by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
It’s not quite “Late Night in Jacksonville” yet, but the addition of another downtown happy hour and dinner destination is a step in the right direction.
The Zodiac Grill will begin offering dinner twice a week and nightly drink specials by the end of September. Already playing host to a packed dining room for breakfast and lunch, the West Adams Street eatery will soon offer a growing roster of downtown residents a reason to venture out in the evening.
The crowds drawn to Zodiac by the monthly Wednesday evening Artwalks convinced owner Jerry Ewais that the venture could be profitable. He said he regularly serves 25 to 30 meals to the Artwalk crowd. He’s expecting a similar turnout for the upcoming Thursday and Friday night dinners. Keeping with the restaurant’s Middle East feel, Ewais plans to add belly dancers and hookahs to the atmosphere.
“We’ve seen a lot of action, a lot of good crowds from the Artwalk,” said Ewais. “More people are moving downtown, and they don’t have anywhere to go at night.”
For the first time in decades, that’s actually a bit of an overstatement. The number of choices facing downtown diners is growing. Zodiac will join the London Bridge Pub, Henrietta’s in Springfield, and the nearby Mudville Grille and Da Real ‘Ting Cafe, offering dinner and drinks past sunset.
While the hotel restaurants and upscale establishments continue to cater to the fone-dining crowd, Ewais hopes to carve out a distinct niche in the urban core’s dinner-time market. “We will offer a different style. We’re hoping to build more a dinner clientele,” he said. “The other places are more bars that serve food.”
Ewais’s plans are already a hit with his loyal lunch crowd. After hearing his regulars complain about a lack of dinner time options, Ewais decided to take matters into his own hands.
“There’s people who live down here, people who want to wait out happy hour, people that just don’t want to go straight home after work,” said Ewais. “There’s a lot of reasons to stay open past lunch.”