Asado Life opening waterfront restaurant at Jacksonville Shipyards

New restaurants coming to Jacksonville, FL in 2025

Dozens of new restaurants are in the works for Jacksonville and Northeast Florida in 2025. Here are 10 to watch for.

• Asado Life, a live-fire culinary restaurant, is opening a new location at the Shipyards project in Jacksonville.
• The restaurant will be part of the development near EverBank Stadium and is expected to open in August 2026.
• The new 140-seat waterfront restaurant will feature a menu of chef-cut steaks, seafood, and grilled vegetables.

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Three years after opening his restaurant at the St. Augustine Shipyard on the San Sebastian River, Nick Carrera is bringing his popular live-fire culinary experience concept Asado Life to another shipyard, this one on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. 

The waterfront restaurant will join the Shipyards project now under construction across from EverBank Stadium, Jaguars team owner Shad Khan’s Iguana Investments revealed Sept. 25. 

“I am proud to welcome Asado Life, a restaurant centered around celebrating the centuries-old Argentine tradition of open-flame cooking, to the Shipyards Development,” said Iguana Investments’ CEO and Chief Design Officer Shanna Khan, in a release announcing the restaurant. “Fire has been rooted in mankind’s origins since the beginning of time, and I am eager for guests to enter this vibrant space designed to spark memorable connections while dining along the St. Johns River.” 

The 140-seat, full-service restaurant with indoor and patio dining will be part of the development’s marina support building located on the Northbank Riverwalk just west of the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Jacksonville and south of a nearby office building, both taking shape at the site. 

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One of five public-facing restaurants planned for the Shipyards project, Asado Life is expected to open in August 2026, the release said. 

Asado, a communal fire-grilling tradition in Argentina and other South American countries, is the centerpiece of the dining concept, which uses ember roasting, smoking and live-fire parilla grilling cooking methods, according to the restaurant’s website. 

The technique is as much about the social experience of cooking and preparing the food as it is about what ends up on the plate. 

On the menu, look for chef-cut steaks ranging from an 8-ounce Hanger to a 36-ounce Porterhouse; fresh catch seafood; grilled vegetables and more, all prepared on a parilla, a traditional Argentinian barbecue grill, according to the St. Augustine restaurant’s website. 

Executive Chef Matthew Brown — who first collaborated with Asado Life owner Carrera and his wife, Christie, in 2017 and serves in the same role at the St. Augustine restaurant — will lead the restaurant’s culinary team, the release said.  

“We are excited to bring our devotion to creating unique and memorable dining experiences to Jacksonville, where Asado Life will introduce our signature live-fire cuisine to the heart of the city’s sports and entertainment district,” Carrera said in the release. “Just as in St. Augustine, we look forward to welcoming guests around the fire to share the food, the atmosphere, and the sense of community that define who we are.” 

At the Shipyards, the restaurant’s design “will offer a more modern, metropolitan vibe” to the coastal interior of the St. Augustine restaurant, the release said. 

The Carreras celebrated Thursday’s announcement in a social media post: “From the bottom of our hearts, Nick and I could never have dreamed that our first charity Asado for Honoring The Brave back in 2016 would lead to this extraordinary milestone – opening our second Asado Life restaurant.  

“… We are fortunate to share this journey with all of you that have supported us along the way,” Christie Carrera wrote in the post. 

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In addition to Asado Life at the marina support building, the Shipyards project includes the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Jacksonville, with 170 hotel rooms and 26 residences; a six-story Class-A office building that will be home to the Jaguars’ front office headquarters; a pier and 78-boat slip public marina.