A waterfront restaurant is coming to downtown Milton. Paul Kilmartin, owner of Blackwater Bistro, and a partner, purchased the property next to the train trestle south of the Riverwalk Park. They plan to put in an “open-air, outdoorsy beach-type restaurant” where customers will have access by water as well as by land. “It will be nice to be able to pull a boat up and have a sandwich and a beer or a coke,” he said. Kilmartin said the Blackwater Bistro, located a block from Riverwalk, will celebrate its 5th anniversary on Jan. 1. The bistro opened after two years of renovation and work by Kilmartin and his wife, Pam. He said Hurricane Ivan almost totaled the building. “When we took off the wet drywall, we found a treasure inside, beautiful heart pine — the walls, the ceiling, the floors. It’s a beautiful building.” Kilmartin described the atmosphere as, “Truly warming, embracing, sort of an Irish-pub atmosphere. It is an historic venue with an eclectic menu.” The new restaurant plans are in the infancy stage, with no plans set yet in stone. “We have no real timeline set yet,” he said. “Would love to say by summer, but that is pretty optimistic.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: New restaurant coming to Milton