Owners are converting the former O’Charley’s restaurant in Regency into Cajun Crab.
Co-owner Mas Liu said March 9 he expects to open the restaurant in June or July.
He said it will be “one of the most upscale Cajun restaurants in Jacksonville.”
“We have a beautiful concept,” he said.
Mas said it will have a chef from Louisiana, and will offer live music on weekends.
He said he and his partner. Yu Chen, are investing $1.5 million in the project.
“There is a lot of competition,” he said. “We are going to have the best one.”
Liu said he and Chen have a Cajun Crab under renovation in Miami, and they have other restaurants in New York. He said many of those have a Cajun menu.
He said Chen is from New York.
“We have a lot of things going on,” he said.
The banner sign on the restaurant says it will have juicy seafood, wings and a bar. Liu said it also will have hibachi.
Liu owns and is the chef at the Pacific Asian Bistro Japanese Chinese Ramen and Thai restaurant in St. Augustine.
O’Charley’s LLC sold its closed Regency area restaurant Jan. 7 to a St. Augustine group.
Nashville, Tennessee-based O’Charley’s sold the property to Sunrise Center Group LLC for $1 million.
Amerasia Bank of Miami financed the deal for $650,000.
O’Charley’s Inc. built the 7,124-square-foot building on 1.77 acres in 2002 at 410 Commerce Center Drive.
It closed in September 2019.
The deed, mortgage and state corporate records list Sunrise Center Group LLC’s address as 159 Palencia Village Drive, Suite 111, in St. Augustine.
That address is for the Pacific Asian Bistro Japanese Chinese Ramen and Thai restaurant.
Chen is the manager of Sunrise Center Group LLC, which was filed with the state in October.
The Pacific Asian Bistro website, pacificasianbistro.com, says Liu immigrated from China in 2001 and began his apprenticeship in New York. He and his brother Jason focused on classic Japanese-style sushi.
“His family’s move to Florida in 2008 realized their dream of owning their own restaurant thus launching Pacific Asian Bistro,” it says.
The site says Pacific Asian Bistro has been awarded numerous “Best of Jax” awards and the Achievement of Excellence Award from the American Culinary Federation.