Nightlife: East Bay Street
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A look at Downtown Jacksonville's burgeoning entertainment district at night.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/1043
Pretty nice photos, I say! 8)
It is coming along nicely. The triangle from Bay to the Landing to Adams is incredibly diverse and interesting. It may not equal some other areas but is becoming more popular every weekend. Anyone who says there is nothing there or no reason to go has not been recently. Remember people... parking is FREE on the streets after 6 pm and Saturday and Sunday. There are plenty of garages if you prefer that. Parking is not an issue.
Compare this with downtown nightlife options in 2002. Back then you had the newly established London Bridge and....hooters. 618/Milkdome may have still been around, but that was it.
Last weekend I started the night off at Burrito Gallery with delicious quesadillas, warmed up at Dive Bar, met up with some people at Ivy and closed the night out at TSI, which stays open until 3 am usually.
It was nice NOT DRIVING anywhere! You really can make a night out of downtown now.
It certainly is showing some promise. In the proverbial 'chicken or the egg' of downtown entertainment, I think its obvious: If you build it, they will come. (Unless it's at the Landing). ;)
I was going to say you have the landing options in addition to East Bay st, but you're right Tripoli. I never manage to get down to the landing. I wonder how are those night clubs doing, twsited mavericks etc.
nice pictures. It's good to see folks hanging out Downtown at night. It is also important to keep stating parking is FREE and ample on all streets DT at night and on the weekend!!!
Marks & Dive are fun.
Who serves the food from the window next to the ATM machine.
Give this area some time and it'll be THE place to go on a Saturday night.
The snack bar is part of TSI.
If we can get the county courthouse out of there and replace it with something compatible, it will really take off.
Yeah the courthouse was one thing I noticed immediately about the Bay st district. It'd be nice if there could be venues, clubs, restaurants on both sides of Bay, but the courthouse prevents that for now.
That is the key Lake. Unfortunately, that is at least 8-10 years away.
Where is the dance club on Adams and what's its name?
I have a nice group going out for my gf's birthday. Destination Downtown offers some great benefits & prices and our group will be taking advantage of all of them.
Great Drink Specials
$25 car home
$79 rooms at the Omni
$1 Parking Garage
No cover charges
We have some booths reserved at Twisted Martini... at $20 each we'll have
3 cases of beer
3 bottles of Kettle one + mixers
1 bottle of champagne
Tonight can't come soon enough!
Wahoo!! Sounds like fun! Tonight should be a great night out too! :)
What's the location?
You guys rock! Thanks for the article and great pictures. We want to thank all who have helped make this happen. We appreciate your support.
Shameless plug: Tonight (4/3/09) Red Bull will be out in full force on East Bay promoting an "Industry After Party" at Mark's. Supercross (that's the industry) stars and others are rumored to be coming.
See you Downtown.
Regards, Mark
:)
I love Marks.
Non shameless plug. I really do enjoy that place. It's the first place I think of when I think to go out.
Great photo set! I was actually at TSI's Florio Party that night for a bit. I hope people who never come Downtown see these photos and realize that there is a nightlight Downtown.
I hope the momentum continues we have a few more bars popping up on Bay St.
Look's like fun. From a designers standpoint. The city needs to knock out those curbs around the palm trees. They are an obvious trip hazards. It looks like TSI put cones on top of them for those with beer goggles. hehe.
Honestly other than Downtown, the Beaches, Riverside, and I guess to a lesser extend San Marco and Avondale, I can’t think of any side of town that could actually be considered a “hot spot†that has like 2 - 3 or more places to go out drinking or dancing that are within walking distance of each other where lots of people conglomerate. Though I’m not familiar with all sides of town I do know Southside and Town Center pretty much only offer chain restaurant bars (Zzzzzzz), Mandarin just has a spread of standalone bars and pools halls (oh good, let's fight), Springfield has Shanty, Pearl, and 9th and Main (There may be others here that I’m not aware of) semi close to each other but not quite in the same way. Don’t know enough about Northside, Westside. Nor Arlington, though it seems the same as Southside but I could be wrong.
Oh wait Murray Hill has some good places.
Maverick's and Twisted are alright, twisted being a bit older (patronage wise), while Maverick's has a decent crowd and the obvious country music. Mark's and Dive are both great, but I'm biased as I'm there every weekend. The addition of Ivy's and the revamp of TSI has really added to that strip. If it got one more bar inbetween Ivy and Mark's it would pretty much be as good as the midtown strip in Gainesville. The only problem that I have with the bars is that they always start goin' off late (12ish), but I guess that's the Jacksonville mentality. ;)
WhatsUpJacksonville is all about Downtown!
TSI has a huge show coming up on May 2nd with Diplo, producer of the M.I.A. song Paper Planes featured in Pineapple Express.
Keep up the great coverage MetroJax!
