After closing its doors due to infrastructural problems, The Jones management and staff are looking to make its remaining location stronger than ever.
They are looking at the bright side of the situation, despite closures to the Eastside location last week.
Audrey Dingeman, general manager of The Jones, said it was a positive business move. The business is now entirely run out of The Jones B-side location downtown.
“We’d really like to focus on putting all our love we’ve put into the community and our clientele and put it in one location,” she said.
The 38-seat restaurant served breakfast and lunch at the 401 NE 23rd Ave. location since August 2005. Dingeman said The Jones Eastside was in an old building and needed work, which was beyond the management’s control, prompting the restaurant’s closure.
Gladys Alvear, front-of-house manager of The Jones, said she will miss the Eastside. Because it was next to both a laundromat and a pawn shop, the restaurant drew in unique customers.
“We had a solid crowd of people that would come over just because they were doing laundry,” she said.
Alvear said she’s excited about bringing the Eastside’s breakfast menu to The Jones B-side.
“I think it’s going to add to the atmosphere here,” Alvear said.
Its popular breakfast items — including the pancakes, rancheros and bagel sandwiches — are now being served at The Jones B-Side, which is taking over the breakfast menu and other menu items from the Eastside location.
“A lot of these items were high in demand,” she said.
Dingeman said that most of the staff from the Eastside will join the B-Side location.
“We’re going to work very hard to try to get more of an Eastside feel down here,” Dingeman said.
Jones regular Christopher Garland, a 32-year-old UF English Ph.D. candidate, said he thinks bringing breakfast to the B-side will attract more customers to the restaurant.
“I think people will feel like coming here because they’ve had positive experiences at the Eastside,” he said. “I think the strong parts of the Eastside can be brought to the B-side.”
Dingeman said the B-Side location will be serving the former Eastside’s breakfast menu from 8 to 11 a.m.
She said she hopes nostalgic Eastside regulars will come enjoy its breakfast menu at the B side.
“We want them to know we’re mourning the loss as well,” Dingeman said, “and we’d like to mourn together.”
[A version of this story ran on pages 1 - 4 on 7/17/2014 under the headline "Jones Eastside closes, breakfast moves to B-side"]
