PB&J Bistro & Cafe

PB&J Bistro & Cafe brings an unexpected art-deco, 1920s-speakeasy atmosphere to a quiet corner of Niceville, serving elevated soups, salads, and sandwiches from a storefront on Partin Drive North. The initials in the name spell out the husband-and-wife team behind it: Chef Phillip Bauer, known around the kitchen as PB, and his wife Jess. Jess noticed the coincidence about a month into dating in early 2016, when Phillip was already filling her kitchen with pickles, breads, and jams he had made himself. The couple married in 2018 and eventually turned their shared love of food into this Niceville restaurant, built on the motto “We’re Better Together.”

Chef Phillip brings nearly two decades of professional cooking experience to the stove. He grew up in an Air Force family and was on active duty during 9/11 before building a culinary career that moved from corporate restaurant kitchens up through fine dining, including a stint at the well-known Elephant Walk and at a James Beard-nominated restaurant. Along the way he also found time to run seven marathons and start his own private chef business, the direct precursor to PB&J. Jess took a different route to the restaurant, spending nearly twelve years as an attorney with Florida’s Department of Children and Families after earning her law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. A personal health journey with fibromyalgia led her back to school for a nutrition consulting certificate in 2023, and that experience shapes how the kitchen thinks about food today. Menu items are logged in MyFitnessPal, and the staff can provide nutritional information on request, an unusual level of transparency for a small-town bistro.

Inside, the room leans into its speakeasy inspiration, dim and stylish rather than the diner-bright look many Niceville breakfast spots go for. The kitchen sources ingredients locally where it can and builds a menu heavy on fresh vegetables, offering a genuinely wide range of vegetarian and vegan dishes alongside its soups, salads, and sandwiches. Lunch runs Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and covers sandwiches, salads, soups, sides, kids’ meals, and specialty cookies. Dinner is a smaller, reservation-based service Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m., a good reason to call ahead if a sit-down evening meal is the plan. Standout dishes include Sweet Potato Gnocchi and a Creme Brulee for dessert, and the menu even carries a dish called Dreamy Arancinis, named for the brick bridge in Torcello, Italy, where Phillip proposed to Jess.

PB&J is certified Local, Woman, Veteran, and Minority Owned, describing itself as one hundred percent locally owned and operated, with Jess holding 51 percent as the woman owner and Phillip’s veteran and minority ownership making up the rest. Beyond the dining room, the couple runs PB&J Goes Gourmet, an in-home fine-dining and catering arm that brings a custom menu and a private-chef experience to a client’s own kitchen or event space. The business also gives back locally through partnerships with organizations such as Destin Harvest and Shelter House, and it has picked up press coverage including a feature in Scarlett Magazine.

Visitors planning a stop should call ahead for dinner, since that service runs on a smaller schedule than lunch and operates by reservation. The restaurant sits at 120 Partin Drive North in Niceville, a short drive from the bayfront and an easy stop while exploring the Twin Cities of Niceville and Valparaiso. Given the couple’s stated mission of bringing people together over food that combines the comfort of home with ideas picked up from travel, PB&J works equally well as a relaxed lunch stop or a more deliberate reservation-only dinner out.