This year my son’s bus stop changed from his old Elementary School to European Street Cafe, which has been operating on Park Street in Riverside for thirty years. Now, is that luck or what? I feel like we all deserve a little luck after the chaos of the last few years. So, I took advantage of the best bang for my Happy Hour Buck at E-Street this school year (they have a 2-for-1 happy hour drafts special!). As the school year is coming to an end, I am already reminiscing about sending a group message to my friends with three simple words, “BUS STOP BEERS!” Then heading out to sit at one of the many shaded tables on their patio and wait patiently with a frosty mug in hand.
Magically, one by one, my girlfriends start to appear. Sometimes one or two friends show up with their children, while other times so many join us that we have to spread out over two tables. Soon after I arrive, my son lazily saunters over from where the bus dropped him off, loaded down with a twenty pound backpack (they apparently don’t use lockers anymore in an effort to destroy our children’s posture). On occasion, this exhausted trouper would take charge of the “kid’s table” and entertain the little ones (or better said, let them climb all over him). It was so nice this school year to enjoy a little time together with friends (who are like family) over a great meal with the best beer special in town.
This particular day I had a BLT Wrap with a triple order of bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise and swiss cheese - YUM - a side of chips, pickle spear, and ranch dressing. The ranch dressing is for my chips because I am extra health conscious. Also, pickle spears are highly underrated in my opinion. My favorite beer on tap is the Hacker-Pschorr Weisse topped off with a slice of lemon. My son showed up and ordered two classic reuben sliders. Then two of my friends popped by, one with their child, for hot dogs, hummus, brews, and great conversation with lots of laughter. It was a fun way to wind down after a hard week and start out the weekend right.
Be prepared: after the meal you pay inside at the cash register, which is right beside the dessert cases, full of pies, cakes and melt in your mouth cookies (seriously, those cookies, though). Facing the cakes and pies is a great selection of carry out beers and wine from around the world. They also have a huge area with an assortment of bizarre and fun candies, which I always get roped into buying for my kiddo. I am a sucker for the colorful rock candy on sticks because they remind me of my childhood.
European Street Cafe not only has great deals and yummy food and beer, they have the best people who work for them. They are friendly and kind and make you feel at home. I am gonna date myself here but it reminds me of Cheers “Where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” Most of the time they bring me my favorite beer before I even order it!
Other patrons are always friendly too! This day, some guests at the table next to us brought their dog, Pablo in his own little doggie stroller. Their owners said that Pablo was really a dog masquerading as a sheep (he kind of felt like a sheep too). Our tables became fast friends even though we’d never met before! This often happens in Riverside because people are friendly, curious, and we love the uniqueness and quirkiness of our neighbors.
European Street Cafe, Riverside, is located at 2753 Park St. in the Historic Park and King Corridor. The two other locations are Jax Beach and San Marco. Hours are 10:00 am to 9:00 pm daily. Kids eat free on Mondays. Happy Hour BOGO draft beers, short or tall 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
One of my favorite things about European Street Cafe in Riverside is the beautiful Art Deco architecture. It is a perfect example of adaptive reuse within a National Historic District. According to Wayne Wood, the building was designed in 1942 by Michael Vaviloff, an architect from Miami. Vaviloff is listed as designing a few apartment buildings in Miami Beach during the same timeframe, as well as redesigning the Pan American Airways System Terminal Building to be adaptively reused as Miami City Hall. I wonder if he thought about his art-deco gem of a service station being adaptively reused as a cafe one day? I doubt he could have ever imagined that!
It is unclear if Jones Super Service Station initiated the construction or were simply first proprietors of this super cool art-deco building. Maybe an oil company owned the building and a local proprietor operated the business (some say Orange State Oil)? The design was certainly a unique statement meant to attract attention and people to this service station over others (check out this pictorial article about other Jax Stations). Jones’ original location was on the opposite side of the street (2724 Park Street) and they were located there until 1941. Once the Art Deco building was contructed, Jones Super Service Station moved across the street into the building and operated there from 1942 to 1944. By 1946, the building had turned over to Conrad and Blanchette Filling Station. From 1950 to 1955, Wetheringtons Cities Service Station operated in this location, followed later by Park Street Cities Service Station. Cities Services Company was a national oil provider and a precursor to CITGO.
At some point prior to the 1970s, the service station went defunct and the Florida Barber College relocated there from West Adams Street to operate their school. The school was also open to customers as a barbershop through much of the 1980s. Unfortunately, after the school closed, the building sat vacant and boarded for years. It is surprising it wasn’t demolished. Although Riverside Avondale Preservation formed in the 1970s, there were no local ordinances at that time to protect historic structures from being razed. Over 1,400 historic structures were lost from the 1970s to the 1990s in Riverside Avondale alone.
Luckily, in the 1990s, restauranteurs Mary and Lew Zarka began to consider expanding their successful German deli restaurant, Mr. Dunderbak’s, which they had opened in 1980 at Regency Square Mall. The Zarkas certainly had vision when they found the abandoned old service station on Park Street and decided to renovate it into a cafe. Personally, I think it takes a special kind of person to see not what something is but what something can be. And it took a lot of vision because Riverside was different in the 1990s — it wasn’t as sure of a bet as it is today (trust me, I lived a few blocks away in a quad on Olga at this time). The Zarkas forged ahead, building on their success in Regency with a new concept, European Street Cafe, and after much rehab work opened what the locals lovingly refer to as “E-Street in August 1992. Today, their son Andy Zarka carries on the new tradition with special touches of his own. Thank you, Zarka family!
I have made my mark in European Street. As you walk in the door to the Riverside location, turn to your right and you will see my name engraved in gold on one of several wall plaques. These plaques represent the Brewmeister Club, where one “drinks around the world” by trying one of the most extensive beer selections in Jacksonville (20 rotating beer taps and 200+ bottled beers). It took me a full year to check off all the beers in the Bremeister Club. Not only did I get my name on the wall, they awarded me one free beer a day for a full year! Now that is a deal! You can use the E-Street loyalty app to track your Brewmeister Club progress and learn about daily deals! Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at E-Street, bus stop beers or summer time shandy.