After only two years, the laid-back Beach House Restaurant has outgrown its cozy location in Sebastian’s Village Shops and is moving on.
But, not to worry. The mother-daughter team of Dee and Tyler Morton will be offering the same homemade comfort food, beer on tap and friendly neighborhood atmosphere from its new location, just across the street.
The Mortons are moving the Beach House east across U.S. 1, to 717 Coolidge Street, in what is currently Squidley’s Books, Inc. (But not to worry, once more. The immensely popular and intriguing little book shop is moving to the former Alpha Hardware Store building at 712 Cleveland St.)
Squidley’s owner, Tom Haynes, and Dee Morton sat at a small window table in the Beach House, a drawing spread in front of them, planning how the book shop building and the restaurant could best mesh.
“My building is my baby!” said Haynes, explaining that he wanted just the right business to move in. He found it in Dee and Tyler Morton and their little restaurant.
“Everyone I spoke to, the City, the customers, everybody said they’d be great!” said Haynes.
Originally from Michigan, Dee Morton was a medical transcriptionist, working and travelling all over the globe – “vagabond,” is how she puts it. Dee returned to the States in 1992 from New Zealand, where Tyler was born.
In 1999 they made their way to Florida, eventually settling in Sebastian.
“I love Sebastian, I just love it,” Dee says.
Tyler earned a degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Florida in Gainesville. As for Dee, “I got to the point where I just needed to do something for myself,” she recalls.
“This,” she says, glancing around the little restaurant, “is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
She recruited Tyler, and the two have enjoyed their time in the Village Shops location, building a dedicated clientele – professionals, locals, visitors.
“People know they can come and relax, unwind, enjoy. We get all ages, genders,” says Tyler.
So far, everything is on track with the plans, and Dee plans to close the Beach House and make the move on Sept. 27. The restaurant’s ambiance styled after Duval Street in Key West will remain the same in the new location, the only major change being the addition of a kitchen.
“And we’ll add a stove. We’ve never had a stove,” Dee says.
The entire space will be used efficiently, the new kitchen designed to Dee’s specifications. “Here, the kitchen is the same size as the dining room. The street, Coolidge, is beautiful, we’ll have more parking, and we have a few tricks up our sleeve.”
“It’s going to be nice,” says Tyler, “a neighborhood pub with the same beer, wine and food. I’ll have 18 beers on tap, featuring six Florida beers.”
The menu will feature essentially the same Key West-style cuisine, says Dee, with a few tweaks. “It’s all homemade; we offer a little bit of everything. I get all my fresh produce from Kroegel’s. I believe local businesses should support each other. And I love to bake! Now that we’ll have an oven, we’ll have more desserts!
”We plan to be open seven days – Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. till 8 p.m., Saturday 8 to 8, Sunday 8 to 4. And we’ll have breakfast Saturday and Sunday.
“We love what Tom has done over there,” Dee says with enthusiasm. “It’s a cool building.”
She’s hoping to be able to offer up the restaurant for special events and gatherings as well, possibly including the patio area in the north side, which has a little Tiki bar unit Tom calls Barracuda. But that aspect will wait until everything else is up and running.
The Mortons are hoping to be open by the Sebastian Clambake in early November, but realize that makes for a tight turn-around.
Dee’s philosophy will continue to guide the way she does business, as it always has: Give your best, give good things, and you’ll get back good things in return.
“I’m blessed. I keep pinching myself,” she says with a big, happy smile.
