Nicky G’s, please.
06/28/07 • Posted in: Downtown Jacksonville, Interview by Adrienne Moore 31 Comments »
Text and photos by Adrienne M. Moore
We’ve all been there. We’re downtown at 2 a.m. on Saturday and it’s time to go home but nobody wants to. Everyone wants to eat and no one wants to drive to the Krystal in Springfield.
This summer downtown will have another option: Nicky G’s Pizza, open late.
I met with owner and local firefighter Mike Maloney inside the soon-to-be restaurant yesterday, which was distinguishable only by the address outside. The windows were covered with paper and the hand-written sign that was up earlier had been removed.
“We’re excited to open downtown because this is where we are, it’s where we work,” said Maloney, who works at Station 2 in Springfield.
Nicky G’s will serve brick-oven, thin crust, New York style pizza as well as pasta, subs, soup and salad, salad bar, and beer and wine. Maloney hails from New York, so you can rest assured it will be the real thing.
“Downtown is booming,” said Maloney. “When we decided to open the restaurant, we got a really thick book from the city of all the things going in downtown; restaurants, retail shops, etc.”
The restaurant will be open for regular dining hours during the week and will stay open until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, as well as Thursdays if needed. Maloney is hoping to get the foot-traffic of business people during the day and club-goers at night.
“We’re going to have TV’s and we’ll be showing all the football games,” said Maloney. “We’ll also be open for all the major events that happen downtown.”
Nicky G’s will be collaborating with a new venue that is going in next door, which will offer live music. The businesses have agreed to keep the same hours, Nicky G’s providing food and the new venue providing entertainment.
Maloney anticipates opening in August, and from the looks of things he has a lot of work ahead of him. He’s got the most important thing taken care of though, the pizza oven is ready to go.
awesome. but…where in downtown or springfield?
Its on Bay St, half a block east of Ocean.
new venue?
Hey, Is this the same Mike Maloney that used to work at House #1 and played softball for the firemen against the guys from Springfield??? Dude, you still owe me $10!! Ha Ha Ha!!! I’ll trade for a pie when you get opened up… Good luck!!! can’t wait to try some!!!
Maybe we have a possible sponsor for Springfield baseball/softball?
:-)
The address is 119 E. Bay, between Ocean and Newnan. I don’t know much about the place going in next door, but Mike gave me the contact information for the owner so I’m going to get in touch with him.
I have also reached out to someone associated with the property owner, I will send you any info I get.
sounds good. The more the merrier.
That’s the kind of place I would go to watch a Jag’s game!
Awesome…
Hurray! And it’s locally owned, too. Double hurray!
Hey Soxfan, I didn’t know I still owed you ten bucks. Come by number two and I will square it up with you and I’ll still hook you up with a free pie. Glad to see everyone is excited about it. We would like to turn Bay St. into the main party strip in downtown jacksonville on friday and saturday nights. Anyone have any ideas. Obviously we will have the tv’s and music. We’ve been throwing around the idea of nicky g’s girls for friday and saturday nights. We have a lot of hooter’s girls that have asked if they could come work over by us, so we were throwing around the idea of the nicky g’s girls. Just a thought,anyone else have any suggestions. We aren’t going to be able to make this work without the ideas and the support of the community, so speak up or come see me so we can talk. Would love to hear everyone’s ideas.
Mike
Being consistant is all you’ll need, IMHO. Good food, COLD beer, set your hours and stick by them. I personally would not mind a dart board or two.
Hey Maloney, Do you know about when you’ll be opening? Don’t sweat the money just keep me on the books for next year.. Glad to see you didn’t drop off the face of the Earth.. Seriously GOOD LUCK!! We’ll be looking for you to open…Nicky G’s girls, me likey likey!!! but I’m just an old perv!!1 What do I know!!
We are looking to open in august. All depends upon health department and inspections really. We will be ready to go by the beginning of August though so hopefully the health department won’t hold us up too long.
ehh. i’m not a fan of the skeezy girls. i’m probably in the minority though.
While I’m a big fan of scantly clad women, I firmly believe all of the girls in the world wont make up for a bad product.
If I had any advice to give (as a consumer, not a business owner) it would be, make the best damn product you can, package it (the store) in a way that makes it feel warm, happy, and fun, and you cant go wrong.
We will have a great product, and I have no interested in having sleazy girls in there. I have a wife and kids and I’m not looking to turn this place into a dump. I’m talking about girls that would have on pretty much like fire station shirts and spandex shorts. They would only be there friday and saturday night. Just to keep the bar/club hopping people happy. They would not be there during week. Was just an idea though. Have had both positive and negative feedback about it. Like I said, we are playing a lot of this stuff by ear so the opinion of everyone is valued. Thanks again.
Mike
We will have a great product, and I have no interested in having sleazy girls in there. I have a wife and kids and I’m not looking to turn this place into a dump. I’m talking about girls that would have on pretty much like fire station shirts and spandex shorts. They would only be there friday and saturday night. Just to keep the bar/club hopping people happy. They would not be there during week. Was just an idea though. Have had both positive and negative feedback about it. Like I said, we are playing a lot of this stuff by ear so the opinion of everyone is valued. Thanks again.
Mike
Nicky g’s, here are a few things you and your neighbor can do (from an urban planning perspective) to make Bay Street the nightlife spot you desire.
