Urban Jacksonville

Tony has some kind words about Urban Jacksonville in his post Blogging is still unimportant talking about my recent hiatus:

How do they do it? Joey has a job with a bunch of cool people. I assume he can get his work done and they could care less that he upkeeps the best media source in the city

Wow, the best media source in the city. Coming from the fingers of someone I respect a bunch, that means a lot. Thanks Tony!

Be sure to head over to Arlington on November 3rd to check out a new restaurant venture from Tony Allegretti, the man who brought you the Burrito Gallery. Angelo’s Italian Restaurant is located at 2111 University Boulevard North (just south and across the street from JU).

Angelo’s Italian Restaurant was an icon of Arlington for more than 30 years. My clients (the owners), Chef Ian, JD, and I have been working like mad to get this restaurant open. We want it to be all that it was and then some more. We have visited Little Italy (NYC) and have eaten Italian only for months. Some of us years ;). We have special surprises once inside and 3 bocce courts in the piazza outback. We look forward to serving Arlington and the greater Jacksonville area very soon!

tags: jacksonville, arlington, angelos+italian+restaurant

Urban Outfitters – New York

This weekend the Times Union reported that Urban Outfitters is coming to phase two of St. Johns Town Center:

The remainder of the retailer lineup, some new to the Jacksonville area, will be announced within a month. The stores are tentatively slated to open in fall 2007. Urban Outfitters – A trendy emporium of cheeky T-shirts and funky accessories for the teenaged crowd.

In addition to this article I received an email from a friend who told me his buddy who works for Urban Outfitters in NYC that said there was a lot of talk within the company. There is still no mention of a Jacksonville location on the Urban Outfitters website.

Why am I talking about Urban Outfitters at St. John’s Town Center? Isn’t that a suburban thang? Yes, but I see Urban Outfitters as a barometer that points to the overall retail health of the city.

The opening of Urban Outfitters points to one of two things: Jacksonville is beginning to reach a critical mass in terms of retail or Urban Outfitters has reached a point of market saturation. You see in the past Urban Outfitters has limited its retail stores to trendier locations like college towns and larger cities, New York, Chicago, Seattle.

I hope the opening points to Jacksonville becoming a place that is known in retail circles as a good place to open stores. This could mean Jacksonville is on it’s way to having more retail and restaurant diversity. Is that Crate and Barrel I see in the distance?

Other stores that plan to open in phase two: Cole Haan, PUMA, Brooks Brothers, BCBG

Don’t forget those who think UO is the devil:
urbancounterfeiters.com
Urban Outfitters will steal your cupcakes
Urban Outfitters Highjacks Crown Farmer

tags: jacksonville, urban outfitters, st johns town center

Tony, I’ll see your Pragalicious and raise you a Suburban Jacksonville. Tony posted today that the Blog hits keep on coming mentioning the new blog, We were still only human.

So here is my contribution, Suburban Jacksonville written by contributors Apathetic Arlington and Mopey Mandarin. Two girls who choose to remain anonymous, for now. Here is how they describe Suburban Jacksonville:

The trials and tribulations of two girls not living remotely close to the cooler than cool downtown area. Sometimes there isn’t enough gas money to make it anywhere other than the ‘burbs, so we blog to bring you the shit Phil Amato won’t (plus some).

Suburban Jacksonville has a snarky, funny writing style, like this post The Southside Connector Ruined My Life. Two other things I love about Suburban Jacksonville are the hand-drawn art that accompanies many of the posts. I also love the feature Yee-Haws and Hells Naws. Yee-Haws = good stuff and Hell Naws = bad stuff.

They sent me an email a few days ago letting me know about their blog. I was hesitant to post about Suburban Jacksonville right away. I wanted to let them get a few posts under their belt first. But screw that. As soon as I learn about a new blog I will post about it. Why? I want people to know about new blogs, visit them, leave comments and inspire the authors to keep writing. Thus making the Jacksonville blogosphere a richer place.

tags: jacksonville, mandarin, arlington