Grayton’s Found Family

The idea of a utopia conjures a different image for everyone. Whether it’s a silent, blue-skied field of lavender or a nest of gleaming skyscrapers, the commonality is likely a desire for connection—with land, self, or others—and an erasure of our imperfect world’s stressors. First used in 1516 by Sir Thomas Moore, the word “utopia” is a pun on the ancient Greek
word for “good place” but actually means “no place.” 

I’d like to nominate Grayton Beach for consideration as our local, actualized utopia. 

I made an escape from the waking world to Grayton Beach for a staycation in the height of spring. The jasmine, impossible to ignore, was just beginning to bloom across the coast. Spring breakers and families dotted DeFuniak Street in packs—on bikes or golf carts, popping wheelies or swinging empty, sandy coolers. The obvious joy was my first clue to the sort of community I’d encounter here. 

I was in Grayton to get immersed in the property held by the Hibiscus Guesthouse, which first appears low-key and sleepy (no pun intended) when passing from the street. Of course, like all good things in life, the property is full of surprises. 

Photo by Savibelle Photography

The Hibiscus Guesthouse itself is a historic bed and breakfast comprised of several Old Florida-style structures built around stately oaks and palms. Snug against Grayton Beach State Park, Hibiscus makes it clear that the property was designed around the demands of nature, rather than vice versa. Native Florida fauna from black bears to panthers are said to wander close by. I was stationed in the Turner Room, a cozy hardwood-floored sanctuary (complete with screened porch) overlooking the entire property, which is more like a village, actually. Suites are stacked on top of the businesses that also call the property home—Mignot &  Co and Raw & Juicy. They share the space like siblings. 

At its heart of the family? The Backyard of Love, just outside my window. 

It’s hard to describe the Backyard of Love if you haven’t been there. The facts: It’s a multipurpose courtyard lit by fairy lights and dangling disco balls which seats roughly 75 people around stone and mosaic picnic tables. The feeling: It’s a space that transforms even throughout the day, from a quiet a.m. retreat to a place to meet and break bread when the day is at its end. A dominant, kelly-green pizza oven foreshadows my evening. Angel statues guard the peace. 

The first morning I wake up in the Turner Room, light from the disco balls refracts across the walls. Below, the Backyard of Love is awake early for the weekly Thursday Farmers Market, hosted by local Aidan Dillon, who is on-site with his own offerings from Swell Snacks. 

I bop down in pajamas and browse handmade patchwork jackets, a Japanese bakery, all sorts of art, soap, bread, bakery treats, and even eggs, milk, and produce. I return with a bag of Guatemala Hue Hue roasted by Zazen Ceremonial Coffee just a few days before my visit.

For breakfast, I’m obviously visiting Raw & Juicy, where the line is already out the door. This is the kind of place where strangers chat you up in line—which is delightfully inconvenient, given how many good menu options require deliberation. I side with the Waffle Wonderful, which I later learn is a heritage menu item from the space’s previous life as the Hibiscus Inn’s coffee house. 

Photo by Savibelle Photography

Post-waffle, I’m fortunate to meet Jenifer Kuntz, Raw & Juicy’s fearless leader, for a kombucha and conversation. Kuntz has always lived close to the land—she recounts deep-sea fishing and coolers filled with caribou during her childhood in Alaska and Washington—and settled in Seaside 18 years ago with a vision of raw, vegan nutrition for the area. This was a philosophy she’d nurtured during a transformative period in Colorado, and while studying raw food with renowned chef Matthew Kenney. 

“It was important to be able to share another perspective,” Kuntz says while reflecting on Raw & Juicy’s origins serving from an Airstream trailer. 

Raw & Juicy has been supported from the beginning by the community that would later be its neighbors. “We have so many memories,” Kuntz says of Wendy and Jean-Noel Mignot of Mignot & Co. 

“Jean and I were talking the other night about the day that the juice bar opened in Seaside in 2008. They turned on our power, and we were open, but I didn’t expect it all to happen like that.

“Jean was driving through town, and I ran up to his truck, jumped on his window, and said, ‘Jean, we’re open [but] I have nothing. I don’t even know what I’m doing.’ And he said, ‘I have tables and chairs. I’ll be right back.’”

Fast forward to 2023, when Kuntz’s relationship with the Hibiscus Inn team led to the opportunity to bring Raw & Juicy into the iconic space where Mignot & Co had already set up roots. 

“We are very family oriented, taking care of each other and supporting each other,” Kuntz says. “So I decided I wanted to come over and get this space. It wasn’t for rent, and it wasn’t available. I just kind of woke up one morning, and I thought ‘Okay, I know what I need to do.’”

After a joyful transition from the Hibiscus Café to Raw & Juicy, the rest is (family) history.  

Photo by Savibelle Photography

As the property settles into its relaxed afternoon cadence, Kuntz introduces me to the femmes fatales of the Mignot clan—Wendy and Violeta—who welcome me onto the breezy screened-in porch outside of their shop. 

In the best way, the adventures of the Mignot family are difficult to summarize. Violet and her brother, Zachary, were born in Panama and spent their childhood sailing the Caribbean with the family, who later traveled the United States in a Volkswagen van. On a road trip down from Canada (where Violet and Zachary saw snow for the first time), the family stopped on the Emerald Coast for a jewelry trunk show and just “never left,” as Violeta neatly explains with a smile. 

