First things first: Salt Life Food Shack is here to stay. The restaurants are thriving. To make a quick point for business page readers, the parent company that bought the apparel brand from the original surfers in 2013 went into Chapter 11 recently, but the restaurants have been a separate venture since 2010. A solid Jacksonville restaurant group licensed the name to extend the “salt life” ethos into a new restaurant line. Splash! Now their locations in Jacksonville Beach, St. Augustine, and Fernandina Beach top award lists regularly.
Fernandina Beach manager Marcos Jovel says island visitors who know the brand can be surprised to see a restaurant. They come in for merch and stay for the food. People with U.S. Navy ties are energized to find the restaurant because the salt life IS their life. If this magazine is in your hands now, I bet you are living the salt life, too.
The other day, my husband Ken and I went in for a salty boost. Avocado fries have been my enduring menu favorite, with light fry, chunky meat and a bright flavorful sauce, but I was craving a big piece of fish. Simple edamame satisfied my green needs nicely. Giant salads with fish at SLFS I know I can count on, and the Asian Salmon, Ahi Tuna, and Taco Salad with Shrimp all beckoned. This time, however, I needed complex elegance, and the Almond-Eecrusted Grouper was ideal: plump fish, glorious almonds, and lobster in coconut cream. Ken’s Crab-Baked Grouper was fine comfort food. Salt Life Food Shack sure does grouper well!
Speaking of grouper, do Malaysian or Argentine flavors excite you? If so, two grouper dishes are being tested now as possible menu additions. Cast your vote today!
Salt Life Food Shack’s flagship in Jacksonville Beach has won Best Poke Bowl several times, and Fernandina Beach has them all: Hawaiian Shrimp, Asian-flavored Seared Mahi, Spicy, and the signature Caliche’s. Note that Caliche’s was a favorite restaurant in Jaco, Costa Rica, which just closed after 28 years, making our Caliche’s Poke bowl seem extra special.
Street tacos and sushi are just right for variety at small-plates gatherings. My ideal beach drink, the gorgeous Vitamin Sea, must be the love child of a strawberry daiquiri and a piña colada. Superb sweets come in chocolate, key lime, pineapple, and blonde brownie.
Enjoying Salt Life Food Shack is for everyone, whether they want to listen to music on the porch, spread out in booths or tables inside, watch TV in the bar, or drink in breezes and beach views up top. An elevator makes the top deck accessible. Marcos’ friend from bygone New Jersey restaurant days, Kenny Green, is in the kitchen, and he can accommodate any dietary need with a bit of lead time. Marcos says he is always available, if adjustments are ever needed.
Generations have enjoyed the spirit of carefree fun by the ocean – the salt life – where SLFS sits now: go-carts, a full-on fair one year, and most recently, the beloved water slide. This is hallowed ground. Since late 2018, locals and visitors alike have found Fernandina fun of the salt life kind here with foods, drinks, music, and wide ocean vistas. Salt Life Food Shack is located at 17 N. Fletcher Avenue.