Sierra Grille

Sierra Grille may be a chain restaurant but it sure doesn't seem like one. The only "official" web site lists locations in Connecticut... and that's it. It's hard to tell how wide spread this place truly is but it's safe to say that's it's not as homogenized as the more recognizable burrito joints out there. I, by no measure, mean to disparage the competing big-chain, fresh-burrito-centric fast-food restaurant and I must admit to liking most of them as well. Moe's, Qdoba, and Chipotle (whose arrival at the Town Center got me so excited that I only got around to visiting within the past couple weeks) are all great but you know about them already.

The Sierra Grille on Belfort was once a regular work-time lunch spot for me. By regular I really mean once a month but I rarely ever eat out during the week so this was usually the one place I'd go. Then one day I arrived at the glass doors, hungry and excited only to find the place shut. They'd moved to a location near the intersection of Southside and Baymeadows, a high traffic area without a doubt, but I don't see why they had to close the Belfort location as it was always packed solid during lunch.

So a few years have gone by and I don't feel that betrayed anymore so we decided to stop by the "new" location for a post-yard work Sunday lunch.

Multiple signs proudly boast that no freezers, microwaves, or canned goods are used in the creation of your food at The Sierra Grille. The meats are lean, the produce is fresh, and the salsa is made on location. And this is one of the best reasons to visit The Sierra Grille, the salsa is some of the best around. There are quite a few varieties offered at the salsa bar, my absolute favorite being the roasted tomato, and they can also be purchased by the pint. Pint? I could drink this stuff by the gallon.

The burritos are fairly large and packed with fresh ingredients. I often opt for the fish burrito which differs depending on what the catch of the day is but I haven't been let down yet. For people used to overseeing the construction of their burritos at the aforementioned chains, there may be a greater risk of disappointment here where they don't offer you that luxury but I've found that, overall, the ingredients tend to be of a much better quality, even if they aren't in the proportions that you'd prefer.

If you live in the area, remember that Tijuana Flats is across the street. I'd recommend alternating between both places often for your fill of freshness and fire.

Sierra Grille
8221 Southside Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32256
(904) 642-6530

331 Marsh Landing Pkwy
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250
(904) 273-2090

Beaches Green Market

Every Saturday, from 2 - 5pm, a horde of local farmers, food preparers, craft makers, and other vendors descend upon Atlantic Beach to peddle their wares at the Beaches Green Market.

One thing I miss about living in St. Augustine is the Saturday morning farmer's market at the amphitheater. While I didn't often go because I wouldn't remember until it was too late (hours are from 8am - noon), I did greatly appreciate scoring fresh fruits and vegetables for relatively little money every time I managed to make it. The only farmer's market I knew about in Jacksonville was the one on Beaver Street, just north of the Riverside/Avondale area. Whereas there are a great number of stalls there, I didn't really get the comfortable farmer's market vibe from the one visit I paid the place a few years ago.

I don't remember how I found out about the Beaches Green Market, I'm assuming either directly or indirectly through a perusal of the blogs on Jax Reader. Either this place doesn't go out of it's way to promote itself or the Firefox Adblock plugin has successfully migrated to my brain because I was shocked (although not surprised) to hear of its existence and immediately scheduled a visit for the next Saturday.

The market is fairly small but swarming with people. There are currently 26 vendors listed on the website for the current season. I'm going to shamefully plagiarize that list and include it here for the people who may not be inclined to click on the link above:

• Twinn Bridges Herb Farm Heirloom vegetables and vegetable plants, herb plants, jams, pickles, honey. Located in MacClenny. Pesticide-Free. Some supplemented produce from area farms. They also donated herb plants to fill our community garden beds!


• Down to Earth Organic Farm All organic vegetables, herb bunches, and flowers. Fun heirloom varieties. All organic, located in Jacksonville.


• Musickal Acres Pecans in Season. Also a variety of vegetables and organic eggs. Pesticide-Free, aiming to be organic. Located in MacClenny. Some supplemented produce from area farms.


• Ashlin Farms All-natural beef. Both grain-finished and grass-finished, all pasture raised. No antibiotics, animal by-products, or growth hormones. Located in Jacksonville.


• Alvarez Farms Located in Raiford, Alvarez brings us local, conventional produce.


• NCL Farms NCL brings us a variety of mostly Naturally Grown produce from small farmers all over Florida.


• Grower's Alliance Coffee A Jacksonville-based coffee company. The owners are originally from Kenya, from where they currently import their organic coffee beans. Coffee is locally roasted.