The Mignot family’s signature style, which marries hand-rolled leather cords with both freshwater and exotic saltwater pearls, is instantly recognizable (and often imitated). While mind-boggling gemstones also make an appearance in Mignot & Co creations, the leather and pearl elements are transfigured into infinite ornamental configurations, each as individual as its wearer. 

If one were to shrink down and wander into a treasure chest from the bottom of the sea, it might feel like walking through the Mignot & Co storefront. A breeze blows in through the wide-open doors. Every piece is gleaming, one of a kind, perched proudly on aquatic and geological specimens sourced from the Mignot family’s many adventures. The unique personality of each jewelry piece within the family brand is a reflection of each craftsperson’s creative persona. 

“I remember the day that somebody came into the shop and asked to see my jewelry,” Violeta says. “That was when I started taking off—like, ‘Wow, people are noticing that I have my own style.’ That really pushed me to start making more [pieces].” 

“She loves the emeralds,” Wendy beams. “And the opals,” which are also a signature of her brother Zachary’s design work. 

If Mignot & Co itself is a pearl, this property is the perfect shell to nurture its development. 

Photo by Savibelle Photography

“It’s just a really natural, organic space,” Wendy says. “We just love it. It’s an expression of who we are. It’s an extension of our family. The organic café next door to the organic jewelry—it’s a breath of fresh air. It’s an identity.”

Speaking of identity, before I bid them farewell, the gracious and radiant Mignots gift me the “Grayton Signature,” a cluster of four milky freshwater pearls on a brown leather cord that can be worn in a number of ways. I’m told it’s the kind of piece that absorbs your energy and glow—and the ocean’s energy and glow—the longer you wear it. More than jewelry, it feels like a symbol that I’ve been welcomed into this community, and I wear it feeling honored.  

To fully join this utopia, I now need to eat the metaphorical lotus. It’s my lucky day because chef Phil McDonald is on the property every Thursday making his brick oven sourdough pizzas, which I’ve heard about nonstop. In the warm late afternoon, the pizza oven is gathering heat and sweetly smoking over the Backyard of Love, and McDonald spares some time to chat with me as he preps the evening’s one-of-a-kind menu. 

This sourdough pizza venture was a long time coming. McDonald—an accomplished chef, culinary creative consultant, and part owner of Black Bear Bread Co.—is extending a passion he curated while developing the bakery’s menu, which was “driven around sourdough bread,” he explains. Once he learned how to perfect sourdough in North Florida’s humid climate (conditions which, according to McDonald, aren’t as murderous to fermentation as he’d been told), he thought, “Why don’t we mess around, do a pop-up, and just sell sourdough pizzas?” 

The Backyard of Love, where the formidable Valoriani pizza oven is homed, is a natural background upon which the gastronomic foreground—the heirloom sourdough crust and seasonal, locally sourced ingredients that ornament it—come to life. 

“I’m having so much fun with this partnership,” McDonald says of the Hibiscus community. “Being in this location is magical. It reminds me of Chez Panisse.”

And of the business leaders he’s found a home with, McDonald notes, “They inspire me. It’s not that they’re doing what I’m doing, but I’m looking at the craftsmanship.

“We’re not doing it for money. We’re doing it because this is something we love to do.”

Photo by Savibelle Photography

Love is in the air at dinner this evening. I meet with a table of new friends, toast prosecco, and trade slices of the American Boy (classic pepperoni), Sausage & Fennel, and Phil’s Pie Part II (spring onions, green garlic, mozzarella, provolone, and olive oil). While I knew I’d love the sausage and fennel—I’m a fennel lover through and through—the allium overload of the Phil’s Pie is hard to forget. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated the flavor as much as I do at this moment. 

But even while surrounded by laughter and the glittery blitz of the disco balls, it’s hard not to notice that something is missing. The table of honor in the Backyard of Love, which is routinely decorated by Wendy Mignot, is currently set in remembrance for Kurt Tape, husband of Barbara Tape and founder of the Hibiscus Inn. Kurt passed away in Vietnam this April. 

“Kurt Tape was really my connection to this property,” Jenifer Kuntz reflects. “[The couple], specifically Barbara, used to take my yoga class 22 years ago. When Kurt wasn’t on tour on his bike, he would come to class with her. 

“Kurt was fabulous,” she continues, “and quite a character. He was very business minded, and he’s really done a lot to protect Grayton Beach and preserve the historic nature of it.

“It was so sweet to see him and Barbara together because they were just so in love. And he cared a lot about this place. He cared a lot about his family. There’s a special man.” 

“What an amazing family,” Phil McDonald agrees. “Everybody that I know that came in contact with him loved him, and he inspired them.” 

“It’s really special to be accepted by [the Tape family],” Wendy Mignot adds. “It’s a cool thing to go somewhere [where] somebody wants to hear your ideas …. I think that a lot of times, people are in competition with each other, and in the rat race of life that everybody lives, that was never the case here. They accepted us immediately.”

While I never had the privilege to meet Kurt, I’m now part of the extended family that’s been inspired by his vision. It’s a utopia that stays inside you as you leave, just as Kurt’s “Be” board leaves visitors with a message for the road: Be Principled, it says as I drive away.