Palace Saloon — Restaurant in Fernandina Beach

I have to admit. I meant to leave this Google Review in 1992 but I got busy and forgot. I'm only delayed by THIRTY THREE YEARS! :-) Better late than never right??? It was a Tuesday morning in the fall 1992. 3rd Section was assuming the guard for the ship in Kings Bay and there were no “movements” scheduled, so us 2nd Section slackers had a couple days off. George xxxxxx looks at me and says, “Hey - let’s get some of the guys and do a little “bar hopping campaign” in Fernandina Beach tonight.” Get it? Instead of island hopping campaign… 🤣 Anywho… I respond, “Sure but we have all hands MARDET PT tomorrow morning so I don’t wanna be out late. Famous last words! Turns out the FOURTH establishment of the evening… THE PALACE SALOON in downtown Fernandina… was the charm. Several old retired jarheads we met there were keeping us well hydrated at their expense. We had done some of our best DURAN DURAN and U2 karaoke performances to please the patrons. The only survivors of our initial group were me, George, and Chris xxxxxx. Sometime WAY AFTER the place would normally have closed… I think those old retired jarheads and some other occupants of the building were funding them keeping the doors open a little longer for us 🤣… we decided the time for a tactical regroup had arrived. I made the phone call. It was raining and a WELL PREGNANT Mrs Richard Davis made the early morning 45 minute drive to retrieve us. 😬 FREAKIN NAVY WAS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. Can’t ever find a taxi when you need one. We made it to the Wednesday all hands MARDET PT session… a softball game… with PLENTY of minutes to spare. Get there and it turns out EVERYBODY had enjoyed that random previous Tuesday evening. When Capt Christopher xxxx of Shreveport LA gave up his previous evening’s meal in center field, he gave Gunnery Sgt Cleocie xxxx of Milledgeville GA a wave and called the game a draw. WHY DOES ANY OF THIS RESURFACE ON A RANDOM FALL WEDNESDAY IN 2025 YOU ASK?? Last night… my son… a midshipman in the JAX area..: sent me a text with a pic. He said they were out roaming around downtown Fernandina… in the background of the pic… THE FREAKIN PALACE SALOON!!! 😂😂😂 I wonder if anyone there still remembers a random Tuesday night in the fall of 1992? 🤔🤣🤣🤣🤣 SEMPER FI and Happy 250th FREAKIN...

It was my first time in the area, we stopped here because my S.O. has been to the Palace Saloon many times and has always had positive experiences. He would bring his dog and always had a great time with the staff and patrons. We stopped for a drink after lunch today. We walked in and stood at the end of the bar for a good 12 minutes. The bartender was moderately busy, but as an experienced former bartender of over 11 years, definitely not busy enough to ignore us for that long of a period of time. It literally took a kind patron observing to come inform us that you needed to walk to the other end of the bar and order a drink from the service bar... there was no indication from the entrance that this was necessary and the bartender straight up ignored us instead of telling us himself. So we moved down to the marked area with a sign "order here" that you could never see from the entrance.. and waited. The bartender took every order around us including folks that came after us. He could not have tried harder to wait on us last. At this point we didn't feel welcome to stick around so we ordered two shots of whiskey and cashed out. Tullys was $4 a shot but instead he poured two frugal shots (based on all the shots we saw him pour before ours) of Jack costing $8.50 per shot without even offering Tully's. In hindsight if I was behind that bar, I would have said, "hey guys welcome the line is this way." Instead of ignoring folks and letting them stand there for ever. But apparently based on whatever his issue was with us, he chose to be unaccommodating, unhelpful, profiling and unfriendly AND charge us for a higher brand alcohol without offering the advertised whiskey on special. My S.O. Is brown and he was the only brown person in the building. So I would not recommend that bartender. I'm sure based on all my S.Os previous experiences the other bartenders were all really nice. But now he doesn't feel comfortable going back again. Very disappointing end to our trip to...

If you're looking for music, drinks and drunk people dancing their hearts out, look no further, Palace Saloon is the place for you! I arrived on a Friday night so you can expect my experience to vary from a day time visit.

The saloon is split into two large rooms, what appears to be one for dining and eating and the other for louging and activities. I walked past the first room where I found the activity room already busy and filled with a plethora of young people ready to rock. Towards the left, a surprisingly empty bar. Towards the right, a few tables. Further towards the back, a smaller room with billiards, a DJ and a dance floor.

Ordering a drink was easy enough as I didn't have to wait long, though there was no Johnny Walker Black. Prices are relatively cheap especially compared to south Florida bars. Most of the night was spent alternating between losing several rounds of billiards and trying to dance with one drink in my hand with some random blonde from California. So all in all, Palace Saloon gets...