RESTAURANT NEWS | JACKSONVILLE
Asado Life Takes Its Grills North
After earning Michelin recognition in St. Augustine, the live-fire restaurant opens along Jacksonville’s riverfront.
ASADO LIFE | MAP | INSTAGRAM
By Eric Barton
6:16 a.m. ET, Sept. 8, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Long before Christie and Nick Carrera opened a restaurant, Nick built the centerpiece. In 2014, the couple began fabricating Argentine-style grills inside a retired shrimp-packing house in St. Augustine. Soon, smoke billowed from the contraptions during Sunday pop-ups, drawing people around the flames for steaks, sausages, and the lingering sort of meals that tend to turn strangers into tablemates.
Those gatherings became Asado Life, a waterfront restaurant that earned a recommendation in the 2026 Michelin Guide. Then the Carreras and chef Matthew Brown opened a second location recently at the Jacksonville Shipyards, where their hand-built grills now face the St. Johns River.
The Carreras’ path to the Shipyards began with Urban Asado, their grill-building business. Brown joined them in 2017 and helped turn the pop-ups into a culinary program built around ember roasting, smoking, and parrilla grilling. Their permanent St. Augustine restaurant opened in 2022 beside the San Sebastian River, with two hulking grills at its center and the wood smoke drifting across the water.
The Jacksonville restaurant occupies the marina support building near EverBank Stadium, part of the Khan family’s wider redevelopment of the Shipyards. About 140 seats spread between the dining area and a patio overlooking the river, placing the flames within sight of downtown and close enough to the stadium for Asado Life to host game-day events.
At lunch, chorizo crumbles across grilled toast points with provolone and chimichurri. The Asado Cuban stacks fire-roasted mojo pork shoulder, cured chorizo, smoked ham, pickles, and Swiss cheese onto a Cuban roll. An Asado trio brings picanha, chorizo, and chicken thigh together with chimichurri, potato salad, and greens. Even the vegetable plate passes through the fire, emerging with blistered peppers, carrots, onions, zucchini, hummus, and grilled focaccia.
What began beside the shrimp boats in St. Augustine has arrived at Jacksonville’s newest marina, trailing smoke the whole way.
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