by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
Spring is the season of rebirth. Trees bud new leaves, lawns awaken from their winter dormancy and new restaurants sprout from the remains of old businesses. There has been flurry of activity with downtown’s restaurant community in the last few weeks. Here are the highlights:
The London Bridge
For those who still pine for the long-departed Breakroom restaurant on Ocean Street across from the Haydon Burns Library, Martin and Virginia Readion hope to soothe the pain. The Readions plan to open an English-style pub in the same building. Located at 100 E. Adams St., The London Bridge will encompass the Breakroom’s old area, the corner space recently vacated by a bail bondsman plus additional space to accommodate the kitchen. Fare will be what one would expect at an English pub.
“I hate to say we’ll only have English food,” said Virginia Readion. “That wouldn’t be the truth. I like to call it more of a British Isles-type menu.”
Bangers and mash and fish ‘n’ chips are English staples. Readion said she’ll offer Sheppard’s pie, scotch eggs, Cornish pasties (pastries with meat and vegetables) and the occasional curry or Jamaican dishes.
“Curry is real big in England,” she said. “After all, India was a British colony. So we can use a little poetic license.”
For the uninitiated diner, Readion will offer comfort foods like hamburgers and sandwiches.
Readion wants to turn the space into a gathering place with a calm atmosphere and friendly demeanor. Her vision is a warm, welcoming pub where people can gather for a pint over a game of cribbage, chess or backgammon.
“Let’s say it’s 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon. You know how horrible traffic is, so you come to the pub and have a pint,” she said. “This is something downtown Jacksonville needs. Right now, if you want to go to an English pub, you have to drive all the way to St. Augustine or you have to go to the beach. It would fill a void in downtown Jacksonville.”
To break from the legions of lunch-only establishments that dot downtown, Readion plans to operate on a full schedule — until midnight on weekdays and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. On weekends, she’ll bring in English and Irish live music.
“But those aren’t always available,” she said, adding that alternative entertainment will be decidedly mellow. “We don’t always want it loud and crazy. We want people to be comfortable.”
The Readions are aiming for the vast middle ground between angry teen rave clubs and geriatric bingo parlors. Not too quiet. Not too loud. A place where everyone just might know your name.
If all goes as planned, expect to see the first pint poured in the London Bridge in June.
Legends/ Bourbon Street Raw Bar and Grille
Last Halloween saw the close of two of the Landing’s anchor restaurants, Jocks ‘n’ Jills and St. Johns Grille and Tavern. Months later, Huey’s closed suddenly leaving the Landing three major restaurants down. Enter Jason Jaffe. A relative Jacksonville newcomer, Jaffe reached into his wallet and resurrected Huey’s into Bourbon Street Raw Bar and Grille and Jocks ‘n’ Jills into Legends. Bourbon Street has thrived in the month or so it has been open. Legends, open less than a week, has been somewhat slower to catch on. But Jaffe isn’t concerned.
“Legends has been a little slow, but we have no complaints,” he said. “We’re doing well — much better than we anticipated. All the hotels have been good to us. They keep sending people to us.”
Both Legends and Bourbon Street pick up where their predecessors left off. Both offer basically the same fare as the previous restaurants but with a few twists. A throw-back to the Landing’s Fat Tuesday days, Bourbon Street offers a variety of frozen alcoholic drinks plus an expanded menu. Jaffe even boasts that the restaurant remains open late seven days a week.
“Bourbon Street rocks until 2 a.m., even Sundays,” he said.
For Legends, Jaffe brought in leather couches that face a wall of large-screen televisions for comfortable sports viewing. Also, virtually anything hanging on the wall is for sale — autographed pictures, signed jerseys, old cleats, everything.
If Jaffe’s enthusiasm for the Landing isn’t apparent yet, he says he plans on adding a third restaurant to his portfolio. The deal is still in the works, however, and he’s reticent to divulge any specifics.
“I’ve always been a gambler,” he said adding that he sees only positive things in the Landing’s future and pointing to the 2005 Super Bowl as just the beginning for downtown’s prosperity. “It’s been proven fact that a city always benefits even after a Super Bowl.”
De Real Ting
The mammoth vehicle known as the Better Jacksonville Plan was bound to run over some of the little people, however unintentional. For the last five years, Hanif Kissoonlal has quietly operated De Real Ting café at 45 W. Monroe St. He’s cultivated a loyal following with his Caribbean food and after-hours island entertainment.
Then came the Better Jacksonville Plan’s downtown library component. The library is coming. Kissoonlal is moving.
“We did an informal survey of our customers,” he said. “Seventy percent of them said they would follow us.”
They won’t have to follow him far. With relocation help from the City, Kissoonlal found his new digs at 128 W. Adams St., the old Milk Bar location. While initially irritated by the forced uprooting, Kissoonlal has come to terms with the reality and sees it as an opportunity.
“It’s two-and-a-half times the size of what we have right now,” he said. “It’s about 9 or 10,000 square feet.”
Expect to see an expanded menu at the new Real Ting. In addition to traditional Jamaican dishes, Kissoonlal says he’ll take American foods and “Caribbeanize them.” Jerk tuna salad? Just maybe. Kissoonlal also feeds off his Indian heritage and offers some curry-based items.
De Real Ting café will continue to offer after-hours entertainment in the new location — predominantly reggae bands and the odd poetry reading Thursday through Sunday nights — and will stay open until at least last call at 2 a.m.
Kissoonlal expects to be up and running on Adams Street by May, which is right about the time the wrecking ball will tear down his old building.
Amsterdam Sky Café
After enduring the scrutiny of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s Design Review Committee in past meetings, developer Mark Jackson came into Tuesday’s meeting with both barrels loaded. The design of his proposed Amsterdam Sky Café in the heart of the budding sports district was up for final review. Previous meetings had yielded a laundry list of required items before the project could get a thumbs-up from the committee — rendered elevations of all sides of the proposed buildings, rendered site plan, streetscape detail sheet, exterior illumination plan, etc., etc., etc.
Jackson and his partners went back to the drawing board. To blend with the scale of the arena next door, Jackson added a third floor, reworked the aesthetics and massaged the overall look to complement the architecture of the surrounding buildings. The usual round of questions was asked. Jackson fired off answers. The design review committee gave Jackson the hearty thumbs-up he was seeking.
With the final bureaucracy out of the way, Jackson says construction will be in full swing by June. He plans to have the building ready for business by the start of the 2003 NFL season.