Upstairs at 790 S. Atlantic Ave., the bar is open on the sides and fronted with bamboo. It has high-top tables, lime-green chairs and a counter that faces the ocean. The roof is pet-friendly. Downstairs there are roughly half a dozen TVs, and NFL Sunday Ticket is on. Twenty-four address numbers south, on the same side of A1A, Little Italy's Ristorante has turned its covered patio into a sports bar with several screens showing games.
Neither building is new. Both have new owners, and both owners decided to build around the screens. Since this spring, a stretch of Ormond's beachside where buildings kept changing hands has become a place to watch a game within walking distance of the sand. The oceanfront hotel closer to Granada has a booking date later this month.
Two buildings that have changed hands many times
The two-story building at 790 S. Atlantic has housed many businesses over the years. It was Dimitri's Deck under property owner Dimitri Bourtzakis and later Beachside Bar & Grill. The Daytona Beach News-Journal noted that the once white-and-turquoise building is now hard to recognize from the road. It reopened this summer as The Cove Tiki Deck, and the News-Journal described it as open in its Aug. 27, 2026 coverage.
Owner Donna Etherton grew up near the Ormond Beach coast. She left Florida about a decade ago for a retail operations career with T-Mobile that took her up and down the East Coast, and The Cove is the first restaurant she has owned. She kept one thing from the building's past. The lamb gyro carved off the spit was a favorite at Dimitri's Deck, and The Cove makes it from Dimitri's recipe. "I had to keep that, and I wanted to keep it," Etherton told the News-Journal.
The building at 814 S. Atlantic sat empty after Dalmare Italian Chophouse closed in 2024. It has more than 5,600 square feet inside for a dining room, bar and kitchen, plus a covered patio, according to Hometown News Volusia. Mario Recupido moved Little Italy's Ristorante there after five years on Beach Street in Daytona Beach. The ribbon cutting was Thursday, April 30, 2026. The Ormond Beach Observer reported that the new space is five times the size of the original.
Both new owners built around the screens
When both new owners had more room to work with, they used part of it for watching games. Etherton calls the indoor space at The Cove "more of an elevated sports bar," with NFL Sunday Ticket, plenty of bar seating and a cozier feel for game days and late nights. Recupido put his sports bar outside on the patio.
The two places cook very differently.
| The Cove Tiki Deck, 790 S. Atlantic Ave. | Little Italy's Ristorante, 814 S. Atlantic Ave. | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the games are | Downstairs sports bar, about six TVs, NFL Sunday Ticket | Covered patio sports bar, several TVs |
| The other room | Pet-friendly rooftop tiki bar facing the ocean | Indoor dining room and bar, more than 5,600 sq ft |
| Kitchen | Gyro from Dimitri's recipe, gator bites, ahi tuna bowls, island skewers, beachside burgers | Scratch Italian, no bleached or bromated flour, no added sugar in sauces |
| Owner background | First-time restaurant owner who grew up near the Ormond coast | Five years on Beach Street in Daytona before moving to Ormond |
"Every cook in my kitchen is Italian — real Italian. The way it's supposed to be," Recupido told the Observer. He said he lets the tomatoes speak for themselves. At The Cove, the burgers and gator bites are the top sellers. Etherton said the kitchen goes through about 8 pounds of gator meat a week.
In August, The Cove said it planned a football-only menu downstairs during games, with at least six items under $10 and $2 drafts. The restaurant's current website doesn't list that offer. It does list a 3 to 6 p.m. happy hour with $5 Landshark drafts and $5 well drinks. Little Italy's posts its daily specials on Facebook, according to a March 11, 2026 profile in Ormond Beach Connect. The same profile mentions live music on select nights.
The next three weeks
Football season lines up with the city's busiest stretch of fall events. As of Oct. 7, here's what's on the calendar:
- Thursday, Oct. 8. The Cove lists an NFL Sunday Ticket event.
- Saturday, Oct. 10. The Ormond Beach Beer Festival runs 1 to 4 p.m. at The Casements, according to the City of Ormond Beach. Entry is free, tasting tickets are sold separately, and there's live music, food trucks and a Kids Zone. The Casements is closed to tours that day.
- Sunday, Oct. 11. Another NFL Sunday Ticket event at The Cove. Sunday hours there are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Thursday, Oct. 15. A third listed NFL Sunday Ticket event at The Cove.
- Sunday, Oct. 18. Taste of Ormond runs 4 to 7 p.m. at Rockefeller Gardens, 26 Riverside Drive, with a Roaring '20s theme. VIP entry starts at 3 p.m.
- Sunday, Oct. 25. The Residence Inn by Marriott Ormond Beach Oceanfront's online booking lists this as its opening date.
The Cove is closed Mondays. Its posted hours run to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
The hotel up the road has pushed back its opening
The Residence Inn at 251 S. Atlantic Ave. was approved by the City Commission in 2023. In May, the Ormond Beach Observer reported it would open "sometime in August." That didn't happen. As of Oct. 7, Marriott's page for the hotel still says "OPENING SOON!" The latest date in local coverage comes from Hometown News Volusia, which reported that online booking showed an Oct. 25 opening. The same report listed Oct. 11 for the TownePlace Suites by Marriott Daytona Beach Oceanfront at 1000 N. Atlantic Ave. Oct. 25 is the booking date, and the hotel hasn't announced an opening yet.
The building matters to the beachside because nothing like it has gone up in years. General manager Jeremiah Drummond told the Observer that the beachside has seen resort renovations but no new construction on an oceanfront lot in at least a decade. The hotel is five stories with 137 rooms, every one with a full-size kitchen, and 104 of them have an ocean view. The Observer reported a bar, a restaurant and a pool overlooking the ocean. Marriott's own dining page calls it the "Lobby and Beachside Pool Bar" and describes shareable starters and entrées. That page doesn't say whether the bar will serve people who aren't staying at the hotel, and it lists breakfast as a guest amenity. Until the hotel posts a policy, it's not clear whether the bar will be open to everyone like the two restaurants to the south.
The hotel's planned parking lot across A1A also has a history. Ormond Holdings LLC, a South Carolina company, bought 251 and 264 S. Atlantic Ave. in 2022 for $2.05 million. The parcel on the west side of the road held a Florida Hospital building until it was demolished in 2019 after significant hurricane damage, and the Observer reported in May that it will serve as the hotel's parking lot.
The new beach access at Seminole Avenue is already built
The hotel's most useful addition for people who live nearby doesn't depend on its opening date. As part of construction, the project added a new wooden public beach access ramp at the Seminole Avenue approach. Volusia County's beach parking page lists Seminole Ave/S Atlantic Ave as an off-beach parking location. We couldn't find a city or county notice saying whether vehicles can use the new ramp. Treat it as a way to walk onto the beach, not as a driving ramp, until the county says otherwise.
If you're heading north toward Granada and beyond, the city's Oct. 5, 2026 construction update says FDOT is paving A1A north of Granada Boulevard. The city has finished its utility relocations for that work, but the update gives no completion date.
At Coastal Ventures, we track openings like these because they affect day-to-day life on the beachside. That includes the rooftop at The Cove, the patio at Little Italy's, and whatever the Lobby and Beachside Pool Bar turns out to be. If you're settling into Ormond Beach and want someone who keeps up with South Atlantic Avenue block by block, Coastal Ventures Real Estate is happy to help. Schedule Your Relocation Consultation, and we'll include our latest list of beachside spots.
