If you've been out fishing and want someone else to cook the catch, the Salty Pelican Bar & Grill at 12 North Front Street will do it, on the harbor in downtown Fernandina Beach. Partners Al Waldis and T.J. Pelletier opened it in 2012 after years in hospitality at The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island Plantation and Orient Express Hotels. The restaurant's own site highlights the harbor view at sunset.
The "You Hook It, We Cook It" offer works like this: bring in fresh fillets, already cleaned, skinned and deboned by your charter captain, and the kitchen serves them family style, blackened, fried or grilled, with a side. Taco or sandwich setups cost a little extra.
The regular menu is seafood with a bar-and-grill streak. The two dishes the owners call out are the signature broiled oysters (the Pelican Original comes with horseradish garlic butter and parmesan) and the tuna nachos, with seared tuna, seaweed salad and goat cheese over blackened wonton chips. Gator bites, smoked fish dip, shrimp and corn chowder, crab cakes, gator, oyster and shrimp po' boys and a seafood pot pie fill out the rest, along with a large craft beer selection. Brunch is Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a menu that changes week to week, and happy hour is 2 to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
House rules from the restaurant's site:
- No reservations or call-aheads, whatever the group size.
- No private party space.
- No pets anywhere on the property, and it's smoke and vape free.
- Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The Boat House is two blocks away on South 2nd Street if you'd rather have a dinner on a patio with live music. Since the Pelican won't hold a table, the useful thing to book ahead is the boat: reservations and bookings can line up a morning with a charter such as Big Fin Charters so your fillets are ready by lunch.