Historic meets hip in St. Augustine

For the oldest town in America, St. Augustine has come a long way in recent years. The town of 14,000 on Florida’s northern Atlantic coast has been gearing up to celebrate its 450th birthday at the end of summer — Sept. 4-8 — yet locals have been finding the town’s recent cultural growth a bigger reason to rejoice.

“St. Augustine has seen a lot of change during the last five years,” says Greg Goldstein, a bartender at the newly opened Ice Plant Bar and Restaurant, which symbolizes the recent leap as much as anything.

The two-story, concrete-walled building opened in the early 1900s as a power plant. Soon, it became an ice plant, which it remained for 50 years before being shuttered.

Last year it reopened its doors, this time with dual trendy purposes: on one side, a sleek restaurant/bar with a Prohibition-era feel welcomed visitors daily; on the other, a distillery has ambitious growth plans. The town is abuzz over its old ice plant and all that it means: high-concept food and cocktails available until 2 a.m. — made with spirits distilled under the same roof and all in a stunning old building. 110 Riberia St., 904-829-6553, www.iceplantbar.com.

In a town best known for its past, the Ice Plant is a notable development. To be sure, history remains a prime attraction in St. Augustine, just as it is in neighbors such as Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C.

The historic district includes ample buildings that date back hundreds of years, but mixed in with all the yesteryear is a growing assortment of late-night cocktail lounges and beer bars, an eclectic food scene and a chain of gourmet popsicle shops.

St. Augustine is home to Flagler College, a small liberal-arts school that lends the town a young and active vibe. The city’s juxtaposition of lively modernity and fascinating history gives it a welcoming feel and makes for a well-rounded destination — even if you skip the formal celebration of its 450th birthday.

Trolley rides and T-shirts

With so much diverse tourism — you’re likely to overhear any number of international languages — St. Augustine has the feel of a town several times larger than it is. (It’s also large geographically speaking.)

The city is tourist-friendly, with hop-on-and-off trolleys snaking through the tidy streets and the kinds of things vacationers want: T-shirt shops, ghost tours, and restaurants and bars open into the evening, often featuring some guy with an acoustic guitar singing Beatles songs into the night air.

But there also are the newer, more innovative offerings, like the Corazon Cinema and Cafe, a recently opened art-house movie theater that serves sandwiches, wine and beer. Or the St. Augustine Distillery Co., which opened last year and, as of this writing, makes gin and vodka, with rum and whiskey to come. Free tours are given every half-hour and include mini-cocktails mixed on the spot. .

Taking it in on foot

Of course, the best way to soak in any town is to walk, and that’s especially true of St. Augustine’s old town. Those historic brick streets date to the 16th century; the first construction was about 50 years after Spanish explorers landed on the coast, in 1565. Today it is a charming patchwork of narrow streets that evoke a PG-rated version of New Orleans’ French Quarter with worn stucco buildings and balconies jutting above the pedestrians.

Although there are no original buildings because of a fire that leveled much of St. Augustine, there is plenty of history: three-block Aviles Street, which the town claims as the oldest street in America; Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the United States (it dates to the 1600s and was controlled both by the Spanish and English before passing into American hands); and the oldest Catholic parish in the nation. 1 South Castillo Drive, 904-829-6506, http://www.nps.gov/casa

The Lightner Museum is another historic gem, housed in an old hotel built in 1887. It is home to treasures such as wondrous gems collected during the Gilded Age: a fossilized dinosaur egg; an 1870 grand piano that belonged to an Italian opera singer; and a stuffed lion that was given to Winston Churchill to commemorate his “magnificent victories in North Africa.” The museum also features what was once the world’s largest indoor swimming pool, but today, is a restaurant. 75 King St., 904-824-2874, www.lightnermuseum.org.

The joys of the Florida coast

Lined with miles of wide beach, St. Augustine features Anastasia State Park at its northern edge — 1,600 beachfront acres that easily accommodate a unique little hike through what once were beachfront dunes but have become a thick forest marked with oaks and evergreens.

To dive even deeper into nature, check out St. Augustine Eco Tours, which offers kayaking, dolphin tours and bird-watching among other activities. 111 Avenida Menedez, 904-377-7245, www.staugustineecotours.com.

Of course, the ultimate local experience is ziplining over a pit of alligators and crocodiles, and you can do that very thing at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park. 999 Anastasia Blvd., 904-824-3337, www.alligatorfarm.com.

This story was originally published July 29, 2015 at 11:18 AM with the headline "Historic meets hip in St. Augustine."