Avondale mainstay Sterlings to transition to new restaurant

[DavidWilliams]

http://jacksonville.com/entertainment/dining_out/2009-09-25/story/dining_notes_avondale_mainstay_sterlings_to_transition_to_

[5ptscurmudgeon]

Richard, We humbly await your magic and professionalism again. Hopefully you can pull up your neighbors to at least the edible range to match their already ludicrous pricing here in Avondale and Riverside.

Frank, Please do all of us a favor and stay in Chicago.

[DavidWilliams]

I sense venom. Please expound.

[mtraininjax]

5points - Stay in 5 points, I don't need you at the Avondale restaurants, and keep you happy attitude there as well.

[JaxByDefault]

"...fish will be flown in from around the world, from places such as Japan, New Zealand and Hawaii."

Sigh. Jacksonville has some lovely sea food. Why fly stuff in from elsewhere? Flash-frozen sea food tastes the same at hig-end restaurants everywhere.

You'll pay steeply in Charleston and New York for Amberjack caught right off of our coast, but you can hardly buy it here in town. We have real snapper and grouper (fish often mislabeled), firm local shrimp, and Apalachacola oysters.

I'm happy to have a new restaurant, but it seems like more the same for JAX. For a place that's advertising that it will be  "green," how green really is a place that showcases flown-in food? Another missed opportunity for Jax to cultivate some local identity and pride in local ingredients. 

[ProjectMaximus]

nice point, JBD

[cybertique]

your an idiot, JBD, the business model reality is providing supply to meet demand, and there is no demand for fish from the dirty St Johns river or the limited fish selections available in the North Atlantic.  You know nothing about the restaurant business and should keep quiet.

[Lucasjj]

Even if you don't agree with what JBD said, that response is a little much.

[Captain Zissou]

Way to make an entrance, cybertique.  I agree with JBD mostly, but you do barely have a point.  I too cannot see how a restaurant could be considered green if it flew its ingredients in from Alaska and elsewhere.  In LEED certification, all materials have to come from within 500 miles of the project site. I'm sure the green bit is more for marketing than actual environmental stewardship purposes.

On the other hand, the supply and demand aspect is a large factor, I'm sure, in their menu selection.  It may just not be feasible  to support a restaurant of this scale with all local products.  So, total lack of etiquette and courtesy aside, thanks for sharing your inputs, Cybertique.

[JaxBorn1962]

Even if you don't agree with what JBD said, that response is a little much.

How True!

[Jason]

Not to nitpick you, Captain, but LEED was never mentioned in the article.  Only the most over used marketing word of the decade "green" was used.  They're planning to recycle glass and plastic.... just as all restaraunts should be doing anyways, IMO.

Like his restaurant by the same name in Memphis, which will remain open, Bluefish will be a "green" restaurant. He plans to only buy sustainable seafood and will recycle glass and plastic.

Still, we should hold out to give the place a fair shot before tearing it apart.

And a warm welcome to you cybertique.  Thanks in advance for ensuring all future posts are thought out and cordial.

[Dog Walker]

Starting at Kaldi's (I think), together and then separately, Richard and Liz Grenamyer were just about the first people to bring world class food to Jacksonville.  There was a time here that to get anything but good seafood, you had to belong to one of the private clubs to get a fine meal in Jacksonville.  Times have changed thanks to some pioneers.

Welcome back, Richard!

[Captain Zissou]

Jason, my reference to LEED was more of a for instance, not about any aspect of the restaurant itself.  I was trying to bolster JaxByDefault's point that local products are a large part of being green. While recycling glass and plastic is important, if that glass or plastic were shipped from Alaska, a great deal of damage has already been done.  

[JaxByDefault]

Cybertique:

I travel. I eat. I spend a good deal of my discretionary income on restaurants.  Other than that, you are correct in that I have no specialized knowledge of the restaurant business other than the kitchens in which I worked to offset the cost of college and graduate school. I can understand how sourcing fish from a national distributor is easier and perhaps more cost effective. I can understand a restaurant needing to feature a salmon dish to meet customer expectations and having to procure wild salmon from the Pacific or North Sea regions.

I prefer menus that feature fresh, local ingredients, employing solid cooking principles with disiplined creativity to bring out the best in those ingredients. Jacksonville has a shortage of such places and I'm longing for a change.

I bristle at greenwashing an unsustainable menu focus with (very admirable) green construction or insinuating that our local waters are unfishable and that Atlantic fish is subpar. Fishing is a vital local industry that we should be doing more to support. Jacksonville customers sould be better about recognizing and demanding good local seafood--and creating greater market demand.   Restaurants should push and challenge local palates to embrace local seafood --I'd bite on sophisticated local-focused specials.

While salmon may need to be flown in to bolster a menu, serving imported shrimp is inexcusable -- not saying the new Avondale place will do this, but many, many restaurants here serve imported shrimp. If the local Cobia, Amberjack, Grouper, Cusk, Red Snapper, etc. is good enough for Michelin star chefs in Manhattan, I'm guessing it could be a hit here too.  It is sad to sit in an upscale restaurant in another city and hear a server announce that evening's special is domestic, east coast, amberjack caught off the waters of Jacksonville, FL, (actually happened) while knowing it's pretty rare at home.

Good luck. Looking forward to a new place in JAX.

[Jason]

Jason, my reference to LEED was more of a for instance, not about any aspect of the restaurant itself.  I was trying to bolster JaxByDefault's point that local products are a large part of being green. While recycling glass and plastic is important, if that glass or plastic were shipped from Alaska, a great deal of damage has already been done.  

I gotcha and I agree 100%.