A family is finishing off this year and starting next with two new restaurants.
Jerry and Jeri Brown, their son Hughes and his wife, Molly, own Bold Birds Nashville Hot Chicken at 1173 Edgewood Ave. S. in Murray Hill.
On Dec. 15, they opened their second Bold Birds at 5635 San Jose Blvd. in the former Tijuana Flats space in Lakewood.
In January, they expect to open another concept, Oxford Place, at 2902 Corinthian Ave. in Old Ortega. It will serve Southern cuisine in a family-friendly atmosphere.
The Browns operated a fine dining restaurant in Nashville, called The Watermark, for about 15 years. When the lease was up, the proposed rent increase was not financially feasible for the family, Hughes said. His children were about to start school, and Hughes and Molly decided to move to Jacksonville in 2019 to be closer to her family.
In less than a year, Hughes was missing authentic Nashville hot chicken, so he decided to open a restaurant. His father and mother moved here a year later. They opened the Murray Hill restaurant in 2020.
Spicy heat
Nashville hot chicken is known for its spicy heat. Battered chicken wings, legs, thighs and breasts are fried and a spiced oil is slathered on the cooked chicken.
Bold Bird customers can have it without hot sauce or up the heat level upon request. Options include the five-flame “Hotter Than A Mother Clucker.
“(Nonspicy) classic fried chicken is about a third of what we sell,” Hughes said.
“The most we sell are mild. There’s a little bit of a kick to it, but it is not going to hurt you. It’s not going to ruin your day. Our medium is what hot is at most places. More than that, we can really hurt you. It can get very painful.”
Guests can have a leg and thigh, breast and a wing or a half chicken that includes a leg, thigh, breast and wing.
Bold Bird also serves chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches.
Other items include Mimi’s Chicken N’ Pimento Sandwich, chicken and waffles and pimento cheese fritters. The loaded fries is a hefty plate of cheese-covered chicken, cole slaw, pickles and hot sauce.
The online menu does not include prices.
When the family opens the Lakewood store, they expect to add chicken salad and a Cobb salad to the Bold Bird menu at both locations.
The hours for both establishments are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Since the new location had already been a restaurant, many of the expensive kitchen items, like an exhaust hood and oil drainage system, were previously installed. Jerry estimates the build-out will cost $250,000. Diversified Contractors Consultants of Jacksonville is the contractor.
The owners expect to hire between 20 to 25 workers.
Oxford Place
Oxford Place is a different concept. It will be a neighborhood restaurant drawing from Ortega, Avondale and San Marco, Jerry said, and he doesn’t expect to be wanting for customers.
“This is not me saying this, but this is the community. They’re all glad to see it being gentrified and to see a nice restaurant coming in. They all say, I’ll be there first day,” Jerry said.
“This one lovely lady walked by and said, ‘I’ve got 40 living relatives in Old Ortega. We’ll fill you up.’ ”
The Brown family bought the building for $925,000 in May from florist William Gardner, who will continue to operate Gardner’s Florist in a smaller space in the building.
They expect to spend another $750,000 to refurbish the interior. Diversified Contractors Consultants is also the contractor. Zinn Architecture + Interiors of Jacksonville designed the dining room and Adler Interior Design of Jacksonville designed the bar and kitchen.
“We bought the building, which was fortunate because when you are going to spend that much you can’t finance the improvements,” Jerry said.
They have hired Thomas White as executive chef. He most recently worked at Matthew’s Restaurant in San Marco. White is working on the Oxford Place menu.
Oxford Place plans to be open seven days. Tentatively, the bar will open at 4:30 p.m. and the dining room at 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. It will close about 9 p.m. during the week and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A Sunday brunch will come later.