Last Updated on October 15, 2015 by Marybeth
After a sun, surf and sand filled day do you really need to spend Happy Hour looking at the beach? If so you’ll miss out on some of Florida’s best beach bars, a mere block away from the Atlantic, on the iconic A1A.
As the Beaches, Bars and Bungalows team travels the A1A to bring you the best tips for small town coastal Florida travel, we see in almost every town an inviting beach bar just calling our name. If we didn’t swing in for a drink or three our conscience would weigh so heavily…
In good conscience we already did some swinging into A1A beach bars in St. John’s County – the St. Augustine Beach and Crescent Beach area. Read the details here.
In Nassau County, the Northernmost county in Florida on the Atlantic – Fernandina Beach down to Franklintown – we found just one gem overlooking the A1A. Operating since 1957, The Surf Restaurant and Bar absolutely fills the void for the whole area.
THE SURF RESTAURANT AND BAR
3199 S. Fletcher Avenue
Fernandina Beach
- VIBE: Lively, surf vibe, with great energy. Amiable, super-attentive servers.
- ARRIVE: By car; face-in parking spots out front (which can be tricky pulling out onto the A1A) with a larger parking lot to the left of the building.
- SIT: Inside or out on the deck under cover of the bar or umbrella tables.
- SIP: Happy Hour – 2 for 1 drinks! – all day, every day!
- NOSH: Try their famous Wings, and you can’t miss The Drunken Pirate Burger.
- LISTEN: Live music Fridays, a DJ spins on Wednesdays, and Saturdays the hilarious Surf-aroke.
- WE LOVE: The Surf has the unmistakably, absolutely, decidedly (love that word) best service in Fernandina! It says so (and we think so too) on their fun website; click on their name above for the link.
Do you know about Sailor Jerry? Norman Keith Collins, 1911-1973, “father of the old school tattoo and a stubborn sonuvabitch,” best known for his legacy of tattooing soldiers and sailors in the sketchy Hotel Street district of Honolulu. His artistry and bad-ass-ery is thriving still through the team of admirers and fellow creatives at Sailor Jerry Clothing, and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum .
When it rains, The Surf pours! The more rain, the better deals. No excuse now to be downcast on a rainy day, people!
Stop in The Surf: tell them Beaches, Bars and Bungalows sent you. Let us know how you like that Drunken Pirate Burger – and if you can actually finish it!
Next up will be Flagler County as we explore our way down the coast, making that slight left into parking lots of the best beach bars overlooking the A1A!
Our thanks go out to Angela Scott, who captured all the great images for this article; follow her to see more fun Florida photos @angelamarie.87 on Instagram
Nassau County is on the east coast of Florida, with Fernandina Beach as its northernmost town. Jacksonville is also part of Nassau county, though Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Neptune Beach are in Duval County. There don’t seem to be any A1A bars in Duval; please let us know if we’re wrong!
