San Marco East Plaza is the next neighborhood for 1928 Cuban Bistro.
The site also is the seventh location for the Jacksonville-based restaurant group.
“It’s going to be something special,” said owner Rebecca Gonzalez.
The space will be a restaurant, catering-prep kitchen, catering storage and corporate office.
The city is reviewing a permit application for Lighthouse Construction of North Florida LLC to renovate restaurant space in Building A at 3563 Philips Highway.
San Marco East Plaza is at northeast Philips Highway and Emerson Street, off Interstate 95, in South Jacksonville.
The permit application shows an estimated $72,875 build-out project of 2,712 square feet in a 51,052-square-foot building.
Gonzalez said the restaurant will be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday with a smaller, more focused menu than at the first six locations.
“On the weekends, we plan to use the kitchen for prepping our large catering orders, which have really taken off over the last couple of years,” she said.
“Plus, this space will double as our corporate office for the upper management team and a storage area for our catering supplies.”
The location is a strategic growth decision.
“We can’t wait to have a dedicated spot for our catering business and are looking forward to all the possibilities it will bring,” Gonzalez said.
San Marco East Plaza, developed in 1960 as Phillips Highway Plaza, is an eight-building campus with green space, walkways and courtyards.
The highway name was initially misspelled and later corrected to reflect its namesake, Duval County Judge Henry Bethune Philips, the first chairman of the old Florida State Road Board, forerunner of the Florida Department of Transportation.
The 470,000-square-foot campus tenants includes Baptist Health, RF-Smart and, most visible along I-95, the Community First Igloo, home of the Jacksonville Icemen professional hockey team.
Over the past 65 years, the site has transitioned as a shopping center to Market Square Mall and then to office uses as 95 Central Business Center and Metro Square office park before Prescott Group bought the 38-acre property in 2019.
San Marco East is the mile-long corridor of Philips Highway from San Marco to Emerson Street that property owners want to revitalize. They formed the San Marco East Business Association.
1928 Cuban Bistro has six restaurants in Duval, Clay and Nassau counties comprising locations in Baymeadows, Ortega, Jacksonville Beach, Saint Johns, Fernandina Beach and Fleming Island.
1928 Cuban Bistro’s menu includes breakfast all day, lunch and, depending on the location. The first six are open daily.
Sandwiches include The Cuban, Pan con Lechon and more; wraps; salads; empanadas; plates; sides; soup; pastries; and desserts such as flan, churros and bunuelos.
There also are Cuban coffees, tea and other drinks. The menu is at 1929bistro.com/menu.
The 1928Bistro.com site shows that the six restaurants open at 8 a.m. daily. Closing hours vary by location and day, from 4 p.m., 6 p.m. or 8 p.m.
In 2019, Gonzalez created the first 1928 Cuban Bistro restaurant at 3928 Baymeadows Road and has added locations since then.
1928 Cuban Bistro honors her grandparents, Mario and Pura Alvarado. Her grandfather, a Cuban immigrant born in 1928, left Cuba in 1961 to escape communism.