Cabana by The Seaside Style

Cabana by The Seaside Style anchors the shopping scene at 45 Central Square, right in the heart of Seaside, Florida. The boutique deals in bright color, breezy fabric, and the kind of curated home decor and gifts that make a beach vacation feel a little more polished. It occupies one of the most historically important retail addresses in town, a spot that has been drawing browsers and buyers since Seaside itself was young.

Before it was Cabana, this address was Perspicacity, the beloved outdoor bazaar widely remembered as Seaside’s first retail store. Architect Deborah Berke designed the original space as a cluster of ten individual cabanas, small open-air stalls that let shoppers wander from one vendor to the next under the Florida sun. That layout became one of the defining images of early Seaside, the planned beach town built in the 1980s to prove that a walkable, human-scaled community could work. Generations of visitors browsed Perspicacity’s cabanas for sundresses, jewelry, and gifts, and the space became a fixture of any trip through Central Square.

In June 2022, the property went through what its owners describe as a facelift, closing as Perspicacity and reopening as Cabana by The Seaside Style. The redesign kept the cabana structure intact but reworked the interiors and merchandising around a new look the brand describes as Old Hollywood glamour meeting Palm Beach chic, with the spirit of the French Riviera and a little Gatsby-era polish folded in. The rebrand also folded the shop into The Seaside Style family, the town’s official lifestyle brand and the company behind the iconic SEASIDE tee shirt and its unofficial mascot, Bud the Dachshund. That connection means Cabana shares design DNA with the flagship Seaside Style store nearby, just built around its own distinct product mix suited to browsing between cabanas rather than shopping in one open room.

Inside, the stalls mix home decor and gift items with resort-ready apparel: flowy kaftans, bright cover-ups, breezy linen pieces, and prints with the kind of colorful sparkle that stands out against white sand. Shelves also carry coastal-styled housewares and gifts, books, beauty items, and a curated shoe selection. A dedicated jewelry counter stocks enewton, the line known for its stacked, interchangeable gold bracelets and beaded designs that have become a staple across 30A boutiques. The mix skews toward pieces and objects that work equally well as a beach vacation souvenir, a hostess gift, or a dressed-up look for dinner in town.

Cabana is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., which makes it an easy stop whether visitors are wandering Central Square before breakfast or browsing after a day on the beach. Because the shop still operates as a series of individual cabana stalls rather than one continuous floor, it rewards a slower walk-through, with each small structure offering its own edit of merchandise rather than a single long aisle. Shoppers can reach the store directly at 850-231-5829 or browse ahead of a visit at cabanaseaside.com.

For anyone tracing Seaside’s retail history, a stop at Cabana doubles as a visit to the literal birthplace of shopping in this famous New Urbanist town, now dressed in a considerably more polished, Palm Beach-inspired wardrobe. The location puts it within easy walking distance of Central Square’s amphitheater and the rest of the neighborhood’s shops and restaurants, so it slots naturally into a longer stroll rather than requiring a special trip. Whether the goal is a resort-ready outfit, a stack of enewton bracelets, a piece of home decor to bring back from the trip, or simply a browse through a piece of Seaside’s founding retail history, Cabana by The Seaside Style delivers it with the same bright, breezy sensibility that put the original cabanas on the map decades ago.