• Arbonne Vegan body-care products in all recycled packaging.


• Annie Clydes Homemade deserts, such as miniature pecan and sweet potato pies, cakes, and brownies.


• Turtle Island Natural Foods Our local health food store, Turtle Island sells delicious homemade organic dips, spreads, and salad dressings, as well as a selection of local organic produce. They also offer organic, regional produce baskets that you can pick up weekly at the Market. They are donating the tool shed for the community garden!


• Jaxma Orchid Greenhouse Large variety of orchids from a local family greenhouse.


• Bone Appetite All-natural dog and cat treats, as well as hand-sewn pet collars and toys.


• Earthen Jewelry Designs Lil sells her handcrafted jewelry, specializing in natural stones and handmade clay beads.


• Cognito Farm Cognito joins us a couple times a month, bringing their free-range all-natural broiler chickens, eggs, beef, goat cheese and milk, and organically grown produce.


• Maria's Bakery Maria sells a huge variety of baked goods, such as whole grain breads, calzones, cookies, etc.


• Porters and Importers Beth travels the world in order to find fair-trade products made by small organizations. She has a variety of neat products, such as jewelry, purses, toys, etc.


• My Eco Organic Kettle Corn They started as a local store, specializing in ecological home products... now they are featured at the market with organic treats such as kettle corn and shaved ice.


• St. Augustine Crab Cake King Arthur serves crab cakes from Fernandina, as well as coconut shrimp.


• Shoe House Studio Melanie melts wine bottles into cheese trays, bowls, and decorative wall hangings-- recycling bottles into something functional. She also makes ceramic jewelry and soap dishes from clay and glass.


• Ocean Bottom Custom Crafts Donna makes natural soaps from goat's milk, avocado, cucumber, and shea butter. She also makes tote bags from recycles fabric samples.


• Josey's Honey Amanda sells a variety of this local honey from well-managed hives.


• Afric Boutique Princess Trinity creates customized skin care from a variety of butters, including shea, avocado, and cacao, brought directly from family plantations in Kenya.


• FiFi's Granola Maribeth sells her homemade granola, with a variety of different flavors.


• Natural Solutions Karen Sparkman makes a variety of herbal salves, teas, sprays and balms to help all of your ailments. All are made from organically grown herbs.


• Shakti Life Kitchen Shakti is a local vegan, raw food cafe. They bring organic treats such as flax crackers, buckwheat beans, blue corn chips, and seed cheese.


• Charlie's Citrus bCharlie is a long-time local and grower of organic citrus. He has a great variety, including several kinds of grapefruit, tangerines, meyer lemons and more.

Fruits, vegetables, fresh meat, hygienic products, snacks, coffee, tea, flowers, and crafts; there's a lot of variety represented in such a small space. Again, I totally stole the above from the Beaches Green Market website but I feel that the above vendors definitely deserve as much promotion as possible.

Being a hopeless coffee addict, I'd like to give a special shout out to Grower's Alliance Coffee who work with farmers in Africa to provide single origin, organic and fair-trade coffees. The beans are roasted here in Jacksonville the night before you purchase them at the market and will only cost you about as much as an equivalent amount of Starbucks coffee beans. And while I'm not much of a flower appreciator myself, preferring instead to grow edible plants, the amazing orchids at the Jaxma Orchid Greenhouse tent are a must-see for anyone stopping by the market.

There's nothing like fresh produce. Eating a tomato straight off the vine is one of the most sublime experiences I've ever had the privilege to undergo with any regularity. But while they don't bring the living vine, the freshness of the vegetation is unparalleled in super markets. And until Native Sun opens a Jax Beach branch, this is pretty much the best local option the salt water people of East Duval county have to for fresh, organic produce.

But before I go, I must relate one tragic detail about my visit which left me a little disappointed. I did not see this guy:

And while my disappointment hasn't put me off visiting again, I think my trips would be more frequent if Carrot Man were a regular feature.

Beaches Green Market
Every Saturday
2- 5 PM
Jarboe Park, Neptune Beach
(intersection of A1A and Florida Blvd.)

Shakti Life Kitchen

Fresh from our great experience at The Present Moment Cafe, we were excited to discover another raw food restaurant in the area, this time closer by in Atlantic Beach. Online information is scarce, but it appears that The Shakti Life Kitchen opened its doors in late 2008 and is the 2nd raw food restaurant in North East Florida (not counting raw oyster bars).

