Drive out the Hammock Dunes gate, turn onto Scenic A1A, and the canopy closes overhead within a quarter mile. Live oaks and Spanish moss frame a two-lane strip that has always doubled as the neighborhood's Main Street. The restaurants are tucked into that canopy the way tide pools sit in rock, small and easy to miss unless you know where to look.
Something quieter than a boom is happening on that strip this year. A single circle of operators is consolidating its footprint, a new grab-and-go market has taken a suite at Armand Beach, and a long-vacant seafood building at Milwaukee Avenue is coming down. If you live inside Hammock Dunes, the practical effect is that "dinner without crossing the bridge" has more options in 2026 than it did in 2024, and most of them share a surprisingly short list of names on the ownership paperwork.
The Fusion 386 Lot, Reimagined As Modern Mexx
The dilapidated building at 5949 N. Ocean Shore Blvd. is finally coming down. On April 7, 2026, the Flagler County Commission voted 3-2 to approve a parking variance for Modern Mexx, with the condition that a large oak tree at the rear of the property be retained. The old Fusion 386 structure will be demolished and replaced with a new 2,800-square-foot building seating around 92, including a 20-seat bar, staffed by nine employees.
The concept is not a fast-casual taqueria. Co-owner Bruno DiFabio, who founded Bronx House Pizza, described Modern Mexx as curated meals rather than a quick-service restaurant. Expect a smaller, tighter menu than the square footage suggests, and expect the 20-seat bar to matter as much as the dining room.
Two details worth carrying with you. First, the site sits at State Road A1A near Milwaukee Avenue, where Fusion 386 used to be, so navigation to the door will feel familiar. Second, the approved parking count is 33 spaces plus room for six bicycles, instead of the required 41. Weekend nights will lean on A1A shoulder parking, which is legal but not infinite.
One Operator Group, Three Addresses
Read the Modern Mexx paperwork closely and a small-world pattern emerges. Co-owner Mike Goodman is also an owner of Bronx House Pizza and Captain's BBQ at Bing's Landing, both in the Hammock. DiFabio founded Bronx House. That means three of the strip's higher-traffic addresses now share overlapping ownership:
- Bronx House Pizza — the New York-style anchor that bought a neighboring lot for overflow parking in 2025 after years of A1A congestion complaints.
- Captain's BBQ at Bing's Landing — the county-park barbecue spot on the Intracoastal side, favored for sunset seating.
- Modern Mexx — opening at the former Fusion 386 site, positioned as a slower, curated concept.
For residents, this is not a trivia point. It means that when Bronx House is on a two-hour wait on a Saturday, the same kitchens' sensibility now extends up and down A1A. It also means the group has now navigated county parking politics twice, which suggests Modern Mexx will open with the operational scars already earned.
A Grab-And-Go Arrival At Armand Beach
The other genuinely new pin on the map is not a restaurant at all. World Plate Market at 2 Armand Beach Drive, Suite 1B, opened on Oct. 29, 2025, as a grab-and-go expansion of World Plate's catering and event planning services. Before the Armand Beach location, the nearest World Plate was in Bunnell, which meant a real drive for anyone inside the gate who wanted a prepared dinner without cooking.
The Sunday routine is the one worth marking on the calendar. Through the end of the year, the Hammock location offers to-go dinners for two on Sundays, ordered online by 11 a.m. and picked up by 4:45 p.m. Owner Sue Wicklund chose the Hammock after, in her words, "an abundance of emails" from Hammock customers asking her to open there. The location itself is a two-minute drive from most Hammock Dunes addresses.
What's Holding Steady
The new arrivals matter more because the incumbents have not moved. A quick reset on the strip's dependable rooms:
Hammock Grill by JT's, at 5224 N. Ocean Shore Blvd., is the closest thing the corridor has to a locals' Cheers. Guests frequently praise the seafood boils, including the low country boil with shrimp and andouille, along with pork belly sliders, panko shrimp, and the grilled fish sandwich with remoulade, plus housemade relishes and chutneys. Service is attentive and friendly, with many staff members staying for years, which shows in the small-talk when you sit at the bar. Worth remembering: the kitchen is closed Tuesdays.
Bartlett's Gatherings & Gourmet is the strip's wine-and-flatbread option. Locals go for the flatbreads, gourmet cheese boards, and wine selection, with live music from Wednesday to Saturday. It is the closest thing to a walk-in wine bar between the Hammock Dunes gate and Flagler Beach.
The Golden Lion is the long-standing option a bit further south, known for a bucket of Rum Punch and live music on the evening deck. High Tides offers a screened-in porch that is the right answer when an afternoon shower rolls in.
For provisioning between meals, the Hammock Wine and Cheese Shop and Debra Jean's coffee shop sit within walking distance of each other. Debra Jean's plays a supporting role in the Modern Mexx story as well: the owners of Modern Mexx worked out an agreement with neighboring Debra Jean's to use five of their overflow parking spaces.
Why Parking Keeps Ending Up In County Chambers
If you have lived here more than a season, you already know parking is the recurring civic drama of the A1A corridor. What is worth understanding is the pattern behind the drama, because it explains why every new restaurant seems to arrive with a variance request attached.
Vice Chair Kim Carney put it bluntly during the March hearings, saying "every restaurant in the hammock has violations". She was speaking about parking specifically. The land was subdivided decades before the current Land Development Code, which is why the seating-to-space math never quite works. When Bronx House solved its own version of this problem, it did so by buying a neighboring lot in 2025 to accommodate its customers. Modern Mexx has now solved it by cutting seating and borrowing from Debra Jean's.
Two things follow from this for residents. First, expect overflow on the A1A shoulders on peak nights, particularly Fridays and Saturdays through the winter season. Second, expect at least one more parking-and-tree hearing at the county in the next twelve months. As Commissioner Andy Dance predicted from the dais, Modern Mexx will likely be back for a landscaping variance because the proposed parking plan did not leave room for landscaping requirements.
A Note On The October Calendar
One nearby event is going to reshape the strip's traffic for a week this fall. The Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS presented by Circle K, a PGA TOUR Champions event, is heading to Hammock Beach, with the Club's Ocean Course serving as the tournament venue. If you have out-of-town family in town for the tournament and a reservation strategy for a Friday or Saturday dinner, book earlier than you think you need to. The strip absorbs weekend traffic well. It does not absorb weekend traffic plus a PGA gallery well.
The Practical Read For Hammock Dunes Residents
Zoom out, and 2026 is the year the A1A corridor stops feeling like a collection of independent one-offs and starts behaving like a small restaurant district with a recognizable operator bench. Bronx House, Captain's BBQ, and Modern Mexx now share overlapping ownership. World Plate Market has planted a grab-and-go flag at Armand Beach. Hammock Grill, Bartlett's, and the Golden Lion remain what they have always been. The distance from your front door to a table has not changed. What is on that table, and who is cooking it, has.
For anyone weighing the day-to-day trade-offs of living behind the Hammock Dunes gate, this is the texture that rarely makes it into the brochure. Life here has always been oriented toward the club, the ocean, and the two golf courses. The strip outside the gate is finally catching up.
If you are considering a move within Hammock Dunes, or thinking about how the corridor's evolution affects your long-term plans on the island, the team at Coastal Pros knows this stretch of A1A block by block. Schedule a private consultation and we will walk you through the neighborhood the way a longtime resident would.
