Uncategorized - Eleven South

City Grille was just named TOP 15 Best New Restaurants in Florida by the USA Today.

City Grille & Raw Bar was named TOP 15 Best New Restaurants in Florida in 2023 by the USA TODAY Network Atlantic Halibut with saffron cauliflower puree, garlic confit tomatoes, sauteed broccolini and Champane caviar beurre blanc is a signature dish at City Grille & Raw Bar on the Southbank of downtown Jacksonville. From: Herald-Tribune December 29, 2023 For nearly a half-century, the Wine Cellar was a fine-dining landmark in Jacksonville. Two years after its closing, a worthy successor opened in its renovated Southbank spot in July: City Grille & Raw Bar. From John Nagy and Karen Belloit Thomas, the couple behind Eleven South Bistro in Jacksonville Beach and the former 3 Palms Grille in Ponte Vedra Beach, the new restaurant brings caviar, prime steaks and decadent desserts to a familiar place reimagined into a series of dining vignettes — the main bar and raw bar, Velvet Room, Tuscan Room, Garden Room and two-story Treehouse Room, with a 300-year-old oak tree as its centerpiece — offering guests unique dining experiences. Executive Chef Kevin Gaston’s menu features Prime hand-cut steaks, New Zealand rack of lamb, fresh fish as well as chilled seafood towers, filled with Maine Lobster Tail, Jumbo Shrimp, House Oysters, Romanoff Oysters and Shrimp Salad. Looking to impress out-of-town guests? Make plans (and reservations) for the restaurant’s Sunday Brunch, with Rockefeller Benedict, Chicken and Waffle, Steak and Eggs, quiche and more. — Gary T. Mills, Florida Times-Union Read the Full Article

City Grille & Raw Bar: An Unparalleled Dining Experience

City Grille & Raw Bar: An Unparalleled Dining Experience From: Arbus October 17, 2023 For anyone who ever visited the Wine Cellar in San Marco, it was a sad day when they closed their doors after 47 years in business. The restaurant had been a downtown staple for fine dining and well known for its wine collection. Business meetings, prom nights, first dates, wedding proposals, anniversaries, and so many other celebrations had taken place in one of Jacksonville’s oldest upscale restaurants for almost five decades. A significant hole was left in the fine dining scene when the Wine Cellar closed in October 2021. The restaurant has been revamped by the owners of Eleven South and 3 Palms Grille, Karen Belloit Thomas and John Nagy, to provide you with an unparalleled dining experience. Belloit Thomas operated the beloved Filling Station Café in San Marco in the early 90s but spent the past 20 plus years nurturing the fine dining scene in Jacksonville Beach. The couple had been looking for the perfect opportunity to get back into city life and the famed spot on the Southbank fit the bill perfectly. The couple is emphatic about providing exceptional menu offerings to their guests that are always served with five-star hospitality, so when they saw the celebrated spot in San Marco needed a new proprietor, they were eager to dive in. The revamped space boasts seven unique dining areas that exude a big city vibe and old steakhouse flair. As you enter the establishment, the bar area is divided into two distinct spaces for the raw bar and the Alley Cat Lounge (a tip of the hat to Vicki Dugan, the previous owner, for her love of cats). The Velvet Room, designed like an old speakeasy, offers an intimate experience that’s perfect for enjoying oysters and champagne. If you’re looking for a larger space, head to the Garden Room which can be used for meetings or private dinners. For those who want to enjoy the outdoors, the Oak Bar and additional seating are perfect for Sunday brunch or cheering on the Jaguars on a pleasant fall afternoon. Not only does City Grille and Raw Bar offer exceptional fine dining, but it also pays homage to the past. The wine racks from the former establishment have been preserved in the Tuscan room, and the Tree House room overlooks the 300-year-old tree on the back patio, which customers of the Wine Cellar will remember. We are seated for what transpires into one of the most exceptional dining experiences of Cinda’s Cellar. As we enjoy our craft cocktails, Executive Chef Kevin Gaston and the former electrical engineer turned level one Sommelier, John Nagy, collaborate to create the perfect recipe and wine pairing for this month’s issue. The duo has worked together for over a decade, and their expertise is evident. It’s decided that our 2019 Keenan Cab Franc will pair best with their Seared Foie Gras and the 30-day dry-aged steak, topped with a black fruit compote, demi-glace, and asparagus. Gaston heads to the kitchen to prepare the main course while we are treated next to a sampling of delicious mentions from the raw bar—Oysters Romanoff with a bit of Taittinger Brut Champagne, a delightful Hamachi crudo paired with a 2022 Nortico Alvarinho, and a delectable escargot in tarragon scampi butter with a 2022 Brotte “Esprit” Côtes du Rhône. As the evening progresses, discussion turns to the couple’s love for design, food, and travel and which places have most inspired the menus. The evening finishes with a bananas foster bread pudding and a tawny Port. Although not every meal can always be this decadent, the event of dining together can always be revered. The restaurant will soon feature wine dinners on its event calendar, so stay tuned for more exquisite meals. Dining together is a generous way to give our time to one another, so gather your friends and family and indulge in one of the best presentations of food and wine in Jacksonville. Read the Full Article

Caviar and prime steak: New Jacksonville fine-dining restaurant promises ‘sophistication’