-WhatsUpJacksonville.com
If parking becomes a problem, it will be the best problem these new businesses could want. Question is, where are these patrons coming from? Has any survey been done? Inner City/San Marco/Springfield/Riverside/Avondale/St.Nicholas? If we could ID the source of most of the traffic, then where is JTA? Why don't we offer "NIGHT OWLS SERVICES" between the Bay St./San Marco and 5-Points club districts, with some residential tap lines running 24/7?
Skyway on Bay anyone? Maybe our train is overdue...
OCKLAWAHA
I love the Downtown nightlife. It's one of the reasons I moved back downtown. Like someone mentioned earlier, it would be great if there was another lounge/club/bar somewhere in between Mark's and Ivy. I'm not sure if there's a place it could possibly go though. What's on the other side of the pizza spot anyway?
Stephen, the danceclub on Adams that you were talking about, you're not talking about the old library are you? I noticed they had the place lit up late last night as I was walking home... seemed odd to me.
And how great would it be to have a late night diner downtown. As much as I love pizza and hotdogs... it would be nice to grab some breakfast type foods late at night without having to drive outside of downtown.
9th & Main has been closed for sometime, fyi.
Whoa whoa whoa 5pointsguy, lets not get ahead of ourselves. East Bay is nice and has nice venues, but as far as bodies on the sidewalk and atmosphere, it couldn't be farther from Midtown G-ville. I'm actually delaying my trip to Salty to type this, but if you want to see some night life action, that is the spot. If there were that many people downtown for a few weekends, East Bay would become a regional destination.
Why are there so many hot dog stands/carts in Jax?
Quote from: comncense on April 03, 2009, 02:52:27 PM
... it would be nice to grab some breakfast type foods late at night without having to drive outside of downtown.
Totally agree Comncense. Late night eats are always necessary.
For those looking for a late night eat, try Karlene's at the Landing.
QuoteKarlene’s will open at 6:30 a.m. to serve breakfast and remain open until after the bars at the Landing close to feed clubgoers who would like to get something to eat before they head home.
“When we open Friday morning, we might stay open until we close the doors Sunday night,†said Ganson.
In addition to hours that accommodate a wide variety of interests, the new venue will also marry sandwiches and cyberspace, an aspect that has proved to be popular at the Mandarin location with the entire menu posted on its Web site, www.karlenesdeli.com. (http://www.karlenesdeli.com.)
http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=52030
Does anyone notice a theme here? Lighting, lighting, lighting. The way the signs and the palms are lit up makes a huge difference. One or two more late night places on this strip and it will truly be a destination.
I wouldn't say burgeoning is the word we should use right now, we still have a long way to go, but "developing" is more appropriate; however, I am extremely pleased and elated that finally a night spot destination is finally, yes finally DEVELOPING within Downtown Jacksonville; now when that section gets 2 or more bars or clubs in that niche and area, and even extends itself possibly to West Bay past the Landing and beyond (like catching the flu), then it will be BURGEONING as someone says. YOU GO JAX!!!!!!! :D
Did anyone get to check out the event at Mark's last night? I was very impressed with how things were set up. I know it was a Red Bull hosted night, but I liked the addition of the DJ outside with the videos being projected on the white screen. Too bad that couldn't be a regular thing.
This guy was walking by Friday's HH wanting to bum a smoke. He had this unicycle... Sure, I'll give you smoke...if you ride that thing.
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Impressive....Most Impressive!!!!
Last Friday's Downtown-Destination outting was a blast!
QuoteWhy are there so many hot dog stands/carts in Jax?
Every major city's party district has hot dog carts. Rush & Division (Chicago) / Boston / NYC.
A lot of people just want something quick vs. a long sit down breakfast. Especially if you're going back to a house party to continue into the early morning hours.
Quote from: billy on April 03, 2009, 08:35:42 PM
Why are there so many hot dog stands/carts in Jax?
Up until recently, there was virtually no where to eat late at night in the urban core area. Although now we have a few more options, it's still slim pickings... so the hotdog vendors attempt to fill that void at night.
Ok, you obviously missed the point of my post. I'm talking about shear volume of venues on Bay St. With one or two bars in between Ivy's and Mark's in addition to North Star, it would have roughly the same venue count as the strip in Gainesville. As far as comparing the entertainment value of Gville's strip and Bay St., they are two different beasts with two different settings and population demographics. They can't be compared in that sense. Downtown needs to be compared to its competition, ie the Beaches and the dance clubs in between the Downtown and the Beach.
On a different note, the Red Bull/Motocross was a big hit, huge crowd and great vibe. Well done in putting that together Mark.
I agree. It's very hard to compare Bay St to Gainesville's strip or even Tallahassee's Tennessee St, these are soley geared towards college students. The demographics for Jacksonville's market are different. Even though, we do have lots of college studens around, they are not as concentrated in such a small area.