Two restaurants with different cultural ties are planned for one location – 36 Granada St. – in St. Augustine this fall.
The French Pantry in Jacksonville is teaming up with Little Miss Ha, an award-winning Vietnamese restaurant formerly of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. 36 Granada and French Pantry owner John Valentino said the project has been in the works for almost three years.
Valentino, who bought The French Pantry at 6301-1 Powers Ave. in 2015, said that location will remain open. The restaurant was founded in 1995.
He is partnering with Johnny and Janice Hudgins, owners of Little Miss Ha, for 36 Granada.
During the pandemic, the three hosted a pop-up dinner in Jacksonville in 2020. The Hudginses decided not to renew their lease and closed the South Carolina restaurant in October. They recently moved to St. Johns County.
“The lease had just enough time on it for proof of concept. Two-and-a-half years was the right amount of time,” Johnny Hudgins said.
“It was the right business in the wrong location. I’m looking forward to working in a tourist market.”
Besides The French Pantry, Valentino owns four Mellow Mushroom restaurants in Duval and Clay counties. Before becoming a franchisee, Valentino went to Charleston, South Carolina, in 2001 to see Hudgins’ Mellow Mushroom restaurant. They became fast friends and kept in touch.
“We see the restaurant business through the same lens,” Hudgins said of Valentino.
“In the back of our minds we always thought we’d do something together.”
The restaurant is being built in the former Corazon Cinema across the street from the Lightner Museum. The floor has been raised because the building was prone to flooding. The interior will be 7,700 square feet when the renovation is complete, Valentino said.
Cronk Duch Architecture of Jacksonville is the architect for the project. DiMare of St. Augustine is the contractor.
Valentino declined to provide a construction cost estimate.
The two restaurants will operate as separate entities with their own entrances. Reservations will be required and can be made on the Resy app. Even those planning to go to the shared Granada Bar will need reservations, Valentino said.
Those with French Pantry reservations will choose from its menu and those going to Little Miss Ha will select from its menu. The French Pantry may provide dessert items for both menus.
“I was presented with this opportunity but it is too large to be one thing,” Valentino said.
“It will be cool to have two separate rooms and share the same bar.”
The restaurants will share the kitchen.
A third concept is the Cache-Cache bar. It will be a lounge for special events, wine tastings and classic cocktail classes. Cache-Cache is French for “hide-and-seek,” Valentino said.
“It will seat 25 to 30 and will have a lounge format. It won’t be a speakeasy but it will have a low profile,” he said.
Its entrance will be on Desoto Place.
Having French and Vietnamese cuisines in the same building is inspired by the countries’ intertwined histories, Valentino said. Vietnam was part of the French colony of French Indochina from 1887 to 1954. The two cultures melded somewhat over that time. French remains one of Vietnam’s official languages.
The restaurants will serve Old World wines and classic cocktails. The wine list will contain 70-90 labels with as many as 40 served by the glass, Valentino said.
There will be 50 on-site parking spaces.
Each restaurant will seat about 65 diners. The Granada Bar’s capacity is about 20, Valentino said.
Besides dining, 36 Granada will offer cooking classes and other events in it demonstration kitchen called La Petite Kitchen. Being in a tourist town, visitors want something to do.
“Once you’ve seen the fort and walked St. George Street a couple of times, what is there to do?
Dining out and hospitality are among the Top 5 things people do,” Valentino said.
As a way of introducing Little Miss Ha, the restaurant is holding pop-up dinners beginning Aug. 1 through September. Taking place on Thursdays, the pop-ups will be five-course Vietnamese tasting menus. Menu items will be different at each event.
Event information can be found here.