We first visited Amelia Island with family in 1992 to attend the Gator Bowl. This event became known as the fog bowl after fog rolled into the stadium just before half time obscuring the view of most of the field and NCSU lost to Florida. This was also the game where we foolishly had not divvied up the mini bottles and I got stopped by a female cop going into the stadium and had to throw it all away. Regardless of those unfortunate events we absolutely fell in love with Amelia Island and as a result selected it for our honeymoon in 1993. We returned again on our first and second anniversaries and then one final time with family in 2003 once again for the Gator Bowl where this time NCSU played Norte Dame without any fog issues and won.
We stayed at the Ritz Carlton during every visit. Our stays there overall peaked with our honeymoon and first anniversary and then dwindled in impressiveness with each subsequent stay. Of course it is hard to be pleased with normal rooms when you have experienced the key only access club level with private lounge, open bar and "continuous culinary offerings throughout the day". Still, at the time of our visits, this hotel was very nice and in particular had a fantastic pool area with excellent service (we both loved the banana daiquiris). Our primary issue that last trip was the hotel was extremely crowded due to the bowl game and the hotel staff were greatly overwhelmed at times.
During our numerous visits, one of our favorite outings was to go to Fernandina Beach, a quaint little town with big Victorian houses and a nifty downtown area with shops and restaurants. Things to do include walking tours, museum, and horse carriage rides. We also visited Fort Clinch and along the beach in this area I found two nearly perfect conch shells on our honeymoon (which I still have).
I made sure to Google the restaurants we visited over the years to see if they were still in operation before posting here. What follows is an overview of restaurants we enjoyed in Fernandina Beach.
Brett's Waterway Cafe was always a favorite with a wonderful view overlooking the water. This is a fantastic place to watch the sunset. Of course there was the time I thought I saw a dead body floating in the water and had Brad looking and me second guessing what I saw for the rest of the meal. The burgers, sandwiches, soups, and peel and eat shrimp were always tasty.
Marina Seafood was the best restaurant on this part of the island and you could expect to wait a long time even at lunch. We enjoyed their crab and shrimp dip, stuffed flounder, broiled stuffed shrimp, and seafood platter on our numerous visits. The food was always excellent.
1878 Steakhouse was also pretty good with perfectly cooked steaks, strong bar drinks, but a relatively poor wine selection at the time.
Palace Saloon was an interesting bar that serves a potent pirate's punch drink. On our honeymoon we met an older couple in this bar named Mary and Joseph (seriously) who tried to teach us to two step to Achy Breaky Heart.
Baxter's and Crab Trap fall into the okay spots category. The food was normally okay but nothing stellar.
And we ate at other restaurants in other areas on the island that are no longer in business. Of note I was sad to find that Beech Street Grill apparently closed just this year. This was a fantastic place to eat with what were at the time novel food items, such as boar sausage, long before restaurants started being creative. I also assume that The Southern Tip no longer exists since I could not easily find anything on it. This was our favorite fancy night out spot. And finally the Down Under Restaurant (located under the intercoastal waterway bridge as you enter the island) appears to have been closed for several years now. This was a very causal place that was so good there was always a wait. I had the best grouper I have ever eaten at this restaurant. It was a baby flake grouper lightly covered in a fine breading of crushed saltines that was so tender and delicious.
I think we eventually got burned out of seeing and doing the same things which is why we stopped visiting Amelia Island and then on that last trip in 2003 our experiences did not live up to our expectations from so many good old memories. Maybe enough time has passed that we would enjoy going back again. I certainly wouldn't mind spending the day lying by that pool drinking a banana daiquiri with plans to go eat stuffed flounder at the Marina Seafood Restaurant later.
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