Five Points, Center of the Nori Rolling Universe

[Metro Jacksonville]

Five Points, Center of the Nori Rolling Universe



We aren't sure what has happened to the Five Points area recently, but it has suddenly become the seismic epicenter of all things Sushi.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/466

[thelakelander]

Interesting article.  I never realized how many sushi restaurants were located in Five Points.

[Jason]

Do we have a China Town in the making....?

[jason_contentdg]

I believe Tokyo Bay and Sake House have the same owners.  Tokyo Bay's expanding to the corner and becoming more of a Japanese steak house...complete with the hibachi grills.

[fsujax]

Glad to know Tokyo is expanding, I thought it had closed.

[copperfiend]

Sake House is a good place for a lunch that won't cost you too much. The staff is friendly and the food is great for the price.

[Captain Zissou]

That's very interesting that Tokyo Bay will become more of a Steak House.  I was always curious as to why a company would open two restaurants so close together.  Sushi Cafe dominated the area for a while, but I think Sake House is close to taking that title away.  Tokyo Bay has had a pretty slow begining, but not any more than that of Sake House.  Both restaurants have been built in stages.  Sake house built the north facing portion before exxtending the restaurant towards Margaret street.  I recently went to a restaurant on the southside, Crazy Sushi, that is owned by the Sushi Cafe people.  I see they aren't going to risk doubling up in Five Points as well.    I don't know if a "Chinatown" like area will result, but clearly the market is there to support the large number of current restaurants.

[Jason]

Just curious, what do you guys think it will take to create a vibrant "China Town" district?  Could 5-points pull it off?

[thelakelander]

Five Points as a "China Town" District?  Doubt it.  For a vibrant cultural district you need a decent amount of residents and businesses catering to a certain culture placed in a compact setting next to each other.  The closest decent sized type of district to Jax I can think of is "Little Vietnam" ("Vi-Mi" district) in Orlando.  Btw, isn't sushi....Japanese?

Discover Orlando’s ViMi District
Just northeast of downtown Orlando, the ViMi district (near the intersection of Virginia and Mills avenues) is an expanding enclave of authentic Asian restaurants, shops and markets and is home to one of the largest Vietnamese-American communities in Florida.  Vietnamese, Korean, Thai and Chinese restaurants crowd along Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue; and grocery stores, stocked with everything from alternative medicines to exotic produce, cater mostly to Asian customers.

http://www.orlandoinfo.com/articles/multicultural-orlando.cfm

[Jason]

My "china town" reference had nothing to do with the sushi places opening up. 

What type of structures and densities would be necessary to support a cultural district of our own?  Jacksonville already enjoys quite a diverse mix of world cultures but is there any one location that clearly dominates?  The only place that comes to mind for me is the large Jewish community in San Jose, although, any nationality can be Jewish.

[thelakelander]

Its hard to say. It could range, but the area would have to be a compact place, offering some form of visual connectivity and be well supported by a particular culture.  For example, the Gateway Mall commercial corridor basically caters to it's surrounding neighborhoods.  There you'll find just as many Southern/Soul food/BBQ spots as you'll see fast food hamburger joints on the Southside.  Myrtle, between Kings and MLK, also has it's own unique flair catering to the large black population on that side of town.

Overall, it seems that Jax is diverse, but instead of having cultural pockets of isolation, the population is pretty spread out and mixed.

[alohameisha]

Japanese food has gained popularity and so it only makes sense that there are a lot of choices available. Roosevelt Shopping center has a sushi, Chinese and cook on the table restaurant all nestled in there. I love this style of food so to have a variety I think is great plus I feel that really all have their own niche, which hopefully will keep them from eliminating one another.

Here is the breakdown as I see it:

·   Sushi Café- good traditional sushi, great hibachi and other Japanese food
·   Wasabi Buffet-  high quality buffet style
·   Sake house- fantastic fresh sushi and speciality rolls (I have never had the cooked food here)
·   Tokyo Bay- If this turns into a cook on the table variety it will provide the action Japanese food aspect

Yum !

[ChriswUfGator]

So what ever happened to the Hibachi grill that was supposed to open up in the old Abernathy Opticians building in 5-points? It's been a year now, with zero progress. I was looking forward to it!

Anyone know anything?

[The Compound]

So what ever happened to the Hibachi grill that was supposed to open up in the old Abernathy Opticians building in 5-points? It's been a year now, with zero progress. I was looking forward to it!

Anyone know anything?

Its the same owners of Sake House. As far as I know they are still going to do it, but they were trying to get their location in San Marco opened up first. Its open now, so I dont know when they are going to start on this one, seems like they would have by now instead of sitting on it.

[ProjectMaximus]

My "china town" reference had nothing to do with the sushi places opening up. 

What type of structures and densities would be necessary to support a cultural district of our own?  Jacksonville already enjoys quite a diverse mix of world cultures but is there any one location that clearly dominates?  The only place that comes to mind for me is the large Jewish community in San Jose, although, any nationality can be Jewish.

I'll speak as a ethnically Chinese, American growing up in Jax...no way our city will have any semblance of a chinatown in the next 25 years. The population is simply not high enough. At its peak, I think there were perhaps 250-300 chinese families when I was growing up, and that's counting both the People's Republic and Taiwanese who were very much at odds (e.g. the association splitting circa and creating two separate tents at World of Nations, etc).

Without a large Chinese community you cannot develop a traditional Chinatown (SEE NYC or San Francisco) that grows over decades as immigrants naturally gather amongst their own to live, work, and do business.

Nowadays, cities like ours have ethnic groups that tend to be assimilated into the greater regional culture and dont find the need to segregate themselves for survival.

Instead, we could CREATE a chinatown the way Las Vegas has, by simply investing in a high concentration of such stores as an attraction for tourists more than for the ethnic locals. You can tell the difference, but I guess it would still be a legitimate Chinatown. However, I doubt we have the demand for such.

Examples of something in between the two types mentioned are in Atlanta and Houston. These aren't as historic and organic as the aforementioned older cities, and are more or less created like in Vegas, but they are primarily intended to serve the Chinese community.

As an aside, I'll mention that there aren't any really really good authentic Chinese restaurants in all of Jacksonville. I'm not trying to be critical...it's just become apparent to me over the years. Chinese families in Jax have been known to drive down to Orlando just for a meal.