Urban Jacksonville

Update I heard from one of the owners, Mike Maloney. He has this to say:

We are still staying on. We are just giving up majority ownership. There are some other projects I would possibly like to get started on now that this place is up and running. The pizzeria is doing very well, so I figure the more stuff that can open down here the better. Keep your eyes open for potential buyers. We are asking 250,000, that will give them 80% percent ownership.

$350,000 will buy you a nice little pizzeria named Nicky G’s in Downtown Jacksonville. Thanks to Rick for the tip!

New downtown pizzeria for sale. Motivated sellers. New equipment, experienced / loyal staff, great recipes, 3 – 32 in tv’s, 1 – 37 in. tv and 1 – 65 in tv. Walk-in cooler keg cooling system and much more. Great lunch crowd and loyal neighborhood business. On pace to gross between 300,000-350,000 for the year. All offers will be considered. Also willing to sell the majority of ownership for a lower cost.

A few thoughts on this

Has the crushing reality of running a restaurant become too much for the busy firefighters?
Was this the plan all along to create the restaurant and sell it off?
Will Nicky G’s have the same “firefighter owned and operated” allure, if it’s not owned and operated by firefighters?
Has something beyond their control forced this move? I.E. property tax increases, the economy, etc.

I emailed Nicky G’s asking them a few of the questions above. I’ll let you know if I hear back.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 10:48 am and is filed under Downtown Jacksonville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

John

I have eaten at Nicky G's several times, as it is right across the street from where I work and agree: great food and terrible service. I was there today at 11:20 so I could get a quick slice before a 12 PM appointment. The posted opening time is 11AM. When I ordered, I was told that everyone had "just gotten here," they had just turned the oven on, had not started any of their daily pizzas, and my pizza would not be ready for another 45 minutes. I found that to be shameful. I walked to Burrito Gallery where I had no problems.
Claybo

What happened to the dough...?

Tried to go to Nicky G's with the family saturday night at around 6pm.. we were turned away because we were told "something happened to the dough". I had been waiting for a chance to go since open but had warned my family that the service was bad...too bad we did not even get to experiecne it. Maybe we'll get bad service next time!
Dan

Pizza is My Life,
I am willing to give you guys another chance. What steps have you taken to alleviate the problems? The problems have been identified( lack of floor management, poor service, long waits) and as long as you are willng to make the necessary changes, you will do good.
ieatedthepizza

Gotta agree with Josh. When I was there, the staff, including what, I guess, was supposed to be the manager (i use the term loosely since all he did was stand around drinking beer) were way more worried about their beer pong tournament, and signing people up, than waiting on tables or bringing service.

I will definitely not go back to sit-down eat, but I will be happy to order delivery as the pizza was good.
Josh

Only being open 2 months is a poor excuse for having substandard service. From day one you should have hired experienced waitstaff and REQUIRED them to perform at their best. You should have had a manager overseeing your entire operation who would have identified unattanded tables and soleved the problem. I've been there several times and have never seen anyone that I could identify as a manager. How can any of your clientele give you feedback or the "talking to" that you referred to if there is no discernable manager around to take the issues up with?

I know you said that you don't need Chef Ramsey but if you had him he would tell you that it takes more than a great menu to be successful; excellent service should have been on the top of your list of priorities.

I'll reiterate my previous point about counter service: It would alleviate a lot of your customer's headaches about service, why not give it a try?
edliberatori

Don't worry pizza is my life, the quality of the product will buy you the time you need to get things straight, in my opinion. I am so grateful for quality pizza that delivers downtown to springfield. Great cities have great pizza, just a fact. NYC, chicago, boston... Now jacksonville, just don't close!!!!
pit boiz

I think nicky g's rules.
And the back kitchen staff rules even harder!
And there hawt!
pizza is my life

I can assure you we aren't in need of chef ramsey. The owners are working as hard as they can to make the service better. Something to keep in mind that the business has only been open for 2 months...as with any business good help is hard to find. I think the one thing that pains management and the partners the most is our customers not telling us about thier experience until it's too late. We want to make everyone happy and if that means we have to get a good "talking to"...we'll take it....We don't want people to get bored.. we just want the chance to become the type of establishment we know we can be..
Dan

Maybe we can pitch the spot to Gordom Ramsey. He'll turn that place around like he does every other restaurant on Kitchen Nightmares. BTW.. anyone know what happened to the club that was supposed to open next door? The Metropolitan, I beleive?
Josh

In my experiences at Nicky G's I have found the food to be great and the service to be consistently poor. I've sat at a table with no drinks offered and no attention from the waitstaff for up to 20 minutes when the restaurant had only a few other diners. In my opinion they should take a que from the countless other successful pizza joints out there who offer counter service as to not have this same complaint from their own customers.

Additionally, I can't for the life me figure out the logic behind those gigantic tables. I have to admit that when I first sat at one of those big booths I thought it was pretty cool to sit at such a large table. The allure of the large table, however, ends when the restaurant is full and you have to wait an extended amount of time to be seated; all the while thinking of how they could fit ten or more four tops in the place of those three or four ten seat booths. Honestly, how many parties of ten can they really get per night versus parties of two to six?

All in all I think it's a great concept with some really good recipes, (Props on the Beer Buzz. Although the toppings could be cut smaller i.e. the whole deli slices of ham on the chicken cordon bleu. Come on guys, bite size. The prosciutto too.) great prices and specials but it could definitely use some refining. I hope that it gets the help it needs before people start to lose interest.
pizza is my life

As with most things in life...there is more to the story...any changes that occur will be small ones...and yes delivery will continue in the springfield area... things will only get better!
edliberatori

They deliver to sprngfield - hope a change in ownership doesn't change that! It doesn't make any sense to sell that place a couple of months after opening froma business standpoint. There has to be more to this story. I wish I had an extra 350K!
jrtmom

The restaurant has a great concept and the capacity to be a big winner downtown. My experiences have almost all been good so far, but I have heard a lot of inconsistency from others, on service mostly. Unfortunately those are the things that can eventually kill a great concept and good food.

Consistency of hours of operation, delivery availability, and wait staff will all feed into the outcome. Communication of any changes to the customer base will also help set expectations.
Downtownparks

Does this mean its sold already?
pizza is my life

I have it on good authority that the pizzeria will continue to be partners with our firemen....the concept and the food will remain the same...service will be our main priority...but changes will be happening soon....
skink

how bout
TLC buys the show...builds an audience and sells it to
The Food Network? flip the concept of flipping the restaurant.

I must preface my comment by saying that I have not yet been to Nicky's.
but from what I have heard...this might be the perfect evolution.

Seems like everyone agrees that the pizza is terrific and the atmosphere inviting and neighborly....but the day to day execution is not consistent.
especially the service
consistency is probably the most difficult part of executing a resteraunt business plan.

A food service savvy majority partner would be stepping into a great situation and could use their expertise to knock the few rough edges off the Nicky's experience.
vicupstate

I just got an idea for a new TV Show. I'll call it "Flip That Restaurant". If TLC doesn't buy it maybe the Food Channel will!

Man, where do I get these bolts of genius?
longlunch

That headline is hilarious.

Updated! Tis the season to sell your restaurant on Craigslist

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