Singleton's Seafood Shack in Mayport is the dive bar of seafood restaurants, a dirty little hole in the wall that single-mindedly focuses on what it does best: providing fresh seafood in all of its ghastly glory.
Singleton's is a dump. Please don't read any offense into the preceding statement, I mean it as a strange compliment as it provides the perfect atmosphere for a dockside seafood restaurant. Knocked together out of plywood, stinking of fish, and covered in strange growths, what more do you need to make your port town restaurant experience more authentic? Sit out back by the dock and watch the squabbling seagulls eating and fighting over fish heads and the entrails of todays catch. The vessel that supplies most of the food sits at the end of the dock, a testament to the freshness of the food and serving as a subtle reminder of what it takes to bring that meal to your plate or to the supermarket a few miles inland.
I made the most out of this unique experience by ordering two odd dishes I hadn't tried before: raw oysters and soft shell crab, my evaluations of which can be found at Edible Oddities. Suffice to say, the experiences were simultaneously enjoyable and disturbing.
Singleton's Seafood Shack sits at the nexus between producer and consumer, reminding its patrons that not everything is prepackaged, that it all has to come from some wild, unsanitary, and chaotic environment where death is more than an abstract idea and meat isn't just a commodity. The experience itself and the strange head trip that ensues are reason alone to visit Singleton's Seafood Shack, just remember to wash afterwards.
Singleton's Seafood Shack
4728 Ocean St
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
904-246-4442
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