Gran Blanco

It’s hard enough to find a restaurant by the boardwalk with decent food, let alone one with good food and a crowd you actually want to hang out with. But Gran Blanco has both. It’s from the same owners as Great White across the street, which used to be a solid option for a breakfast burrito and flat white but now feels like a local mini-chain where you’ll still wait hours for a brunch walk-in. Gran Blanco takes the same low-key, Aussie beach energy and blends it with (overdone) Tulum-esque decor to create a fun, disco-heavy bar with good drinks across the board. The Celery Southside is a lovely cocktail, but the real reason to gather here is the bar food, including a juicy smashburger and whipped feta topped with crispy, charred eggplant, and chili crunch.