Meet Plenti: Fast, Casual and Healthy in Brooklyn
After living in Washington, DC for about 6 years working on the real estate team for a hotel company, Dean Nixon was ready to move back to Northeast Florida, where he had grown up, and start his own business. His job in DC had helped him learn about the franchising industry, so he considered finding an opportunity to open as a franchisee. “Because I went out to eat every single meal the entire time I lived there I felt like I knew the food space well as a customer, especially the fast casual space,” says Nixon. “I knew what I was missing in my diet and what I was looking for.” He couldn’t find a franchise that matched what he wanted to open, so he created his own concept, Plenti, a coastal-themed fast casual eatery. He launched the business in early 2023 in Jacksonville’s Brooklyn neighborhood. We caught up with Nixon one morning as the lunch crowd started to stream in to order poke bowls, salads, toasts, acai, smoothies, juices, cold brew coffee, wine and beer.
You launched a new restaurant without any background in the food industry. What steps did you take to get started?
Nixon: I hired several different people, subject matter experts, to help me piece together the concept. I had a branding team design the logo based on the feel that I wanted to convey. I’m not a chef, but I knew what I was looking for. I worked with three different professional chefs, spending time in the test kitchen, to develop the recipes, based on the categories of foods. Shane O’Brien, the head chef who worked on our menu, is quite an accomplished chef, having worked as a sous chef for a restaurant when it earned 2 Michelin stars. He brought a ton of experience, professionalism and Californian influences to our menu.
How would you describe the menu concept at Plenti?
When I was in D.C., I never felt like the seafood there was that fresh. Being close to Mayport and the coast, fresh fish and shrimp are more accessible. There are other health food fast casual restaurants out there, but they seemed too expensive, and I always ended up hungry afterwards. So the idea is to serve fresh, healthy food with good portions at a reasonable price point. Something I could eat every single day.
I knew I wanted to offer poke, and since we were going to serve seafood, we decided to also have cooked fish and shrimp dishes on the menu. The market bowls are like comfort food, similar to what I grew up eating – my mom would make chicken or fish, rice or grain, and some kind of vegetables and sauce. And those use a lot of the same ingredients as the poke bowls, so that allows some efficiencies in prep time and inventory. We also spent a lot of time developing the seven sauces that could be served with the bowls and salads.
We pull from both Hawaiian and Japanese poke styles. For the market bowls, the options are chicken, shrimp, tofu and seasonal fish, which right now is cobia. You choose your base – white or brown rice, greens or a combination. And then you have an option of any of the different sauces. We have a lot of gluten free and vegan options as well.
The most popular items are the avocali poke bowl and either the banging shrimp or heritage chicken market bowl. We make in-house juices and our signature drink is called Jamaican elixir: hibiscus tea, cucumber, pineapple and dragon fruit.
How did you settle on this neighborhood for the restaurant?
Leading up to opening was familiar because of the market research I used to do to open hotels and I created some parameters for what I was looking for: higher density, a lot of office space around and the demographics of 18–40-year-olds. This area felt right, it fit what I was looking for and still had room for growth. The walkability is great, it’s beautiful with the river nearby. There’s a lot of optimism in the area.
What have you learned in the early days of Plenti?
My first manager quit after week one, so that was unexpected. I hadn’t planned on acting as manager of the restaurant or had done it before, so that’s been my biggest learning curve. Luckily Sadie, one of my employees, stepped up to help with management. And everyone warns you how hard it will be to find good help. When I heard that, I thought, oh yeah, it will be tough, but I can figure it out. Then it hits you a couple of times and you realize, man it really is tough! It’s stabilized now, fortunately.
What do you see in your future?
I would love to open another one or two locations here in Jacksonville, but I don’t foresee this as a franchise model. We’ve adapted a little based on customer feedback, like adding the build-your-own bowl, and we have some other new menu items in the works. There’s always room for improvement. But so far, I’m really happy with the reception we’ve received here.
Plenti is open everyday from 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. at 200 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville. Keep up with the restaurant @eatplenti.
