- December 4, 2025
Chef Bryan "Scott" Downs had never heard of the Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa until five years ago when someone recommended he check it out.
"It's tucked away. It's hiding here. I didn't even know this place was here,” Downs said. “This is like a little hidden gem.”
Years later, Downs is now the new Chef de Cuisine at the Atlantic Grille, an oceanfront restaurant at Hammock Beach resort that is open to the public to experience.
Downs has joined the resort's team during the restaurant's new summer menu, which combines fresh local seafood and bright, citrusy summer flavors. While the Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa is typically only open to guests and members, the Atlantic Grille restaurant is open to the public for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Food & Beverage Director Woody Mitchell said the goal for Atlantic Grille is to be “one of the nicest, upscale seafood dining experiences that you can have on the ocean in Northeast Florida.”
"It's a big, lofty goal; and one of the driving forces behind the menu creation to support that goal is 'freshness,'” Mitchell said.
Downs' favorite dish to cook is a comforting one-pot dish.
“Like a classic beef bourguignon," Downs said. "Something that takes, like, four hours. Like a 'day off' meal.”
Downs has a passion for food that begins with his childhood in South Florida. He said his grandfather and parents brought him up on hunting and fishing. From there, he took the culinary tract at his high school, Atlantic Vocational Technical School, and then graduated from Florida Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach.
But, he said, his journey really began at his first job.
"School is great. It opens many doors," he said. "But my journey started at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, because hands on training — it beats everything in school.”
Mitchell said Downs brings a passion and respect for the food and beverage industry.
"What chef does a really great job of is, he brings this extra level of refinement to our menu and to our dishes here,” Mitchell said, “and that's constantly teaching our team to do the same.”
For Downs, he said that team at Atlantic Grille and Hammock Beach Golf Resort has set him up for success.
“Ultimately, I just I want to do a great job and cook great food," he said. "That's why I started doing this, because of the love of food. I just want to make great food."
Downs said it was not only the team that served him a successful start at Atlantic Grille, but the new menu, too.
"They set me up with a layup,” Downs said.
Atlantic Grille's spring and summer menu launched in February. Now, halfway through the season, Mitchell said they have had nothing but positive feedback.
"It's elevating the dining experience in Atlantic Grille, which we're constantly looking to do, we’re constantly looking to better ourselves and constantly improve,” Mitchell said.
The menu is filled with local seafood options and seasonal flavors. The Hammock Beach resort begins planning its summer menu in November with research and development: scoping out new trends, testing ideas and looking at what items were already selling well.
With its guests coming from all over the world and the member base filled with well-traveled individuals, Mitchell said the resort places an emphasis on authenticity.
"Whatever we're doing, we have a passion for doing it as authentically as possible,” he said. “So if we're making a French dish, we are researching it and we want it to be as true as we can be to the area comes from.”
So far, Mitchell said, the favorite dish has been the menu's "Simply Fish": an assorted option of fish entrees where the customer can choose what fish they'd like, how it is made and the sauce it is in.
“[The customers] really get to drive everything," Mitchell said, "so they enjoy that flexibility and that variety.”
The menu also includes a house-made crab cake Benedict and super food bowl in the breakfast menu, and in the evenings, a redfish with butternut mostarda and – Downs' favorite – a Bouillabaisse with shrimp, oysters, mussels clams and crab.
Mitchell said that while the menu was amazing before Downs arrived, Downs brings “another level of art to the execution.”
“I don’t know if he gives himself enough credit,” Mitchell said.
Both Downs and Mitchell said hearing the positive feedback from their team and the guests is the best part of the job.
"We are all so appreciative when people enjoy what we work so hard to provide," Mitchell said, "which is that next-level, high-end, premier seafood culinary experience, in one of the best oceanfront properties in Northeast Florida."
