Pelican Bay's Season Starts at the Beach: Seven-Day Dining, a New Kitchen Team and Sunday Brunch at Marker 36

Pelican Bay's beach restaurants are about to add hours. Starting Oct. 15, both Marker 36 and Sandbar open seven days a week. Dinner starts at 3:30 p.m. and runs to 8:30 p.m. The Nest drops its 4:30 p.m. closing and stays open until sunset. On Sunday, Nov. 15, Marker 36 serves something it has never offered before: Sunday Brunch.

None of this needs new construction. The Pelican Bay Foundation's long-term study of its campus is still working out building options. In the meantime, the Foundation is giving members more hours at the beach.

The problem members raised

Over the summer, the Foundation reported on its work with the Connors Group. The study draws on member surveys, observations, usage numbers and historical data to decide where investment will matter most. Restaurant access and capacity came up as a member priority. So did improving members' visibility into tram arrivals and service disruptions.

That project is now moving into a phase that turns the findings into specific design and capacity requirements. A later Phase Three will give management and the Board several implementation options and design scenarios for the whole Pelican Bay campus, including the Community Center. In other words, the building decisions are at least a season away. The quicker way to add capacity is time. A restaurant open more hours, more days a week, can seat more people without adding a single chair.

The 2026-27 hours do exactly that.

What the clock looks like now

The last full set of printed hours, in the Early March 2025 Post, showed dinner from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at both beach restaurants. The October 2026 schedule starts dinner an hour earlier, at 3:30 p.m., from Oct. 15. That turns a four-hour dinner window into a five-hour one. Lunch runs straight into dinner, and the bar is open all day.

Sandbar's two-week ramp-up already shows the change. Through Oct. 14, its dinner service starts at 4:30 p.m. On Oct. 15 it moves to 3:30 p.m., the same as Marker 36. For the first time this season, North Beach and South Beach run on the same schedule.

The schedule also moved faster than the summer forecast. The July/August/September Post said Sandbar would close from August through October. The October table has it serving lunch and dinner in the first half of October, so Sandbar came back ahead of that forecast.

The Nest's later closing may matter most to anyone who spends a full day on the sand. The Foundation describes it as a snack-and-drink stop just south of Sandbar, a casual place to sit with a view or grab a quick bite. The beaches are open from 9 a.m. to sunset. From Oct. 15, The Nest stays open as long as the beach does.

Five people, three restaurants

Hours only help if the kitchens can keep up with them. The October Post introduces the Foundation's new food and beverage leadership team. Marco Garnica is Director of Food and Beverage. At Marker 36, Chef Fabio Bermudez is Director of Culinary for the North and Christopher Wright is Director of Operations for the North. At Sandbar and The Nest, Chef Rushaune "Rush" Thompson is Director of Culinary for the South and Kevin Adames is Director of Operations for the South.

Splitting the team into North and South teams fits the new schedule. Each beach has its own chef and operations lead, while one director covers all three venues. The article says each restaurant will keep its own personality, and the team will work on consistency, quality and service across all three. It covers the food coming out of the kitchen, the welcome at the door and the pace of service.

"Across Marker 36, Sandbar and The Nest, these leaders will work alongside our dedicated employees to deliver improvements you can see, taste and feel."

Michael Broughton, Deputy General Manager of Community & Member Experience, calls putting this team together an important part of Pelican Bay's investment in dining. He also asks members to introduce themselves and say what they enjoy. That fits the Connors Group approach of letting member input guide where the money goes.

Sandbar's comeback

Sandbar has needed the most rebuilding of the three venues. After Hurricane Ian in 2022, the Foundation reported that storm surge flooded both beach restaurants. Sandbar took the worse hit: its dining room and kitchen walls and windows were blown out, and its deck and beach ramps were torn away. The Foundation's Early March 2025 Post listed "Sandbar restaurant has been renovated and reopened" among its 2024/25 accomplishments. The same report noted that the RESY reservation system had been put in place. The October 2024 entertainment calendar included a Sandbar Grand Opening event on Saturday, Nov. 9.

The Foundation now describes Sandbar as bright and casual with a refined Mediterranean feel. Dishes it highlights include house-made pomodoro and Greek-style lamb burgers. The Sandbar page mentions sliding glass doors that open to the beach. Its evening music is listed as dance music on Mondays and dinner music on Wednesdays, both 5 to 8 p.m. At Marker 36, the posted schedule has live music on Tuesdays and upbeat music on Thursdays, also 5 to 8 p.m. Those pages carry no season date, so check the music nights again once November arrives.

Brunch adds a meal on Sunday mornings

Longer hours stretch meals the restaurants already serve. Sunday Brunch at Marker 36 adds a meal period the beach restaurants have not offered before. The October Post calls its Nov. 15 debut "the beginning of something new at Pelican Bay." Opening weekend features a special brunch buffet, with Foundation leadership and management joining the Marker 36 team to welcome members. The debut is listed from 9 to 11 a.m. and is already sold out.

The Foundation has not yet announced regular brunch hours or how reservations will work after opening day. A morning seating on Sunday is new capacity in the plainest sense: another meal, at a time when the dining room would otherwise sit empty.

The season-opening calendar

Brunch closes out a full weekend, and a few October events come first. Here is what the Foundation has announced so far:

• Halloween Tennis Disco Doubles, Thursday, Oct. 22, 5–6:30 p.m., North Tennis. A season kickoff with tennis, food and drinks. Registration required.
• Second Annual Year Rounders Halloween Bash, Oct. 24, 5–8 p.m., St. Raphael in Pelican Bay, with DJ Omar Baker and a Best Costume prize. BYOB. Register at pelicanbay.org or at the Community Center front desk. The Post lists this as a Friday, but Oct. 24 falls on a Saturday, so confirm the day on the Foundation's calendar.
• Pelican Bay College Invitational Showcase, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30–31, North Tennis. Free for members, no registration.
• Welcome Back Beach Bash, Friday, Nov. 13, 5–9 p.m., South Beach. DJ Bam and the tribute band Never Stop Believin' on a stage set on the sand, with a complimentary welcome drink, chef-attended food stations and a cash bar. Registration required.
• Tennis and Pickleball Kickoff, Saturday, Nov. 14, 9:30 a.m.–noon. Sold out.
• Tuika's Polynesian Island Magic, Saturday, Nov. 14, 3:30 p.m., Sandbar. Music and dances from Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa and New Zealand, ending with a Samoan Fire Knife Dance. Reservations are closed, but members are welcome to come watch.
• Sunday Brunch debut, Sunday, Nov. 15, Marker 36, followed by Beach Bocce that afternoon with the Sports Center team. No registration needed for bocce.

Remaining open reservations are listed on the calendar at pelicanbay.org.

Getting there

Members reach North Beach and South Beach by tram or by the mangrove walk. The Foundation's tram service is electric, connects eight stations to the mangrove boardwalks and carries more than 900,000 beach trips a year. Tram visibility was one of the priorities in the Connors Group findings, next to restaurant capacity. With dinner now starting at 3:30 p.m. and The Nest open until sunset, trips to and from the beach can stretch later into the evening.

If you want to talk through the North Beach and South Beach routines that shape day-to-day life in Pelican Bay this season, Michael Moreiras knows these buildings and the walk to the tram from each one. Let's Connect.