Saltwater Hippie Beach Bar

In 2018 a handful of Madeira Beach locals took over a crusty 1950s dive on the corner of Madeira Way — a small watering hole with a pool table and smoke-stained walls — and turned it into an open-air live music bar and grill. The windows stayed open, the doors stayed propped, and the place became the sort of room people describe as feeling like a hug when you walk in. Regulars will tell you that if those old walls could talk, more laws were broken there than followed.

So they tore the walls down. After two years of planning and a long detour through 2024 hurricane damage, Saltwater Hippie moved across the street into the renovated home of The Brass Captain and reopened on March 28, 2026 — a deliberate replica of the original room with a few more feet of it, plus a brand-new kitchen turning out smoked meats all night. Owner Jeri Davis has been building the Saltwater Hippie brand since 2015, adding the retail shop in 2017 and the bar in 2018, and has kept it alive through covid, hurricanes and developers.

The music is the point. Seven nights a week, 365 days a year — jam bands, acoustic sunset sets, jazzy afternoon players, and DJs running late. Most weeks stack three or four acts into a single day, starting in the early afternoon and handing off until closing. The weekly lineup goes out under the banner 'Tunes on Tap,' and regulars follow it on the bar's socials to plan whole afternoons around the handoffs.

Bring nothing, expect nothing fancy, and stay longer than you meant to. Peace, love and local.