The Dish

We all love food with a view. Downtown's cityscape is pretty impressive dozens of stories up, but in the past the highest restaurants with an aerial Downtown view were also members only propositions. Not so any more, with the opening of the Skylight Dining and Conference Center (50 N. Laura St.) on the 42nd floor of Jacksonville's tallest building (The Bank of America Tower, originally called the Barnett Tower). Word is that you can actually eat lunch there for around $10.

The Uptown Market & Deli (1303 N. Main St.) is in full swing in Springfield. You can find it in new Third & Main building, along with City Kidz Ice Cream Cafe. (Do try City Kidz crab cakes!) Uptown is the newest place for Jacksonville's Urban set to catch a deli bite or breakfast and will be open till 8 pm. If you want table service, you'll have to go from 7 am to 2 pm, after that you can order from the deli.

Shatki Life Kitchen (51 Pine St., Atlantic Beach) is a restaurant, but they've been spreading their raw-foodist vegan cheer in more places than you would expect. They sell vegan crackers at the Beaches Green Market, Native Sun Market carries their various sundries and now European Street is selling their desserts.

We hope the Village Bread opening at the Landing will survive longer than Karlene's Deli did. Since they've weathered a less than stellar locale in the past, perhaps they will.

Don't take the loss of The Fresh Market at its 10950 San Jose Blvd locale as another sign of our doomed economy. It's merely moved just down the street (on the opposite side) to 12795 San Jose Blvd. Things must be looking up, because they've actually expanded.

Questions about the Riverside Arts Market

I do love Riverside Arts Market. Love the variety, the entertainment, the produce, the herbs and all the people walking dogs.

But there are a few things that I wonder about:
Why close mid December?
I get doing that up North or where is gets so snowy and cold you don't want to go anywhere outdoors. In Florida, people actually come out during the "cold" months because it's no longer the miserable heat. I am struggling to understand the rationale behind this.

The only thing I can think of is that it is the first year and the promoters wanted a break. Because there will certainly be a demand for it. Why would you close during snowbird season?

I know it's modeled after a market in Portland Oregon which closes from the end of Dec. through part of Feb. But the promoters can't be so thickheaded as to think that conditions in Portland, OR are the same as here in Jacksonville.

The website keeps emphasising that it's cool under the bridge. Maybe they think it will be so cool that no one will come? It doesn't provide that much relief. You still end up sweating when it's in the 90s.

Why are vendors such jumping beans?
I guess it's more fair to the vendors to be moved about so that one person doesn't get a prime spot all the time.

But, as a customer it's a little frustrating if I am looking for a particular vendor.

I get that it's possible it would make me walk the market a bit more because the vendors get "shaken up" so to speak.

I'm of two minds on this. It means that people won't go to a particular area all the time, which is good and it makes you take a fresh look at things. But it's also easy to miss a vendor you would normally visit if you don't have the time to walk the whole market. I've noticed that the produce section at least is in the same spot and is all together.

They may be changing this policy, because I have noticed that vendors are more often in the same spot than they used to be...