The Alder & Oak restaurant in Jacksonville Beach opened July 15 after a friends and family event that drew more than 700 people the night before.
The restaurant is at 131 First Ave. N. at the corner of Second Street North and replaced the former Jekyll Brewing, which closed in May 2025. Alder & Oak is next to its sister restaurant, Oaxaca Club.
The first Alder & Oak opened in January as part of The Hub at 400 Riverside Ave.
Mark Janasik owns Alder & Oak, Oaxaca Club, Blueberry Artisan Bakery and the Southern Grounds coffee shops. He heads the Restaurant & Hospitality Investment Group.
He declined to provide a cost figure to remodel the restaurant.
Atlantic Beach-based RPC General Contractors Inc. was the contractor, and DCOOP Architects of Jacksonville designed the interior.
Like the Alder & Oak in Brooklyn, the Jacksonville Beach restaurant has Zorbas, a rooftop bar, with both indoor and outdoor seating. The restaurant seats about 300 in the main dining area and in the Zorbas room.
Reservations are available on the OpenTable app for the dining area and at Zorbas, which will also take walk-ins.
The menu at the Jacksonville Beach location is the same as in Downtown, except for four sushi choices and two crudo items, said Eddy Escriba, operations partner for Alder & Oak and Oaxaca Club.
Alder & Oak serves a menu inspired by the cuisines of Turkey, Greece and Italy. It sources products from those countries when possible.
“It’s a trending concept all over the country: Bigger markets are going for that meze (Middle Eastern appetizers) experience because our ingredients are very healthy. Everything that we do is in-house. It coincides with the Mediterranean diet. Lots of olive oil, lots of fresh ingredients,” Escriba said.
The meze menu includes tzatziki, baba ganoush, roasted cauliflower, assorted dips and spreads, and burrata ($8 to $26). There are three hummus dishes ($15 to $17).
Alder & Oak is known for its fire-baked pizzas: margherita, tartufo bianca, prosciutto di parma and salsiccia ($18 to $23). The original kitchen’s footprint was too small for Alder & Oak’s needs, so the pizza and baking area were moved into the main dining room near the bar.
Seafood choices are octopus, king prawns, tuna, salmon, lobster, shrimp and market fish ($28 to $42).
Other proteins are lamb, chicken and steak ($22 to $49) with bucatini and truffles as a vegetarian offering ($32).
Craft cocktails and mocktails are available, along with more than 30 wines from Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Croatia and elsewhere.
Upstairs at Zorbas will function more as a lounge, with different cocktails, sushi and live music Thursday through Saturday, said Corey Tighe, beverage director. “A little bit more of a limited wine menu, but more like a cocktail lounge,” he said.
Zorbas serves a lighter menu and focuses on beverage service. It will incorporate a “golden hour” in the coming weeks, Tighe said. Cocktails will be $10 from an hour before sunset until sundown.
The restaurant employs 40. Hours for Alder & Oak and Zorbas are 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.