Kindness, compassion and community top the menu of a new Jacksonville fine dining restaurant offering elevated Southern and Latin cuisine while also paying homage to an unsung humanitarian who devoted her life to helping strangers.
Petronita’s debuts at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8 at 1349 N. Market St. in a restored and renovated 101-year-old brick building — originally a neighborhood grocery and a cigar store — in the heart of historic Springfield near downtown.
The restaurant initially is only open for brunch. Dinner service is scheduled to begin Aug. 26.
Founded and owned by Nichole Brown of Jacksonville, Petronita’s is more than a dining spot. It’s a labor of love dedicated to the life and legacy of a woman who Brown said took her in as a baby and raised her as her own child until she passed away at age 51.
Chef Michael Ray, a culinary veteran who inherited his passion for cooking from his mom, will create a nightly five-course prix fixe menu focusing on bold flavors and seasonal ingredients that will rotate monthly.
The restaurant’s centerpiece is a community dining table that welcomes strangers to share a meal and come together as friends, family, and neighbors.
Homage to a community humanitarian
Petronita’s is more than a restaurant. It embodies a “vision of food, family, and belonging” — honoring the spirit, grace and compassion of the late Petronita Josephine Daniels, who passed away in 1982. And it’s a place where stories come to life, Brown told the Times-Union.
Brown described Petronita as “a woman whose life was defined by kindness, compassion, and an unwavering love for people, animals, and nature.”
“She never met a stranger and believed every living thing deserved care and dignity,” Brown said. “She believed there was always room for one more at the table. She welcomed strangers like family, cared deeply for her community, and lived a life rooted in compassion and service.
Brown said she was 2 months old with a 1-year-old brother when Petronita saw their 15-year-old mother walking down the street on a cold day. Petronita, a total stranger, stopped her car and asked if they needed help. Although Brown doesn’t know the details of that conversation, Petronita took her in and raised her until her sudden death from an aneurysm in 1982 when Brown was 8 years old.
“She was a community humanitarian … All I remember as a kid was ‘take these potatoes to Miss Green, wrap that bread.’ We were just taking things to people in the neighborhood who were shut-ins, who couldn’t go anywhere,” said Brown, recalling how she went with Petronita and just sat with an elderly widow, keeping her company.
Petronita was so busy taking care of others that she didn’t take care of her health, Brown said.
“Every single day she woke up and chose to serve someone else. She drove people who had no family to appointments; she brought food to the sick and the elderly who couldn’t get it themselves; she sat at food banks, shelters, and Social Security offices,” said Brown.
Her family never understood why Petronita took on other people’s problems and pain, Brown said.
“But to Petronita, helping others was never a burden. It was simply who she was. She saw value in people. She saw dignity in the ones the world overlooked,” Brown said.
After Petronita died, Brown was taken back to her mother. Brown then grew up amid difficult circumstances and built a successful career in financial services. Brown has never forgotten Petronita or her kindness and compassion for others.
Now, Brown’s paying it forward with the restaurant.
The restaurant’s menu celebrates Petronita’s Cuban and African-American heritage. The community table honors Petronita’s spirit of inclusivity and belief that strangers are people you haven’t met yet.
Rotating menu of Southern and Latin-inspired cuisine
The dishes offered on the tasting-style dinner menu are rooted in family recipes.
A Northeast Florida native, Ray is a classically trained chef who’s worked in professional kitchens for 18 years. He created Petronita’s menu in about a month.
“It’s like home cooking with fine dining elements. … I do like those traditional French techniques, and I like bringing that over to home-cooked Southern meals,” he said. “I like exploring different flavors, especially here, bringing in those Latin flavors to some of the Southern classics.”
Ray expects the restaurant’s Duck Tostada, with duck confit on a hibiscus-pomegranate blue masa tortilla and served with a black bean puree and a cherry-rum glaze, to be a customer favorite. Also popular will be the short rib, which is braised for over eight hours and sits on a celery root puree, and is topped with a pomegranate chimichurri and Aleppo pepper demi-glace, he said.
Planned signature dishes:
Reviving a historic neighborhood landmark
Petronita’s is adjacent to The Cove Social Club, a private event venue — also owned by Brown — in a 4,200-square-foot brick building comprised of four storefronts.
Nestled in a residential neighborhood, the building dates back to the mid-1920s. It originally housed an A&P grocery store, as well as a cigar store and other businesses.
The building was unique, she said, because it was in a residential neighborhood. Although it was in somewhat rough shape after being vacant for many years, Brown saw its potential.
“It was unique. It resembled the community and community around it. … And it had to be in a community that can tell the story. The stories behind it and the stories we add to it. It’s just right,” Brown said.
They preserved as many of the building’s original features as possible in renovating it for The Cove and Petronita’s, she said.
“We wanted to let it speak. I didn’t want to cover it up with a lot of modern things. I wanted it to be where you could tell it was a century-old building,” Brown said of features including exposed brick walls and original windows.
Petronita’s dining room and The Cove share a speakeasy-style interior wall door. After dinner at Petronita’s, guests can go over to the Cove side to enjoy Latin music. There’s also a small cigar room with vintage furniture, she said.
The restaurant is still finalizing its hours. It plans to debut with brunch service from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, special evening brunch services will be from 6 to 10 p.m. Aug. 14 and 21.
Dinner will be added Aug. 26, with service from 6 to 11 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Reservations are available through OpenTable.
Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Petronita’s brings Southern-Latin cuisine and community to Springfield
Reporting by Teresa Stepzinski, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Teresa Stepzinski, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
