Newest Waterfront Hangouts Fort Walton Beach FL

Welcome back, first timers

Today, we're in Fort Wallen Beach, Florida, where we're taking you to two of the hottest new hangout spots

First, we're going to start at Natives Cove, and then we're going to head over to downtown Fort Wallen Beach and check out Soundside

Now, both of these places are offering food, drink, and entertainment with a view

Let's go check them out. natives cove is a new business in an old location they converted an old gas station

into this great entertainment facility to make a one-stop shop for food entertainment and water

sports they're open every day from 8 a.m to 10 p.m they've got parking out front and then next door

there's also a public lot. They also have special events like sound baths and yoga

Natives Cove is divided up into an upper section and a lower section. They also have a stage and

several picnic tables and darts. They have three dedicated food trucks. They've got Phantom Tacos

which you've seen in a previous video where we tried all the best tacos at Fort Wallen Beach

They also have a Mediterranean spot and the Salty Beach, which offers drinks and food. You also have

a brick and mortar coffee shop called Fernway. Check their website for hours, but right now we're

going to go in and check out what they have to eat and drink. This coffee shop has all the standard

coffee offerings. I'm going with black because that's what I like, but a cold brew because it's

still kind of warm. And Terry's going to try something new she's never tried before. It's called a Lotus Energy Drink. She's going with Fall in Love to really set the fall mood. And we're

getting a waffle, which they also serve here. And it's called Luke's Diner Special. We think it has

to do with the Gilmore Girls, but we're not 100% sure. A new special? His four-slice French toast

has been up there since i was born you just gotta let that go baby what can i get you you have a

new special i sure do nice you won't like it but what we know is there's a pumpkin drizzle there's

crumbles there's all kinds of things on this thing it's perfect for a fall snack even though

it's nearly 90 degrees right now let's try our drinks i got the fall in love it's got pink lotus

cherry and pomegranate nice and cold it's kind of tart not too sweet you can really taste that cherry flavor

I would give it an eight. I will with black flavored cold brew

Typically hot coffee guy, but it's hot right now. So let's give it a whirl

All right. Liquidy, coffee flavored, simple, everything you'd like. I wanted to get something fun, but we're getting this waffle and it looks like if I eat that

I'm going to really have to watch my sugars for the rest of the day. Check it out. It's a waffle covered in marshmallows and caramel sauce and graham crackers

It's hot. It's cinnamony. The waffles crunchy on the outside are really fluffy and moist on the inside

Really sweet. But I like that cinnamon flavor on top. Would recommend

Dollops of whipped cream. I like the charred marshmallows. Alright. That would definitely scratch some itches

If you're looking for something pumpkin-related, sweet, can't go wrong with this thing. Luke's Diner

You can always count on them. So this place is more than just a hangout spot

They got some rocking concerts going on here. This stage right here might be small, but it sure is mighty

Terry and I were actually out here last weekend to catch an amazing up-and-coming country artist named Jessie G

But then opening for her was another great artist named Lexi Tucker

But man, it was wild. The upper area has a lot of picnic tables with really nice umbrellas

It's really tranquil and peaceful up here. It got a really great view but as you can see in some of those clips it gets really fun at night What really makes this place special is the amazing view The lure level behind Natives Cove is awesome They have AstroTurf laid down but there picnic tables horseshoes cornhole

But the coolest thing is they have a whole bunch of tree swings that look right out to the water

I don't quite trust my swinging skills, but I'm going to give this swing a try

Wish me luck. Oh good, the tree held. huh oh my god so the tree even holds heavy people like me the upstairs area is really nice but man

I think this is my favorite spot in town this is the most serene and tranquil place it's just light

music playing the wind the water the Sun you can't beat this could it get any better yes it can get

better. They also offer glass bottom kayak tours, fishing charters, and they're gonna have little

motorized boats out here too. We're gonna go see if we can find somebody to talk to about this place

who can give us even more information. I found Haley. She's one of the owners of the Native Cove

and she's gonna tell us a little bit about herself and then about her business. Hey, I'm Haley. Welcome

to Natives Cove. We just opened up this area for the community, a space where everybody can come and

gather and hang out. We're on the beautiful Sound right here. So Natives Cove is directly across from

the islands over there in the Sound. It's a really great place to pull up by boat. Do you have a

couple of water sports activities here for rentals as well, but our main focus is just to bring people

here to come hang out. We have live music, full moon yoga sessions, and we do have some permanent

food and beverage trucks here too. What was your motivation to open this? So we initially purchased

this property as a hurricane hole for our other business. It's a charter boat business, Cruising Tikis

