Indochine

Indochine is the latest in Jacksonville's rapidly expanding number of Thai Restaurants. Each new opening seems to up the ante on food and setting. It wasn't too long ago that Lime Leaf opened and blew away the competition with its exquisite food and sleek interior. Now Indochine has come along to raise the bar once again.

I've always admired the stairwell next to the Burrito Gallery. The wrought iron window set into a worn brick facade with aging rafters visible above the concrete stairs adorned with their own wrought iron railings. The food at the Burrito Gallery is enough of an attraction to warrant a visit but the stairwell is one of the handful of iconic images that I must take in to complete my trip downtown. Indochine won me over immediately by moving in above the Burrito Gallery and thereby forcing me to ascend this work of art.

The interior lives up to the magnificent entrance. Bare brick walls, natural lighting, and abundant greenery make for a very relaxing and aesthetically pleasing setting. We were lucky enough to be given a windown seat and enjoyed watching the world go by below.

The Chicken Red Curry, my go to meal and measuring stick of sorts at Thai restaurants, was the best I've had so far and that's considering some incredibly impressive competition. The vegetables were still fairly snappy, the chicken precisely cooked, and (most important of all) the curry sauce perfectly balanced. Despite the over-abundance of food, I was unable to stop myself from scoffing the entire plate and left myself nothing to eat for the following lunch. Luckily I was given leftovers from the Mixed Vegetables plate, an assortment of vegetables wok fried in a light brown sauce. The description may seem rather bland but the meal itself was very flavorful.

After recently finding a new favorite in Lime Leaf, I think Indochine has now taken its place at the top. Proximity means I'll happily frequent my former favorite but for recommendations and special occasions, this is a great destination to put on the list. I look forward to seeing what the next challenger will bring to the table but I'm skeptical that anyone can beat Indochine on location alone.




Indochine
21 E Adams Street Ste 200
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 598-5303

Eat Up Downtown

This year's Eat Up Downtown event starts today and goes until August 22. So, for two full weeks, 21 of the best restaurants downtown will be offering "specially selected, three-course dinner menus for $25 per person."

For details and a full list of the participating restaurants, please visit the official Eat Up Downtown website.

TSI

I am not a club person. There's typically very little beyond the noise, the smoke, the plastic cups, and the chest thumping that would actually make me want to go, particularly at such a late hour. However, as with all things in life, there are bound to be some exceptions to your general rules.

TSI is not your typical club. First and foremost, for an aspiring snob like myself, they have an impeccable draft beer selection. While not as great in quantity as you would find in a good pub (I think they number in the teens), those that get valuable tap space are top notch. There's a handful of great wheats too, a favorite style of mine, which definitely earns them bonus points on my imaginary scoreboard.

Not only are the beers good, they're also served in actual glasses, not plastic cups. Anybody who appreciates the quality of a good fermented beverage; anybody who values the flavor, feel, and overall craftsmanship far more than the buzz, will tell you that glassware matters. As part of my aspiring snobbery, I've decided to refuse to drink at places when they're serving out of plastic cups. A man needs to have principles.

Another of TSI's pleasant qualities is the abundance of music that doesn't turn my stomach and make my ears bleed. My beer snobbery may be a relatively recent phenomenon but my music elitism goes back years. You don't come to this place to drink Bud Light and listen to Top 40 hits, you come for Erdinger Weissbier and indie dance mixes. Before you call me biased for having my tastes pandered to, they definitely don't play "my kind" of music. However, they do at least play music that I can respect and enjoy.

Overall, in terms of the night club scene, TSI is just a unique and fairly classy place. Does it get smoky, is it loud? Sure, but that just goes with the territory. If you're looking for a late night with drinks and perhaps some dancing, consider it a welcome deviation from the standard bro-fests. Did I mention they have an excellent beer selection?



Club TSI
333 East Bay St
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 424-3531

Chew

Having recently celebrated their two year anniversary, Chew is a relative newcomer to the swanky downtown restaurant scene. If you've gone wandering through the downtown streets some lonely evening or weekend when the Jacksonville city center turns into the set for a post-apocalyptic zombie movie, chances are you've passed by Chew and not taken much notice. The subdued brick facade is easy to glance over and the simple yet elegant arrangement inside doesn't do much to attract one's attention. Eat here once, however, and you'll never be able to ignore it again.

