Six-fifteen on a Thursday, and the Sailfish Marina dock is already filling in. A woman is holding a piece of hand-blown glass up to the last of the daylight. Someone two boats down is grilling nothing you can smell yet but will in about twenty minutes, once the grouper dogs start moving. This has been happening at this marina, on this island, on this exact night of the week, for longer than most of the people currently standing on the dock have lived here.
The marina's Thursday gathering has long been part of the island's evening routine. Dining options have since expanded, giving residents more choices for a Thursday, a Friday, or a quiet Tuesday when they do not feel like crossing the bridge.
Singer Island by Day
Daytime on Singer Island has always taken care of itself. John D. MacArthur Beach State Park still has its maritime hammock trails and the mangrove boardwalk that dumps you onto one of the least crowded stretches of sand in the county, with kayak and paddleboard rentals on site for anyone who wants the water without the swim. A few minutes south, Phil Foster Park sits right under the Blue Heron Bridge, where the two-acre snorkel trail and man-made reef have made that stretch of water a regular stop for divers who otherwise have no reason to be in Riviera Beach. Peanut Island, reachable by a short boat ride from the marina, is still where people go to anchor, wade, and do very little on purpose.
None of that changed this year. It did not need to. The daytime routine on Singer Island was already complete: sand, trail, snorkel, repeat.
Evening Dining on Singer Island
The evening routine was a different story. Ocean Walk, the island's only true beachfront shopping and dining strip, offers a casual lineup: Mulligan's Beach House Bar & Grill, Two Drunken Goats Beach Cantina, DAS Craft Beer & Pizza, a New York Bagel outpost, Castaways Sports Bar and Grill, and a Subway.
The Thursday market offers a regular waterfront gathering; one of the island's newer dining additions arrived at the north end.
What Changed at the North End
A hotel renovation brought a new dining option to Singer Island. The Singer Oceanfront Resort, a 223-room property on the island's northern stretch, reopened in the spring of 2024 after a multimillion-dollar rebuild and rebrand, joining Hilton's Curio Collection under general manager Stuart Levy. The renovation itself was not the interesting part for anyone who does not book hotel rooms. What mattered to residents was what moved into the ground floor.
Caretta Caretta opened at the end of August 2024 as Singer Island's only beachfront restaurant, a distinction that sounds like marketing language until you realize how literally true it is. Chef Glen Rogers built a menu around small plates and shareables leaning hard into local seafood, and the restaurant's own opening announcement leaned into that same idea, describing the goal as making the most of "incredible fresh seafood and local produce." Rogers called the restaurant
"the perfect addition to Singer Island's culinary offerings."
That is not a neutral claim from a chain press release. It is a specific bet that the island could support a full dinner destination instead of a rotation of casual spots, and a year into it, the bet looks like it paid off. The restaurant runs daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., covering breakfast and lunch as well, and the resort added an Atlantic Deck for private events that can seat up to 140, which is a scale of gathering space Singer Island simply did not have before. Just steps away, Top Shell opened as a beach bar close enough to the sand that guests can walk from a lounge chair to a drink order without putting shoes back on.
Thursday Is Still Thursday
None of this displaces the marina. If anything, it makes the Thursday routine more useful, because now a night that starts with the Sunset Celebration's craft tables can continue with dinner at one of the island's restaurants. The market itself has not changed its shape: free admission, six to nine in the evening, more than three dozen artists working in wood, pottery, watercolor, and blown glass, food vendors doing conch fritters and grouper dogs, live music drifting across the docks, and a clear line of sight to Peanut Island and the boats coming in for the night. It has run this way for years, and there is no indication anyone involved wants to change it.
What is different is what happens next. A resident can start at the marina, browse the tables, grab a bite from a vendor, and then walk or drive the short distance to Caretta Caretta for dinner, or to Top Shell for something more casual with sand still under the tables. Two years ago, that second half of the evening usually meant leaving the island. Now it does not.
The Actual Shift
Together, these additions broaden the island's evening routine while leaving its familiar daytime appeal unchanged.
If you are already living this rhythm and thinking about what it means for your own place on the island, whether that is what a renovation could add to your evenings at home or how a property near this stretch of coast fits into the way you actually use your time here, Ashley Washburn works this part of Palm Beach County closely enough to talk through it in specifics rather than generalities. Let's Connect.
