Having spent the summer taste testing my way across Manhattan, I was excited at the prospect of trying out the trendy new edition to the Gainesville food scene, The Jones B-side. The newest installment of The Jones Eastside, B-side is an expansion of the original, but still holds fast to the theme of local ingredients and community support.
As a Friday night respite from studying for the GRE, I gathered four of my friends and headed to B-side for dinner. Clearly the restaurant has already gathered a following, since upon arrival we were told the wait was an hour and 45 minutes long. We decided to stick it out and quickly snagged seats at the bar to make the time go by a little faster.
Enter the drink menu. In addition to a decent selection of beer and wine, B-side offers nine specialty drinks, which range in price from $6 to $10. My order was the Santa Fe, a margarita livened up with muddled cilantro and red pepper with a splash of orange juice. (If there’s a margarita on the menu, I’m ordering it.) However, my favorite drink out of the bunch was the Dixie Hotel, a Florida bourbon with lemon juice, ginger and soda topped with spicy candied ginger.
After about an hour and 25 minutes at the bar, our table was finally ready. The layout of the room was reminiscent to me of New York restaurants, where limited real estate leads to tiny tables very close together. B-side isn’t cramped by any means, but it certainly gives you the sense that you need to introduce yourself to the strangers sitting awkwardly close to you.
At the urging of my friend, we ordered the poutine ($5.50), which is essentially a fancy name for cheese fries in gravy. And yes, it was as delicious as it sounds. Another standout starter was the baked Brie platter, which is offered with either a sweet or savory filling.
While trying to make up for the fact that I just consumed far more than my fair share of the sophisticated cheese fries, I ordered The Jones’ eggplant ($11.95) as my main dish. With slices of breaded eggplant smothered in tomato ragout, fresh spinach and housemade mozzarella (swoon), it was exactly what I was craving.
However, I seemed to be the only one in our party with a successful entrée. About 20 minutes after three of my dining companions ordered the burger ($10.75), the waitress returned to the table to inform us that they were out of buns and offered instead to put the burgers on sourdough or rye sandwich bread. (Really? That was the solution?)
Ultimately, it was decided that the burgers could be put on Panini bread. When they finally arrived, though, two of them miraculously appeared on regular buns, which were fairly burned, and the third was served on the, rather tough, Panini. On top of it all, the burgers weren’t warm, which I’m assuming was due to the frantic bun search that occurred after they had already been cooked.
Additionally, our fourth diner, who ordered the steak and egg Panini, suffered the same tough-bread fate and found the side order of beans and rice inedible because the rice was so hard. (Maybe they are just targeting meat eaters?)
The highlights were definitely the atmosphere, drinks and appetizers, but the entrées fell short on this visit. Overall, I really wanted to like The Jones B-side because of the cosmopolitan air it brings to Gainesville, but it appears as though they still have some tweaks to make.
The Jones B-side
Address: 203 SW 2nd Ave., Gainesville, FL 32601
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jones-B-side/335113176570066
Hours:
Mon-Friday: 11 a.m. – 2 a.m.
Sat-Sun: 9 a.m. – 2 a.m.
Happy Hour:
5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
The Jones’ eggplant: slices of breaded eggplant smothered in tomato ragout, fresh spinach and housemade mozzarella (swoon).
