Jacksonville-based Southern Grounds, the restaurant and coffee shop, plans to expand in June with its second Beaches location.
The shop will be in Costa Verde Plaza at 2405 Third St. S. near 25th Avenue South in Jacksonville Beach.
It will move into the former Two|One|Four location. The jewelry store moved to another spot to allow Southern Grounds to have direct access to the courtyard.
Southern Grounds serves coffee drinks, teas, health beverages, smoothies, beer and wine. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Southern Grounds has a restaurant at 200 First St. in Neptune Beach, the former Shelby’s. It also has locations in San Marco, Avondale, Jacksonville International Airport and St. Augustine.
It is building-out a coffee shop and cafe at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville’s Integrated Oncology Building. And it is planning to open in The HUB in Riverside in early 2026.
Like the Neptune Beach location, the Jacksonville Beach store will have indoor and outdoor seating. The shop opens into a plaza with umbrellaed tables and a large fire feature in the center. Costa Verde Plaza includes the Blue Jay Listening Room, Casa Maria, SE Joseph Jewelers, Upholstery by Yuri and other businesses.
At a time when big chains like Starbucks are reconfiguring stores to have a drive-thrus, owner Mark Janasik said his shops will never have one. It goes against his Mediterranean roots. Janasik is originally from Greece and he said the notion of hospitality is the foundation for any restaurateur.
“So hospitality is a huge core tenant on what drives our success,” Janasik said.
He wants customers not only to come for coffee and food, but to linger, converse and spend time together.
“We contemplated getting rid of Wi-Fi, but I think there would be a mini-revolt. We talked about that with our designers,” he said.
“Our intent is to create welcoming spaces where eventually people are so immersed in the atmosphere that the phone naturally gets put down.”
The shop will be about 2,600 square feet. Group 4 Design Inc. of Jacksonville is the designer and RPC of Atlantic Beach is the general contractor.
Janasik declined to talk about the project’s budget.
The Jacksonville Beach Southern Grounds will be across the street from Bold Bean, another Jacksonville-based coffee shop. Janasik said he has never considered competition when deciding where to build a Southern Grounds.
“We know that restaurants are key to community vibrancy. The more restaurants, the better it is. The more coffee shops, the better it is. I don’t think you hear people in Portland, Oregon, talking about too many coffee shops,” he said.
Southern Grounds food menu extends past pastries. Janasik said the restaurant has recently stopped using seed oils.
“Ingredients matter, right? Our whole brand just eliminated seed oils. All that stuff is critically important on our health, wellness and lifestyle brand. We’re just so different than everybody else in the coffee, breakfast, lunch category,” he said.
“We think less processed food is better. That’s our stance. We think olive oil is better than canola oil.”
