Chases Beachfront Bar & Restaurant

Chases Beachfront Bar & Restaurant sits well south on South Atlantic Avenue, in the quieter, more residential stretch of New Smyrna Beach’s barrier island, a genuine beachfront restaurant rather than one merely near the beach. Restaurants directly on the sand in New Smyrna Beach are relatively uncommon compared to the denser cluster of beach-adjacent restaurants around Flagler Avenue a couple of miles north, which makes a true beachfront spot like this one worth knowing about specifically. The restaurant’s American menu and full bar are built around the beachfront setting itself, oceanfront views being the main draw alongside the food, the kind of restaurant where the location does a meaningful share of the work in setting the mood for a meal. That stretch of South Atlantic Avenue, well south of downtown and Flagler Avenue, has a quieter, more residential character than the busier beachside commercial strips, giving Chases a different atmosphere than its more crowded counterparts closer to the pier. This part of South Atlantic Avenue sits within New Smyrna Beach’s incorporated city limits, though it is close enough to the boundary with unincorporated Volusia County that addresses further south along the same road fall outside the city; Chases itself, at 3401 S Atlantic Ave, is confirmed to sit within the city. As a single-location, independently run beachfront restaurant, Chases offers a genuinely different experience from the walkable-strip dining found on Canal Street or Flagler Avenue: a quieter, more residential beachfront setting for anyone wanting oceanfront views with their meal rather than a busy commercial street. Genuinely oceanfront restaurants are the exception rather than the rule along New Smyrna Beach’s barrier island, where most of South Atlantic Avenue is lined with condos, homes, and hotels rather than commercial storefronts, leaving comparatively few spots where a restaurant sits directly on the sand. Chases’ position in that quieter southern stretch of the island gives it a genuine sense of remove from the busier commercial districts closer to downtown, a beachfront dining experience without the crowds that gather around the more concentrated restaurant strips further north. The southern half of New Smyrna Beach’s barrier island, where Chases sits, transitions gradually from the busier commercial strip near Flagler Avenue into an increasingly residential stretch as South Atlantic Avenue continues south, eventually approaching the edge of the incorporated city near Bethune Beach and the unincorporated Volusia County coastline beyond it. Restaurants in this quieter zone tend to serve a mix of full-time island residents and longer-term seasonal visitors more than day-trip tourists, giving them a steadier, more local customer base.