The St. Johns County A to Z Food Tour: My Restaurant Alphabet Challenge

I spend most of my week all over St. Johns County, showing homes and talking real estate. Somewhere along the way it hit me that I talk about the food here almost as much. So I gave myself a challenge: eat at one restaurant for every letter of the alphabet, A through Z, without ever leaving the county.

Twenty six letters. Twenty six meals. All inside St. Johns County. No cheating with Jacksonville, no sneaking down to Flagler.

Here’s my official lineup.

The A to Z Lineup

• A – Aunt Kate’s on the River (Vilano). Menorcan clam chowder and a sunset over the Intracoastal. Strong start.
• B – Beaches at Vilano. Toes-in-the-sand casual, right on Vilano Road.
• C – Cap’s on the Water (Vilano). If you know, you know. Get there before sunset and fight me for a deck seat.
• D – The Drunken Horse (Charlotte Street). Wine bar downtown with real food chops.
• E – Elkhouse Eatery (Crescent Beach). Looks like a mountain lodge, cooks like nowhere else in the county.
• F – The Floridian. Local farms, Southern plates, zero pretension.
• G – Georgie’s Diner (Malaga St). Retro diner with a Greek streak. Avgolemono soup and tater tots the size of golf balls, open daily until 3.
• H – Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille (Bayfront). New Orleans flavor with a Matanzas Bay view.
• I – The Ice Plant. Great burgers, better cocktails, in an actual 1927 ice plant.
• J – Jack’s Bar-B-Que (St. Augustine Beach). A beach BBQ classic.
• K – Kingfish Grill (Cobblestone Village, off SR-312). Twenty years at Camachee Cove, now in a new home with the same fresh fish and the best sushi case in town.
• L – Llama Restaurant. Peruvian, and one of the best meals in St. Augustine, period.
• M – Michael’s St. Augustine (Vilano). The county’s special-occasion steakhouse, with live piano to match. Dress for it.
• N – Ned’s Southside Kitchen. Southside staple, big flavors.
• O – O’Steen’s (Anastasia Blvd). The fried shrimp institution. Cash ready, patience required, worth it.
• P – Prohibition Kitchen (St. George Street). Gastropub with a soft pretzel the size of a hubcap.
• Q – Taco’s Queen. Q is the hardest letter in the county, so yes, I’m counting the Queen. My challenge, my rules.
• R – The Reef (Coastal Highway). Ocean views from every seat.
• S – Saltwater Cowboy’s. Marsh views and old Florida done right.
• T – Treylor Park. Fun menu, fun room.
• U – Urban Bean Coffeehouse (Fruit Cove). Northwest St. Johns represent. Brunch counts as a meal.
• V – Vinny’s Pizza (Vilano Beach). Neighborhood slice joint.
• W – Woodpecker’s Backyard BBQ. The line moves fast and the smoke ring is real.
• X – The Wildcard. I checked. As of this writing there is not a single restaurant in St. Johns County that starts with X. The last one standing closed. So X marks the spot: revisit your favorite stop from the whole tour, and if an X-named place ever opens in the county, it automatically claims this slot.
• Y – Yamato Steak House & Sushi (off US-1). Hibachi show included.
• Z – Zaxby’s. Look, Z options are thin down here. A technicality still counts.

House Rules

1. St. Johns County only. That means St. Augustine, the beaches, Vilano, Crescent Beach, Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, Fruit Cove, St. Johns, and everything in between.
2. “The” doesn’t count as a letter. The Reef is an R. The Ice Plant is an I.
3. Q and Z are the boss levels. Any word in the name counts, and no shame in a drive-thru. X gets its own rule above, because the county left me no choice.
4. Call ahead. Restaurants change fast around here. Two spots closed between the time I drafted this list and the time I finished it, and that’s not a joke.

Why a Realtor® Is Writing About Restaurants

Because this is the stuff people actually ask me when they’re moving here. Not just “how many bedrooms” but “where do you eat, where do the locals go, what’s the town actually like.” I’ve lived in Northeast Florida since 1990, and knowing this county at street level, from the fish camps on the Intracoastal to the new spots opening at Durbin Park, is a big part of how I help people figure out where they belong.

So if you’re doing the challenge, tag me. If you’re moving here and want the unofficial tour along with the official one, even better.

Text or call me at (904) 699-5412, or send me a message. I reply personally, usually the same day.

Helping buyers, sellers, and investors move with confidence in St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Palatka & beyond.

Neal Brown, Realtor® · iHeart Realty, Inc. · Equal Housing Opportunity