JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A popular Jacksonville restaurant that was around for more than eight decades is now a pile of debris.
Beach Road Fish House and Chicken Dinners, which had been a fixture on Atlantic Boulevard for more than 80 years, closed in February.
An apartment complex is set to take its place.
Crews began tearing down the building in the St. Nicholas area shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday. Two excavators reduced it to rubble in about 20 minutes.
Jose Rivera watched it being torn down from his house across the street -- the same house the owners of the restaurant once called home about 50 years ago.
“Out with the old in with the new,” Rivera said, adding that he’d been to the restaurant many times. “I just hope that whatever they put there that takes its place is tasteful, appealing to the eye.”
Beach Road Chicken Dinners owners Kenneth and Tena Ferger announced in 2019 that they were ready to retire and opted to sell the business -- including the original recipes that made the restaurant a staple of the Jacksonville food landscape.
The restaurant had been a favorite for many in Jacksonville since Atlantic Boulevard was the only accessible road to the beach -- hence the name, “Beach Road” Chicken Dinners.
“I went there when it used to be the chicken place. That was well known for the longest time for the best chicken in Jacksonville,” Rivera said.
Nathan Stuart and Margo Klar bought the location, and added a spin on it: Beach Road Fish House and Chicken Dinners.
But earlier this year they told News4JAX news partner the Jacksonville Daily Record that it had been difficult to navigate the pandemic, and the restaurant’s utility bills also posed a financial challenge.
The city issued the demolition permit for the property earlier this month.
The building has now been razed to allow for a five-story apartment complex with more than 250 units, according to the Daily Record.
Jacksonville-based developer “Corner Lot” is the company bringing the apartment complex to the property. A timeline for the construction of the new apartments has not been revealed.