After a decade, 2 Jacksonville restaurants will serve their last meals this weekend
Open for more than a decade each, two Jacksonville restaurants are set to close permanently on Saturday.
At Five Points, the Black Sheep restaurant bids farewell by serving up its final plates of poutine, shrimp and grits and more on its modern American menu featuring fresh, local ingredients.
The restaurant, launched in October 2012 by Jacksonville restaurateur/chef Jonathan Insetta, represented the beginning of a new era of dining in the historic district. Its rooftop bar, one of the first in the area, offered sweeping views of the downtown skyline and the rooftops of nearby century-old homes from its perch atop the modern triangular-shaped three-story building at 1534 Oak. St.
The Insetta Restaurant Group operates two other Jacksonville restaurants: Orsay in Avondale and Bellwether downtown. Bellwether recently launched its own rooftop dining room.
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Across the river in Arlington, Sid and Linda’s Seafood Market & Restaurant will wrap up its 10th anniversary on Saturday.
Owners Sid and Linda Camacho opened the restaurant at 12220 Atlantic Blvd. in April 2013 after operating Safe Harbor Seafood in Mayport for six years.
“What I’m going to miss the most are our customers, our loyal customers. It’s become a family to us, really personal. … It’s bittersweet, you know. They’ve become our friends, part of our family over the years,” Camacho said. the Times-Union at the end of last month after making the difficult decision to close. “It’s sad but it’s time to retire.”
The restaurant was known for its Southern-style seafood and fish, as well as its conch fritters, fresh Mayport shrimp, fried oysters, crab cakes, clam strips, scallops and more. .
Both restaurants cited the COVID-19 pandemic and its lingering effects as contributing causes for their closures.
“The restaurant ecosystem was extremely difficult before COVID,” Black Sheep’s Insetta told the Jacksonville Daily Record. “And now it’s incredibly difficult.”
Linda Camacho of Sid and Linda’s sounded a similar tone: “It’s getting too overwhelming, especially for the restaurant industry. Food prices are skyrocketing. Everything has skyrocketed.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Black Sheep, Sid & Linda’s Seafood Restaurants Closing
