I’m starting to think Mario and I should just pick up and move to Riverside/Avondale, since we seem to end up in one of the hip little ‘hoods every weekend. Although it’s further from my dream of a beachfront condo, apparently it’s where much of the good food in Jacksonville is hiding. One of our new favorites is ‘town, one of Jacksonville’s subscribers to the farm-to-table movement. I love the open design of the restaurant, which allows yu to even watch your food being prepared at the kitchen bar.

'town

Our first experience there was for brunch one unseasonably warm & sunny December morning. Mario decided to try the buttermilk pancakes (with raspberry sauce & orange-scented whipped cream), and I couldn’t pass up the lobster benedict (jumbo lobster meat, grit cakes, lemon hollandaise):
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I was recently invited to a tasting of the new winter menu at Seasons 52 in the Town Center. I have visited one of the Atlanta outposts of this chain before (see post here) and really enjoyed their seasonal, low-cal food. The menu changes quarterly (hence “Seasons”) with a “Chef’s specials” menu that changes weekly (there’s the “52″). We were provided with a number of this season’s new appetizers, entree of our choice, and a selection of those wonderful dessert shooters (mini indulgences). Since I’ve already done a review of Seasons 52, I’ll just give a play-by-play of this winter tasting.

We started with a special scallop ceviche amuse, PEI Mussels (steamed in a zesty marinara sauce and served with grilled ciabatta), and Tandoori Chicken Skewers (with mango chutney and cucumber herb raita):

Scallop Ceviche

PEI Mussels

Tandoori Chicken Skewers

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The latest venture of Jacksonville’s Medure Brothers (the minds behind Matthew’s Restaurant and Restaurant Medure), M Shack, is working to establish itself as the place to visit for creative burgers at the beach. The airy space includes a full bar and fits well with the beach location. The menu is displayed on large chalkboards on the wall–but FYI, you don’t have to stand back from the counter to decide on your order, there are smaller printed menus there too.

M Shack

M Shack interior

With promises of competitively-priced, high quality burgers, I had to go see what they had to offer. And once I caught wind of their menu a few weeks before opening, I knew what I’d be ordering: The Medurable, an M burger (fairly standard cheeseburger) topped with foie gras and bacon onion compote, $18. Mario had the much more affordably priced The Sunrise Burger (bacon, farm egg, American cheese and Shack Sauce):
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I thought it wise to finally get around to writing this post before Chew Restaurant closes its [downtown] doors permanently. Following their New Year’s Eve celebration, the Urban Core fixture will be moving a few miles southwest over to Five Points.

I first visited Chew during Jacksonville’s Downtown Restaurant Week with some co-workers. On that visit, I thought that conceptually everything was good–fresh, local ingredients in creative dishes–but that it just didn’t all pan out (for example: tough, dried-out pork belly chicharrones). I chalked this up to it being restaurant week, during which time the place was churning out the same dishes over & over and maybe not paying as much attention to detail. Since I was still convinced that those details could make something good, Mario and I gave it another try more recently. This visit made for much more exciting dining.

We happened to be famished the evening we stopped in, so I decided an appetizer was in order. Plus, I really wanted to try poutine, a dish I’ve heard much about but never tried. What a great introduction:

Short Rib Poutine

Now nearing its 2 month anniversary, the French Fry Heaven kiosk in the Town Center serves different & delicious varieties of “Angels” (regular fries) and “Saints” (sweet potato fries). Due to a number of restricting regulations in the city, this is about as close to food trucks/street food as we’ll get in Jax for the foreseeable future:

French Fry Heaven

We visited FFH’s soft open and have been back many times since. On our first visit, we tried a flock of three cupid-sized Angels & Saints (you see what they’re doing there?), GarlicParm Angels, French Quarter Angels (Cajun spice & remoulade), and Breakfast Saints (with maple syrup):

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One of my new favorite places (and apparently, one of EVERYONE’S favorites) in Jax is French Pantry. Yelp, Urbanspoon, Chowhound, even coworkers were telling me I HAD to get out to French Pantry–followed by a run-down of the rules. First, they’re only open from 11-2 M-F. There is ALWAYS a line, so plan accordingly (French Pantry lunches are “extended” lunches). Dine-in if you can for some of their fresh bread. The warehouse-like building can be difficult to identify (though usually, the line gives it away). And finally, dessert is a must.

