Culture with a Side of Hospitality
Whether you’re a music fan, a lover of still life or appreciate the stage, Northeast Florida has a wide range of spots where food and the arts – visual, musical and theatrical – partner to create enriching experiences that nourish our bodies along with souls. Here’s a glimpse of three local venues – a listening room, a dinner theater and a museum – where culture and culinary arts meet, serving something for all five senses.
FOR THE MUSIC ENTHUSIAST
Blue Jay Listening Room, Jacksonville Beach, Cara Murphy, Owner-operator
What is the concept behind Blue Jay Listening Room?
Murphy: Blue Jay is a truly unique and beautiful live music experience. We are a proper listening room, meaning that we ask you to silence your cell phone and not to talk during the show, which creates an exceptional time for both the showgoer and the artist. Blue Jay has been carefully curated for the optimal listening experience, so you can come and sit comfortably on one of our blue couches or have a seat at the bar and listen to live music from regional and national bands up to six nights a week. We have a fantastic beer and wine list, beautifully hand-crafted beer and wine cocktails as well as many non-alcoholic options.
Describe your beer and wine cocktails.
We've had so much fun creating some delicious beer and wine cocktails. From our Blue Jay berry lemonade to our Moscow Gov’t Mule, our cocktail menu has lots of options, most of which can be made in a non-alcoholic version. We keep the classics on the menu and introduce seasonal creations throughout the year. Our beer menu changes often and we always try to have at least one local beer on tap.
Is there a shift in the demand for non-alcoholic options?
We have definitely seen a growth in the demand for non-alcoholic options in the past few years. As a result, we've tried to offer many NA options, including making most of our cocktails by replacing the booze with NA beer or wine or just making them with no booze at all.
FOR THE STAGE GAZER
Alhambra Theatre & Dining, DeJuan Roy, Executive chef
What is your culinary background?
Roy: I started my career in the military doing culinary competitions for the U.S. Army. I cut my professional teeth with the Hyatt Hotel in Chicago; it’s where I’m from and where I went to culinary school. I’ve been blessed to have had a very interesting career thus far, filled with colorful culinary experiences. A few years back, I was fortunate enough to win a Food Network show called Guy’s Grocery Games. I’ve been working with Craig at the Alhambra Theatre and Dining for 11 years. It seems like yesterday when I started. In September, the Alhambra will be featured on a Discovery Channel show, Emeril’s Tailgate, as a must-dine venue in an NFL city.
What do you consider when planning a different menu for each show?
Our goal is to make the menu as interesting as what is on the stage, so my sous chef Dale Little and I change the menu for each show and design it based on seasonality and the show’s themes. How many menus do you plan a year? We prepare menus for eight or nine shows per season. We also do several concert series events, where we base the theme on where the band is from, or some sort of overarching theme that is relatable to the music. We prepare roughly 350-378 meals per show in a two-hour window for eight performances per week.
How does preparing food for a dinner theater differ from a typical restaurant's evening service?
Dinner is served before the curtain goes up, never during. That’s a lot of pressure on our kitchen staff, servers, assistants, bar staff and hostesses to keep the place running smoothly, and they deserve immense credit for that. And because the menu changes with each title, we’re pretty busy not just cooking but planning eight to nine different menus every year! The long and the short of it is that we feed a lot of people exceptional meals very efficiently, but never rushed.
FOR THE COFFEE AND MODERN ART AFICIONADO
Setlan Coffee Co. at Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville (MOCA), Tyler Osborne, Owner-operator
How did Setlan get its start?
Osborne: We opened Setlan Coffee in 2020 when I had just left my previous job, which was opening another coffee shop in Jax Beach for someone else. I knew I wanted to do my own thing, to open a coffee shop that inspired joy through great coffee and excellent cafe experiences, and it was the perfect time! COVID made things more challenging, but we were able to pivot by opening a food truck. Although we're almost three years old as a company, it still feels like we're "getting our start" since we just launched our first brick and mortar in downtown Jacksonville inside MOCA.
What brought about the partnership between Setlan and MOCA Jacksonville?
After COVID hit, the cafe that was previously operating inside of MOCA closed and left a vacancy that their team hoped to fill with an established coffee shop and a food vendor that could occupy the built-out kitchen area. The desired partnerships were well thought through and very strategic on MOCA’s part. While we were operating in the shipping container, the Deputy Director of MOCA, Ben Thompson, reached out and asked if we were interested in the space. We were already looking for a brick-and-mortar cafe space and we were so excited about the revitalization of downtown Jacksonville; it was an immediate "yes"! It's been a fantastic partnership and we're proud to be serving coffee in such a beautiful space alongside such a great team.
Are there any specialty beverages made specifically for those attending the museum?
While we don't offer any specials exclusively to patrons of MOCA, we do offer a 10% discount on drinks and food to members of the museum. Drinks are allowed on the first floor but they're not allowed throughout the rest of the museum.
What else is on the menu besides coffee drinks?
We offer some grab-and-go items like protein bars and high-end chocolate and will continue to build out a retail program as we grow. We proudly serve BREW pastries. In addition, we're partnering with Chef Shantrell Mixson and SoulFULL Eats to provide a more expansive and delicious food selection.
Any community events Setlan participates in?
We're open for events in the evening that MOCA is a part of, so that means the monthly First Wednesday Art Walk hosted by Downtown Vision from 5-9 p.m. in downtown Jacksonville. We currently stay open to offer food and coffee to Art Walk guests and we're hoping to soon launch a small beer and wine program to better serve guests after coffee-drinking hours.