So we can't haul out the boats whenever there's a storm, so this is a nice little hiding spot for them to come in and be secure

It has now since evolved into a food truck pavilion, hangout community spot that we just want everybody to come and hang out at

What's your inspiration behind this business? So when we opened up Natus Cove, we saw that it is such a beautiful part of this area

And there's a lot of natural beauty here, but it was all hidden. It was overgrown

There's a lot of vagrant stuff going on here. And so we cleaned it up, but we wanted to keep the natural beauty of it

So a little bit about my background. I am native. I'm part of the Talawadani tribe

So we just wanted to bring a native culture to this area

So if you come and visit here You'll see the three little red dots were what my grandfather used to put on all the arrowheads the feathers

The shakers that would hold all the arrowheads Only a few very old men remained who had occasion to learn flaking and chipping

and only a few inquisitive youths have sought out these older craftsmen for lessons in obsidian

point making. One of these youths is Franklin Richards, a Talawa Indian from Smith River

California. And so we're just trying to keep that kind of native vibe, keep it the native

greenery, foliage, and all that eco-friendly water sports and that's kind of the vibe that

we're going through here. That's really cool, I love that. Do you have any events coming up or

things that you're planning to do in the future? Yeah so we're doing always full moon yoga. We're

going to start some new moon yoga, sound baths. So we have that going on once or twice a month

We'll do some solstice stuff as well. And then like tonight we have Tribe Zion coming. Last

weekend we had some music guests here but we have some events coming up. We're going to be adding

Latin Sundays to our events and just got to keep on checking our event schedules because they're

are starting to pile up here. Do you have any future plans for the area

So we're just looking at expanding and getting the word out there that we're here

It a family friendly place dog friendly place We just want to have live music here people to come hang out enjoy all of the fabulous food that we have and drinks Salty Beach has some really great craft cocktails and they always do a really fun theme

Of course, we've got the coffee shop here as well. Just adding to it

Don't want to give away too many secrets yet. Do you have any social media? Where can people find you

Yeah, so Facebook is where we keep our events. Of course, we're going to post to Instagram

So definitely check those out and we'll just be building from there. And always tag us when you come and visit

We will definitely tag you when we come out. Thank you. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us today

We love it out here. We'll definitely be back. All right. Awesome. Thank you for coming. We found Ian, one of the other owners, and he's going to tell you about some more events

coming up. Hey, yes. So we just finished recently wrapping up the installation of the projector

We're going to start hosting fight nights and football, some game nights and whatnot. Yeah, we're stoked about that

Painting the wall. It's a nice, big, bigger than 160 inches projector screen, 4K

So it should be a lot of fun. Awesome. Can't wait to come check it out. Awesome. deal. Ian and Haley were super nice. Thanks so much to them for having us out. Now it's on to

the next spot. Next stop is Soundside. It's right off Miracle Strip Parkway near the base of the

Brooks Bridge. There's a lot of construction going on right now so it's a little bit hard to get to

You have to go around the block and next to the bridge and then you're here. They have a massive

parking lot so don't worry there's plenty of spots. Before we even go inside we gotta check out

the back. It's another multi-layer relaxation entertainment complex. You've got an upstairs

seating area, downstairs seating area, cornhole, and a dock. And a beautiful view. They also have

a stage for live music. They have a massive back patio. There's a fire pit, picnic tables, chairs

They're also putting in restrooms back here so you don't have to go all the way back into the bar

and then a future upcoming tiki bar that'll be serving frozen drinks, cocktails, beer, wine

that kind of stuff. So that way, if you're out here, you don't have to come all the way back in the bar. They have an amazing dock back here. They offer water sports and charters. It looks like you

might even be able to pull your own boat up here, but let's talk to somebody to find out for sure

