A new restaurant is preparing to open its doors on the northeast corner of Herschel Street and San Juan Avenue at the southern end of Jacksonville’s Fairfax neighborhood. It’s called The Buoy, and it’s opening at 4323 Herschel St.
“We’re a seafood restaurant, and we’re only serving seafood caught locally in Florida waters or neighboring waters,” Chef Tito Quinones told What Now on Tuesday. “We stand pretty convicted on that. It seems like not many people do it anymore—they say they do, but they don’t.”
Chef Tito has a background in fine dining, and you can expect to find some dishes that can be hard to get in the Jacksonville area—lionfish, for example. But overall, launching in a relaxing space with yacht and dock vibes, The Buoy plans to keep things down-to-earth.
“We want to stay unpretentious. There are a lot of people from out of town on these beaches, and we want to introduce Florida culture. I think, a lot of times, people don’t really think of Jacksonville as part of Florida. So we want to bring the Florida back to Jacksonville.”
The Buoy is tentatively planning a mid-May opening, says Chef Tito. Stay tuned for more details as they are made available!