1. Excell with you product - “you say you have this one taken care of, so we’ll move on to point 2.
2. Think visually - most successful entertainment, dining and nightlife businesses appeal to people by eye sight, as well as product. To attract the average passerbyer from the street, incorporate creative illuminated signage and building uplighting to your establishment. When some comes into downtown from the Main Street Bridge or is standing at Marks’, they need to be able to see that something inviting and fun is located on that block.
3. Embrace the sidewalk - Again, people attract people. If you can move most of your activities within view of the sidewalk, you’ll do this. Embracing the sidewalk could mean having outdoor seating, glass that allows people to look in/out or having your oven positioned in a manner that allows people to see their meal being produced.
check out http://www.metrojacksonville.com. There’s a 19 minute video about Main Street Ann Arbor, MI, posted there last week that addresses this exact issue.
Best of luck with your restaurant venture, that is exactly what Bay Street and DT need.
Some suggestions;
* Be prepared to operate at a loss for an extended period. It is a tough business you are entering and in a pioneer location. It takes time to build a following, and get people use to the idea of staying in that area at evening hours.
* In reference to the first item, have contingency plans and Plan B’s for any situation that you can forsee. For instance what if I can’t get all the permits for an extra month or two or three? What if a key member of the kitchen staff bolts out in the middle of a big rush. What if he just doesn’t show up one day? What if traffic from major events is channeled to bypass my establishment (a common complaint)?
* Be prepared to receive little valuable assistance from DVI or the city. Hot air and window dressing is what they are good at, not something genuinely helpful. Forget anything you have heard about Jacksonville being ‘pro business’, it is a myth.
* I am a bigger believer in word of mouth. Free samples did wonders for Chic-Fil-A. Be prepared to see certain individuals repeatedly during ‘freee sample’ periods. My aunt sees a family of 10 go from free sample station to station at Costco on a regular basis.
* Atmosphere is important. There are many choices, but which ever you choose, do it well.
I dont think they have to operate at a loss. Jax City Subs (formerly Larrys) has been around the corner for YEARS and while I doubt that the owner goes home to swim in his money, scrooge mcduck style, he has several employees and they all seem to be well fed. I also went into Firehouse subs the otherday, and it was also packed for lunch.
I think that a good product will get you a good lunch business. I think there is plenty of lunch business. If you can parlay that into a decent nighttime business with beer and nighttime entertainment/sports bar environment for the big events like world series/NFL you will be able to make ends meet. Hell, we cant even go to Burrito Gallery for lunch anymore because it is always SO packed. this lends itself to both points. good product+big lunches=at least break even.
Just remember you have to make an impact on the exterior to be seen visually. You can have the best product out there, but if people can drive down the street and not even notice you’re there, that’s money left on the table.
You’ll have no competition and plenty of business by serving food past 10 pm, especially on the weekends. Downtown business owners are WAYYYYYYY to comfortable with their lunch rush. Late night dining is the way to go in Downtown, it’ll be a monopoly.
Also, develop a friendship with all the club and bar owners. Swing by TSI (333 e. bay st.) some evening and talk to us, we’ll be sending plenty of people your way.
Maloney, you can definitely count on a few of us from Springfield for the football games.. We’ve been looking for a place like this to watch the games..I didn’t notice anything said about beer. Are you gonna be able to sell it? If so, have a couple of favorites and a couple off the wall tastes, just a thought. Looking forward to the opening!!!!
Brendon,
We definitely would like to work something out with you guys. We plan on visiting you and Marks. We are also trying to work some things out with the Florida Theater, Arena and the Stadium. So hopefully that will help get people down on Bay St., which in turn would help you guys out as well. Obviously there will be a lot more firemen hanging out down there now as well, so hopefully that will pick up business for you guys.
Soxfan,
We will be serving beer and wine. We will have a large assortment of bottles. We will also have four draft beers. As of right now we are going with Guiness, Yeungling Lager, Miller Light and maybe like a pale ale or something. Let me know if you have any other suggestions for beer.
As for everyone else that has posted, we are taking everything into consideration. We will have a large sign on the front of the building with wrapped in red neon. We have lights in the landscape already, we are just trying to figure out who we need to contact to get them turned on. We are also thinking about starting up a dart board league or something. We will have to get with the other bar’s downtown, but it is something we are looking into. We are throwing around a ton of ideas right now. Hold em night, fight night (watching on tv, not fighting in the pizzeria), hold em night, we are fans of Rescue Me; so we will be showing that on Wednesday night, maybe an x-box/ps2 or 3 tournament night. We are open to anything, not just to make money, but to give people a place to go downtown. We want to see downtown develop just like the rest of you, so hopefully we can make it happen. Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming.
Mike
We are SOOOO excited to have something else open at night downtown!! I agree with comments above…a great product will spread by word of mouth and you will bring people from a lot of different areas. Can’t wait for you to open!!!
We hope to bring people from all over Jacksonville back downtown. After we get established, we hope to work with the city on some issues like parking, transportation downtown and maybe some more transportation to and from the south bank. We would really like to get the Skyway to go to the Sports Complex area with another drop off area somewhere around the hotel or where the new shipyards are being developed. We will see what we can do. What all these budget cuts coming up with that new property stuff, there is the major possibility of the city going backward again instead of progressing into the future.
Mike
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I have already tasted nicky g’s pizza during the testing phase and its amazing.Dont forget everything else on the menu as well.The italian food there is excellent.Good luck guys and i’ll be travelling down there from New York City at least twice a month just so I can eat and drink at Nicky g’s
I’m from Brooklyn, NY, so I can’t wait to try it out!