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Reliving the good times at Cesar's
By JUDY WELLS, The Times-Union
Jul 20, 2008
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Nostalgia and taste buds must go together because you have been busy sharing memories of restaurants gone by, including Cesar's Cafe, which got us going on this "remember when" kick.
Cesar's was at 3609 St. Johns Ave., a location last occupied by Casablanca Salon, and was closed by the IRS for non-payment of taxes Nov. 10, 1982.
It was owned by Cesar Espinosa and his then-wife, jazz musician and singer Lynn Moore , said Cookie Davis , godmother to their daughter, Monica Lynn . She also remembers it having the best jazz in town - Lynn, Bill Davis, Gary Starling and Von Barlow were among the musicians who played there.
Nancy Locke , now in student affairs at the University of North Florida, and her former husband, John Rheingans , were the chefs. They had moved here in 1973 to open Jim Neff's Foxfire Restaurant in the Foxfire Inn at Baymeadows Road and Interstate 95. Espinosa worked there too and, in 1977, Foxfire was ranked by Robert Tolf of Florida Trend magazine as the second best hotel/motel restaurant in the state (ahead of Chalet Suzanne!). When Neff opened 12 North in Jacksonville Beach (Nancy thinks that was 1975) they became its chefs and, in 1977, Tolf ranked its fare eighth best in the state. Espinosa was the manager and, when both Foxfire and 12 North were sold, he opened Cesar's.
Steve Crandall was impressed by the tableside Steak Diane presentation and the Chateaubriand, but it was a crustacean that Theresa Waters remembers from 1979 or 1980. There was a Maine lobster tank to the right as you entered the dining room and she ordered a whole one.
It was served "standing upright on the plate, its curved tail to the front, with a lemon wedge in one claw and a sprig of parsley in the other. It was held up by an arrangement of toothpicks in the back spiney segments. My husband, horrified, ask me to lay it down because it was looking at him and he couldn't stand it!"
Katie Vogel and her husband used to come over from Live Oak to The Forum located on Roosevelt Boulevard where Stein Mart is now. It was huge and elegant with stone steps down into a white-columned room where the waitresses wore floor-length toga-type dresses.
"There is not, nor has there been, a restaurant as elegant. . . . At the time it was quite expensive for Jacksonville. Everything about it was exquisite."
Memory Lane will continue next week.
Body snatcher
Somewhere, someone has a 14-foot man in the house. One of the banners for the "Scalpel to Sketch" exhibition that was hanging outside the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens was snatched before the exhibit opened.
Hmm. Now who would want an oversize, meticulously rendered, anatomically correct illustration of a frontal male nude, complete with inner musculature?
Pssst! Did you hear about . . .? You did? Call and tell me about it. Call, too, if you've seen, planned or are about to do something smashing, if you stuck around after your last meeting to hear all the good stuff that gets hashed over in the parking lot, or if you've encountered a hidden facet to one of our area's notables. The tip line is (904) 359-4155, and I'm interested in all the interesting waves in society's currents, from St. Augustine to St. Simons.
Copyright 2008
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