Despite the quiet formality of its interior, Chew doesn't intimidate you into adopting a faux air of elegance. Instead you are simply invited to meld into the surroundings and participate in something that seems natural rather than pompous.

The menu is full of modern takes on French inspired cuisine replete with long names and enticing descriptions of the interesting ingredient combinations. There were so many fascinating things we wanted to try but we are only wee people and decided on an entree each: the Boneless Half Chicken with bacon and white bean cassoulet, fresh fennel, in a cognac pan sauce and the Flounder Hot Pot steamed flounder, soba noodles, napa cabbage, roasted beets, Honsimeji mushrooms, in a spicy lemongrass-ginger broth. There was no flounder that day so Ahi tuna was used in substitution but, being a tuna addict, there were no complaints from me.

According to their website they "use the highest quality products available - made in-house, sourced locally, or from all over the world," which was apparent in the quality of the food. We thoroughly enjoyed our meals and thought that the prices were certainly reasonable considering the quality, quantity, and variety of the ingredients.

For all the desert lovers, their offerings are supposed to be sublime but, for a variety of reasons, we stay away from such foodstuffs and can neither confirm nor deny the assertion. Regardless, the place begs repeat visits and looking over the menu once again has convinced me that the time is about right for my return.

Chew
117 W Adams St
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 355-3793

Treaty Oak

Approaching from the road, you'll see what looks like a couple trees surrounded by a series of bushes. It's only once you breach the umbrella of this great beast that you realize that one solitary plant is responsible for the sprawling expanse of vegetation.

Quercus virginiana, the Southern Live Oak, a hardy, evergreen tree found throughout much of the Southern United States... where left unmolested by man that is. Jacksonville's Treaty Oak, nestled in a park on Prudential Drive, almost shared the fate of so many of its brethren.

In the early 1900s, the tree was a main attraction of the Dixieland Amusement Park. It received the name Treaty Oak when a reporter fabricated a story about the signing of a treaty between natives and settlers on the site to save the tree from developers. But what has really saved it from the axe is the continued influence of the Garden Club of Jacksonville. The land within which the oak is rooted and the immediate surrounds was bought by Jessie Ball duPont, a member of the Garden Club, and donated to the City of Jacksonville in 1964 for the explicit purpose of preserving this majestic tree.

According to Wikipedia:

"The trunk is over 25 feet in circumference, it rises to height of 66 feet, and its crown spreads over 145 feet, with twisting branches that bow to the ground and curl back up. The oak shades a roughly circular area, about 190 feet in diameter. Though less than 200 years old, it may nonetheless be the single oldest living thing in Jacksonville, possibly predating the founding of the city by Isaiah Hart during the 1820s."

This tree truly is a majestic specimen and sure to delight any lovers of nature. It's also a nice place to take refuge on a hot, sunny day. Or you could be lame like us and take some poser pictures. Whatever you do, be sure to show some respect... this tree is far more amazing than you are.


Jessie Ball duPont Park
(Treaty Oak Park)
1123 Prudential Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32202

Art Walk

On the first Wednesday of every month downtown Jacksonville museums, galleries, restaurants, bars, and businesses play host to Art Walk, a parading of Jacksonville's more creative side featuring various works of art by local residents.

I've been aware of Art Walk's existence for a couple years now and had been planning to go for the past few months but something always came up or it simply slipped my mind. Firmly resolving to attend the June 6th festivities, I recruited two coworkers to accompany me in my adventures and headed off towards downtown.

While not teeming with people (does downtown ever get crowded?) I was surprised to see so many people walking the city streets. Downtown Jacksonville always seems so desolate or post-apocalyptic and that is a major part of its appeal to me but it was nice to see a sizable amount of people wandering around. We meandered through a few galleries, whispering our opinions, listening to the musicians on the sidewalks, and grabbing food and drinks here and there but my mind was mostly occupied with the task of just absorbing the dynamics of it all. I'm not fond of crowds and large gatherings but this was a different situation, a much more fascinating romp than the typical mass assembly. Perhaps the atmosphere was so much more enjoyable because there was really no single point of focus nor a single motivator. Multiple reasons to be there and many things to do.

