Hawkers Asian Street Fare Turns the Corner with Summer Menu Upgrades
Central Florida-based Hawkers Asian Street Fare has rolled out its summer rotation of new menu items, a seasonal ritual that changes out 10 percent of the menu with a fresh lineup of pan-Asian creativity. Seeing as I hadn’t been back to Hawkers since my review of the then-new Jacksonville location for the Florida Times-Union in […]
The BBQ of My Youth, Revisited: Sonny’s BBQ
In an increasingly crowded smokehouse of up-and-coming flashy barbecue joints, the nearly 50-year-old Sonny’s BBQ is evolving in tasty ways.
Candy Apple stands up new summer menu, craft cocktails
When it comes to finding an upscale-yet-approachable dining experience in downtown Jacksonville, you literally have to peer near the heart of downtown, or darn near it, to find the sweet spot. I’m talking about Candy Apple Café and Sweet Pete’s, joined at the hip in the historic Seminole Club on Hogan Street. Here you’ll find […]
New Winn-Dixie means business with bright lights, prepared foods
Winn-Dixie has a bold vision brewing in its hometown, to go after a decidedly more upscale market. To do it, it’s rebuilt one of its own from the inside out. A previously underperforming WD shuttered in 2010 at 10915 Baymeadows Road on Jacksonville’s Southside sprang back to life Feb. 4 following a rebuilding project. With […]
Random acts of ‘free food’ Tuesday in Mandarin
Skewered as they’ve been of late with pink slime, Red China’s screams of tainted beef and dire earnings reports, McDonald’s recently scored a W in a game global brands love to play: Super Bowl advertising buzz. By broadcasting its new “Lovin’” form of random-act-of-kindness payment during the big game, Mickey D’s unearthed a smidge of much-needed Coke-like feelgood currency. […]
Cabana Grill freshens up Mex options in Mandarin
From greasy-spoon old-school to nouveau gourmet, it’s not hard to find Mexican food on the First Coast that meets just about any timeframe, budget or appetite. Somewhere in the middle, fast-casual Mex outlets like Moe’s Southwest Grill, Tijuana Flats and Chipotle promote smaller menus, fresh ingredients, salsa and hot sauce bars, modern, artsy and almost […]
Decoding the smartphone peddlers’ fuzzy math
Eight years. Four contracts. Untold thousands of dollars. That’s what Cingular Wireless/AT&T has gotten out of me since January 2007, when my angst over six years of Sprint boiled over into a messy divorce. Over where the grass was (at the moment) green as an Irish meadow in September, then-Cingular soon had me smitten by a […]
Papi Chulo’s Salsa Goes Under the Microscope Once Again
Papi Chulo’s had to put up with me a second time around when I visited recently with Jax Restaurant Reviews. Did they finally turn around that salsa?
Blast from the past to back to the future: Grotto’s menu all grown up
The Grotto’s grown up in San Marco Square, in the form of a new, ready-for-prime-dine-time menu. Let’s take a look…
Wine flights, arriving daily: Vino Volo debuts at JIA
As longer connection times, late arrivals and a host of other hassles have tarnished the once-friendly skies, airports have stepped in to provide weary travelers with more terrestrial delights between their flights. Massage stations, rock-climbing walls and libraries are some of the many amenities you’ll find in 21st century air terminals. And so it goes […]
Follow Me … to the Promised Land
Here’s where Jay lives on the social Web. Pop in and say hi.