Langston House.

Find the new Perry Hotel. GREAT southern food, small town experience.

But be sensible in what you ordered. Someone once posted they had steaks there and they weren't wonderful. Duh. This is a place for ham or country fried chicken, with lots of vegetables.

If you have money, try a couple of exits south and eat and stay at Henderson Village. Look at their web site. You could eat there and stay at the NPH.
The New Perry Hotel is fine. I'm stayed there recently. However the historical part of the hotel does not have an elevator. If you stay around the pool, the rooms are standard, not special. The food is fine, not great, they are under somewhat new management, so things may be improving.