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Redefining Dining In Jacksonville
They're all worthy of award and doing so many things right they will no doubt be among my Top 200 next year - although there has been a notable chef switch with Brian Clayton moving from 24 Miramar to a partnership position at Sterling's Cafe. Among my other favorites in Jacksonville and its booming beaches is the Crabpot at 12 North First Street (904/241-4188), the first bar on the beach, celebrating its 15th anniversary next February and still a great chunk of informality serving Coconutty Corma Shrimp, catfish, soft-shell crab, fresh catch with sensational butternut and creamy dill sauces, plus clams, oysters, shrimp and all-you-can-eat snow crab on Friday evenings.
Then there are three long-timers who persevere in the face of all the newfangled fare and modernity. The Homestead at 1712 Beach Boulevard (904/249-5240) has been open 55 years and provides a great sense of history while readjusting attitudes at the bar or working through country cooking built around chicken and mashed potatoes. A close cousin is Beach Road Chicken at 4132 Atlantic Blvd. (904/398-7980), serving downhome chicken dinners with mounds of mashed potatoes, great creamed peas and fried okra. It's survived - in fact thrived - nearly 60 years. At Fred Cotten's Bar-B-Que in Northside (2623 N. Main Street 904/356-8274), for more than half a century, Lucille Baker has been tending to ribs and meats slathered with finger-lickin' heavenly barbecue sauce then smoked and slowly soothed in an open pit.
Here's a selection of others that got my serious attention.
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Athens Cafe
The Shoppes Promenade
904/733-1199 2777
University Blvd., West Jacksonville
True to the name with a menu, setting, serving staff and entertainers that provide instant transport to "The Glory that was Greece." Starting with flaming saganaki cheese and ending with baklava; in between are masterfully made moussaka, spinach and cheese pies, avgolemono soups, taramasalata, simply grilled fish with oregano and lemon, and garlic-infused lamb in a variety of ways. Alas, the once authentic Greek salad, a harvest of freshness from the garden, is now served with lettuce. To salute your Hellenic happiness, order Greek wine and finish with Greek coffee. Lunch is served Monday through Friday; dinner, with entrees $7.50 to $13, Monday through Saturday.
Amor? Cafe
1406 Beach Blvd.
904/246-5373
Jacksonville Beach
Owner George Martinez's opening last Valentine's Day was no accident. His pizzeria/trattoria is one large lavender valentine, decorated with troupes of "puti," the Italian cherubs and cupids who caress lunchers, munchers and diners working through their veal marsala, roast peppers, pasta-bilities of all kinds and superior pizza - order the house special loaded with veggies, ham and salami assembled "con amor?." Lunch is served Monday through Friday, and dinner, with entrees $10.95 to $15.95, nightly.
Bombay Tandoor
7404 Atlantic Blvd.
904/725-5711
Arlington/Jacksonville
Indian restaurants are few and far between in north Florida, but here's one to serve as pathfinder for those who want to learn about the 32 spices for a proper curry, the flavorful masalas, combinations of cumin and cayenne pepper, coriander and black mustard seeds enlivening legumes and grains, chickpeas, lentils and basmati rice. If you are familiar with the many variations of Indian cuisine, you can special order; otherwise, stick with the Mulligatawny soup and simple samosas for starters; then experiment with lamb Madras or the orange-colored chicken cooked over hot ashes in a high-intensity clay tandoor oven. Don't forget the tandoor-toasted breads: nan, paratha and pappadum -- perfect with a little hot chutney. Yogurt is an essential ingredient of Indian cooking, and you'll need some of its cooling comfort to still the fires. You can order mild, medium, hot or the tongue-searing vindaloo if you've got an asbestos palate. Not to forget are the many dishes designed for the serious vegetarian. Lunch and dinner, with entrees from $6.95 to $10.95, are served daily.
Cyclone Anaya's Tex-Mex Cantina
1222 South Third Street
904/270-2005
Jacksonville Beach
If you're wondering about the name, check the photo of strongman Cyclone, a wrestler from the ?50s who's had a restaurant in Houston named after him since 1966. This one is of more recent vintage and features the best Tex-Mex menu on the First Coast, if not most of Florida. Start with the rich pinto bean soup served with cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo and tortillas, or the tortilla soup made with more of the same plus beef or chicken fajitas and veggies. The chile relleno poblanos are superior and so too is the Parrillana Grande, a combo of chargrilled beef, chicken and shrimp forked into flour tortillas or presented on a skewer; also excellent are the fajitas, grilled swordfish and the tuna basted with a sauce of white wine, sprinkled with cilantro and spiked with garlic. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $5.89 to $12.99, are served daily.
