• Keep your eye on traffic reports for the Dames Point Bridge. The cranes for the new Mitsui container terminal will arrive from the Bahamas next week. They are so tall and will have so little clearance under the span the bridge will be closed for safety reasons as the barges carrying the equipment pass underneath. “They will dwarf the cranes we have now and they look like something Steven Spielberg would build,” said Port Executive Director Rick Ferrin.
• Looking for a deal on the mid-day meal? For the rest of the summer, Juliette’s Bistro at the Omni Hotel is offering a two-for-one lunch special every Tuesday including Chef Rick Eplawy’s fresh local seafood creations.
• How can a restaurant offer one of the cheapest lunches Downtown? They make it from scratch. The London Bridge Pub and Eatery has been offering half price burgers on Tuesdays and Thursdays for quite some time, but it started serving homemade potato chips two weeks ago. Customers can get the chips with a burger for $3.75 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• City Council member Stephen Joost and Nassau County Sheriff Tommy Seagraves are among many who have agreed to play in this year’s LongHorn Steakhouse Golf Classic. The June 23 charity tournament is at Amelia River Golf Club and the proceeds benefit the Justice Coalition.
• Sometimes people have to think outside the box when their budget won’t allow for much else. Attorney Kelly Hampton had a small budget for advertising when he opened his own practice in 2006, but he thought more under the glass than outside the box. He bought cardboard drink coasters that advertised his practice on both sides after seeing the advertisements for other businesses on them. The coasters didn’t produce much business after being circulated for about a year, but that won’t stop Hampton from being creative with his advertising.
• The first day of summer is eight days away but it’s been flip-flop weather for a while. To mark the official day the Tropical Smoothie Cafes in Jacksonville and St. Augustine will give away a 24-ounce Jetty Punch smoothie to the first 500 customers.
“The safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to which all such institutions must be sacrificed.”
– James Madison, U.S. president