A Vegan Lunch at Whiskey Joe's Bar & Grill in Pensacola Beach FL

Finding vegan food in Pensacola is only a slight challenge, but once you go over the bridges to Santa Rosa Island, it is nearly impossible to find something to eat. There's an abundance of seafood restaurants, and not a single one currently has a vegan meal on a menu. Herbivores are completely overlooked at the beach. Some restaurants have small vegetarian side salads with cheese, dressing, and croutons. Most of them have fries or other deep fried vegetarian items, but I assume they use shared deep fryer oil. It was a tough search, but I found something really good for vegans. Some creative thinking and a good attitude is needed for this one.

I found myself at Whiskey Joe's Bar & Grill. It's a nice place right on the beach, and I mean it is ON THE BEACH with beach sand all around and dining tables in the sand! Very cool. The bar is on a concrete pad under a big beach hut. It's very casual and comfortable. I chose the beach hut during this visit. They have all kinds of beautiful foods for omnivores. The adult beverages looked amazing, especially the one that's served in an actual pineapple. This place is so cool!

Whiskey Joe's Bar & Grill

 

The menu includes an appetizer called Joe's Pile of Nachos. It usually comes with tortilla chips, queso, shredded cheese, spicy beef, beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream and jalapeños. Be very friendly and nice to the server. Ask if they can make a vegan version with tortilla chips, black beans, guacamole, lettuce, pico de gallo, and jalapeños.

 

Vegan nachos at Whiskey Joe's

 

This was smaller but at the same price as the big Joe's Pile of Nachos. The quality and flavor was very good. This wasn't a vegan feast and it wasn't cheap, but this was the best vegan food on the island. Every part of this was fresh and flavorful. Order this with a good draft beer or fancy drink and you will be in paradise.

Remember, this is not on the menu. Don't go in there acting like you're special. Whiskey Joe's is very popular and has plenty of other paying customers. I'm not sure how they feel about special orders. It worked for me, and I hope to order this again next time. It was very good!