Nordstrom is planning to add the full-service Bazille Café and bar on the second floor of its St. Johns Town Center department store at a project cost of almost $800,000.
IBEX Construction, which is building the two-story, 130,000-square-foot Nordstrom, is shown as the contractor for the 3,270-square-foot restaurant.
Bazille is designed with about 150 seats, including two dining areas and the bar. Aria Architect of Oak Park, Ill., is the designer. The project cost is listed at $787,000.
Seattle-based Nordstrom describes Bazille. "This full-service restaurant with a casually sophisticated atmosphere features bistro cuisine and a full bar."
Nordstrom intends to open its first full-line department store at 4835 Town Crossing Drive in October. It also plans an Ebar coffee shop at the first-floor ground entrance, featuring coffee beverages prepared by baristas, along with smoothies, pastries and grab-and-go sandwiches, salads and snacks made fresh daily.
The Bazille menu at Nordstrom.com shows soups, salads, starters, pizzas, sandwiches and specialties along with desserts.
A Tampa Bay Times review of Bazille in the Nordstrom at International Plaza says it is named for artist Frédéric Bazille, a close friend of impressionists Monet and Manet.
"It doesn't feel quite right to dress like a schlump here," wrote Times Food Critic Laura Reiley in July.
"Not when you're eating a lush Dungeness crab and pink shrimp salad on a shiny, buttered brioche ($14.50) or sharing a trio of crisp-edge risotto balls filled with molten fontina and curls of prosciutto ($8.75) sitting on a bed of balsamic-sparked tomato ragout."
She went on:
"It's a salady, ladies-lunch kind of place, but it also seems to draw well from the West Shore business district, dark suits dotting the smart dining room. Look around and you'll see green salads with fresh berries, figs and fluffs of goat cheese, a vanilla vinaigrette and candied almonds adding unusual notes ($12.95), or, every bit as tasty, cilantro lime shrimp salads dotted with corn, tortilla strips and roasted sweet peppers ($13.95)."
There also are "more substantial, dinner-appropriate entrees."
General hours there are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Sunday. Hours can be adjusted. For example, the restaurant opens at 9 a.m. today for holiday shoppers.
Nordstrom also filed its plans with the state Department of Business & Professional Regulation.
Palazzo construction re-starting
Construction is starting – rather, re-starting – at The Palazzo on St. Johns in Jacksonville's Baymeadows area.
The city approved construction Friday for what formerly was called The Cove at St. Johns.
The approval to re-start a permit issued in 2005 calls for Bradenton Cove Construction LLC to complete the six-story building No. 1000 at 3958 Baymeadows Road at a project cost of $1.48 million.
The building comprises 65,519 square feet of enclosed space and 5,135 square feet of unenclosed space. It is one of four partially built structures at the site.
The sales center for the project opened in early December.
Prospect Cove Development LLC is the project owner. The project had been taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp in 2009. Prospect Cove Development bought it this summer.
The gated community of up to 86 units will offer floor plans ranging from 2,000 to 3,400 heated square feet and should be ready for move-in in March. Prices for three-bedroom plans start about $400,000, three-bedroom plans with a study start about $500,000 and there will be penthouses that start about $800,000.
There also will be a private boardwalk and marina featuring a dock with boat slips, a kayak launch and an outdoor recreation area, including a pool and an outdoor kitchen.
For information, the website is listed as the palazzoonstjohns.com.
Prospect Cove Development LLC of Longwood has filed building plans with the city for two of the four buildings. The first two permits show a $3.1 million renovation cost for two six-story buildings, one with 18 units and the other with 20 units.
Plans show The Palazzo will comprise a six-story, 18-unit building; a six-story, 20-unit building; a four-story, 18-unit building; and a 30-unit, six-story building. There also is a pool, cabana and summer kitchen and below-building parking.
The property is 2.8 acres.
As reported Sept. 5, Prospect Cove Development LLC, housed at Prospect Property Group, took over the unfinished condominiums at Baymeadows and San Jose boulevards in a $2.5 million deal.
Dining signs
• Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers, The Mellow, Pie 1 Bar, three signs at 3611 St. Johns Ave. Harbinger was approved to put up the three signs at a project cost of $8,300.
• Gumbo Ya Ya's New Orleans-Cajun at 8106 Blanding Blvd. Ad America will put up the ground sign at a project cost of $1,500. (Gumbo Ya Ya's New Orleans-Cajun says it has two restaurants coming soon – Gumbo Ya Ya's East at 14333 Beach Blvd., No. 101, and West at Blanding Boulevard.)
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