Beach Bites has sold the same subs, sunscreen, and rental boogie boards out of the same turquoise block building at 1840 Wabasso Beach Road since 1979. The paint hasn't changed color. Neither has the pitch: it remains the only stop between the ocean and the mainland where you don't need to cross a bridge for a six-pack, a hoagie, or a leash for your board. If you've lived in Summerplace for any stretch of time, you already know this. It's the kind of fact that makes this end of the island feel like it stopped moving decades ago, in the best possible way.
A short drive north, on the same run of A1A, two storefronts that didn't exist a year ago opened at the Village Shops. A Johnny Was boutique moved in, bringing embroidered ready-to-wear into a directory that already held Faherty, J.McLaughlin, and Tommy Bahama. A few doors down, a home and garden shop called Bee & Flower started selling terrariums, topiaries, and living centerpieces. Both are new arrivals in a plaza that has anchored this part of the island since before Summerplace's original 1960s cottages started getting quietly renovated one by one.
So which is true: a corridor that hasn't changed in almost fifty years, or one that's actively turning over its storefronts right now? Both, and the gap between them is worth paying attention to if you live here, because it tells you exactly where to look for what's new without losing track of what's still holding this stretch of island together.
The old guard hasn't moved
Beach Bites earns its reputation the plain way: by being the only option for miles. It sits at the point where County Road 510 meets the ocean, close enough to Disney's Vero Beach Resort that vacationers use it as often as full-time residents, and close enough to Summerplace that it functions as the neighborhood's unofficial corner store. There's no rebrand pending, no renovation planned. It's a business that figured out its job in 1979 and has kept doing it.
That kind of permanence matters more here than it would somewhere with more commercial density. Summerplace itself was built around a similar idea. The community's original developer envisioned a slower, more natural way of living on the barrier island, and sixty-plus years later, the shell lanes are still shell, the oak canopy still shades most of the streets, and every property still carries deeded access to the same stretch of private beach. If you want a closer look at how that original character shows up in the homes themselves, we've written before about the cottage architecture that still defines much of Summerplace. The point stands on its own here, though: the neighborhood's identity was never about chasing trends, and Beach Bites is proof that the businesses around it inherited the same instinct.
Except a mile north, it's actively turning over
The Village Shops tell a different story, and it's the one most residents haven't fully clocked yet because storefront turnover happens quietly. Johnny Was and Bee & Flower are the newest names on a directory that already runs deep: Cashmere Beach, Citron Bistro, Coastal Comforts, Meghan Candler Gallery, Sandra Morgan Interiors, Noteworthy By Design, Oodles of Wallpaper. That's not a plaza standing still. That's a plaza actively curating who gets a lease, and it just made two calls in the same year.
Neither addition is accidental. Johnny Was brings a specific West Coast resort aesthetic that hasn't had a foothold on this part of A1A before. Bee & Flower fills a gap the plaza didn't have: nobody else in the directory was doing botanical décor, terrariums, or custom living arrangements. Both moves suggest the people managing the Village Shops are reading demand carefully rather than filling space for the sake of it.
What's on the water before Labor Day
The other place actively adding to its calendar sits directly across the causeway on Wabasso Island: the Environmental Learning Center, a 64-acre nonprofit nature campus at 255 Live Oak Drive, at the end of the Wabasso Bridge. General admission to the exhibit hall runs $10 for visitors 12 and older and $5 for ages 2 to 11, and from there the programming gets specific fast. Over the next few weeks, the calendar includes:
- A weekly Saturday morning session called Nature Immersion, built around slow movement and stillness on the property's boardwalk trails
- The Art of Stillness, a book talk paired with guided meditation, scheduled for Sunday, August 23
- A paddling safety class run with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, covering paddlecraft basics and waterway rules
- A free, hands-on youth fishing program led by the Wabasso School of Fishing
Beyond the scheduled sessions, the center runs its own sunset pontoon tours and guided kayak and paddleboard excursions out toward Pelican Island, the kind of outing that's easy to keep putting off until the weather turns and suddenly it's October. If you've been meaning to get out on the lagoon before the season shifts, the Environmental Learning Center's calendar is the place to check before it fills up.
A practical loop for anyone treating this as an actual Saturday rather than a list of options:
- Coffee and a sandwich at Beach Bites before the morning heat sets in
- A guided paddle or the Nature Immersion session at the Environmental Learning Center
- A slow walk through the Village Shops, starting at Johnny Was and ending at Bee & Flower
- Lunch at Citron Bistro, which sits inside the same plaza
That sequence covers the old anchor, the new arrivals, and the nature campus in a single loop that starts and ends within a few minutes of Summerplace.
Where to eat without crossing the bridge, and when it's worth it anyway
For dinner within the loop, Citron Bistro remains the Village Shops' answer to sit-down dining, with both indoor and outdoor seating. A short drive north, near Disney's Vero Beach Resort, Wind & Waves Grill still runs its Saturday character breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon, a fixed-price menu at $35 for adults and $22 for kids that's become a known quantity for anyone with young grandkids visiting for the weekend.
If you're willing to leave the island entirely, Farm & Flame is worth the drive into Sebastian. Despite its Vero Beach mailing address, the restaurant actually sits off County Road 512 near Sebastian River High School, and it expanded to daily lunch service in January 2026, according to Sebastian Daily, running 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. alongside its 4 to 9 p.m. dinner hours. The same ownership group runs Mai Thai Bistro, which explains why a farm-to-table menu also includes a full Thai and sushi list. It's not a neighborhood spot, but it's close enough to justify a special-occasion mainland trip.
The two things that haven't moved
Strip away the new boutiques and the fishing programs, and two facts about this end of the island haven't changed since Summerplace was platted in the early 1960s. Every property still carries deeded beach access rather than relying on a homeowners association to manage it, and the roads are still shell rather than pavement, shaded by the same oak canopy that's been growing in for sixty years. Those two details are the actual constant. Everything else, from a new botanical shop at the Village Shops to a fresh meditation series at the Environmental Learning Center, is happening around that fixed point, not instead of it.
That's the useful way to think about this stretch of A1A heading into fall. The corridor isn't frozen and it isn't reinventing itself either. It's doing what a well-managed barrier island community should do: holding onto what works while making room, carefully, for what's genuinely new.
If you know someone who's been quietly thinking about what it would mean to plant roots on this side of the island, or if a neighbor has mentioned wanting a second opinion on the market before making a move, Janyne Kenworthy has spent her career in exactly this pocket of Vero Beach. Let's connect.
