St. Augustine City Guide
EATS + DRINKS
Sunday Gathering Table
Sunday is a cute but casual spot for indoor or outdoor dining when in St. Augustine. However, if you happen to go when it's busy, you might wait for table service, as they tell you to sit anywhere with no waiting, so servers can quickly get tripe even quadruple sat easily.
Fresh sourdough bread is made on-premise, so of course, that is a standard carb found in the offerings for breakfast and lunch. I got eggs benedict, which was great and in my opinion, didn't need the accompaniment of the pork; it's an ample serving. I kept seeing people get their colossal cinnamon rolls, and the smell was so heavenly that its on my list for the next time. If you don't want to dine there, you can grab a loaf of sourdough and a bottle of wine to take home.
GAS Full Service Restaurant
Full disclosure: I haven’t dined here in awhile, this is from a past trip.
I prefer to get away from the hustle of St. George Street whenever possible. Gas is over the bridge on Anastasia and is a converted gas station. Due to the conversion of the space, you can imagine this isn't a stately local spot to gather with large groups, but it had charm and a welcoming atmosphere.
The menu is full of typical American cuisine, sometimes with slight twists. A crowd favorite seems to be their huge stuffed burgers. While I abstained, my husband got the Jalapeno Popper burger. He claims it was one of the best burgers he's ever had, and he isn't one to rave about anything. I tried the fried oysters and got a small Tiki salad with an order of Island chicken wings which was marinated in pineapple, soy, and ginger, and then flash-fried and tossed in a Thai chili glaze. Down to a tofu salad, the food got rave reviews from everyone.
St. Augustine Distillery/Ice Plant
The Distillery is doing some pretty cool things in St. Augustine, and it's easy to see why people are traveling from all over Florida to visit it.
The tours are short and sweet since the facility itself isn't that large and comes to an end with free samples for the whole group (at least they did on my visit). It was more interesting to hear the tales of their battles with the state than how the spirits are made.
Upstairs you will find the Ice Plant restaurant. Since eating is arguably the main activity in St. Augustine, I’ve only ever gotten appetizers on my visits to leave room for other ventures. I can tell you everything I’ve tried was adequate, but the main event is the cocktails. If you don’t imbibe, they do have mocktails on the menu. This is a trendy spot in St. Augustine, so I suggest off-peak times as they do not take reservations or call aheads.
Cousteau's Waffles
I don't know the link between Jack Cousteau and delicious waffles, and frankly, I didn't care to ask. All I needed was the smell of these freshly made waffles to lure me in as I walked down Hypolita Street. No follow-up questions are needed.
On a 3-day weekend, we found ourselves there twice. On the first trip, I got the Life on Mars waffle. Topped with toasted coconut ice cream, espresso whipped cream, mocha drizzle, and shaved toasted coconut, the serving size could easily be split into two. Despite being open as early as 9 AM, this isn't a breakfast spot (unless you have a Leslie Knope type of sugar addiction) but perfect for a mid-day treat or after-dinner dessert. Ice cream options abound on the cobblestone streets, but this place captured my full sweet-toothed attention.
On my second trip, the shake I got had Nutella and banana mixed with ice cream. Both options are equally decadent and worth as many trips as your stomach can handle. Pack a red beret with you and wear it to get 10% off your bill.
Mojo Tacos
Mojo Tacos is a small relaxed eatery with a slow beach vibe. The taco menu offers different meats, as well as some specialty tacos. I got a beef taco and their special, the avocado taco for the day. It was love at first sight when I saw they came individually wrapped in aluminum foil and served in a brown paper bag with chips at the bottom. Don't all good things come in greasy bags?
The tacos were bursting with ingredients, and they were not shy with their protein portions. They came double wrapped with hard and soft shells, and the mixture of flavors and seasoning had me scarfing them down in record taco-eating speed. They were so good we ate them two days in a row.
If it's busy, you may wait a solid ten minutes for your taco bliss, but it's well worth it. When we visited, it was cash only, so have some green on you just in case.
THE KOOKABURRA
There are a couple of coffee spots around St. Augustine, but none of them were honestly good enough to share with you. Kookaburra on the other hand would be the only place I would recommend for a latte stop (although I have yet to try Juniper Market, so that might worth a visit).
If you want to try some other coffee spots there is DOS, Crucial Coffee, Relampago Coffee Lab, Juniper Market, St Augustine Coffee House, and Sweetwater Coffee Bar.
Peace Pie
Peace Pie was an accidental find as we left the busy area of St. George to literally get away from people, and we just chose a random street to walk and happened upon Peace Pie. It’s a fun, psychedelic ice cream sandwich window offering huge handheld desserts. The amount of flavors is overwhelming, but you can’t go wrong here. They make a generous and satisfying sit-on-the-curb-to-recharge cool-down treat.
SHOPPING
Declaration & Co.
If you drive North on San Marco Avenue past the historic fort, you will find a small strip with some boutiques and antique shops for some light shopping. One of them is Declaration & Co. It's filled with jewelry, stationery, accessories, clothing, and housewares. Prices are moderate depending on what you are looking at, but it's hard to leave the eye-catching inventory without something for yourself. On my last visit, I snagged a charming framed art piece of a map of Stars Hollow.
Other Shops
Red Tree Antiques - not my favorite vibes for treasure hunting, but there were some cool things here.
All Books & Comics - A small shop with lots of used books and comic books.
Mythical Mountain - There are two locations one in the shops off
Key Lime Shop - Do you watch Hot Ones craving the sauces they try? Check out Dat’s and their awesome collection of hot sauces that you can try before you buy. Also this spot has something sweet if hot isn’t your desired taste, with a frozen chocolate covered key lime pie slice.
Antiques and Things - this is near Sunday, so you can take a stroll through for some chill treasure hunting after eating.
SIGHTS
Flagler College
It looks like a fancy castle with good reason. This college campus used to be a resort. You can take a tour and learn why it’s listed as a National Historic Landmark and learn more about Spanish Renaissance architecture.
Castillo de San Marco
If you’ve been to St. Augustine, surely you’ve already checked out it’s number one attraction. To go inside it’s $15, but you can still get great exterior views by walking the perimeter for free.
St. Augustine Pirate Museum
Full disclosure I did not want to go here, and I think the price is criminal for what is inside. My husband has wanted to go for years every time we go to St. Augustine, and I refused, but this time I caved. Perhaps you'd like it if you have an affinity for pirate memorabilia. But at $20 a ticket, I cannot recommend this would be a wise way to spend your hard-earned coin. On the other hand, if you aren't pinching pennies, it's not that large, so you can walk through it in less than 20 minutes and move on with your sightseeing.
Other popular spots:
This is not a sponsored post and based on my own personally paid for experiences.