After creating a pop-up and catering restaurant with the theme of “cooking with conscience,” the team behind Naked Kitchen adopted a similar mentality in establishing the venture’s first brick-and-mortar location.
Spouses Brian Nelson and Alexandra Bowles Nelson, with partner Matt Johnson, built-out Naked Kitchen in a nearly 100-year-old building in the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District in North Springfield.
The partners, who focus on using nonprocessed ingredients produced in environmentally friendly ways, not only revitalized the structure but also incorporated sustainability by reviving a professional oven for it and buying its plates, bowls, glassware and utensils secondhand.
In another example of reducing the restaurant’s environmental impact, Brian Nelson said he and his father-in-law built the wooden tabletops for Naked Kitchen’s dining room tables from flooring reused from a large warehouse space attached to the restaurant.
“All of a sudden we were construction people. I’ve got a speed square and all these cool tools,” he said.
After more than two years of preparation, the restaurant opened May 2, bringing Naked Kitchen’s fusion of Asian foods and preparation to American standards. Menu items include a kimchi grilled sandwich and a breakfast sandwich with Korean pork belly.
At a May 20 community event, Phoenix lead developer Tony Cho celebrated the partners who met while working at a P.F. Chang’s in their 20s. They are now in their 30s.
Cho, in an interview before the event, said he and the Phoenix team met the partners soon after launching the district and began using the restaurant for catering. Cho is CEO of Miami-based Future of Cities, which started buying property for the district in 2020 and broke ground on it in 2023.
“They were an early believer (in the Phoenix district), and we were an early believer in them,” Cho said.
“It exactly exemplifies the ethos and the spirit of Future of Cities, regenerative placemaking and the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District, which is to support local entrepreneurs and local businesses,” he said.
“They live in Springfield and they’re a Jacksonville success story. It warms my heart to see a vision materialize into a place where people are coming from all over town and all over the state and all over the world, because a lot of people that come to Phoenix are people we bring from everywhere.”
Cho said he had a “love at first sight” attraction to Naked Kitchen, having been hooked by the kimchi grilled cheese. The restaurant prides itself on inclusion, he said, not only by mixing Asian and American foods but by offering vegan dishes plus nonvegetarian options.
Naked Kitchen says it uses mostly plant-based foods prepared in a scratch kitchen where ingredients change based on the best foods available.
If on a particular day the vendor has cantaloupes, Nelson has a new special for that day.
“Let me take the cantaloupes and I’ll make a drink. That’s our drink of the day. I sell what he’s got that day,” Brian Nelson said.
Alexandra Bowles Nelson said Naked Kitchen takes a “stripped down” approach to its menu items.
“Brian makes all the bread, the noodles and sauces,” she said. “We try to source as much as we can locally, so nothing is ultra- processed. That’s probably our main focus.”
Brian Nelson said he enjoys working with customers.
“Vegans love us because they know they can get more than a salad,” he said. “I say that we save marriages because the meat eater can come here with his vegan wife.”
The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hours are 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday through Monday, closed Tuesday.
The breakfast menu includes miso bean toast, ham fried rice and an egg breakfast with two eggs, Korean barbecued pork belly or fried chicken, pickled vegetables, a breakfast potato and milk bread toast. Most items are priced at $14 to $16.
Lunch and dinner is kimchi grilled cheese, Nashville chicken sliders, miso bean toast and steak and cheese sliders, also $14 to $16.
Entrees such as steak and kimchi fried rice, blackened fish, plant bibimbap and a pork belly bowl are $15 to $20.
Naked Kitchen occupies 2,750 square feet of the 18,819-square-foot building where Phoenix is planning further build-outs to attract retail and possibly other restaurants.
The restaurant, which will seat 50, was built by Skyline Construction Inc. of Jacksonville. Doherty Sommers Architects Engineers Inc. of Jacksonville Beach is the architect.
It cost about $500,000 to open, Brian Nelson said.
In March, Naked Kitchen received a $25,000 grant from Washington, D.C.-based Independent Restaurant Coalition in partnership with Chase. Naked Kitchen was one of 20 restaurants that were recognized for supporting sustainability, workforce well-being and community impact.
The partners have two employees other than themselves and will add staff as the business grows, Brian Nelson said.
Plans for the Phoenix district include more than $500 million in renovated industrial buildings and new construction.
In May, Future of Cities and partner Blue Skies Communities of St. Petersburg announced they were developing a $33 million affordable apartment project on the site after being awarded $27 million in tax credits plus a $610,000 Local Government Area of Opportunity contribution from the city of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Housing Finance Authority.
When underway, it will be the first new construction project on the site.
In June 2024, Council approved $5.5 million in incentives for the Phoenix district, with the package comprising a $1.5 million Recapture Enhanced Value Grant plus $2 million completion grants for each of two phases of construction.