I'm here with Ben, one of the owners of Soundside. Tell me a little bit about yourself and about the

inspiration to start this business. So I've been here since 92. Hurricane Andrew brought me up from

south florida but i've grown up here i've gone to school here i love fort walton beach and we

actually had the opportunity to take over what was the old cafe italia giovanni's 189 when they

decided to retire after covid and so we've been developing the property we put a boat out back we

have our sound side cruiser the catamaran my background is in water sports just across the

bridge is power up water sports that's our pontoon boat and jet ski rental so i knew right away we

could do something with the water and it it took us about two years to decide and develop the

property into what is soundside downtown fwb or soundside waterfront bar but yeah it's just it's

been a a project that has taken me to different places i've never developed a property i've never

been in this business but we were very excited to bring this to downtown nice and it's you your

brother your sister is that correct it is so we've always worked together whether it was in the water

water sports but my brother had always wanted to own a bar and so when this came about it was just

seemed like a perfect partnership and then my sister she just brought that that different view

um she's 10 years younger than me and she just had a different insight and she just put in so

much work and it just as it evolved it became the three of us and that's what it is today nice you

got some future plans i see you're building a tiki hut here yeah we uh we worked really hard to get

doors open and what that led us to was some unfinished things down below but

yeah we're gonna have a full-service tiki bar it'll probably be done sometime

in the winter but definitely ready to go for a spring break and I had a shipping container on site where we had kind of stored everything and once we

put the paver pad in we were like how are we gonna get it out without cracking

it and so we decided to keep it and we put it up five six feet in the air put a

deck on it and we're gonna turn it into outdoor restrooms which will that you can

never have too many restrooms or too much parking. That's what I'm learning. Yeah, that's very true

Very true. Do you have any events coming up or do you typically have bands out here

So we are getting again just being new in this we dipping our toe like to organize food trucks and live music and we getting real creative with events from wine tastings and paint parties and we being reached out for wedding receptions and Christmas parties and

office parties so we're open to everything we want we want there to always be something to do that we're very excited about that we have a lot of

games a lot of things we want people to hang out and have fun but we also want to be kind of a center I grew up here right so everything is like there's

nothing to do in Fort Walton. And I think Fort Walton is awesome. I think we have great beaches

we have great water, but there's also, as this project with the bridge continues, downtown is

going to have this complete facelift. And we're excited to be a part of that. And we want to just

kind of match that energy as that gets that facelift. We want to be like one of the best

places. Yeah. One of the hottest spots to come and visit. Where can they find you on social media

You got Instagram, Facebook? Yeah, that's all my sister. I know for sure that that's my generation

right? Facebook is, we're at Soundside, Downtown FWB on Facebook, and I'm sure she's working on

TikTok and Instagram and everything else. Perfect. We'll link them down below. Thanks for having us

out. Absolutely. We got to Soundside a little bit early today, so they're not quite open

but Joey has granted us full access, and we're going to go explore this great location

sounds like just opened but this place is already packed with activities there's darts

There's shuffleboard. There's foosball. They even have beer yards, which is a local game created by a local businessman

It's fun. I just don't know exactly all the rules. Right now they're doing their off-season hours. So Monday through Thursday, they're open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m

Fridays and Saturdays, they're open 4 to midnight. And then on Sundays for football, they're open 12 p.m. to 10 p.m

This place is so awesome inside. They've got huge open spaces, plenty of seating, a beautiful bar with a stained glass ceiling

They have a food truck that comes every Friday night. It's Pie Face and they even have their own signature pizza

And the cool thing is they have a QR code inside so you can order your pizza right from your phone and you never have to go outside to order

And if you don't like pizza, they have another food truck in the back that sells smoothies, hot dogs, and all sorts of snacks

So for food options here at Soundside, they have Pie Face food truck here every Friday night and they have their own signature pizza that you can only get here

It's called the F-Dub and it has jalapeno ranch, jalapenos, pineapple, bacon, and Cajun chicken

We're going to give it a try right now. Pie Face makes everything in-house

That bacon's really smoky. Not too heavy on the cheese. That jalapeno is spicy but not too spicy

Same with the jalapeno ranch. It's not going to burn your mouth off. Don't be afraid of it. And the crust, crispy and soft inside

10 out of 10. Terry gave this pizza a heck of a score

that's a really good pizza the spice is nice I like pineapple on my pizza a lot of people don't

but if you don't like pineapple it's a very thin cut pineapple so it's not overwhelming

the chicken's got some heat the jalapenos got a little bit of heat the crust it's charred to perfection that crust is delicious I'd probably add red onions on here

just to give it a nice little pop but overall I say this is a really good pizza

She said 10 out of 10. 8.2. Solid pizza. This entire Emerald Coast area is really blowing up

There are constantly new restaurants, events, activities and locations opening up. And each one of these places offer their own unique experience

But don't take our word for it. You're going to have to get out here and check them both out. So check out Natives Cove, check out Soundside and let us know what you think

But if you like this video, check out this one right here where we did something else awesome for the first time

Thanks again for following along in this episode and join us next time when we try something else new for the first time

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. First-timers. High five