from staff
Jacksonville Jaguars CFO Bill Prescott and his wife, Kim, plan to have dinner Thursday night with at least 110 people Downtown, and more if other diners are interested. Prescott, a Visit Jacksonville board member, decided to support Downtown restaurants by packing Café Nola and then, when that filled, also booking at Chew. Dinner reservations start at 5 p.m. He said to invite your friends. Prescott also is busy with Jaguars business now that the lockout has ended and the NFL is preparing for the season.
Why are you and Kim taking on this project?
It really started as a grassroots effort to support what we have, to allow the citizens to see what Downtown has to offer. It’s a concept of seeing Downtown and seeing that Downtown is important as an economic engine to Jacksonville.
How many people have responded and how many can the event accommodate?
We filled up Café Nola already and Chew is maybe halfway there. It’s probably close to about 110, 115 people, as of last week. We’ll take a look at another restaurant if we need to. We will go early to Café Nola and grab a quick bite with friends and then go to Chew and then back to the Museum of Contemporary Art, where Café Nola operates, to take a look at the exhibition. It has taken off on its own. A number of people have forwarded the email to other people. It has resonated with a lot of people.
This is a new undertaking for you. Will this be the start of a regular event?
I would like to do it monthly and tie it in with other things that are happening Downtown. We would like for this to be the start of something. We would like to really support the entertainment establishments. It is important that we don’t lose the restaurants and bars we have.
Will we see a lot of Jacksonville Jaguars there?
No, they have practice right now. They’ve got to get ready for football season.
What’s the status of that?
Obviously it is a compressed time for all 32 teams. General Manager Gene Smith and his staff have done a great job in getting this football team to be better.