New bar pays homage to Destin's roots

Blink and you’ll miss it.

The new 1835 Porch Bar beside Dewey Destin’s Harborside Restaurant is kind of a secret garden, but bar manager Tarra Wixom said it’s time to get the word out about the new craft cocktail bar on the Destin harbor.

“It’s been open for two months now but it’s still a work in progress,” she said. “The whole idea of opening this outdoor space is, first of all, the view, and secondly, the opportunity to offer draft craft beer and craft cocktails.”

1835 Porch Bar is owned by Dewey Destin and is operated as a satellite bar of Dewey Destin’s Harborside Restaurant. The outdoor bar is located directly to the west of Dewey Destin’s Harborside Restaurant on the back porch and sprawling cobbled patio of the adjacent dry storage building.

“This used to be a swimming pool back here, but we filled it with sand and cobbled over it to make this patio,” Wixom said of the outdoor space. “A lot of people are still surprised to find us here.”

The bar got it’s name from the year Captain Leonard Destin found his way to the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village.

“In the winter of 1835, Leonard Destin, his father George and his brother William sailed from New London, Connecticut, to go to the salvage wrecks in Key West,” Wixom said. “Sailing down, they hit a hurricane, which triggered a series of events ultimately leading to Leonard Destin moving here to Florida. 1835 Porch Bar is an homage to the lineage of Leonard Destin. If it weren’t for that hurricane, Destin would be named and known as something different.”

As for the bar, everything on the menu is handmade with fresh ingredients. The menu changes weekly with seasonal cocktails such as the Strawberry Vodka Collins and the Florida Smash and tapas such as cerviche, steamed shrimp, tuna dip and homemade pimento cheese.

“Our chef at Dewey Destin’s Harborside, Jim Shirah, gets to exercise his creativity with the Porch Bar,” Wixom said. “Whenever he gets a wild hair, he just makes it up and puts it on the menu over here.”

Wixom said 1835 Porch Bar was designed to be a haven for locals. With it’s view of the harbor, sprawling live oaks, lawn games, and community events, 1835 Porch Bar aims to make the most of the cooler fall evenings.

“It’s a good place to start your night," Wixom said. "We have live music coming up this fall, and we are family friendly and dog friendly. It’s just a really cool place to watch the world go by.”

1835 Porch Bar is located at 200 Harbor Blvd. in Destin between Dewey Destin’s Harborside Restaurant and Tailfins. For more information, visit www.1835porchbar.com/ or find them on Facebook by searching 1835 Porch Bar. Hours are from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturday.