Three related restaurants under one roof in Downtown Jacksonville have permanently closed, according to Daily Record news partner jaxtoday.org.
In a story posted Aug. 29, Jacksonville Today reported that Bread & Board, Estrella Cocina and Bread & Burger have ceased operations in the VyStar Credit Union building at 100 W. Bay St.
In August 2024, Bread & Board announced it was temporarily closing for maintenance and repairs. Later that month, co-owner Dwayne Beliakoff told the Daily Record that a failure in the concrete flooring installation caused the closure and that the restaurant was still expected to open.
Matt Brockelman, VyStar’s senior vice president of government affairs, told Jax Today that Bread & Board and the two related restaurants had shut down and VyStar was looking for new tenants for the spaces they had occupied.
Beliakoff and co-owner/operator Jonathan Cobbs opened the restaurants in May 2021. Bread & Board was on the ground floor, Estrella Cocina was on the rooftop and Bread & Burger operated from a shipping container in a breezeway.
The Downtown Investment Authority granted a $371,590 forgivable loan for Bread & Board in June 2021. An agreement with the restaurant operators called for the loan to be refunded 20% annually over five years starting in 2022, with terms including that the eatery would remain open over the five-year period.
In September 2024, then-DIA CEO Lori Boyer sent a letter of default to Bread & Board’s operating company, Riverchefs LLC, and VyStar, stating that the restaurant’s closure violated the terms of the incentive agreement.
Jax Today reported that “online records from the Duval County Tax Collector’s Office show that Riverchefs LLC/Bread & Board owe $109,110.72 in back tangible property taxes from 2022 through 2024.”
In addition, documents from the state Division of Corporations show Cobbs filed for dissolution of Riverchefs LLC in October 2024, citing family reasons.