Palace Saloon

So excited to hear about this place while on a historical tour. What a gem! The idea of the oldest pirate bar is quite a draw, but truthfully the historic aspect along with enjoying the view of original interior is worth it. Quite smokey inside but the pirate punch in a souvenir cup is so worth it!

Does this place serve food? who cares, they have rum and they put it in Pirate’s Punch. So, go there and get a few and you won’t care about food. Oh, and walk around afterwards, don’t drive.

Great bar of bars! Bartender was excellent. Attentive and very conversational. Pirate Punch! ARRRRRR! Don’t go home without it! Or at least the cup.

Well hellloooooo Pirates Punch! I have a delayed reaction to alcohol so it did not punch me on the first drink but it sure did on my second! Aside from being highly alcoholic, it really was a tasty drink. Sweet without being overly so and definitely a decent amount of rum which makes me happy. If you have to get just one drink, make sure you stop in and try the Pirates Punch! It gets cheaper with every refill so that gives even more reason to keep em’ coming ;)

Locals hang here & are super friendly. Service is friendly & attentive. ⁴⁄₅ stars only cuz cigarette smoking is still allowed. P.U.

Johnny Miller, AKA Johnny H20, is the vice mayor of Fernandina Beach, Florida and bartender at the oldest bar in Florida (conveniently located in Fernandina Beach) AND, as you probably guessed because you are reading about him here, a maker of some pretty fine Bloody Marys!
As bartender of the Palace Saloon, each weekend he creates specialty Bloody Mary creations showcasing local ingredients. He’s made a Pancakes & Waffles Bloody, a Surf & Turf Bloody, but some of his most popular are the Italian Bloodies that come garnished with PIZZA!
For this one, he complimented the Italian seasoned mix with a slice from local pizzeria Arte Pizza, fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and pepperoncinis! We can’t wait to go back to see what he cooks up next!

Awesome place to go back in history. Friendly staff and cold beer, what more could you ask for!?! Uncle Charlie’s next door (connected to The Palace) had pool tables and a ton of TVs to watch the game. Live music was good as well. Great little joint to enjoy before dinner, after or anytime in between. Like jimmy buffet says «It’s five o’clock somewhere!»

The oldest drinking establishment in Florida. Fun little historic bar. Interesting for it’s history, but they really capitalize on that. Apparently they have a restaurant, bar and nightclub tied into one another. We visited the bar. Bartender was a bit snotty, but we did get our drinks. They have great beers on tap and they specialize in a pirates punch with your own souvenir cup. A fruity, pre-​mixed drink that wasn’t bad at all. Fun for an afternoon stop between shopping and sightseeing.

We stopped in here for a drink for the historic significance, since the Palace is supposedly the oldest bar in Florida (since 1906). Like most old places, it’s a dive but that’s the charm of the place. Nice period décor and a good beer selection. (We had a local brew, Duke’s Cold Nose Brown Ale.) It does allow smoking so pick another place if that bothers you.

Visited early afternoon 3÷11÷2015 to be greeted by a very rude lady bartender. Upon finally getting service & telling her how excited we were to try one of their Bloody Mary’s, her reply was not friendly & seemed like we were disrupting her.
While this was highly recommended to us, I’d never advise anyone going here until the Manager/​Owner hires someone who likes to wait on customers.
Place was pretty empty considering it was Happy Hour. Couple of the tables even though empty, were dirty & no effort to clean them off for new customers. Ended up venturing down the way to a really fun place thanks to a local’s (sitting not to far away on the street) recommendation!
By the way… we never got a Bloody Mary everyone on here has been raving about. Bartender said she didn’t make them or maybe it was she just didn’t want to make one…

We did a little pub crawling in the evening prior to our reservations at Espana. The Palace Saloon was a step back in time. The history of this place is pretty amazing, and the bar itself is nostalgic.
The evening we were there it was uncrowned and not smoky as other reviewers have mentioned. Drinks were decently priced, we enjoyed one, then parted ways to continue our foot tour and search out another gem.

