Two of the three restaurants announced in Port St. Joe this spring are seafood places built around views of St. Joseph Bay. This month's two big music events are set on the same water. The Forgotten Music Festival bills itself as two days "overlooking iconic St. Joseph Bay." Four days after that festival ends, the venue list for Blast on the Bay includes Ralphie's, a fish camp at the city marina that has not confirmed regular restaurant service yet.
Put the calendar and the restaurant news together and they show the same thing. October in town happens along the bay, and the new places to eat are opening there too. Here is how the month lays out, with the newest tables in their places.
October and early November, by date
- Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11. The 8th annual Forgotten Music Festival at George Core Park, 162 Miss Zola's Dr., presented by the Gulf County Chamber of Commerce.
- Thursday, October 15, through Sunday, October 18. Blast on the Bay Songwriters Festival, "in Port St. Joe and Surrounding Areas."
- Saturday, October 17. Salt Air Farmers' Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, on Miss Zola's Drive.
- Saturday, October 31. Ghosts on the Coast on Reid Avenue, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. ET.
- Saturday, November 7, and Saturday, November 21. Salt Air returns to the same downtown park.
The music festival and the farmers market both list Miss Zola's Drive as their location. That gives one downtown street two of the month's four anchors.
The Forgotten Music Festival, set by set
The festival describes its lineup as blues, blues rock, soul, funk, and roots music. Both days run on the same clock, with gates and will call opening at noon and four sets on Eastern time.
Saturday, October 10
- 1:00 to 2:10 p.m. Corey Hall & The Misplaced Ramblers
- 2:40 to 3:50 p.m. Bridget Kelly Band
- 4:20 to 5:30 p.m. Blue Mother Tupelo
- 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Selwyn Birchwood
Sunday, October 11
- 1:00 to 2:10 p.m. Finga FAYA
- 2:40 to 3:50 p.m. King Cotton Band
- 4:20 to 5:30 p.m. Billy The Kid & The Regulators
- 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Brandon Santini
Single-day general admission is $25 in advance or $30 at the gate for Saturday, and $20 in advance or $25 at the gate for Sunday. Paying at the gate on both days comes to $55. The $40 weekend pass is marked "sale has ended" and was never sold at the gate. The VIP listing is also marked ended, but it still shows "until supplies last" at $90, so check the festival ticket page before counting on either option. General admission on both days is bring-your-own-chair.
Each day ends at 7:30 p.m. That leaves time for dinner after the last set, which brings up the newest seafood tables.
The Fish Market, open and taking its cues from the bay
The Fish Market at 114 Sailors Cove Dr. is the spring opening that is now clearly up and running. It is a family project from Jair Arreguin, his father Alejandro, and his uncle Max. The same family already runs Cuatro Locos, a Mexican cantina in Port St. Joe, and Pomodoro, an Italian restaurant at St. Joseph's Bay Golf Course. The Gulf County Tourist Development Council lists it as a seafood market, restaurant and bar.
The original plan called for 150 to 170 seats inside and out, including a covered patio and outdoor seating with views of the bay and the lighthouse. Customers could also buy shrimp at the market counter and have it boiled on site at no extra charge. The signature dish in the announcement was a seafood boil with snow crab, local shrimp, mussels and clams, sized either for one person or for a table of four to five.
The daily specials posted in late summer give a better feel for the menu than any announcement. On September 2 the lunch special was an oyster po' boy with garlic aioli and remoulade for $15. The night before, dinner was blackened grouper stuffed with scallops and shrimp, served over mashed potatoes with bacon-wrapped asparagus, for $42. Its current listing shows Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. On festival Saturday, that leaves about 90 minutes after Selwyn Birchwood's last note. Sunday is not on that schedule, so plan Sunday dinner somewhere else.
Ralphie's Fish Camp, on the songwriter map before its own opening
Ralphie's Fish Camp is the part of October's story that is still unfolding. Owner Grant Rish, a sixth-generation Port St. Joe native, announced it in March with an August 2026 target. Matt Willingham of Willingham Seafood joined as a partner, and Christian Johnson was named to run day-to-day operations. As of early October, no source we found confirms that the restaurant is serving regular hours. Its own Blast on the Bay venue page, posted in mid-August, still describes much of the experience in future tense.
The festival places it at Point South Marina, on the waterfront overlooking St. Joseph Bay. The spring announcement and the festival page give different street numbers on Marina Drive, so the marina name is the safer way to find it.
Rish described the idea plainly:
"Our goal is to have a family-friendly restaurant right on the water that you can feel at home right when you get off the beach or off the boat. Come in with your sandy toes and a cover up and not have to worry about going back home to get ready."
The plans call for just over 150 seats, an air-conditioned dining room, a separate oyster bar, a full bar with two glass roll-up garage doors facing the marina, a back deck with a music stage, and a to-go window for marina pickups. The detail that ties it most closely to the bay is the "Your Catch, Our Table" program. "If you go out and catch a snapper and don't feel like cooking it, you bring it to us and we'll cook it for you," Rish told Business Debut. The seafood is planned to arrive daily from Willingham's shrimp boats, and Ed's Red Hot Sauce is meant to sit on every table.
Ralphie's is one of seven venues on the Blast on the Bay list. The others are Taproot, Haughty Heron, Indian Pass Raw Bar, Lookout Lounge, Scallop RePUBlic and Hunts on St. Joe Bay. If a round is booked on the Ralphie's deck, that week may be the first time many people in town sit down there. Ralphie's schedule and the rest of the festival's lineup are on the Blast on the Bay site.
Mike's Deli, the lunch away from the water
Not every new opening faces the bay. Mike's Deli Inc. took over the former Cozy Cafe space at 301 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Owner Mike Coraci built it around Detroit. "You're going to see a lot of Motor City in here," he told Business Debut. By July 30 the Gulf County Chamber had welcomed it as one of its newest members.
The menu Coraci described is personal. The From Motown to Joe Town Crunch is a 12-inch sub with apple coleslaw, pastrami and provolone. The Doc is an Italian sub named for his father, and the Gardella is a muffaletta-style sandwich named for his grandfather's business. A pasta factory in the back was planned to make seven or eight kinds of pasta, along with sauces and family-style pasta meals. The room seats about 24 to 26 people, and you order at the counter. The announced hours were Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Sundays. We have not confirmed those are the current hours. If they hold, a pick-up sub before Saturday's 1 p.m. set at George Core Park would fit the day.
The second half of the month, back on Reid Avenue
After Blast wraps up on October 18, the calendar moves inland a block or two. Salt Air on October 17 overlaps the festival's Saturday. The market is dog-friendly and set in a shaded downtown park at the corner of US Highway 71 and Reid Avenue, with produce, plants and handmade crafts from local farmers and artisans.
The month closes with Ghosts on the Coast, presented by the City of Port St. Joe and the Gulf County Chamber of Commerce. Trick-or-treating runs along Reid Avenue from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. ET on October 31, with a judged costume contest held during the trick-or-treating. The divisions are ages 0 to 3, 4 to 6, and 7 to 10, plus one for families, groups and pets. Halloween is a Saturday this year. Salt Air keeps its first-and-third-Saturday rhythm into the holidays, with markets on November 7 and 21 and again on December 5 and 19.
At Beach Properties Real Estate Group, we follow what opens along Port St. Joe's waterfront the same way we follow the market. If you'd like to talk about how the town's bayfront is changing, we're happy to sit down this fall, maybe over a grouper special. Contact Us.