Dolphin Depot
704 N. First Street
904/270-1424
Jacksonville Beach
Since September 1993, owner Steve Rider and chef Craig Dion have been converting beach palates to the joys of Low-country cuisine, carrying on their crusade in a uniquely sophisticated setting that imparts a sense of place without excess or exaggeration. The menu is strictly blackboard and verbal and contains 35 nightly specials, but, as our waiter proudly proclaimed, "We do 35 to a thousand." Craig honors all special requests, but we found sufficient delight in this depot with a starter of artichokes, oysters and mushrooms in a light cream sauce, and entrees of horseradish-crusted grouper served with a kind of risotto and perfectly sauteed collard greens. Those were also the platemates for the sensation of the night: cedar plank salmon. An outstanding achievement. For finishers, stick with the Key lime pie. Entrees range from $15 to $25 and are served nightly.
First Street Grille
807 N. First Street
904/246-6555
Jacksonville Beach
This smack-on-the-sand sensation with a wall of windows overlooking the beach has superlative grilled seafood along with such ambitious productions as rack of lamb and red snapper sauteed with all the spices of Cajun country, calmed a bit with a gentling pecan-butter sauce. Save space for the bread pudding spiked with Grand Marnier held at bay with cr?me chantilly. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $14.95 to $19.95, are served daily.
Juliette's
The Omni Hotel
904/355-7118
245 Water Street
Jacksonville
Free-flowing champagne and live jazz, along with groaning board bounties of fresh fruit, made-before-your-very-eyes omelets, pastas and seafood, bread and pastries, all for a pleasing price of $14.95, are reasons enough to make this a Sunday stop. But you can also make this a weekday lunch habit, round-tripping the $8.95 Antipasta Buffet or watching your pasta being prepared at the $7.50 Pasta Express. Return at night for more elaborate fare. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served daily. Legends
Regency Square Mall
904/725-5322
9501 Arlington Expressway
Jacksonville
California comes to Jacksonville, with flair and L.A. Cafe finesse, introducing locals to the simple pleasures ever since it opened in October of last year. The offerings are as varied as sushi platters, seafood mingled with angel hair pasta, teriyaki chicken, grilled pork chops, baked pond trout and rib-eye steaks. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $5.95 - $16.95, are served daily.
Lynch's Irish Pub
514 N. First Street
904/249-5181
Jacksonville Beach
Of course there's an Irish pub on the beach, and it's a good one, authentic enough to have an Irish owner and a bartender with an Irish brogue and no doubt a bit of blarney. Any place that has Harp and Double Diamond on tap gets my vote, even if they had to take the lamb out of the Irish stew." We couldn't give it away; we had to substitute beef," bleated the barkeep, echoing the same experience McGuire's Irish Pub had in Pensacola. You can always order corned beef and cabbage, steak and kidney pie, bangers and mash, fish and chips, as well as BLTs and chicken salads. Lunch available on weekends only. Dinner, with entrees $6.50 to $7.95, is served daily.
Manatee Ray's
314 N. First Street
904/241-3138
Jacksonville Beach
North Florida's best introduction to the joys of Jamaican jerk cooking, grilled in open pit or on the barbie and zapped with a plethora of peppers and all the spices of the Islands. Enjoy the chicken and meats inside or out in ultra casual surroundings, complete with reggae on Sundays. Lunch is served on the weekends and dinner, with entrees $7.95 to $14.95, nightly.
Max's Place
Worth Antique Gallery
904/247-4422
1316 Beach Blvd.
Jacksonville Beach
Antique lovers can find nirvana in this little cafe tucked tightly into a corner embraced by thousands of treasures from dealers all over the area. Plan your strategy of search and seek with luncheons built around conch fritters, calamari, mussels steamed in white wine and garlic, sandwiches made with crab, chicken or the ingredients of a classic Cuban. Then celebrate your purchase with dinners of linguine in clam sauce, grilled salmon with lemon-caper butter, chicken scampi, veggie stirfry or grouper pesada, meaning it's crusted with Romano and baked with lemon butter. Chef-owner Larry Goldsmith's braised lamb shanks are especially noteworthy and so too is the peanut butter pie. Lunch and dinner, with entrees ranging from $8.95 to $14.95, are served Tuesday through Saturday.
