"This place is going to be a hit," one recent visitor wrote about the new spot at 2551 North Ocean Avenue, the address every longtime Singer Island local knows as Mulligan's Beach House Bar and Grill. She almost didn't post the review at all, she admitted, because as a local she'd rather it stay easy to get a seat at the bar.
Mulligan's is gone now. In its place is Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen, and that small moment of hesitation, wanting the new place to succeed while quietly hoping it doesn't get too popular, says more about what's happening on this stretch of beach than any single meal could.
If you've lived on the island for a while, you've probably already noticed something is different about dinner. What you may not have connected is how completely the island's beachfront restaurant lineup has turned over in the past two years, and how none of what replaced the old guard looks anything like it.
What Actually Took Mulligan's Spot
Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen opened earlier this year in the same beachfront building that housed Mulligan's for years. The new owners, Donna Qvarnstro and Antonio Huerta, also run Little Jim Bait and Tackle and Cobb's Landing over in Fort Pierce, so this isn't a first restaurant for either of them. Construction on the buildout was still underway as of last November, with a target opening in mid-January, and by early summer the reviews were rolling in, which puts the restaurant at somewhere around six to eight months into service as of this writing.
The concept is a clear departure from what was there before. Qvarnstro described it to Business Debut as fresh seafood and innovative, very heavy on craft cocktails, built out to seat around 260 guests including a private event space. "We are on the beach and want the space to feel very bright and modern," she said. That's a meaningfully different pitch than a beach house bar and grill. Mulligan's was casual, familiar, the kind of place you didn't think twice about walking into in flip-flops with sandy kids in tow. Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen is positioning itself as a full seven-day lunch-and-dinner operation with an event-capable layout, closing only on major holidays.
The address hasn't changed. The zip code hasn't changed. Singer Island technically sits inside Riviera Beach postal boundaries, which is why the restaurant's official address reads Riviera Beach even though everyone who lives here still calls it Singer Island. What changed is the room itself, and what a night out there is now supposed to feel like.
The Early Read From the Room
Reviews from this summer paint a place that's popular and still settling in. One diner who stopped in twice in the same week during a baseball tournament described sitting outside at the bar both nights and coming back on purpose the second time. Another called the ambiance clean and new, pointing to the fresh tables, wallpaper, and paint, and praised the service as spot on. A third singled out the mussels and a smash burger as standouts, while noting the fish and chips could have used a crisper batch, the kind of small, specific correction that comes from someone who plans to order it again rather than someone writing the place off.
That mix, genuinely good food with a few dishes still getting dialed in, is exactly what you'd expect from a 260-seat buildout that opened into an established beach crowd with strong memories of what used to be there. It's not a red flag. It's what the first several months of a new concept in a busy location typically look like.
This Isn't an Isolated Swap
Here's the part that's easy to miss if you only think about the Mulligan's building in isolation. Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen is the third beachfront restaurant on Singer Island to open or fully replace a longtime tenant in roughly two years, and all three moved the island's dining identity in the same direction.
| Restaurant | Location | Opened | What it replaced or represents |
|---|---|---|---|
| ONA Coastal Cuisine | Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa | Spring 2024 | New concept inside the resort, Mediterranean-leaning coastal menu |
| Caretta Caretta | The Singer Oceanfront Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton | 2024 | Billed on opening as the island's only standalone beachfront restaurant |
| Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen | 2551 N Ocean Ave | Early 2026 | Replaced Mulligan's Beach House Bar and Grill |
ONA Coastal Cuisine opened inside the Marriott in the spring of 2024, built around a contemporary coastal menu with Mediterranean touches, oceanfront views, and an award-winning wine list. Caretta Caretta opened the same year at The Singer Oceanfront Resort, named for the loggerhead sea turtle and pitched at the time as Singer Island's only standalone beachfront restaurant, a playful, coastal-inspired concept built for both resort guests and locals. Neither of those openings was a like-for-like swap of an old favorite. Both were resort restaurants built from scratch to anchor a hotel dining program.
Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen is different because it's the one that took over a room with history attached to it. Mulligan's wasn't a resort amenity. It was the kind of neighborhood beach bar you built a Sunday around, and its closing is the piece of this pattern that actually touches daily life on the island rather than hotel guests passing through.
What Changed About the Island's Dinner Options
Line these three up and the shift is hard to miss. Two years ago, if you wanted a serious dinner with an ocean view on Singer Island, your options ran through the resorts, and if you wanted something low-key and casual, Mulligan's was the answer. Now all three of the island's most visible beachfront dining rooms are built around the same idea: a composed menu, a real cocktail or wine program, and a room designed to feel like a destination rather than a stop.
That's not a complaint. Islander Grill & Tiki Bar and Two Drunken Goats Beach Cantina are still right there on Ocean Avenue doing exactly what they've always done, along with DAS Craft Beer & Pizza and the rest of the strip's smaller, unpretentious spots. Nobody replaced those. What's gone is the specific version of casual that Mulligan's represented at that particular beachfront address, and what's arrived in its place, alongside ONA and Caretta Caretta, is a beachfront dining identity for the island that leans noticeably more toward a planned night out than a walk-in-anytime stop.
If you're the kind of local who used Mulligan's as a default, that default doesn't exist in that building anymore. The closest thing to it is still a short walk away at the smaller, longer-running spots on the strip. What's changed is which building on the beach you'd pick for a night that's meant to feel like an occasion.
Where That Leaves You Tonight
If you want the old Mulligan's energy, that's Islander Grill or Two Drunken Goats, not the building at 2551 North Ocean Avenue anymore. If you want to see what the fuss is about at Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen, know going in that the bar seats are already something locals are protective of, so a reservation or an early arrival isn't a bad idea. And if you're comparing it against the resort options, ONA leans Mediterranean and polished, Caretta Caretta leans playful and coastal, and Ocean Ave splits the difference with a cocktail-forward menu in a room built for both a quiet dinner and a private event.
None of this is a verdict on which is best. It's a map of how fast the ground under a familiar address can shift, and a reminder that the version of Singer Island you knew even two summers ago has already changed in ways worth walking over and checking out for yourself.
If you're thinking about what a changing beachfront means for property here, or you're weighing whether Singer Island still fits the way you want to live, reach out to Tatsiana at 1 Ocean Realty for a personalized market consultation. She watches this stretch of coast closely, in the dining room and on the closing table.
