Chiringo

Chiringo opened in Grayton Beach in 2016, when owner Andy Mckoski sold his restaurants in Atlanta and moved south to open a beach bar of his own. The name comes from a 2014 trip along the southern coast of Spain, where “chiringo” is local shorthand for a casual beach bar, and Mckoski built his version inside the former Shorty’s building on Hotz Avenue after a chance real estate encounter brought the space to his attention. The restaurant sits about 200 feet from the Gulf of Mexico and directly across from The Red Bar, putting it in the thick of Grayton’s small but busy restaurant row.

The decor leans into a scrappy, do-it-yourself beach style: astroturf underfoot, old bicycle tires worked into the design, and yellow garage doors standing in for windows. Picnic tables and a cornhole set fill the ground floor, and a bookshelf stocked with travel guides, including one on living abroad in Costa Rica, hints at Mckoski’s own wandering. A rooftop patio upstairs catches Gulf views and the afternoon breeze, which is where the rooftop seating Chiringo is known for actually happens.

The kitchen calls its food elevated beach food, and the menu backs that up with dishes pulled from beach towns well beyond the Florida Panhandle. Fish and shrimp tacos, topped with pickled red onions, arugula, and chipotle crema, trace back to a small spot Mckoski found in Tulum, Mexico. Caribbean wings come glazed in agave, the fish sandwich puts snapper on brioche with lemon aioli, and a Cuban sandwich and plantain dishes reflect Mckoski’s own South Florida upbringing. Drinks lean strong, and the bar mixes a full range of cocktails to go with the food.

Chiringo is dog friendly, which matters on a stretch of 30A where beach days often include the family dog, and live music plays on select nights, along with a Tuesday night music-bingo event called “Bingo at Ringo.” A walk-up coffee window next door, Hotz Coffee, opened in March 2022 and serves coffee and breakfast burritos earlier in the day, for anyone up before the main kitchen opens.

The staff culture leans on a “friends serving friends” philosophy, meaning the goal is to make every table, regular or first-timer, feel like they have already been coming for years. That hospitality-first approach carries over into how the restaurant handles logistics for visitors staying elsewhere on 30A: a free shuttle runs from the Grayton Central parking lot from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., a five-minute ride that solves the parking squeeze this small town deals with every summer, and free parking is available for anyone who drives over directly. The rooftop and ground-floor space also books out for private events such as bridal showers, weddings, and company retreats, taking advantage of the Gulf views that make the upstairs patio popular in the first place.

Hours run long into the night on weekends: Monday through Wednesday the restaurant serves from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., so breakfast and a late dinner are both realistic options depending on the day chosen. The address is 63 Hotz Avenue in Santa Rosa Beach, an easy walk from the public beach access at the end of the street and from the rest of Grayton’s cluster of restaurants and galleries. Since its Grayton Beach opening, Chiringo has expanded to Alpharetta, Georgia, but the original 30A location, rooftop and all, is still the one that started it, and still the one locals mean when they just say “Chiringo.”