First Block
The First Block, which is located where Edgewood crosses the CSX railroad tracks (A-Line) and Roosevelt Blvd, is the home to the Avenue’s oldest remaining commercial buildings. Buildings here date back to 1915, serving as a commercial dominated terminus for Jacksonville’s former streetcar system. Here is a look at the businesses that presently define the gateway to Murray Hill.
Brothers Dan and Andy Bottorf had sought to expand their popular Nassau County-based restaurant Moon River Pizza into the Jacksonville market since 2004. They originally signed a lease to open a second location downtown at the WA Knight Building (where popular speakeasy bar The Volstead now operates), but when those plans fell through Moon River Pizza found a home in Murray Hill starting in 2005. In an area once dominated by electronics repair shops and thrift stores, Moon River was the first new business that brought the kind of young, brash attitude and fresh look that is now becoming commonplace along Edgewood Avenue.
Shortly after Moon River Pizza opened, Gary and Amy Goff submitted plans to convert the former Woods Pharmacy, 5,000 square foot building that suffered extensive fire damage, into a new neighborhood hangout called Perfect Rack Billiards. It was the neighborhood’s first brush with the kind of NIMBY opposition that is prevalent on the opposite side of Roosevelt Blvd within the Riverside and Avondale neighborhoods.
After agreeing on several stipulations, the City of Jacksonville approved the Goff’s zoning application and the business opened in 2008. The fears some expressed of a seedy establishment that would invite gambling and drugs into the neighborhood never materialized. Perfect Rack is a family-friendly, well-lit, community-minded and hip pool hall that serves a surprisingly good menu featuring an array of pub-style food.
Scott Moore and Gus Evans opened their first Maple Street Biscuit Company in the San Marco neighborhood in 2012 serving locally roasted coffee and biscuit-based comfort food. The concept was an instant hit, as lines of customers queued up during the breakfast and lunch rushes, prompting the founders to expand their workforce and formulate expansion plans.
One of the new employees they hired at the San Marco location to help serve the long lines of hungry customers was Chelsea Harrelson. When Maple Street expanded to a second location in Jacksonville Beach, Chelsea was tasked with helping the ownership group getting the doors open. In 2014, she was asked to enter into an ownership agreement as a ‘community leader’ for Maple Street’s newest ‘community store’ in Murray Hill. Maple Street now operates 8 ‘community stores’ throughout Florida and Tennessee with a 9th store set to break ground this year.
Owners of the popular Bold Bean Coffee Roasters opened a roasting facility and a standalone retail operation called Knead Bakeshop in Murray Hill in 2014. The facility houses a roastery supplying coffee for Bold Bean’s two retail locations as well as commercial accounts across the state of Florida and Georgia. Recently, the retail operations of Knead Bakeshop closed, and the facility has been re-positioned as the Knead Kitchen- which supplies pastries, sandwiches and pies to Bold Bean’s two existing retail locations- with a third location opening this year.
The mother and daughter team of Joy Lee Joy and her mother Mary established Momni Boutique in 2009 (the name is a play on ‘Mom and I’). Momni started as an alterations shop. Along the way, the duo began producing one-off articles of women’s clothing that were displayed in the storefront window. After awhile, the clothing portion of the business took off and the shop was split into a full fledged boutique of handmade goods in the front, with the alterations shop still operating hidden from site in the back.
Also opened in 2009 adjacent to Momni Boutique is Blackhat Vapor Company, a boutique of a different kind offering a large selection of curated e-cigarettes and e-liquids, catering to the booming vaping industry.
-L.jpg)
After operating a restaurant downtown and later opening a craft beer bar along popular King Street, veteran entrepreneur Andrea Dahlia opened Magnolias along Edgewood this year. The new addition to the First Block is a 4,000-square-foot restaurant and bar, specializing in waffle-based dishes. Magnolias is open for dinner service seven days a week, with a brunch service available on the weekends.