Uncle Ernie’s Bayfront Grill and Brew House

Uncle Ernie’s Bayfront Grill and Brew House sits on the water in the St. Andrews neighborhood, tucked into what the restaurant itself describes as a quaint historic house turned into a full service dining room and bar. The setting is the draw as much as the menu: a two level outdoor deck looks out over St. Andrews Bay, and boaters can tie up and walk straight in for dinner, a detail Destination Panama City’s own dock and dine guide highlights when it points visitors toward the restaurant’s direct boat access. On a clear evening the deck fills with a mix of locals who have been coming for years and visitors who wandered over from the marina, and live music runs most nights.

The kitchen leans into fresh Gulf seafood, with wild caught grouper delivered daily and never frozen, alongside Prime Certified Angus Beef steaks, pasta, and a rotating list of specialty cocktails. Gluten free options are available for guests who need them, and the menu covers both a lighter lunch service and a fuller dinner spread. It is the kind of place where regulars have a usual order and newcomers get steered toward the grouper by their server, because that is what the kitchen is known for locally.

Uncle Ernie’s has become a fixture of the St. Andrews waterfront, the kind of address longtime residents give when someone new to Panama City asks where to eat with a view. It shares that stretch of Bayview Avenue with a cluster of other independent restaurants and shops that make up historic St. Andrews, so a visit here pairs easily with a walk down Beck Avenue afterward. The restaurant keeps an active presence on Facebook and Instagram, where it posts nightly music lineups and daily specials, and its listing on Panama City’s official dock and dine guide signals how embedded it is in the city’s food identity.

For anyone planning a stop, the practical advice from regulars is to come by boat if you can, or to arrive early on weekends when the deck fills up fast. The restaurant does not publish a single fixed closing time year round since hours shift with the season, so a quick call ahead is worth it if you are making a special trip. What does not change is the setting: a working waterfront view, a menu built around what is actually coming off Gulf boats, and a family feel that has kept people coming back for years.