Boshamps Seafood & Oyster House

Boshamps Seafood & Oyster House occupies a stretch of Destin Harbor that has been feeding visitors for decades. Before Boshamps opened, the same site operated for nearly thirty years as the Flamingo Cafe, a white-tablecloth restaurant that set the tone for waterfront dining in this part of the harbor. When the current ownership took over, they kept the harbor-front bones of the building but shifted the tone entirely toward a casual, Southern, Gulf-to-table concept, backed by more than forty years of combined family experience in restaurants. The name itself is a family in-joke: it combines the initials of the owners’ three Labrador retrievers, Bobo, Otis, and Shug.

Inside, the restaurant is built for comfort rather than formality. Two full bars flank the dining room, and the whole space is set up to be, as the restaurant itself puts it, as casual as guests want it to be, without giving up quality on the plate. That balance shows up on the menu, which centers on Gulf seafood cooked in a Southern register. Signature dishes include the Original Snapper Destin, topped with lump crab and shrimp, alongside straightforward options like Bobo’s Burger for guests not in the mood for seafood. A dedicated pastry kitchen turns out a rotating nightly dessert.

The oyster bar is one of the restaurant’s strongest draws, with raw, fried, and baked preparations all on offer. Cornmeal-fried oysters sit alongside creative baked versions like Oysters Boshamp, topped with Vidalia onion and feta, and Oysters Bienville, a New Orleans-style baked preparation. Combined with the harbor view and the two full bars, the oyster bar makes this a natural stop for a slower-paced happy hour rather than a quick meal.

Live music is a regular fixture, and the restaurant builds several signature annual events around its harbor location, including the Swordy Shootout, the BoJamz music festival, and the Jellyhead Invitational, all of which turn the waterfront deck into a gathering spot beyond a typical dinner service. Because the building sits directly on Destin Harbor at 414 Harbor Boulevard, the view from the deck takes in the same boat traffic and sunset light that draws people to this stretch of the harbor in the first place.

Boshamps is open daily, with hours running from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and extending to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The restaurant markets itself as family-friendly, which makes it a reasonable choice for groups mixing kids and adults who want harbor views without a stuffy dining room. Reach the restaurant at 850-424-7406 for reservations or event inquiries, and plan to arrive a little before sunset if a harbor-view table matters, since the deck fills up quickly on weekend evenings during the height of tourist season.

Because Boshamps sits along the same run of Harbor Boulevard as several other Destin Harbor restaurants, it works well as one stop on a longer harbor walk rather than a destination visited in isolation. Charter fishing boats and dolphin cruise vessels dock within view of the deck, so the same harbor traffic that fills the water during the day gives way to a quieter, more scenic backdrop by dinner. Visitors who plan to combine a harbor cruise with a meal often build their afternoon around a stop here, since the location makes it easy to walk from a boat dock straight to a table without needing a car. The two-full-bar setup also means walk-in guests rarely have to wait long for a drink even when the dining room itself has a short line, a detail worth knowing during the busiest weeks of summer.