by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Two new restaurants are opening at the Landing today, Chicago Pizza and Village Bread Cafe. Both have other locations and have already established their brands. That should be good for marketing the new Downtown offerings, considering thousands of people, many of them local residents, will be at the Landing Friday and Saturday for the Florida-Georgia festivities.
In the former Ruby Tuesday’s space you’ll find the third Chicago Pizza and Sports Grille in Jacksonville, joining the Baymeadows and Jacksonville Beach units. There are also five Chicago Pizzas in Atlanta. All are owned by Vic Comastro and his wife, Karen. Their son Cliff will manage the new Downtown location, maintaining the family business tradition,
“We had five restaurants in Chicago and we’ve been in the business for 27 years,” said Comastro.
He said the Landing was chosen for the latest expansion because, “We wanted a destination location and you can’t beat the view.” In addition to the indoor bar and dining area, there’s also a covered patio and outdoor bar area.
Inside and outside there are so many flat-screen televisions they practically touch each other.
“There’s about 100 of them,” said Chicago Pizza Director of Operations Jimmy DeMarco. “If there’s a game on the satellite, we can show it and the screens at the booths can be tuned to whatever channel our guests want to watch. We even have the Cartoon Channel for the kids.”
The concept behind Chicago Pizza is to be a sports bar with a unique menu.
“I’ve always said sports is our hook and our food is our anchor,” said DeMarco.
Comastro said what sets the menu apart is that all the critical ingredients are shipped here from Chicago and that assures an authentic experience.
“Our pizza is like none other in town. What we serve is exactly what you’d get in Chicago and it can’t be a real Chicago hot dog unless it’s a Vienna,” he added.
When it comes to televised sports, there’s not a bad seat in the house at Chicago Pizza at the Landing.
The menu also includes traditional sports bar appetizers plus burgers and pasta dinners. Lunch specials are available Monday-Friday and start at $4.99. There’s also a bar serving beer, wine and cocktails.
Chicago Pizza at the Landing is open seven days a week from 11 a.m.-2 a.m. For take-out call 354-7747.
Also opening today is the Village Bread Cafe and it too brings a proven concept to Downtown and the Landing. The restaurant grew out of a successful wholesale bakery, said General Manager Jim Anderson.
He and his wife, Aleta, opened the Philips Highway cafe seven months ago and soon discovered they were serving a lot of breakfasts and lunches to people who work Downtown.
“It has been very well received,” said Anderson, who added that the bakery side of the operation is being expanded to 15,000 square feet to provide freshly-baked products to more than 500 commercial customers. On the retail side, he said he’s confident there’s a market for what Village Bread Cafe has to offer.
“We primarily do breakfast and lunch and we believe there’s a market for good reasonably priced food Downtown,” said Anderson.
The location was also a factor in making the decision to expand the business to the Landing. One of the first things that signaled the restaurant’s arrival were the cafe’s signature black-and-white awnings above the entrance on Independent Drive.
“This is a highly visible location and our awnings have already established our identity,” added Anderson
Being within walking distance of hundreds of businesses with thousands of employees was also attractive when it came to selecting a second location.
“We also believe there’s a tremendous opportunity Downtown for catering,” said Anderson.
Having a pastry case at the Landing location has inspired an addition to the business.
“We’re building a pastry kitchen at the bakery and we’ll soon be offering some custom pastries,” said Anderson.
Village Bread Cafe at the Landing opens at 7 a.m. seven days a week. Sunday-Thursday it closes at 3 p.m. and is open for dinner Friday and Saturday until 10 p.m.
The menu includes anything you might want for breakfast and sandwiches, salads and soups for lunch and dinner. There’s also a children’s menu and the cafe offers beer and wine. To place an order by phone call 683-7244. There’s free delivery Downtown with an order of $30 or more.
356-2466