Caviar and prime steak: New Jacksonville fine-dining restaurant promises ‘sophistication’ From: Jacksonville.com | Florida Times Union July 25, 2023 Highly anticipated, a new Jacksonville fine dining restaurant offers caviar, prime steaks and decadent desserts amid stories to tell. City Grille & Raw Bar opens Tuesday at 1314 Prudential Drive on the Southbank of downtown Jacksonville. Shaded by the broad, Spanish moss-draped limbs of a 300-plus-year-old oak tree, City Grille & Raw Bar replaces the landmark Wine Cellar, which closed permanently after 47 years on Oct. 16, 2021, when its owners retired. John Nagy and Karen Belloit Thomas, husband-and-wife restaurateurs, restored and renovated the 49-year-old building to create a new destination restaurant showcasing a sophisticated dinner, lunch and brunch menu while also promising impeccable service amid warm hospitality. City Grille & Raw Bar is the couple’s third Jacksonville-area restaurant. It joins upscale Eleven South Bistro in Jacksonville Beach and the former 3 Palms Grille in Ponte Vedra Beach, which closed temporarily in May to relocate and “will reopen,” Nagy told the Times-Union. City Grille & Raw Bar was inspired by the couple’s travels abroad in Italy and France as well as to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Charleston and Nashville — all known as vibrant, diverse dining cities. “Jacksonville just doesn’t have as much of that as we would like to see,” said Nagy, noting they wanted to contribute to Jacksonville by expanding the city’s fine dining opportunities. The restaurant’s tagline is “Sophistication on the Southbank.” Nagy said planning the restaurant took about four months while the buildout was roughly nine months. The end result, Belloit Thomas said, “turned out the way we wanted.” “I just wanted something exciting and different that Jacksonville hadn’t seen … It definitely hit 9 out of 10 of what we wanted and I think that is pretty good,” Belloit Thomas said. Fine dining vignettes City Grille & Raw Bar offers guests an opportunity to explore not only fine cuisine but also experience the individual ambiance — story if you will — of each dining room, the main bar, the lounge and the outdoor patio. “What we wanted to do is create this venue that had in essence vignettes,” Nagy said. Working with designer Shannon Hughes of Jacksonville allowed them “to have a palette in every room,” he said. City Grille & Raw Bar is partitioned into interconnected sections: the main bar and raw bar, the Velvet Room, Tuscan Room, Garden Room, the two-story Treehouse Room and the outdoor Oar Bar. Guests will be able to request which dining room they would like to be seated in, said James Morrow, the restaurant’s general manager. Nagy said they also wanted to “be very respectful” of the legacy of the Wine Cellar. In renovating the building, they kept the Wine Cellar’s distinctive front entrance, its arched wine racks and reupholstered much of its vintage furniture. Nicknamed the Alley Cat Lounge, the main bar is on the left inside the restaurant’s front door. At one end is the raw bar while the regular bar is at the opposite end. It’s named affectionately for a cat-friendly alley behind the former Filling Station Cafe, which Thomas opened in 1987. The cafe was about a block from where City Grille & Raw Bar is now. The Velvet Room to the right of the entrance is the most visually distinctive. Three chandeliers bathe the room in soft light — illuminating the royal blue walls and red carpet. Paintings in gold-colored frames hang on the walls. Vintage banquettes, ottomans, chairs and small tables offer a silent invitation to sit, relax and enjoy a cocktail while chatting with friends or family. Belloit Thomas “absolutely was adamant that we have something that felt ‘old-timey and historic …. with an old school feel,” Nagy said. The Velvet Room was inspired by the speakeasies that they had encountered in their travels. And some of the furnishings came from their own home, he said. “We wanted people to feel that they could go in there and have champagne, have caviar, have oysters and be in a velvet room. Be dressed up and feel swanky,” Nagy said. Next is the Tuscan Room. The Wine Cellar arch wine racks line one wall. The alcove dining room is designed to shelter guests from the hustle and bustle of people walking to and from the other dining areas. The adjacent Garden Room boasts natural light from a skylight and a wall of windows. Live plants and fresh flowers add to a sense of serenity and the feeling of dining in a garden. Nearby and up a few stairs is the Treehouse Room. It overlooks the outdoor Oak Bar with its patio and the sprawling historic oak tree at its center. Guests feel like they are dining amid the lofty branches. The Oak Bar, with its tables surrounding the tree and a small bar tucked away in one corner, is the final dining area. On the menu at City Grille & Raw Bar Executive Chef Kevin Gaston and Executive Sous Chef Dustin Wigglesworth developed the menu featuring Prime hand-cut steaks, New Zealand rack of lamb, caviar, fresh fish, seafood and more. The Certified Angus Beef steaks include a 5-ounce petite tenderloin ($38), a Prime 14-ounce, 30-day dry-aged New York strip ($58) and an 18-ounce Prime Ribeye ($62). Other speciality cuts include: Iberico Pork Secreto ($52): A six-ounce cut with Spanish Olive Oil, Maldon salt, cracked pepper and piquillo chimichurri on the side Japanese A5 New York Strip ($120): A six-ounce cut served with Hawaiian black sea salt and cracked pepper Tomahawk Ribeye ($160): A 32-ounce cut with Maldon salt, cracked pepper and a choice of compound butter Raw bar stars A trio of caviar selections (ranging from $80 to $215) top the raw bar offerings. The caviar is served with house-made blinis, creme fresh, capers, sieved egg and chive, the menu shows. Fresh House-select oysters on the half-shell are $18 per half-dozen or $36 per dozen. Daily “Oysters from Around the World” and Oysters Romanoff are market price. City