O'Brothers Irish Pub

Ethnically, I'm an anglo mutt. British, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh with some mainland European thrown in for good measure. My wife's descendants were all full blooded Irish and she's even got the stereotypical red hair to prove it. Perhaps then it's our genetics that account for our attraction to the pub scene. Or I could dispense with that line of utter bollocks and instead attribute our fondness to living and traveling in places where such establishments are far more prevalent. But while our city is still pretty slim in the traditional pub department, we now have one more location to add to the collection.

O'Brothers Irish Pub was formed from the ashes of Avondale's Preservation Tap & Chophouse and Dona Maria's Mexican Restaurant in ownership and location respectively. The $35,000 needed to renovate the space was raised through unconventional means. Prior to opening, the owners offered 100 "patron packages" at $350 a piece which included an O'Brother's T-shirt and $100 in food gift certificates per month for six months. Sounds like a pretty good investment deal for rabid pub patrons.

And while there are some deviations from the traditional pub setup (you don't order at the bar and I can't seem to remember seeing a dart board) this is about the closest you can get to a pub around here. Looks like a pub, tastes like a pub, I think it's a pub. The large menu combines traditional stodgy pub food, like the Bangers and Mash and Irish Breakfast we ordered, along with some creative twists, like the Shrimp and Chicken Curry, in addition to standard American restaurant fare. What we tasted was deliciously authentic and the prices were reasonable.

Another great feature of O'Brothers is the availability of beers not typically seen in these parts. I had the London Pride and quite enjoyed it. I'd be forced to make my visits more frequent if they began offering my favorite British beer, Tetley's English Ale, but I'm still impressed with the refreshing variety they have on tap.

Hours are Monday - Saturday from 11am until all of the drunks leave but they're closed on Sundays so you're going to need to find an alternative location for your Sunday Shepherd's Pie fix. Oh, and one word of caution: some of the staff might try to fool you with an affected brogue when they're really no more Irish than a box of Lucky Charms cereal, but don't blame them for trying.

O'Brothers Irish Pub
1521 Margaret Street
Jacksonville, FL 32204
904-854-9300

Cozy Tea

Scouring the pages of the newly revamped Jacksonville.com (huge improvement) and looking for things to do, I came across an article about Cozy Tea, a newly opened tea house in Five Points.

According to the article, Cozy Tea's creator and owner, Shika Patel, had been planning to open a tea house for years and finally did so on November 21, 2008... right in the midst of an economic recession. Being a great appreciator of both tea and local entrepreneurship, I put Cozy Tea on the agenda for the following day.

My preconceptions about the place were completely shattered upon walking through the door. Five points has been undergoing a slight metamorphosis over the past couple years from shabby chic to just plain chic and this place is far more elegant than I had anticipated. Up front there is a store where you can purchase a wide variety of teas, tea accessories, and gourmet chocolates from Vermont's Lake Champlain Chocolates. In the back there is a cute dining room where you can go to sit and drink tea by the pot or indulge in some gorgeous looking sandwiches and deserts.

Looking over the picture I took of the tea menu, there are 41 teas on offer, all of which you can be sniffed from little vials in the shop prior to purchasing. Tea enjoyed at the store is purchased by the pot for $3.25. Sharing a pot will cost you an extra $1.50 but there are free refills and one pot is quite a lot of tea anyway. Based on the descriptions in the menu I had narrowed my choice down to two varieties but upon exploring the aromas of the teas I changed my mind completely and instead went with the Lady Londonderry, an aromatic and citrusy black tea that is listed among the English Favorites. I had never encountered it before, not even in the UK, but being that Ms. Patel moved to the US from England, I'll take her word for it.

We weren't too hungry so we didn't indulge in any of the amazing looking sandwiches served for lunch daily from 11am to 2pm. There are tea sandwiches, hot paninis, pastries, and more; all of which sounded delicious based on the descriptions and looked even more enticing when being carried to the tables of other patrons. I definitely plan on going back multiple times to sample some of the food as well as other varieties of tea. I'm not a big fan of deserts but the couple bites I had of the carrot cake were quite nice and it got the enthusiastic seal of approval from my wife.

The one unfortunate downside to Cozy Tea are the hours: 11am to 5pm. There was apparently a Sunday brunch offered early on but due to limited interest it was discontinued but I was told that plans are in the works to return with something smaller in the future. Still, it would be nice to stop in for a cup of tea during these chilly early mornings we're having or even to relax with a couple pots after a hard day of work. Here's hoping the place will be as successful as it deserves and subsequently expand their hours of operation so that I may stop by during the week some time.

Cozy Tea
1029 Park St,
Jacksonville, FL 32204
(904) 329-3964