It’s what a local bar should be. Smoky, strong drinks, and a cast of crazy characters. If you can’t stand the smoke you should probably stay home. But if you do that you will miss a good day/​night at a really good bar. You should go Sunday just for the Bloody Mary’s that Johnny Miller makes. Every week he comes up with something new and exciting usually including great finds from the local farmers market.

I love the pirate’s punch! I don’t love the smoking though… This place just reeks of smoke and you can’t escape the smokers. If you are a cigarette smoker, then this place is for you! If you don’t smoke, get a drink and down it quickly! Yikes! I did really enjoy the punch and the prices, but sadly I don’t know how long I could spend in this place.

For starters its no palace. My wife and I were there 9-​7-​2014. It was happy hour. I ordered a Jim Beam on the rocks and my wife ordered bourbon and soda water. The place is kind of cringy and they allow pets, dogs to be exact, but that’s part of the charm and character of the place. Chatting with the bartender who was very nice I found out the bar opened way back in 1906 (might have been 03.) We only had one drink each and after a pleasant time we left and paid the $ 6.00 tab.
The next day 9−8−17 we went back at approximately the same time (happy hour)… different bar tender… and ordered the same two drinks. The tab was now $ 11.00. When I confronted him with it he said he made a mistake it was supposed to $ 8.00. I said that was still $ 2.00 more than I paid last night. I wasn’t going to make a big stink about $ 2.00. It was a shame this had to happen. I really liked the place. I just don’t like to get taken. Guess we had «tourist» written all over us. Would I go back here? Yes. But I would check to see who the bartender is first.
BTW…A better place to go is the Salty Pelican upper deck looking out over the water and its within walking distance of the Palace Saloon.

We live and have been all over the island. If I had to name the best bartender/​mixer here I would say it is Jimmy at Sheffields and The Palace. Quality. The bar has so much character and history and there is frequently live music.

This place just kinda happened on us. we were brunching down the road and met a nice pair of friendly folks and we started discussing bloody Mary’s.
«Don’t order one here,» she said, «you’ve got to go to the palace.»
she looked like she knew what she was talking about, so after we finished eating, we walked on down.
we were happy to see our new friend already there. This place is definitely a dive. ashtrays on every table so if that bothers you, keep walking. we go to the bar and immediately ordered a Bloody Mary.
the mix is just a little spicy, and nothing too fancy, but wow the presentation. it came loaded with a pretzel, pepper, mozzarella, celery, maybe even a roasted red pepper?! it was a meal in a glass and I loved it.

Nice selection of beer on tap. Service could be better. Bartender was more interested in B. Sing with friends than waiting on us and others who came in and left.

No food here but they have a flyer on each table to have another restaurant deliver some fried food baskets to the bar if your hungry. I also visited the place separately that does deliver and it’s seafood and nothing impressive.
Beer is pricey — Modelo at $ 4.75.
Atmosphere is not bad. They have a long history and a really old bar. It’s cool.

I stayed on Amelia Island for a business trip and had to venture into the oldest bar in Florida. I asked the barkeep what were the specials and he said $ 1 Sweetwater 420’s. My ears went up and I said a round for me and my co-​workers. You can’t get $ 1 Sweetwater anything even in Atlanta. I enjoyed the pictures from the past and even bought a cool pirate shirt. Good attentive barkeep and rich history.

Amazing dive bar, and imagine my pleasant surprise to find that stand-​alone bars in Florida can still allow smoking! Everyone was friendly – as newlyweds (very newlywed, just a week after our wedding), people in the bar were buying us drinks and the bartender let us behind the bar for a photo with the historic décor. My husband also forgot his credit card there, but the bartender heard that we were going to eat at Le Clos, and he brought it to us there. Awesome!
A note to the people writing reviews and complaining about the smoke: I cannot possibly imagine why you would go into a bar that allows smoking and stay there willingly – and then complain about the smoke on Unilocal!You could see that people were smoking in there, right? You could see that there were ashtrays on all the tables, right? There are half a dozen non-​smoking bars in a three block radius of the Palace Saloon. Get over yourselves.