Blending Brunch and Surfing Culture: The Story Behind Ragga Surf Cafe  

By Roo Fenwick

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A local food truck is combining excellent brunch options with an exciting twist on the surfing and sailing culture of St. Augustine. Foodies, sailors, and surfers alike are flocking to Ragga Surf Cafe’s new location downtown by the water.

Ragga Surf Cafe embodies the mixture of vibrant cuisine and surf culture, serving up specialty coffees, brunch favorites, croissants, tacos, and a relaxed coastal vibe. At Ragga, they strive to offer great customer service to the local community and provide fresh, local produce. The shop also features live music to support local artists and to top it off, an ice cream shop set in a vintage trailer.

Chelsea Napper, the general manager at Ragga Surf Cafe, explained how the exciting opportunity to convert an old school bus into a restaurant came to be. The intention was much more than selling food and drinks; it was about having the opportunity to fund the less fortunate and offer something unique to the local community.  

“We support a school in Kenya that we founded and started, and they needed a business here in the states to help us fund it,” Napper said. “We’re all good at food service. We’re all good at surfing, so we were like, let’s start a cafe—coffee, food, sell surfboards, and that way we can not only fund ourselves to be able to go surfing, but also fund our school in Kenya,” Napper said.  

Ragga Surf Cafe’s menu is filled with modern options, like the “Perfect Quiver” Avocado Toast as well as the “Impact Zone” Grilled Cheese. Napper said while every item is made with love and care, it was the creativity of her staff that brought them to life.  

“Honestly, we would just throw a party with all of our workers, and we had a chef that was like, ‘Hey, try this [dish]. I think it will be easy to cook, and it’s really good. Let’s see what people think,’” Napper said. “When we loved it, we just put it on the menu!” 

Ragga Surf Cafe is focused on the quality of ingredients, and they pride themselves on sourcing locally. Napper and the team are grateful to be able to source food from nearby farms and businesses.

“We try really hard to do local, so our bakery [items] we get from a local bakery here in Jacksonville called ‘The Village Red.’ And then we’ve tried to do things, like Cheney Brothers or even KeHE for food distribution,” Napper said. “We have a local produce guy here, and they have a farm, and that’s where we get most of our produce.”  

Many patrons have said Ragga Surf Cafe has conquered the breakfast sandwich. Napper gave us the intel on what makes it special.

“Every morning, I have our top seller, which is our dog patrol breakfast sandwich, and I switch it up,” she said. “Sometimes I get it on croissants, sometimes I get it on sourdough. We have so many options, so it never gets boring.”

Ragga Surf Cafe is located in one of the most scenic parts of downtown St. Augustine, a marina known for its Minorcan history. Many residents and customers recommended the spot after the shop relocated from Marineland to downtown St. Augustine. The team saw it and immediately loved the location.  

“So many people, when they heard that we were moving, they reached out and they said go check out this spot. Go check out this spot. Go check it out,” Napper said. “Then we came here, and it was like the perfect spot for us to pull in too. So it worked out perfectly.”

The vintage blue bus offers so much more than food and surf culture. It is a must-visit location purely because of the people who run the business—the small details in the freshly made food, caring staff, and beautiful scenery make Ragga special.

“I would say it’s an honor to be able to serve our community and to meet so many cool people that come through—all the tourists, but also all the regulars,” Napper said. “We hope they feel at home as much as we feel it.”