In New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Executive Chef David Moscoso of Third Wave Cafe is redefining seafood sustainability.
Story by Allison Ramirez, Photos by Leslie TresherAt Third Wave Café, the story isn’t just about what lands on the plate — it’s about how it got there, why it matters, and what it teaches the person eating it. For Executive Chef David Moscoso, that philosophy has been decades in the making, shaped by a career that spans corporate kitchens, private dining, and, ultimately, a return to his roots.
He’s been cooking for 35 years. Long before New Smyrna Beach became his creative home, David worked his way through the high-volume, high-pressure world of corporate restaurants, including brands like Don Pablo’s and Bubba Gump. He ran multi–million-dollar operations, learning the mechanics of consistency and scale. Later, he stepped into the role of a private chef for a NASCAR family, cooking at the highest level for a very specific clientele. The experience sharpened his skills, but also clarified what he really wanted.
“I always knew there was better than corporate,” he says, describing a pull toward something more personal.
That led him to Third Wave Café, a restaurant born from the vision of owners Kathy and Wayne Lundberg. What started as a modest concept (breakfast, pizzas, salads) with another chef needed to evolve. The restaurant struggled at first, especially with staffing and direction. But David saw potential in both the space and the community around it.
Set back from the road, surrounded by a lush garden, Third Wave Café feels tucked into nature. It could be anywhere: Spain, Greece, California. New Smyrna Beach is, as David describes it, a kind of culinary anomaly — a small, coastal town with the expectations of a much larger food destination.
“It’s like the Napa of restaurants for this area,” he says. “People here really care about the quality of food.”
He helped set the foundation for that approach. From the beginning, David pushed the restaurant toward a more intentional way of cooking. Stocks, sauces, dressings, everything is made from scratch. Chickens are broken down in-house. Ingredients are chosen for origin and seasonality, not solely flavor. It wasn’t always an easy sell. When he removed strawberries from the menu out of season, guests pushed back. The same happened when he switched to real maple syrup — customers accustomed to the sugary, artificial version didn’t quite embrace the change.
But for David, those moments are part of the job. “A little at a time, you get people to understand,” he says.
That education extends most clearly into his commitment to sustainable seafood. His involvement with programs like Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch and Smart Catch helped formalize what had already been a growing priority. After being invited to Monterey Bay for an intensive, multi-day deep dive into sustainable systems, David returned with a clearer framework: focus on what’s local, when possible, what’s responsibly sourced when not, and always consider the environmental impact.
That might mean sourcing wild Alaskan salmon through relationships built during his time on the West Coast or working with innovative aquaculture operations like a Texas-based red drum farm that cycles fish through constantly refreshed saltwater aquifers. It’s about finding the closest possible alignment between quality and responsibility.
His menus are seafood-forward, but not limited by it. Influenced by his Spanish and Ecuadorian heritage on his dad’s side and his mother’s American farm roots, David gravitates toward Mediterranean flavors. He’s less interested in pasta (everyone’s doing it) and more focused on combinations that burst with flavor: the contrast of a creamy potato against something charred in a Forno oven, or the interplay of acid, salt, and smoke in a single bite.
At Third Wave, dishes like a scallop served with sun-dried tomato risotto, or an Asian-inspired plate of jasmine rice with green curry and local pink shrimp, finished with chimichurri, are the stars.
“I’m interested in how the bite comes together,” he explains. “Not just the fish — but how it’s cooked, what’s around it, how it all works.”
One dish that captures his current approach is his pecan-crusted red drum with whiskey sauce. It highlights both his commitment to sustainable sourcing and his instinct for layered flavor: nutty, rich, slightly sweet, and balanced by the natural character of the fish. It’s a hit with diners.
Beyond the kitchen, David is part of a broader movement among chefs working to shift industry standards. Through collaborations like Chefs-for-Fish, he joins other culinary leaders in promoting sustainable practices and steering restaurants away from over-fished or “red list” species. These efforts aren’t just about individual menus, but about building a collective mindset.
“There’s a new movement,” he says. “And we want more restaurants to be part of it.”
In recent years, Third Wave Café has gained national attention, including a visit from Guy Fieri, which helped spotlight the restaurant’s evolving identity. Around the same time, David began exploring a new medium: smoke.
What started with a pastrami-style beef rib (brined for weeks, smoked overnight) quickly turned into a deeper exploration of fire and flavor. Salmon cured in maple and salt, then smoked—house-made fish dip. Eventually, the idea grew into a second concept: a smokehouse that expands on these techniques without becoming traditional barbecue. The result is an extension of his philosophy rather than a departure from it, another way to build flavor thoughtfully, from the ground up.
Even as the restaurant grows, the core experience remains flexible. Guests might arrive straight from the beach, sandy feet, still in bathing suits and cover-ups, and order anything from pizza to a Wagyu steak paired with a high-end bottle of wine. It’s that balance that defines Third Wave Café; it’s one-of-a-kind and everyone’s welcome.
In November, the Marine Discovery Center is expected to host a unique gathering highlighting conservation, community, and cuisine. Around 300 guests would take part in an immersive experience led by David, who envisions guiding diners beyond the table and into the landscape itself. The event would begin on the grounds of the old New Smyrna High School, now a hub for local conservation efforts, where restoration projects have transformed former parking lots into thriving mangrove habitats.
From there, plans call for guests to move through the environment — walking the land, foraging for edible plants, and pausing to taste what naturally grows within the mangrove ecosystem. The journey would culminate in a shared sit-down entrée, where diners gather, having quite literally tasted the ecosystem they are helping to support.
David believes it all comes back to connection — to ingredients, to place, to the people sitting at the table.
“I try to show people there’s a difference,” he says, not just between dishes, but between ways of thinking about food.
New Smyrna Beach Coastal Catch Restaurant Month 2026
Each October, New Smyrna Beach spotlights its culinary scene through Coastal Catch Restaurant Month, a program that brings value and awareness to local dining. Participating restaurants offer prix fixe, multi-course menus at a discounted price, giving guests a chance to experience higher-end cooking in a more accessible way.
For Chef David Moscoso, whose restaurant has joined the initiative in the past, the program represents more than just a promotion. It’s an opportunity to guide diners toward more thoughtful choices, especially when it comes to seafood. By curating menus that highlight sustainable options, he sees it as a way to introduce guests to ingredients and dishes they might not otherwise explore.
The initiative, supported by the New Smyrna Area Visitors Bureau, helps position the town as a serious food destination while encouraging collaboration among restaurants. Similar in spirit to programs like the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Miami Spice, it creates momentum during a typically slower season and invites both locals and visitors to engage more deeply with the area’s culinary identity.
View his Blackened Fist + Rock Shrimp Whiskey Cream Sauce Recipe
