"We're just getting started," Brooke Galbreath told Hometown News Volusia after her family sold Aunt Catfish's on the River. She was talking about the family's next round of projects at the same corner.
When Port Orange heard about the sale this fall, the first question was whether the restaurant was closing. The answer is no. The Galbreaths gave up the restaurant and kept the ground around it. Sunday brunch at 4009 Halifax Drive should taste the same as it did last year. Most of the change at the west foot of the Dunlawton Bridge over the next year or two will come from projects that don't have opening dates yet.
What actually changed hands on Sept. 2
Aunt Catfish's sold on Sept. 2, 2026, to Halifax Catfish LLC, a family-owned restaurant group from Gainesville that runs four other restaurants. The Daytona Beach News-Journal broke the story on Sept. 4 and noted that this is the first change in ownership since the restaurant opened in 1979.
According to Hometown News, an editor's note from business columnist Cecil G. Brumley says the buyer took the property under the name Arbuda LLC for $3.7 million, and that figure doesn't include parking.
Here's what the Galbreaths told Hometown News is staying:
- The Aunt Catfish's name
- The current staff and management, with no new general manager or kitchen team brought in
- The familiar dishes, including the warm cinnamon rolls, Southern catfish and the "Fish Camp Fixin's" bar
- Sunday brunch
"They want to learn how Catfish does things," Brendan Galbreath said of the new owners. The lobby keeps the photo and story of Rosalie McCormick, the local character nicknamed "Aunt Catfish" who fished Rose Bay and used to come into the family's earlier restaurant, Marko's. The building itself has a longer history on this stretch of the Halifax River. Jim Galbreath bought the empty Dave's Dock property in 1978 and opened Aunt Catfish's the next year.
The corner, owner by owner
Before September, one family ran most of what you see at Dunlawton Avenue, South Ridgewood Avenue and Halifax Drive. Now the corner is split among several operators, and the Galbreaths still hold the largest share of the land.
| Place | Location | Who runs it | Status this fall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aunt Catfish's on the River | 4009 Halifax Drive | Halifax Catfish LLC | Open, same staff and menu |
| Farm Social | 4075 S. Ridgewood Ave., Suite 104 | Galbreath family, managed by Brooke Galbreath | Open |
| Foxtail Coffee, Revival IV Lounge, Axiom Bank | Catfish Commons strip center | Tenants of Brendan Galbreath's building | Open |
| La Cantina Mexican | Catfish Commons | Listed tenant | Open |
| Two Jerks Tiki Bar & Grill | 79 Dunlawton Ave. | Freeman family | In development |
| Catfish Commons marina | Halifax Drive waterfront | Galbreath family | Website still reads "Coming Fall 2025" |
| Former funeral-home parcel | Across from Aunt Catfish's | Galbreath family | Possible mixed use, no schedule |
The first four rows are open for business now. The last three are the projects still underway or proposed.
The Galbreaths moved from the kitchen to the site plan
According to Hometown News, Brendan and Shannon Galbreath had been talking about selling for several years as their plans for Catfish Commons grew. Brendan and Shannon kept several Catfish Commons properties, including two undeveloped parcels. They plan to focus on development and support Brooke and Ryan in running the restaurants.
Farm Social shows how the family is approaching that next phase. According to Hometown News, it opened on Wednesday, Aug. 6, in a 1,500-square-foot unit in the four-unit strip center Brendan Galbreath developed on Ridgewood. Hometown News described the setup at opening:
- Smash burgers, a salad bar with seven dressings, five of them made in-house, and lobster rolls
- A 14-seat community table out front, 50 outdoor seats and 30 inside
- Cornhole outside, plus a checkers and chess table
- Soda floats made with vanilla ice cream from Mimi's, a nearby ice cream shop
"I like building a community rather than coming just for the food and leaving," Brooke Galbreath told Hometown News at the opening. Her father put it more broadly, saying the four units are "really changing the vibe on this side of town." According to the restaurant's contact page, Farm Social is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Brooke also manages Casualbird, the family's restaurant across the bridge at 109 Dunlawton in Daytona Beach Shores.
