A Minted Location day guide
Dock & Dine in Biscayne Bay
Dock-and-dine on Biscayne Bay is a tale of two shores with a national park in the middle: the Coconut Grove docks at the north end, the Jewfish Creek tiki decks at the south, and forty-odd miles of park water between them where dinner is whatever you packed. The verified stops below publish their own arrival-by-boat welcome — and the landmarks that don't are listed too, with exactly what the official sources say.
The Grove send-off
Monty's Raw Bar posts it plainly — boat mooring available, hail the Dock Master ahead — and The Bayshore Club on Pan Am's old flying-boat base was designed around arriving by water, with dockside service to your slip number. This is the same dock row our Miami guide ends on; the bay run starts where that one stops.
No Name Harbor
The whole southbound ritual funnels through Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Tie to the No Name Harbor seawall — $8 per boat for the day, $20 overnight at the honor stations, no more than two boats moored together — and Boater's Grill serves Cuban seafood right on the harbor. Its ocean-side sister, the Lighthouse Café, is the walk-across-the-park lunch under the 1825 Cape Florida light.
The park miles
There is no restaurant, no fuel and no provisioning inside Biscayne National Park — Boca Chita's lighthouse harbor and Elliott Key's slips are bring-everything stops, which is exactly their charm. Provision in the Grove or at the county marinas, and settle your docking through the Recreation.gov app.
Card Sound
Alabama Jack's has anchored Card Sound Road since before the road had traffic — conch fritters, live music and mangrove views, and in the Keys tourism council's words a favorite stop for bikers, boaters and travelers. It publishes no dockage of its own, so check local dockage options before you commit a docking plan to it.
The Jewfish Creek finish
Gilbert's Resort is the classic first-and-last stop of the Keys — dock for the day, week or longer, fuel with Rec 90 or diesel, and take the tiki bar's live music as your reward. Across the creek, the Anchorage Resort takes vessels to 120 feet at a flat per-foot day rate. And on the ocean side, The Buzzard's Roost at Garden Cove says it best: come by land or by sea — it even publishes the approach coordinates off Hawk Channel.
Before you go
Park fees are app-paid and honor-boxed — carry the phone and some cash. Raft limits are real (two boats at No Name Harbor and Boca Chita, five at Sands Cut with 100 feet between rafts, per the park's posted rules), and the dock-master call-ahead is the culture at every commercial stop on this run. Bigger plans than lunch? The form on this page reaches the brokers who run this bay every week.
The stops, as their own docks describe them
| Spot | Where | Arriving by boat |
|---|---|---|
| Monty's Raw BarThe Grove's open-air raw bar under the sailboat masts — the same dock row our Miami guide ends on; the bay run starts here. | Coconut Grove — Bayshore Landing Marina | “Boat mooring available” — hail the Dock Master ahead, (305) 854-7997 |
| The Bayshore Club Bar & GrillBuilt on Pan Am's historic flying-boat base and designed around arriving by water — no walk between dock and dining, by its own description. | Coconut Grove — Dinner Key, Bayshore Landing | “Zero-distance dock access” — dockside service delivers to your slip number |
| Boater's GrillCuban seafood on the seawall of the bay's flagship harbor — pay the honor box, tie up (two boats max together), and order the whole fried snapper. | No Name Harbor — Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park | On the No Name Harbor seawall — $8/boat day use, $20 overnight at the park's honor stations |
| Lighthouse CaféBoater's Grill's ocean-side sister under the 1825 Cape Florida lighthouse — the walk across the park is part of the lunch. | Ocean side of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park | Check local dockage options — tie up in No Name Harbor and walk the park |
| Alabama Jack'sThe legendary Card Sound waterfront bar — conch fritters, live music and mangrove views, per the Monroe County Tourist Development Council's own directory. | Card Sound Road — at the Card Sound Bridge | Check local dockage options — no dockage published; the Keys tourism council calls it a favorite stop for boaters |
| Gilbert's Resort Tiki BarThe tiki-bar finish line of the bay run — live music on Jewfish Creek with fuel and slips at the same dock. | Jewfish Creek — at the US-1 bridge | “Boaters, welcome home” — day, week or longer at its full-service marina |
| The Buzzard's RoostThe oceanside hideaway at Garden Cove Marina — the natural lunch stop coming down Hawk Channel past the Elbow. | Garden Cove, Key Largo oceanside — MM 106.5 | “Come by land or by sea” — it publishes its own approach coordinates off Hawk Channel |
Dockage notes are what each restaurant publishes on its own site — space is first-come and dinner-hour rafting is real, so hail ahead. Where a venue states nothing about docking, we say so rather than guess.
Planning more than lunch?
This run is our backyard — the same docks where we shortlist, survey and sea-trial boats for buyers. Tell us the mission and we'll tell you which boat, and which slip, it calls for.