My favorite part of the experience was the wonderful opportunity it afforded me to wander around downtown and observe the strange mingling of modern and historical architecture, boring and beautiful buildings, and crumbling structures amid new construction.

There is never a cost for admittance and you can probably snag a few snacks and drinks for free or a small donation but be prepared to do a lot of walking. As I understand it, there's typically an after party and this time it was at Mark's on E. Bay Street where turning in your flyer got you one free drink, a nice cap to the night.

Now that I've experienced Art Walk and discovered how enjoyable it can be I'll be sure to make arrangements to attend in the coming months.

Art Walk
100 N Laura St. (art walk headquarters)
Jacksonville, FL 32202

Starbucks, Downtown Jacksonville

I think I've already insulted Starbucks a good number of times in the limited run of this blog. After all it's an easy target. Super-saturation, declining standards, and high prices; Starbucks is rapidly becoming the new McDonald's, symbol of all things evil in the eyes of the fist pumping, mouth foaming hordes of anti-capitalists activists. But here I'll have to admit that, despite my many gripes, I actually like this company and their [exorbitantly priced] coffee and I applaud their success. Like McDonald's, you know what you're going to get and that you can probably find a store within a half-mile radius.

Up until recently, however, there was no Starbucks in downtown Jacksonville and since most of downtown resembles the set of a post-apocalyptic movie on nights and weekends (very few signs of life, no commerce, lack of food, and zombies) this meant that you couldn't get your caffeine fix when you needed it (unless you're willing to drink the runoff from the Maxwell House factory). Well, worry no more:

There is now one Starbucks in downtown Jacksonville and the interior is pretty nice.

End.

Crap... I just found out there's one at the Landing but I'm not going to count that one because the Landing sucks. Please, avoid the Landing at all costs unless you're looking to lose a few IQ points and completely ruin your outlook on humanity/Jacksonville/water/food. Thank you.

Starbucks Forsyth & Main
11 E. Forsyth St.
Suite 104
Jacksonville, FL 32202
904-358-1404

Chamblin Bookmine Downtown

Recently Chamblin Bookmine, Jacksonville's largest dealer in used literature, opened up a two story megastore in downtown. They're still in the process of stocking shelves and the cafe in front won't be open for another month or so from this post's publication date but there's still plenty to find in just a cursory glance at spines of the thousands-upon-thousands of books crammed onto the numerous rows of wooden shelves.

There's something so comforting about the slightly sweet smell of a used book and this place reeks of it. Even sweeter is that all used books are half off the original retail price and new books carry a ten percent discount, just look for the Chamblin Bookmine stamp inside the cover which indicates a used item.

So if half.com has angered you too many times, you don't want to wait for something to be shipped, or you just want to browse through a bunch of old books looking for something to strike your fancy then head to Chamblin Bookmine... I'm looking forward to the opening of the cafe.

Chamblin Bookmine
215 N Laura St
Jacksonville, FL 32202
904-674-0868

Burrito Gallery - Jacksonville, FL

I had often heard about Burrito Gallery, but for me it was just too far out of the way to actually go try. I mean, it's a burrito place, there are burrito places everywhere in Jax, why would I subject myself to the parking situation downtown just to get a burrito?

One fateful night, however, we stumbled upon it completely by accident while wandering downtown and decided to give it a go. I can honestly say that not even the nightmare that is parking downtown can deter me from going back. The food is fantastic.

My chicken burrito was by far the best burrito I have ever eaten... ever. The place constantly has new and interesting artistic pieces adorning the walls, and the back patio is absolutely adorable. I didn't sit at the bar, but in passing have decided it's the type of bar I would sit at. More importantly, at said bar you can get beer, wine, and LIQUOR, something those other burrito joints simply can't offer.

I highly recommend the place. There's even city parking in the lot next door if you want to pay for it, if not happy hunting.

Burrito Gallery
21 East Adams St.
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 598-2922