North Beach Bistro

I think the voluntary period of silence has run out on this one so here we go. The lady was lucky enough to score a couple tickets to the most recent Bite Club event at the North Beach Bistro in Atlantic Beach. This meant an awesome sampling dinner (minus drinks) for no monetary cost to us at all. Before the announcement of this place as the venue for the Bite Club outing I'd never even heard of it so this was essentially a double score: get introduced to an amazing restaurant and get an amazing free meal.

One thing to note about the North Beach Bistro is its immense size. There's a bar area, a main dining room, and the gallery where we were seated. I think the gallery, with its art lined walls and large round tables, is typically used for gatherings and special occasions. But even ignoring this extra space, the North Beach Bistro is much bigger inside than one would expect.

Much to my dismay, the draught lines were down so no beer for me. That however, was the only personal disappointment for me throughout the night. First we started with appetizers. Unfortunately we missed out on the Vegetarian Spring Rolls with Sweet and Sour Sauce, a shame because that was the only vegetarian dish among the appetizers. However, I did quite enjoy the Marinated Ahi Tuna on Wonton Chips with Ginger Aioli and even more so the Teriyaki Beef Satay with Siracha which was tender and flavorful; marinated and cooked to absolute perfection.

Dinner started with Lobster Ravioli with Mushroom Pesto Sauce. I enjoyed the innards while donating the surrounding, meatless parts to my dear, starving companion. Just as well, I'm not a big pasta fan. I was, however, a huge fan of the salad that came next: Organic Greens, Granny Apples, Spiced Walnuts, Goat Cheese, and Cranberry Vinaigrette. If there's one thing I learned in Vietnam, it's that it's always a great idea to put fresh, grated fruit and nuts in a salad (or to just put those two things together and call it a salad).

Next was the Shrimp with Chorizo, Rosemary, Soft Polenta and Gorgonzola Fondue. I donated most of the polenta but I liked the few tastes I managed to scrape together. Several people remarked that the Chorizo, minced and marinated as it was, gave the dish a taco-salad-esque flavor and, I'm ashamed to admit, I can see what they were talking about. Following the shrimp was my absolute favorite dish of the night: Calypso Crusted Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa and Tamarind Drizzle. I will go back to the North Beach Bistro and this is what I will order. "Island" flavored dishes can easily go horribly wrong. You can't just throw tropical fruit on top of a pork chop and expect it to work. The component tastes of this dish were exquisitely balanced and resulted in a divine overall flavor.

Although I could have happily stopped after the Mahi Mahi and savored the lingering flavor for the rest of the night, there was one more main course to try: Applewood Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Wilted Spinach and Apricot Bordelaise. Its mild yet rich flavor made it a nice dish to close out the main course. But that wasn't the end of it. The night was rounded out with the general crowd favorite: Tony's Hazelnut Crunch Bar and Vanilla Anglaise. Pretty good stuff, but I again was compelled to donate it to my starving companion.

We had a great time and would like to thank Ashlee, The Folio, and The North Beach Bistro for the tremendous meal. I'm looking forward to my next encounter with the Calypso Crusted Mahi Mahi and also hope to end up at one of the future Bite Club events.



North Beach Bistro
725 Atlantic Blvd
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 372-4105

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

Jacksonville Beaches / Ragtime Tavern

Florida beaches have, with few exceptions, left me disappointed and nostalgically yearning for the majestic shores of my youth in a far off land. When I moved to Florida in 1996 after a five year stint in waterless Colorado I was beyond thrilled at the prospect of once again indulging in the pleasures of the oceanside but the brown waters, dirty looking sand, and tiny waves quickly drowned my enthusiasm. That said, being by the ocean is better than being landlocked and there is a definite atmosphere permeating the shoreside communities that can't be found elsewhere.

On the morning Saturday, April 19 we took a trip out To Jax Beach for a mini-expedition as neither of us have ever really explored the area much. Being relatively early in the day, the streets weren't too crowded but there were still plenty of patrons engaging in all manner of sun, sand, and surf related activities down by the pier. Preferring more solitary environs (and because our flesh tones range from ivory to egg shell), we didn't spend much time weaving through the sun bathers and rugby players and instead chose to wander the lonely alleys among the closed bars and shops, marveling at the little plants growing out of the cracks in the concrete. However, if you're single, confident, and on the prowl then the beach front is the perfect place to parade your goods and cast your net. Perhaps we'll make it a point to visit the area again in the evening/nighttime to experience and assess the infamous nightlife that attracts people from all over the North East Florida region.

With growing hunger we headed back to the car and drove a few miles north to the Atlantic Beach area for lunch. One of our favorite restaurants in the Southside area is Seven Bridges and Atlantic Beach is the home to one of its two sisters, The Ragtime Tavern. The menu at The Ragtime Tavern is basically the same as Seven Bridges but with more seafood dishes and fewer chicken or beef alternatives. Being a sharing couple, we split the Sesame Tuna (I got the tuna, Kateri the sides and a salad) which was utterly fantastic by my standards. We don't drink often but enjoy a good beer or wine on occasion, particularly from microbreweries like The Ragtime Tavern and Seven Bridges, so we shared a glass of the Westbury Wheat. We're both rather fond of wheat beers and, while not the best wheat beer I've had, the Westbury Wheat had a good flavor. Weighing in around 3-4% alcohol, it's definitely not a brew you'd settle on if you're looking to get drunk but a good choice for those who really do drink for the taste (really!).

Wanting to experience more of the area, we wandered around the shops a bit and grabbed a cup of iced coffee from Shelby's Coffee Shoppe. There's a cute outside area where you can sit and sip your coffee whilst watching the sparrows engage in their mating and scavenging activities, all quite pleasant but slightly cheapened by the plastic container our coffee came in (it's an anti-disposable goods sentiment, not purely snobbery). The coffee itself wasn't very good either. It didn't taste bad but, then again, it also didn't taste like coffee. But here I must admit that I am a coffee snob yet typically forgiving.

All in all, it was an interesting few hours of wandering around the Jacksonville Beaches but I still find them to be rather overrated. Maybe a few more visits will change my mind and I'm open to any suggestions that will help brighten my opinion.

The Ragtime Tavern
207 Atlantic Blvd.,
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
904-241-7877

Shelby's Coffee Shoppe
200 First Street,
Neptune Beach, FL 32266
904-249-2922