LuLu's restaurant in Destin shooting for an early summer 2015 opening

The second LuLu's restaurant now under construction in Destin, Fla. is expected to open as early as this summer. Situated in a spot overlooking the Choctawhatchee Bay, the eatery will seat as many as 300 people.

Similar to its premier location in south Baldwin County, LuLu's at Homeport Marina, the Destin restaurant will engender the same feeling and atmosphere stretched out over 20,000 square feet of space.

George Martin, chief operating officer of LuLu's Landing Inc, the company owned by Lucy Buffett, the sister of singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

It will be much like "Gulf Shores," Martin said. "What we're committed to the most is our culture that has been created throughout the years. And we're just very committed to the experience that is very LuLu's."

The restaurant is known for its laid-back vibe, one that is especially suitable for families. As the company's website puts it, the first LuLu's "was little more than a bait shop, an outdoor burger joint and bar, situated on the edge of a nationally protected bird estuary..." The restaurant had to leave that spot in 2003 when the land was returned to the state.

LuLu's found a new home in Gulf Shores, and rebuilt on the Intracoastal Waterway. Lucy Buffett herself announced the coming new location in a video posted on YouTube last September."We're going to spread the Gumbo Love in Destin," she said in a prepared statement. "All it needs is some great food and fun."

The construction of the Florida panhandle location would be the first new standalone restaurant the company has opened since moving 11 years ago. Another spot would certainly had to be on the Gulf Coast, Martin said. At first, they thought about Okaloosa Island, but moved further east instead.

"The neat part about Destin is that it draws from another feeder market," Martin said. "It's close enough that our management team can take a car drive and be there in two hours, but, yet, it's far enough away that it's tapping into a different market."

Martin said he doesn't foresee any immediate growth in the company's future. "Our main focus is Destin," he said. But if they could plop a piece of real estate it would have to be on the Gulf Coast.

"I'd have to say the southern Gulf Coast of Florida;" -- the area around Tampa, St. Petersburg and Bradenton -- "is an area that we very much like. We love that blue water, there's intercostal running through there [too]."e

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LuLu's restaurant in Destin shooting for an early summer 2015 opening