For years, the low building at the north end of Hendricks Avenue was where you bought canvas, brushes and drafting supplies. Today the former Reddi-Arts complex has Italian on one end and a wine bar a few doors down. A smash burger counter opened this spring a few blocks south. San Marco Square is still the neighborhood's postcard, but most of the new places opening on this side of the river in 2026 are on Hendricks.
This stretch has public grant money set aside for downtown retail, a building in good enough shape to reuse, and operators who already have history in San Marco.
The old Reddi-Arts building, door by door
Tavola Trattoria arrived first, starting a soft opening in late July at 1035 Hendricks Ave. Table Mesa Restaurant Group runs it. The group is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, and operates eight restaurants across Italian, Euro bistro, American bistro, Latin and bakery concepts. As of the Jacksonville Daily Record's August 20 report, the kitchen was still on a limited menu of pizza, stromboli, pasta and Italian staples like zeppole. Filet and other steaks were planned once the kitchen settled in.
The Huguenot followed on Tuesday, September 29, at 1039 Hendricks Ave. No. 5. It's a wine, artisanal cheese and charcuterie bar. The owner, Chad Munsey, told the Daily Record that the wine list is the point and the food plays a supporting role. He has said he doesn't plan to publish a detailed menu. The list is global and leans toward wines made with traditional, sustainable and organic methods.
Here is how the two compare, using hours from the Daily Record's August reporting:
| Tavola Trattoria | The Huguenot | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 1035 Hendricks Ave. | 1039 Hendricks Ave. No. 5 |
| Opened | Soft opening, late July 2026 | September 29, 2026 |
| Operator | Table Mesa Restaurant Group | Chad Munsey |
| What it is | Italian trattoria | Wine, cheese and charcuterie bar |
| Hours | 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mon–Thu; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fri; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sat; 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sun | Tentatively Tue–Sat from 3 p.m., closing between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. depending on demand |
Those hours fit together. Tavola serves brunch-hour starts on weekends and runs through dinner. The Huguenot doesn't open until mid-afternoon and may stay open past midnight. Behind the bar there's a private dining room that can be rented for events, outside catering included, and it will also host ticketed wine tastings.
A San Marco wine bar, the second time around
Longtime residents may recognize Munsey's name before The Huguenot's. He owns The Bearded Pig at 1808 Kings Ave. Around 2001 he opened The Grotto, a San Marco wine bar, and he sold a majority share in 2008. The Florida Times-Union describes him as a Michelin Guide-recognized Jacksonville restaurateur. He opened The Huguenot with his wife, Lauren.
How he picked the site explains a lot about this corridor. According to the Daily Record, the idea came on a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, where the couple visited a wine bar run by a husband-and-wife team. They first looked at space near The Grotto's old location on San Marco Square. They chose Hendricks Avenue instead because of the building's condition, the parking nearby and the news that an Italian restaurant was coming to the same complex.
That last reason matters. Tavola being there helped bring The Huguenot. Each one gives the other a reason to exist, since dinner at one leads naturally to a glass of wine at the other. Parking comes up in the reasoning too, and anyone who has circled the Square on a Friday night will understand why.
The money behind the build-outs
Paying for the build-outs took public money as well as private. Both restaurants in the old Reddi-Arts complex received grants from the Downtown Investment Authority's Core Retail Enhancement Program. The program exists to recruit and keep restaurants and shops in designated Northbank and Southbank retail areas.
DIA's program page sets out the basic terms:
- Grants top out at $30 for every square foot the business leases or occupies.
- The award can't exceed 50 percent of total construction costs.
- The business's own verified spending on improvements has to at least equal the grant.
Because the grant can never cover more than half the build-out, every dollar of public money on Hendricks came with at least a dollar of private money behind it. The DIA board unanimously approved a $135,000 grant for Tavola San Marco LLC, owned by Carl and Lindie Garrett, in August 2025. That was nearly a year before the soft opening. The Huguenot's award was $75,140, approved 9-0 on February 18, 2026, about seven months before it opened.
The program covers more than restaurants. At the same August 2025 meeting, the board awarded $85,250 to Salon on the Southbank so it could move from 1034 Hendricks Ave. to 1038 Kings Ave. The salon now lists 1038 Kings Avenue as its address and takes bookings online.
Together, those three votes put more than $295,000 in DIA grants into businesses within a few blocks of each other. Each was matched at least one-to-one by the business's own spending.
A food truck that came home
Hard Pressed Burgers took a different route to the same street. Owners Edward Evans and Justin Pa'ala built a following with two food trucks known for thin, crispy smash burgers. Opening in San Marco had been a goal for years. As Jacksonville Today reported in February, one of the truck's first steady gigs was at nearby brewery Beer 30. Pa'ala explained the choice to the outlet this way:
"San Marco and Murray Hill are kind of just like OG spots. It's an easy no-brainer."
Their first brick-and-mortar opened Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at 1636 Hendricks Ave., the former Good Dough site, according to the Times-Union. Evans has said that if this location does well, Murray Hill could be next.
So the new Hendricks lineup comes from three directions: an out-of-state restaurant group, a veteran local restaurateur back in the neighborhood where he started, and a food truck graduating to its own dining room. All three ended up on the same avenue within five months.
An evening on Hendricks, start to finish
With the openings spread across the avenue, a full evening can stay on or near Hendricks:
- Start on foot or by bike from the river. The 4,600-foot shared-use path on the Fuller Warren Bridge connects Riverside and San Marco and has been open since 2023. Residents west of the river can come over without the car.
- Dinner at Tavola. It serves until 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, going by the hours published in August.
- A glass at The Huguenot. It's a few doors down in the same complex, open Tuesday through Saturday from 3 p.m., with closing times that run later on busier nights.
- The casual version. On a night that calls for a burger instead of pasta, Hard Pressed is farther south at 1636 Hendricks.
For Japanese, KoBu, a sushi and omakase restaurant at 1435 Naldo Ave., was reported recently open in August 2026. Near the Square, Cafe San Marco and Bar San Marco have taken over the former Bistro Aix space at 1440 San Marco Blvd.
What's being built next door
There's more coming along this part of the Southbank. West of Friendship Fountain at 835 Museum Circle, South Bank Residences had broken ground by mid-September, the Daily Record reported. The planned 395-unit development includes a ground-level restaurant and bar, though no opening date for those spaces has been announced. Farther east, the RiversEdge parks opened in November 2025 as four connected parks on the former JEA generating-station site.
For Hendricks Avenue, the next real test is whether Tavola's full menu, steaks included, arrives as planned, and whether the old Reddi-Arts building fills its remaining storefronts.
If you're curious how this stretch of San Marco is changing, or what it means for your own plans here, The Gilman Group is glad to talk it through over a glass at The Huguenot or a burger at Hard Pressed. Contact Us.
