Opened by Jupiter surfers as a sandwich shop in 2004, Guanabanas has grown to become an institution in northern Palm Beach County for three reasons: The lush, tropical setting; great cuisine and cocktails (long gone are the sandwich shop days!); and live music from both national acts and the hottest names in South Florida. Guanabanas is a 100 percent open-air restaurant and bar with woven tiki huts and banyan trees towering overhead, and hand-chiseled coquina stone pathways underfoot. The team maintains a laid-back, island atmosphere where everyone is welcome. “The diversity of the patrons continue to amaze us,” says co-owner Jeannie Van Boven. “We see people coming from all different places for all sorts of reasons, whether it’s a group enjoying ladies night out, a young family for an early dinner, a couple on date night, boaters stopping in for a bite, or a group catching happy hour after work, all kinds seem to mix and enjoy themselves. Our patrons tend to feel more like family.”
Guanabanas is dedicated to providing each guest with a truly unique outdoor dining experience. We have designed our company and our restaurant in an unorthodox way to help achieve the high standards we have set for ourselves in the disciplines of service, food, atmosphere/ambiance, waterfront location, landscape design, outdoor temperature control and the overall sensory experience. We feel it is necessary to provide a true “Florida” experience with our creative outdoor restaurant design which utilizes quality exotic/local plants and trees, Key West/Old Florida styled structures, hand-built chickee huts from the native tribes of Florida, fresh Florida seafood and a premium bar with live music.
Guanabanas re-opened in December of 2008 following a $2.5 million renovation that included creating a full-service, state-of-the-art kitchen. The use of locally produced ingredients is the order of the day. All of our seafood is purchased from local sources and, as a licensed wholesale seafood dealer, Guanabanas is subject to South Atlantic Fisheries Management Commission and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regulations. As one of the first “Fresh from Florida” campaign participants, all seafood served at Guanabanas is from the state of Florida. See Guanabanas breakfast, lunch and dinner menus on our Menu Page. Remember, all of our seafood is from Florida, that’s why it tastes so fresh!
Fresh From Florida is a statewide campaign to help promote Florida agricultural and aquaculture products. Florida is a giant powerhouse in this country when it comes to seafood and produce. Long gone are the days of just citrus groves and cattle farms. Florida provides most of the eastern seaboard with produce and seafood items throughout most of the year. At Guanabanas, we developed a unique purchasing program that takes advantage of the locally produced vegetables and fruits wherever available, and supports local fishermen, crabbers, clammers and commercial divers. The growth of the business required us to expand our vision to not just within Palm Beach County or even just the east coast of Florida, but we needed to expand our reach to all over. We work directly with some of the top businesses in the state when it comes to shrimp, fish, crab, lobster and produce. In order to purchase fish directly from Florida fishermen, the state and federal government requires us to follow certain guidelines in order to help manage and maintain the abundance of sea life in our fisheries. It can be said that regulation is ruining the fishing industry for the “little guy” due to substantial increase costs, but we use our purchasing power to offer top pricing for local fishermen to help keep them in business and follow all the guidelines laid out by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Commission and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to ensure the sustainability of our oceans.
Hosting local, regional and national artists on our tiki stage overlooking our waterfalls, Guanabanas has the best live music in Palm Beach County. Acts that have appeared at Guanabanas include reggae legend Pato Banton, Julian Marley, The Fray, Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, Natasha Beddingfield, the Spam Allstars, Iration, Sol Driven Train, Zach Deputy, Less Than Jake, Simplified, The Hip Abduction, Timmy Curran, Boxelder, Ben Prestage, Eric Lindell and Suenalo! Keep an eye on our Live Music schedule for your favorite band.
The success of Guanabanas has been due to the fantastic support of our local community. This success has given us the opportunity to “Give Back” to our community. Giving back to the community is such a focal point for our company’s mission that we help feed the need of our community organizations by participating with a wide variety of local non-profits & events. Through community minded events we have partnered with some fantastic companies to help drive donations where money is badly needed, as well as giving away our stage space to allow the charities to showcase their cause. We have helped with injury victims raise funds for surgeries, hurricane victims throughout the state via supply drives, as well as simple fund raising for some great local organizations.
Guanabanas has also participated in the Surfers for Autism event for several years which brings kids from all over the country with autism to Jupiter to join pro surfers, celebrity guests and local volunteers to play in the surf for a day. 2011 was the first year that the Taste of the Nation event came to Palm Beach County and Guanabanas was featured alongside other top restaurants in the area to help raise money for the Share Our Strength Foundation which helps benefit area food banks and helps bring awareness to this country’s child hunger issues. Guanabanas helps support many local charities like: Surfrider Foundation, Pink Purses, Martin Memorial Hospital, Haiti Relief Effort, Freedom Flight for WWII Vets by the Martin County Firefighters, Jupiter High Surf Team, Friends of Jupiter Beach, Vita Nova House, Brave Maeve, Place of Hope and many others. We also help develop and produce offsite events with those foundations and many other local charities.
If you are interested in having Guanabanas help support your cause, please go to our Contacts Page and email our jeannie@guanabanas.com. Thank you again for all the support!
