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From Gulf views and cocktails to fresh oysters and reef restoration, Shunk Gulley delivers the full 30A experience!
It’s another day in paradise on 30A, and Shunk Gulley Oyster Bar is on the agenda. A seat on the upper deck gives you front-row views of the Gulf’s emerald water and sugar-white sand as the sun dips into the horizon.
It’s not just the view. Shunk Gulley has earned a reputation as a multi-award-winning restaurant known for its coastal cuisine and laid-back atmosphere.
Grab a cocktail and raise your glass, whether it’s one of their signature bushwackers, a refreshing White Sands, or one of the new mocktails now on the menu.
Beyond the unforgettable view and standout cocktails, Shunk Gulley has also become one of the best spots to catch a game on 30A, now with 30+ TVs and plenty of space to settle in. The Saturday Shrimp Boils are legendary. The live music schedule features favorite local musicians.
There’s seafood so fresh you can taste the ocean. Standouts include the corn-dusted snapper with bacon, onion jam, green beans, citrus herb quinoa, and a Meyer lemon butter sauce, an easy favorite that captures the coastal flavor of the menu. There are salads laden with local produce. There is tuna dip and tuna poke. The Shunk Burger is a can’t-miss blend of short rib, brisket, and chuck beef topped with tomato jam, sharp Vermont cheddar, smoky applewood bacon, and caramelized onions. Key lime pie makes a sweet and tangy finish.
But if you really want a signature bite, order the oysters. They’re good, real good. They’re getting 50-75 cases of the briny bivalves every other day. And now Shunk Gulley has Apalachicola oysters on the menu, the ultimate taste of the Gulf Coast so long absent from local menus.
Shunk Gulley has long emphasized sourcing strong local ingredients, and the return of Apalachicola oysters brings back a flavor deeply tied to the Gulf Coast. World-renowned and grown practically in the restaurant’s backyard, the oysters from Rattlesnake Cove Oyster Company off St. George Island offer a long-missed taste of the past.
And the 2-inch cup is full of creamy, briny meat that they serve raw with a lemon and a dish of cocktail sauce. Nothing fancy, just fresh and unadulterated.
Shunk Gulley continues to source high-quality oysters from across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, while also offering a limited supply of oysters grown in historic Apalachicola waters. For an oyster bar built around freshness and quality, the addition of Rattlesnake Cove oysters brings another distinctive variety to the menu.
The connection to Rattlesnake Cove came through Waterstreet Seafood, whose owner, Steve Rash, also owns the oyster company. Rash put his first crop of spat (oyster seed) in the water in 2022, and this year, after a lot of care, they had their first harvest. Now they are available to restaurants like Shunk Gulley on a limited basis.
“Rattlesnake Cove on St. George Island is a fantastic place for oysters. It’s protected, has [pristine] water quality, and great water flow. The oysters grow really well. The salinity, the pH, and the different minerals in the water produce a fantastic oyster. And growing on the water’s surface gives them a much cleaner taste,” explained Rash.
Though they have a limited supply now, Rash hopes next year it will be a different story as they scale up the farm.
Once upon a time, 90% of oysters eaten in Florida and 10% nationally came from Apalachicola. After a decades-long water war with Georgia, the BP Oil Spill, global sea level rise, ever-expanding industrial development, hurricanes, and overharvesting, the wild oyster population fell to crisis levels.
The celebrated Apalachicola oyster depends on a delicate balance of freshwater from the Apalachicola River and saltwater from St. George and St. Vincent Sounds to flourish. In 2020, Florida Fisheries regulators stepped in and closed the wild beds to harvesting for up to five years in the hopes they would replenish. But, the loss to Georgia in the Supreme Court in April 2021 bodes poorly for the future of wild-harvested Apalachicola oysters.
In the meantime, farms like Rattlesnake Cove have picked up the baton. The farmed oysters are performing the work once done by the wild bivalves. Those little oysters are doing the mighty work of filtering the local waters of red tide and toxins without taking anything away from the natural environment. The abundant blue crabs and fish found in Apalachicola and surrounding waters testify to the power of this keystone species to rebuild the marine ecosystem.
Supporting the labor of local oyster farmers is not the only way Shunk Gulley is making a difference in our marine environments.
Shunk Gulley’s participation in the oyster shell recycling program and artificial reef-building with Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance (CBA) is well known. But they also contribute to the SHOALS (Students Helping Oysters and Living Shorelines) program in local high schools.
Guests can also take part in the effort. By donating $5, they can decorate their own oyster shell, which is later used to help rebuild local reefs.
Alison McDowell, CBA Executive Director, elaborated, “We use live oysters from our restaurant partners like Shunk Gulley as part of an oyster dissection lesson that teaches high school students about oyster biology. Our professional development model will teach educators in high school how to implement lessons about seagrass and oyster habitat restoration in their local environment. The initiative provides students with several hands-on activities and lessons that foster their understanding of living shoreline ecology and the Choctawhatchee Bay habitat.”
Through SHOALS, students participate in field experiences and in-class assignments. Students assist with reef construction and plant seagrass to provide critical habitats in Choctawhatchee Bay. The CBA also salvages seagrass from construction sites that will be grown in South Walton Center and Freeport High School seagrass rescue tanks to restore seagrass meadows.
Another community effort Shunk Gulley supports, via 30A Coastal Dune Wine Company, is CBA’s Grasses in Classes initiative. It’s a hands-on environmental education program geared towards 3rd and 5th-grade students. Okaloosa and Walton County teachers are provided with the equipment and materials required to grow shoreline grasses at their schools. The students tend the salt marsh nurseries throughout the school year, supported by monthly education on local estuarine topics from CBA.
McDowell added, “At the end of the school year, Grasses in Classes culminates with students planting their shoreline grasses at a chosen salt marsh restoration site along Choctawhatchee Bay as part of our living shoreline initiative. The program instills a love of local habitat, restores shoreline, and inspires the next generation of watershed stewards.”
That’s a lot of love Shunk Gulley shows for the local environment, and it reflects the strong community spirit that continues to shape conservation efforts across the area.
Make your way to Shunk Gulley for fresh coastal dishes, standout cocktails, and some of the best views on 30A, knowing you’re supporting a place that truly gives back to its community. The plaques and photos on the walls document a slice of what they do. And before you go, decorate an oyster shell through the Offer Your Shell to Enhance Restoration (OYSTER) initiative. “We take cleaned oyster shells and offer them to our guests and visitors to decorate for a $5 donation. The donations go directly to the CBA, and the decorated shells become a part of an artificial reef in our area,” said Kendra Marasa, Marketing and Special Events Manager.
Leave your mark, literally, on the 30A area at Shunk Gulley.
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