Old Siam
1616 Third Street
904/247-7763
Jacksonville Beach
Pom Souvannasoth not only competes for title of longest name for a restaurant owner; he's also in the running for best Thai restaurant and provides a splendidly appealing setting for learning all you need to know about Thai cuisine but were afraid to ask. Learn the differences between masaman and panang curries, satay and nam sod, pawt siew and pawt thai, and approach Thai chilis with great caution. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $8 to $15, nightly.
Raspberry's on the Water
2321 Beach Boulevard
904/247-8720
Jacksonville Beach
Chef-owners James and Marcy Bartlett are responsible for this happy hideaway featuring innovative variations of old themes - fish of the day hazelnut-crusted and topped with Parmesan sauce or pesto-covered before merging with Parmesan and Romano on a bed of angel hair. Rich hunter and Roquefort-brandy-nut sauces are poured over the Angus Beef tenderloin. Chef Jimbo treats the freshest shrimp in Florida with great respect. Order Raspberry's Berries for dessert, and you'll get the namesake fruit plus blueberries and strawberries swimming in champagne and Pernod. Dinner entrees range from $10.95 to $21.95 and are served Tuesday through Sunday.
Semolina
Crown Point Plaza
904/260-1068
10111-16 San Jose Blvd.
Mandarin/Jacksonville
A pasta purveyor with papier-mache, oversize farinaceous fellows dangling overhead, one of the best display kitchens around, a spiffy staff and a menu that features pasta, pasta, pasta - 27 choices, including a half dozen linguine lovelies with chicken, veal or fresh fish Parmesan-breadcrumb-coated or sauteed with mushrooms and spinach. Among the salads the Malibu is my favorite, with baby greens, apple, raisins, toasted sesame seeds and walnuts drenched in balsamic vinaigrette, bleu cheese and sundried tomatoes. It's all so popular there's another in nearby Ponte Vedra (330 A1A, 904/273-9080) and across the state in Pensacola. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $4.95 to $11.95, are served daily.
Sun Dog Diner
207 Atlantic Boulevard
904/241-8221
Neptune Beach
This mod implant with a neon-everywhere, outer space look enjoys superlative location -- across from the beach and the Ragtime Tavern. Owner David Hansford provides classic diner comfort and a sometimes far-out menu, featuring crab dips, grilled lamb chops, Tarzan-size steaks, imaginative shrimp and tuna creations and fajitas with shrimp, chicken or beef surrounded by sizzling, smoking onions and geeen peppers. For those worried about beach appearance, try the low-cal salads and grilled veggies served over pasta. Lunch and dinner, entrees ranging from $11 to $16, are served daily.
West River
1171 S. Edgewood Avenue
904/389-4171
Jacksonville
Chef Liz Grenamyer, who formerly graced the kitchens at Sterling's and 24 Miramar before becoming the city's premier caterer, is top toque in this sophisticated art gallery of a restaurant. Softened with candlelight and music and served by a proud, professional staff, this treasure tantalizes with a steady stream of nightly specials. But no matter what you have as main course, start with crabcakes and conclude with mocha mousse cake. The name does not do justice to the creativity and good taste found here. Dinner, with entrees ranging from $15.95 to $24.95, is served Monday through Saturday.
Wine Cellar
1314 Prudential Drive
904/398-8989
Jacksonville
June marks the 22nd anniversary of this oenophilic oasis that doubles as a romantic rendezvous. To accompany the area's finest selection of wines - close to 200- start with snails in a garlic-enlivened tribute, p?t? or Norwegian smoked salmon as prelude to crabcakes zapped with tarragon mustard and calmed by tropical salsa or caper sauce; seared tuna glazed with sweet-spicy Szechuan sauce; Grecian shrimp and scallops with olives, shallots, tomatoes and feta splashed with sherry and spooned over pasta; tournedoes sauteed with peppercorns in a cream sauce spiked with brandy; or a classic steak Diane. Lunch is served Monday through Friday; dinner, with entrees from $12.75 to $28, Monday through Saturday.
GOLDEN SPOON AWARDS
Florida Trend is now accepting nominations for the 1997 Golden Spoon Awards, the magazines annual recognition of Florida's finest restaurants. Fill out the ballot that appears on page 81 of this issue and return it to Florida Trend by Wednesday, December 20. In the February issue, Florida Trend will publish the names and descriptions of the 20 Golden Spoon Award winners, the 20 Best Newcomers and the Top 200 Florida restaurants.
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