French Pantry

French Pantry apparently supplies much of the fresh baked bread to restaurants in town. You can also pick up small items like loaves of bread, packages of rolls, or boxes of cookies from their display cart after your lunch. I’ve visited a handful of times now and always end up ordering one of their famed bruschettas, which are not your typical tomato/basil/olive oil-topped bread rounds. These are topped with a cheese and protein and served over salad:
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I was recently excited to hear that Jax would be getting a new (and apparently already well-known) cupcakery. Sweet! by Good Golly Miss Holly features Hollis Wilder’s famous cupcakes, which made her a 2-time winner of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. The original shop has been operating in Orlando for 3 years, but about a month ago Jacksonville got its very own store in the Town Center.

Sweet!

I went in on my own during their soft open to try some mini cupcakes (LOVE that they have minis…feels less sinful), while Mario decided to dispense himself a cup of frozen yogurt, which Sweet! also sells (yeah, yogurt is the new hotness in Jax, too):
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What a slacker I’ve been! The only excuse I can offer is that I’ve been doing little eating out or even creative cooking in the interest of shedding a few pre-wedding pounds (only about a week to go!). However, I did make it out to Jax beach for a little relaxation a few weekends ago, and in order to sate an odd lobster roll craving of mine, decided to stop by A La Carte, a catering company and “gourmet shop.” The cute little building just off A1A/3rd St. looks like it was picked up from a New England coast and plunked here on the Florida coast.

A La Carte

Their “Authentic New England Style Lunch” served Friday-Tuesday features items such as fried clams, a Haddock sandwich, a “clam cake” sandwich, and the aforementioned Maine lobster roll.
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This post is a tale of two cities…or two Smashburgers in two cities. I made a trip to Atlanta last weekend to hang out with Mario and do some “official” last hurrah-type activities (mani/pedi at my most favorite nail shop, my favorite cupcakes, etc). After a half day of furniture shopping, I was really hoping to get my last Bocado burger for lunch but forgot that they are only open for dinner on Saturdays. Bummer. So we decided instead to visit one of the newer burger joints in town, Smashburger. Just a few days later, I got an invite to the opening of the 1st Jacksonville Smashburger location at Neptune Beach. I guess the fact that I accepted means my first visit went well!

The folks at Smashburger are doing some rapid expansion as of late, trying to fill the fast-casual space that they say is wide open (and maybe it is, in places other than Atlanta). How they determined that fast-casual burger joints are lacking is a mystery to me, but if you’re executing well I guess more is ok. Direct competition for them is, of course, the also-expanding “multiple men” burger joint.

We liked the open and airy feel of the dining area (very Chipotle-like) and the friendly staff members at the register where you order before grabbing a seat. The menu is largely customizable, from bread to cheese to protein (beef, chicken, and black bean), but also contains some “pre-fab” burgers. These pre-fabs are one way Smashburger aims to specially recognize each local market–one burger that is only sold in that area. Jacksonville’s burger is the Sunshine Bacon & Cheese, with orange citrus bbq sauce, bacon, cheddar, and haystack onions:

Sunshine Bacon & Cheese

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Driving around Jacksonville, you are bound to notice one ubiquitous identifier of locals: Salt Life car decals. It might be an exaggeration to say that something like 1 in 5 cars carries a Salt Life sticker–but not much of one. After a week or so, my curiosity got the best of me and I hit the internets to find out what Salt Life was all about. Turns out, it’s a surf shop + restaurant out on Jax Beach. The restaurant portion seemed to be well-loved, so I convinced a few other new-hires at the job to check it out with me one weekend.

Salt Life Food Shack

Here we find another misnomered restaurant–calling the place a food “shack” is sellint it extremely short. The modern wood and stucco exterior is made more casual by beachy-but-classy interior decor, like gorgeous wood floors and tables inlaid with ocean blue tile (don’t quote me on any of that, I’m no designer). I was excited to have dining buddies who were down with slurping oysters, and we ordered both the chargrilled and raw platters to share.

Raw Oyster Platter

Garlic Parmesan Oysters

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