The Shakti Life Kitchen is semi-hidden in the lower level of a two-story, modern building just off the ocean end of Atlantic Blvd. Inside you'll find a cute, clean little cafe, complete with a smoothie bar and dining area. There are a few packaged foods and nutritional supplements for sale and a couple comfortable couches by a window that look like a good place to sit with a laptop and one of their delicious smoothies.

The menu has similar items to those offered at The Present Moment: raw food implementations and reinterpretations of standard restaurant foods. And while many of the base ingredients are the same, The Shakti Life Kitchen differs in their use of spices. Whereas one may say The Present Moment is more akin to the French or general European style of cuisine, it could be said that The Shakti Life Kitchen takes inspiration from India both culinarily and in name. The pastes and sauces are spicier but that doesn't necessarily mean "hot" spicy as in chili peppers; there just appears to be a considerable amount of spices used in the preparation.

I opted for the Portabello Burrito: spinach chia wrap filled with marinated mushroom steaks, "sour cream", guacamole, shredded lettuce, and diced tomatoes served with cauliflower "rice", corn chips, and salsa, while the lady ordered the Sunny Style Pizza: a hearty crust topped with sundried tomato marinara, pumpkin seed "cheese", marinated bell pepper strips, and zucchini with a side of mixed greens. I quite enjoyed my burrito and what I ate of the pizza was pretty good as well. No dessert this time but I did decide to have an after-meal beverage.

Being a sucker for strange beverages, particularly coffees and teas, I was compelled to try the Ganesh Cafe. It was only later in doing my research on the ingredients that I discovered how strange it truly is. Billed as a coffee-esque tea, the Ganesh Cafe is made from reishi tea, carob, mesquite, maca, cinnamon, spirulina, and agave. First off, the flavor is amazing, like a thick, chocolaty chai. I would gladly drink this stuff all day long, even considering the strange ingredients. Carob, mesquite, cinnamon, agave: nothing too strange there, but in reading up on the others I wondered what I'd got myself into (and I make a habit out of eating strange things).

Spirulina are free-floating filamentous cyanobacteria. Now, I eat yogurt with live cultures daily but the thought of eating algae or bacteria is still a bit strange. However, it appears to be a fairly nutritious and safe food containing a decent concentration of protein and certain vitamins.

Reishi Tea is made by mixing green tea with the essence of the reishi mushroom. Mushroom tea? Pretty weird, but delicious nonetheless.

So for those looking for healthy, raw food creations in the region, add The Shakti Life Kitchen to that too-short list. I know I'll be going back for some more Ganesh Cafe. Do you think I could get a discount if I buy it by the gallon?

Shakti Life Kitchen
51 Pine Street
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
904-247-7116

Balkan Cafe

A reader made a great suggestion the other week and recommended we check out The Balkan Cafe on Beach Boulevard (thanks TP3). If it were not for that comment, I would not have known this great little place existed.

Nestled in a hidden corner of the Food Lion complex, across the street from the Super Walmart where Beach and Southside meet, this nice little cafe serves up authentic food and beverages from the Balkans. Jacksonville has a large population of people from the Balkans, Bosnia in particular, due to the large influx of refugees who fled the terrible conflicts that afflicted the region during the mid to late 90s. I found an article on Jacksonville.com from 1999 putting the figure at between 4,000 and 6,000 and, although I can't seem to find an official number, today it is said to be much higher. Therefore, I was always puzzled as to why I never saw any Balkan restaurants around town. Apparantly, I just wasn't looking in the right places.

I like holes in the wall, particularly those serving up good, authentic, ethnic foods and so I naturally expected that this would be such an establishment. To my surprise, the place is actually rather modern looking and super clean; not what I was expecting but in no way a disappointment. Sensing my confusion and inexperience with the food, the waiter/cashier/assistant cook/manager gladly helped me out by explaining some of the food on the menu and then offered to make me a mix of some of the items.

We ended up with Sudžuk/Sujuk, Ćevapi, and Kebapi; all essentially different kinds of sausages served with pita bread and fresh diced onions. We were also treated to some vegetable spread and a cheese spread that was very similar to cream cheese. The stodgy dishes with their abundance of protein, carbs, and fats are definitely the kind of food you would want to eat after a long day of physical labor; Everything tasted great. The sausages differed noticeably but not drastically in flavor from each other and the pita bread was nice, particularly when slathered with the spreads.

Thanks again to TP3 for the suggestion. There's apparently a lot of hidden places to eat and points of interest around Jacksonville and we aim to keep ourselves occupied by uncovering them.

Balkan Cafe
8595 Beach Blvd # 305
Jacksonville, FL 32216
(904) 998-9333