BellyUp! to St. Auggie’s Best Bars

Bar specials & what’s not on the bar menu

19 spots

Ann O'Malley's Irish Pub & Deli

Old City · irish, deli

St. Augustine's oldest Irish pub by its own count, open since 1992 in an 1878 family home by the Old City Gate. Owner Kelli Meacham spent 16 years as a county deputy before buying it, the porch is where the regulars people-watch, and it goes 21 and over after 7 p.m.

Aunt Kate's

Vilano Beach · seafood, minorcan, southern

Named for Catherine Usina, whose oyster roast for Henry Flagler's party in 1900 started a family tradition on the Tolomato River. The Usinas opened Aunt Kate's under the live oaks in 2009, boaters can tie up at the floating dock, and the steamed oysters and pilau are the family recipes.

Beachcomber

St. Augustine Beach · $$ · seafood, american

The only restaurant directly on the ocean in St. Augustine Beach by its own account, where A Street meets the sand, dating to 1965. Kids get tables at the foot of the restaurant's own dune and well-behaved dogs are welcome, both straight from its homepage.

Cap's on the Water

Vilano Beach · seafood, southern, mediterranean

On the Tolomato River with a 100-foot dock for visiting boats, a big sunset deck, a tiki bar, an oyster bar and a wine list of more than 500 bottles. No standard reservations, just a live waitlist and free valet, and pet dogs stay home: service animals only, per its own site.

Colonial Oak Music Park

Old City

An outdoor amphitheater under what the park calls the city's second oldest live oak, just off the busiest block of St. George Street, with seating for more than 250. Shows are free unless noted and open to all ages, usually 7 to 10 p.m., and it is a Sing Out Loud Festival stage in September.

Cortesse's Bistro & Flamingo Room Piano Bar

Uptown · $$$ · mediterranean

A 1920 building at the Vilano Bridge roundabout with a Mediterranean kitchen that grows its own herbs and buys from local farms and fish markets. The Flamingo Room has live piano seven nights a week, and the courtyard does al fresco among tropical plants and fountains.

Forgotten Tonic

Old City · american, comfort food

Comfort food and shrub-based cocktails on Aviles Street, the narrow cobblestone lane it calls the oldest street in the USA, in the space that used to be Cellar 6. It adds an optional surcharge that funds health, dental and vision insurance, maternity leave and paid time off for its staff, and it says so on its own site.

Grouper Shack

seafood

A fast casual boater stop inside Cat's Paw Marina on the San Sebastian River, from the same family as The BoatHouse up the road. Half-pound baskets of local shrimp, grouper and mahi, and a place its own site pitches to kids and parents alike.

Meehan's Irish Pub & Seafood House

Old City · irish, seafood

Three rooms in one building a block south of the fort: the Irish pub, Johnny's Oyster Bar upstairs with a deck over Matanzas Bay, and the Backyard's island bar. The house belonged to William Diskmuits, first president of First Florida National Bank, and the music runs daily.

Milltop Tavern & Listening Room

Old City

An 1880s gristmill that became a bar in the 1950s, with live music every day and a treehouse-style room upstairs whose balcony hangs over St. George Street. The 2016 renovation turned up a forgotten water well and a two-foot gopher tortoise shell, and the 300-year-old pecky cypress went back on the walls.

Outback Crab Shack

seafood, low country boil

A boat-in crab shack on Six Mile Creek off the St. Johns River, first opened in 1984, wrecked by Hurricanes Matthew and Irma and rebuilt with the building raised and a dock for up to 100 boats. Reopened under new ownership in 2024, from the family behind The BoatHouse and Grouper Shack.

Planet Sarbez

Davis Shores · grilled cheese

A craft beer and grilled cheese arcade bar just over the Bridge of Lions, with more than 35 machines from pinball to skee-ball, all on quarters, and a patio with bonfires when it cools off. Family friendly until 8 p.m., 18 and over until 10, then 21 and over, and there are no french fries, which it is not sorry about.

Saint

Old City · $$ · italian, seafood

A flower-filled courtyard and upstairs bay views make Saint a tempting Italian dinner spot. Explore the menu and seating choices, then book the table you want.

Stogies Jazz Club & Listening Room

Old City

A cigar bar and listening room on the cobblestone stretch of Charlotte Street, locally owned for more than 23 years, with live music daily, hundreds of craft beers and a fire pit outside. Buy a draft before 7 p.m. and a hand-rolled cigar comes with it.

Sunset Grille

St. Augustine Beach · seafood, american

Two bartenders turned a former Phillips 66 station into a Key West style beach restaurant in 1990. The upstairs deck is open air, with fans in summer and heaters in winter, the chowder is a Great Chowder Debate regular, and the bar pours St. Augustine Distillery spirits.

The BoatHouse

seafood, sushi, raw bar

The old Creekside Dinery on Gonzales Creek, reopened by Nathan Stuart and Margo Klar and now The BoatHouse, with a deck of about 4,500 square feet over the marsh, a fire pit and weekend music. Sushi and a raw bar next to the fried seafood, and weekend brunch with bottomless mimosas.

The Conch House

Anastasia Island · seafood, southern

The Ponce family has run this spot on Salt Run since 1946, when the old Coast Guard gunnery station became a four-room hotel. Eat on the deck under a palm or in grass huts built over the water, walk-up only, with a 200-slip marina and live music on the Lounge Deck.

The Reef

Vilano Beach · seafood

One of the few true oceanfront dining rooms left in Northeast Florida, built by the Usina family on land they held for generations and run by that family since 2002. Tablecloths without the stiffness, Florida-grown beef, and a brunch that comes with a glass of champagne.

Tini Martini Bar

Old City

The martini bar of the Casablanca Inn, spilling out onto the front verandah over Matanzas Bay. Its own site says there is no live music right now, while Visit St. Augustine still lists Friday jazz, which is exactly the kind of mismatch this site exists to measure.

Start with the deal

Choose the day and time first, then see which current happy hours and weekly specials fit.

What these spots are known for

The same bars spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.

More ways to find a table

Community Quotes

Recommendations from real St. Augustine locals, always attributed to whoever wrote them.

Nobody’s shared a bars recommendation yet. Be the first.

Submit a Spot

Run one of these rooms?

Every St. Augustine spot here already has a free profile going, put together from what you publish publicly. If we have you filed wrong, or we are missing what you most want to be known for, tell us.

Claim your profile St. Augustine Discovery Report

Real People
Local Love
All Welcome
Extend Your Visibility

Find your next favorite spot

Get BellyUp! finds for your city and the things you love.

What do you love?