Private Hibachi Chef in Seagrove Beach

Seagrove Beach predates the planned towns around it and cooks better for it. The houses are older, the lots are deeper, the pines are still standing, and almost every property has something the newer towns ration: open ground. We rarely have a setup conversation about Seagrove because the answer is usually just the driveway or the back yard. Groups here are also a different mix — fewer bachelorette parties than Rosemary or Seacrest, many more families who have rented the same house for years and multi-family reunions who wanted space rather than a lagoon pool. The dinners tend to be longer and less staged. If you are choosing between Seagrove and one of the planned towns purely on whether hibachi will work at your rental, Seagrove is the safer bet by a wide margin.

Six by four feet of level, open-sky ground with three feet of clearance. In Seagrove that is usually the driveway, the back yard, or a rear deck — and unlike the tight towns to the east, we often have all three. The older houses here sometimes have deep screened porches, which we cannot cook under, but there is nearly always open ground within a few steps. Sandy or grass yards are workable if reasonably level; we bring boards. Heat mats under any wood decking, which on older Seagrove houses is worth mentioning because the decking is often original.

Straight in off 30A or County 395, arriving 45 minutes before the seating. Seagrove's streets are wider and quieter than the planned towns, and driveways are genuinely usable, so parking is the least of our problems here. The one thing to flag is that a few of the older lanes south of 30A are sand-surfaced and narrow; if yours is one, say so and we will bring the cart rather than take a loaded van down it. No gates in most of Seagrove.

Seagrove is our family town. The bookings are reunions, multi-generational birthdays, and the anniversary dinner where twelve relatives are staying in one old house with a big yard. That shapes the evening: an early seating for the kids who want to stand at the grill rail for the volcano, then the adults after, and a pace nobody is rushing. We also get the bachelorette group that specifically did not want the Rosemary or Seacrest scene — a quieter house, more space, and a dinner as the actual event of the night rather than a stop before one. The yards here mean we can put the grill where the group already is, which is more of the experience than people expect.