The next step is less settled. Hometown News reports the family's plans include possibly turning the former funeral-home property across from Aunt Catfish's into a mixed-use development. The residential part could be apartments, condominiums or something else, depending on market conditions. The family may also add boat slips to the marina. Those are ideas the family has described, not projects with a filing date or a construction start.
The marina has been in the plans longer than anything else here. An early layout reported by Hometown News called for 12 slips, with marina parking along Halifax Drive and no overnight docking. The City of Port Orange's January 2025 newsletter described a later version with 12 boat slips, on-street parking, commercial space and up to eight apartments, still under city review at the time. In March 2025, the city council approved first readings of the land-use and rezoning ordinances, and the developer said marina permitting was nearly done. The Catfish Commons marina page still says "COMING FALL 2025."
So if you're hoping to tie up a boat before brunch, there's no confirmed public slip yet. The signs point to more docks eventually.
The one new restaurant actually coming, and its moving date
A few hundred feet east along Dunlawton, the Freeman family is rebuilding a waterfront site that locals knew for decades as DJ's Deck. Here's how the timeline has moved:
- 1980s. James C. and Virginia Freeman bought the property at 79 Dunlawton Ave. Their daughter and son-in-law, Kim and David Graham, ran DJ's Deck there for 21 years and closed it in 2021 when they retired, according to Hometown News.
- January 2026. Two Jerks Seafood, the retail market run by father and son James P. and Michael Freeman, closed on Jan. 1 so the site could become a restaurant, and the family thanked customers in a Jan. 3 Facebook post. The family's commercial wholesale business is still operating.
- April 3, 2026. The News-Journal reported the Freemans hoped to open by the end of 2026, "tentatively in October."
- June 2026. Michael Freeman told Business Debut that engineering work had delayed the project. He gave November or December as the earliest window and said February or March was also possible.
- Aug. 21, 2026. Freeman confirmed the restaurant to What Now and said more details on the launch would come soon.
October is ending without an opening announcement. Based on Freeman's own June estimate, the earliest realistic window is the end of this year, and he also named February or March as possible.
What's coming is a very different kind of place from the white-tablecloth riverfront model. Freeman described a casual tiki bar and grill to Business Debut, with a larger structure replacing the old tiki hut and more room on the water. The planned menu includes hamburgers, smash burgers, fried chicken and fried fish sandwiches, and steamed shrimp. Much of the seafood will come from the family's own commercial fishing operation, and he said they'll offer both fresh local fish and lower-cost domestic options. He said the goal is a menu without what he called "absurd" pricing, and that diners may see commercial boats unloading at the dock.
Once it opens, the corner will have three different ways to eat by the river. Aunt Catfish's is the sit-down Southern institution, now under new owners keeping the old recipes. Farm Social is a fast-casual spot built around a community table. The Freemans' tiki bar will be a working fish dock with a grill attached. All three come from local families who have been on this corner for decades, and two of those families still own the ground they're building on.
What this fall looks like at the corner
For the next few months, the corner will look much like it did last fall. The Galbreaths said brunch, the cinnamon rolls and the same staff stay at Aunt Catfish's. Farm Social keeps its posted hours on Ridgewood, and Foxtail Coffee and the rest of the Catfish Commons tenants are open. The new restaurant on Dunlawton was still under construction at last report. The two projects that could change the riverfront most, the marina slips and the former funeral-home parcel, are things the Galbreaths have said they may do, with no public schedule.
At Coastal Ventures Real Estate, we keep track of how corners like Dunlawton and Ridgewood change from one season to the next, from new owners to the next site plan, because that's the kind of local knowledge our clients count on. If you'd like to talk through what's planned near the Dunlawton Bridge, or anywhere else along the Halifax, Schedule Your Relocation Consultation with our team.
