by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The sound of nail guns and circular saws will soon be replaced by the sizzle of the grill and the chatter of customers at the newest Beach Diner location in Mandarin.
“We’ll be cutting it close,” said Stan Jordan, one of the owners of the Beach Diner and current Duval County School Board member, “but we’ll be open for business at 6 a.m. Friday morning.”
Jordan and Barry Adeeb are owners of the Beach Diners in Atlantic Beach and Ponte Vedra and are excited about the buzz they have heard their new 2,900 square-foot restaurant has created next to notable businesses The Tree Steakhouse and Peterbrooke Chocolatier near the intersection of San Jose Boulevard and Mandarin Road. The restaurant will offer 85 seats inside and seating for 20 on the patio. It will be open seven days a week, only closing for Thanksgiving and Christmas, from 6 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
The location and employees will be the main changes for a diner that plans on continuing to provide “good food and good service at a good price,” according to Adeeb.
His family has been in the restaurant business in Jacksonville for more than 60 years. Adeeb’s grandfather, Joe Adeeb Sr., opened the 3 J’s restaurant on Main Street in 1944, which is now a Krystal. The Adeeb family also owned the Green Turtle and Sea Turtle restaurants at the beach. The Sea Turtle was converted into a hotel when the family added 200 rooms near the beach in 1973. The family sold the Sea Turtle in February, 1997 and opened the first Beach Diner in Atlantic Beach later that fall. The second diner opened four years ago in Ponte Vedra and now that the beach bookends have experienced success the next move was inland. Despite a location closer to riverfront than oceanfront, it will keep the name Beach Diner.
“You don’t have to be in Mexico to open a Mexican restaurant,” explained Jordan, a former State Representative.
The menu will offer the creativity the diners are noted for as well as serving “Bubba Specials” like fish and grits which features deep fried Mississippi catfish and new favorites like a shrimp and crab omelette made with Mayport shrimp. Lunch features comfort foods like meat loaf and smothered pork chops. The meal can be finished off with “Mama Helen’s” (Barry’s grandmother) fresh-baked coconut cake and fruit cobbler.
Jordan and Adeeb plan to serve up a side order of economic stimulus to the Mandarin community along with some good food.
“This new diner will create 25 jobs, mostly full-time,” said
Jordan. “We should also collect about $7,500 a month in sales tax based on our annual sales forecast.”
If the forecast proves to be true, there will be plenty of opportunity for creativity between the kitchen and the cash register, but Adeeb and Jordan are looking to create something after the plates are empty and the check has been paid.
“Our intent is that this will be a place for the community to feel very comfortable and develop many relationships,” said Jordan. “It’s kind of a Norman Rockwell Cheers.”
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