Bold City Wings is converting a closed San Marco retail store into a restaurant at 2016 Hendricks Ave., next to Posting House.
Jacksonville native Rhonda Lunsford said by email that she expects to open March 1, bringing the evolving family business home for a fourth generation in co-ownership with her son, Gilbert Lunsford Jr., and her cousin, Archie Williams.
The city issued a permit Jan. 16 for AEC Integrated of Jacksonville to renovate the 1,384-square-foot space at a project cost of $108,000. In her email, Lunsford said the business investment so far is $250,000.
The site is across Hendricks Avenue from the Publix-anchored San Marco East shopping center. The renovation will include creating kitchen space.
KBY Inspection & Plan Review LLC of Jacksonville provided plan review.
Evoco Enterprises LLC is the landlord.
“San Marco was chosen because it’s an absolute dream location in the heart of everything lively (foot traffic) and is the ultimate example of a close knit community,” Lunsford wrote.
“Boutique shops, neighborhood vibes and old school Jacksonville,” she added, noting the architecture, history, new Publix and apartments and access to Downtown.
The Bold Wings space previously was Syrene, a boutique offering home decor and gifts.
“It’s us again”
Bold City Wings posted Jan. 12 on Facebook that it was “coming soon” to the space.
“Hey wing lovers! It’s us again. We would like to present to you Bold City Wings, the best wings in Jacksonville FL.,” the post says.
The post said that Bold City Wings was formerly known in the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area as My Place wings. The Facebook post refers to My Place Wing House.
“Since our short hiatus, we’ve rebranded and relocated back to our roots where it all started here in The Bold New City of the South,” it says.
The post includes that it is “bringing those tasty sweet and tangy, homemade southern fried and even bringing that DC mumbo sauce down to Jacksonville.”
“Food has always been more than business in our family,” Lunsford said in the email.
“It’s how we’ve served our community for generations.”
Starting in the ‘40s
Lunsford said her grandfather and his three brothers, all butchers, moved to Jacksonville in the 1940s from Orangeburg, South Carolina.
She said her grandfather, the Rev. Orion Johnson, and his brother, Fred Johnson, owned a grocery store in Durkeeville and then Eastside where they worked as butchers, known for their quality cuts of meat and customer and community service.
The four brothers, including George and Archie, worked for grocers around the city, she said.
In 1986, the next generation, led by her father, Orion Johnson Jr., opened a corner store in Durkeeville where he sold seafood on the weekends.
Lunsford said she was brought into the business in 1997 as co-owner of Seafood Wings & Things in the Gateway Shopping Center, now known as Gateway Town Center.
A Jacksonville native, Lunsford, formerly Rhonda Johnson, says she graduated from Stanton College Preparatory School in 1989 and left Jacksonville to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C.
She returned to Jacksonville in 1993, opened Seafood Wings & Things in 1997 and returned to D.C. in 1999.
Her son, Lunsford Jr., was born in Jacksonville and at the age of 4 returned with her to D.C. in 1999.
In 2007, she took the My Place brand to the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area where she and her husband opened a sports bar and grill and then expanded the wing shop brand.
In 2021, she handed the legacy to her son, who continued the My Place brand in downtown D.C.
Williams, a co-owner of Bold City Wings, is a senior software developer at VyStar Credit Union. His grandfather was Archie Johnson.
“Now, in 2026, that journey comes home full circle,” Lunsford said.
Williams is a senior software developer at VyStar Credit Union. His grandfather, Archie Johnson, was one of four brothers who relocated from South Carolina.
The menu
Lunsford said Bold City Wings will offer three choices – grilled, Southern-fried breaded in flour or regular fried with no flour.
“We call that naked then tossed in your favorite sauce,” she said.
She said the wings will be fresh, marinated overnight and cooked to order.
Lunsford said they will be “everything a wing should be.”
“We clean our wings, season our wings and prepare them fresh to order,” she said.
Lunsford said sauces are housemade.
Sides include fried corn on the cobb and steamed broccoli. Drinks include freshly squeezed lemonade.
She said the owners will apply for a beer license.
Lunsford said Bold City Wings will offer dine-in, takeout and delivery. There will be seating inside and on a patio.
Bold City Wings will open at 11 a.m. daily and closed when sold out of the day’s prepped items, she said.
Lunsford said the shop will be open later on Fridays and Saturdays but she hasn’t determined the hours.
The restaurant website is under construction and the Google page is under review.
Why here
Lunsford said the reason she is opening here is she grew up in Jacksonville and recalls that “the food used to be good.”
“People have gotten away from preparing food the right way,” she wrote.
“Everyone (is) cutting corners or they (are) simply ignoring old recipes, no one is cooking with herbs and spices anymore.”
Lunsford said Bold City Wings represents the evolution of four generations of food service, “rooted in tradition, shaped by experience and designed for today’s customer.”
“We combine old-school attention to quality with modern systems, bold flavors and a neighborhood mindset.”
She said it will be a continuation of a family legacy, one order at a time.