Sea Oats Kitchen & Bar replaces Coastal Kitchen with a seafood-led menu and all-day lounge service, extending The Island Resort’s appeal beyond overnight guests.
The Island Resort at Fort Walton Beach opened Sea Oats Kitchen & Bar on June 10, 2026, replacing the resort’s former Coastal Kitchen with a seafood-led restaurant and lounge. The new venue combines locally sourced seafood, chef-driven dishes and Southern classics, while The Island positions it as a gathering place for resort guests, families and local residents. The opening broadens the resort’s food-and-beverage offer at a time when hotel dining increasingly serves as part of the destination experience rather than a purely in-house amenity.
Sea Oats is structured around breakfast and dinner service each day, with additional food available in the lounge throughout the day. The release describes the concept as open to everyone, giving the restaurant a role that extends beyond the resort’s accommodation business. Its setting is intended to combine warm lighting, casual seating and a full beverage programme with a coastal identity, linking the venue to Fort Walton Beach’s location on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The menu’s seafood programme is seasonal and is sourced through Destin Ice Seafood Market, local fishermen and day boats when available, according to the resort. Dinner offerings include blackened redfish with crawfish and sweet corn maque choux, Gulf shrimp and grits, oysters with Tabasco herb butter and Gorgonzola cream, and lump crab cakes. Breakfast includes cage-free egg dishes, Belgian pearl waffles and avocado toast, while a rotating fresh catch is offered at market price.
The drinks list gives the restaurant another point of distinction within the resort. It centres on an Old Fashioned menu made with house-made syrups, local honey and seasonal infusions, alongside exclusive barrel selections including the Sea Oats Sazerac and Top Shelf Tawny. A rotating tap wall features Florida independent craft brewers, with 30A Beach Blonde and East Pass IPA named among the local beers available during the season.
The opening also coincides with the first full summer of operation for Sizzle & Smash and The Frosty Palm, two food trucks at The Island Resort, while the property’s Neverland Island Kids Club enters its first full summer. Together, the changes place Sea Oats within a wider dining and family-activity line-up rather than presenting it as an isolated restaurant refurbishment. For The Island Resort, the new venue provides a more visible expression of its Gulf Coast positioning while retaining a practical service model for both visitors and the surrounding community.
