New Restaurants and Fall Events Around Destin

Two restaurants opened in Destin this year within weeks of each other, and if you only read the reviews, they'd look like unrelated stories. One serves handmade pasta on the harbor. One serves açaí bowls next to a Home Depot. Their locations and hours offer another way to compare the openings.

The restaurants in this story offer different settings around Destin, from HarborWalk Village to Destin Commons and nearby streets.

Two New Restaurant Openings

Sandos Beachside opened this spring at 36 Terra Cotta Way, a side street just off Scenic 98, built out of three shipping containers stacked into a two-level cafe and bar. Downstairs is coffee and sandwiches with names like "The Weekender" and "Fuhgeddaboudit," served with a signature move the owners call "Sandos Style," chips pressed right onto the sandwich along with parmesan and a house mustard vinaigrette. Upstairs is Nineteen33 Bar, a tiki setup pouring cocktails named "Get Figgy With It" and "Dolly Rogers."

One of the two men behind it, Shaun Cooper, isn't new to the area. His family has been here since the early 1970s. "I grew up here as a kid," he told Get the Coast. "I went to elementary, middle school, and high school here." He left for college, worked out of state, then came back in 2021 to build this. His account reflects a long personal connection to Destin.

A few miles away, in the Destin Commons retail strip, Bowled Healthy Food Company opened in March 2026 at 4467A Commons Drive W, a location the Destin Chamber describes simply as sitting between Fresh Market and Home Depot. No harbor view. No boardwalk foot traffic. Owners Karomenya and Stephanie Reynolds moved to Okaloosa County from Texas about four and a half years ago after their daughter graduated and they became empty nesters. Stephanie retired from the military and had spent her career in healthcare before deciding, as she told Business Debut, that she wanted to work on "the other side of healthcare, before people get sick." Karomenya works in dental care and originally planned to stay a silent partner. He didn't stay silent.

"You are going to get what you want once you order," Karomenya told the Destin Log. "If you don't want the tomatoes, we are not going to add tomatoes. You are going to get what you want, eat something good, and you are going to leave happy."

Then there's Nonna's Ristorante, from Chef Tim Creehan, a name that carries weight up and down the Emerald Coast. It landed at HarborWalk Village, on the same restaurant row as the fireworks and the pirate ship excursions. Handmade pasta, wood-fired pizza, a menu built around Mediterranean comfort food. It's an excellent restaurant.

How the Restaurant Hours Compare

The listed hours are summarized below.

Those hours provide context for the customer accounts that follow.

Repeat Visits at Bowled

The detail that stands out from Bowled's opening weeks isn't the menu. It's who kept coming back.

"We're already getting repeats," Karomenya said. "One person came in three times in one day." He added, with what reads like genuine surprise in the Destin Log's reporting: "If I've got repeaters, I know I'm doing something good."

A three-visit day is one example of the repeat business Bowled reported during its opening weeks; the account does not say why the customer returned.

The examples highlight different settings and schedules: Bowled is in a shopping center and open every day, while HarborWalk Village offers dining alongside the harbor's attractions. Together, they show the range of settings in Destin's restaurant scene.

Destin's Fall Events

Destin's summer calendar includes recurring events. Harbor Nights ran every Thursday from May 28 through July 30. Coastal Country Fridays ran May 29 through July 31. The Beat the Heat Concert Series filled Saturdays in August. Those dates mark the end of the summer series.

After Labor Day, the calendar includes a different set of fall events.

• Destin Seafood Festival, September 25 through 27, 2026, at HarborWalk Village. It isn't just a food festival. It's the traditional kickoff to the month-long Destin Fishing Rodeo.
• Destin Fishing Rodeo, all of October, with daily weigh-ins as charter boats return to dock. This is the event that gave Destin its old nickname, "The World's Luckiest Fishing Village," and it's still run by the same fishing culture that built the harbor in the first place.
• Kitty Hawk Kite Festival, every September, kites filling the sky over the beach as part of the annual fall calendar.
• Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival, November 9, 2026, back at HarborWalk. More than twenty tasting stations, live blues from John Hart and Tyler Mac, and a Peoples Choice vote for best barbecue, cocktail, and brew. The event calendar notes it regularly draws over 1,500 people and that tickets sell out fast.

Together, these events add food, music, fishing and outdoor activities to Destin's fall calendar.

What This Means If You Already Live Here

This year's restaurant scene includes places in several settings, from HarborWalk Village to side streets and shopping centers. Bowled's reported repeat visits offer one example of customer interest in a newer business.

Together, these details offer one view of Destin's local landscape for residents considering their next steps.

If you're weighing what's next for your own place here, whether that's staying put, upgrading, or figuring out what a property near Destin Commons or the harbor is actually worth in this market, Abbott Martin Group has spent generations reading exactly this kind of local detail. Reach out when you're ready to talk through what it means for you.