Beachside Seafood Passed the Shrimp Test. Now It's Closing the Dining Room and Keeping the Counter.

"We are not walking away from Beachside," Raymond De Padua said in the release announcing the change, as News4JAX reported. De Padua is a partner in Pearl Hospitality Group, which bought Beachside Seafood Restaurant & Market in May 2025. On Aug. 28, the group said it would stop restaurant service at 120 Third St. S. "indefinitely" in October and keep the fish market open.

The fish counter staying open matters because of what happened earlier this year. In March, genetic testing of shrimp sold around Jacksonville found that most of what was sampled was imported or farm-raised. Beachside was on the short list of places where the shrimp checked out as American wild-caught.

The building wore out before the menu did

Pearl Hospitality named the age and condition of the property as a primary reason. The building at 120 Third St. S. dates to 1954. The release said it had become "increasingly clear that the age and condition of the building called for a much more substantial level of renovation than could reasonably be completed around daily restaurant service."

The Jacksonville Daily Record, as summarized by News4JAX, reported that the new owners had been making capital improvements bit by bit while keeping the restaurant open. They decided that approach was no longer enough. Rising operating costs, more competition at the Beaches and "slower-than-anticipated growth in new customer traffic" all played a part. De Padua framed it as a five- to 10-year question about what the restaurant needs to compete.

The restaurant has been part of Third Street for 37 years, according to the Florida Times-Union. Even so, there was no fixed last night of service. In a Sept. 1 statement, Action News Jax reported, Pearl said the exact final day would depend on operations, customer response and transition timing. As of the Times-Union's Sept. 14 update, Pearl had not named a final day.

The counter is getting the investment

The fish market is now the main focus at the property. De Padua told the Daily Record that the partners plan to improve the market, add more to it and look at prepared food, grab-and-go and retail options.

First Coast News added more detail on the plans. The market would be renovated and would add side items to go with its fresh fish and oysters. No one has decided what will become of the restaurant space. Pearl's Sept. 1 statement said the group is still weighing new retail concepts and has not chosen a long-term use or identity for that side of the building.

The release called the market "the part of the business that has always been at the heart of Beachside." In 2026, that description carries extra weight because of the shrimp testing.

What the March shrimp testing found

On March 6, 7 and 8, 2026, SeaD Consulting collected shrimp from 44 randomly selected restaurants and seafood markets around Jacksonville. Each sample went through the firm's RIGHTTest genetic analysis to identify the species. SeaD called the work investigatory, and the Southern Shrimp Alliance, an industry group, paid for the testing. The primary release, dated March 24, reported three headline numbers:

• 14 of 44 samples, or 32%, were confirmed as authentic American wild-caught shrimp.
• 30 of 44, or 68%, were imported or farm-raised.
• 25 of 44 establishments, or 57%, had presented imported shrimp as local, Mayport or American wild-caught, either on the menu or through staff.

So fewer than one in three samples matched what most people picture when they order "Mayport shrimp." In more than half the places tested, the shrimp was described as local when it wasn't. Folio Weekly reported that diners often paid more for shrimp sold as local or "Mayport" even when the product didn't match the label.

According to News4JAX's March 25 report, SeaD did not release the names of the places it found misleading. What has been published is the list of the 14 places confirmed to be serving authentic shrimp. Being left off that list means a place wasn't confirmed. It doesn't mean it mislabeled anything.

Where the verified list lands near the beach

Folio Weekly published the 14 confirmed names in its April 22 piece. The list stretches from Arlington to Mandarin to San Marco. A good share of it sits near the ocean:

Three of the verified names are inside Jacksonville Beach city limits, and two of them are on Third Street South. Most of the places on the list are restaurants. Only a few are retail counters where you can buy raw seafood to cook at home. Beachside's market is the only business on the list in Jacksonville Beach that operates as one. The published list names businesses, not which side of Beachside's operation the sample came from.

The closest alternatives are to the north. Mayport C&C Fisheries Seafood Market at 36 W. Sixth St. in Atlantic Beach is listed as a seafood retail market by the Florida Department of Agriculture. Its online catalog includes Florida rock shrimp meat.

Farther up Ocean Street, Safe Harbor Seafood Market at 4378 Ocean St. says you can watch boats unload while you shop for fish and shellfish. Its posted market hours are Tuesday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and closed Mondays. The page doesn't show when those hours were last updated, so check before you make the drive.

One caution about the whole table: these results come from a single round of sampling over three days in March. They show what was on the plate then, not what every shipment since has been.

Asking "is this Mayport shrimp?" only goes so far

Folio Weekly pointed out an uncomfortable part of the report. Customers were often given confident answers about where their shrimp came from, and those answers didn't match what testing found. Folio also noted that Florida doesn't have seafood labeling rules as strict as some other states.

That gap is now a policy fight. Florida Politics reported on April 1 that a Southern Shrimp Alliance director called for Florida seafood labeling legislation and urged state lawmakers to act. The Alliance's labeling-laws page, marked updated September 2026, still lists the Jacksonville results of 30 of 44 samples imported or farmed and 25 establishments misrepresenting origin.

Without a labeling standard, the most reliable signals are the ones in the table above: a business that has passed a genetic test and a market close to the docks. Beachside's new owners are taking out the dining room and putting their money into the counter. For anyone cooking shrimp at home this fall, the counter is the part of Beachside they'll still be using.

If you're curious about Third Street and how changes like this shape the places you love around the Beaches, I'm always glad to talk it through over coffee. Reach out to Pamela Hoffman anytime. Let's Talk About Your Move, or simply about what's changing down the street.