Another restaurant in Jacksonville's downtown closes. Could it relocate, reopen elsewhere?

Another popular downtown Jacksonville restaurant has closed abruptly, but its owner hopes to relocate and reopen soon nearby.

Jumpin' Jax House of Food shut its doors at 20 W. Adams St. on Saturday after four years serving the breakfast, brunch and lunch crowd inside the historic 107-year-old Lerner Building between Main and Laura streets.

"We definitely intend to relocate and reopen hopefully downtown … as soon as possible," restaurant owner Howland "Howdy" Russell confirmed to the Times-Union on Monday.

The closure comes weeks after Burrito Gallery closed its original restaurant at 21 E. Adams St. after 18 years in business there.

Looking for a new location

Russell said he is scouting out potential locations downtown, including a possible site near Laura and Ashley streets.

It would be "a novel way of thinking" — an approach that's evolved from the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on restaurants, particularly in downtown, he said.

"With today's impact of internet ordering, delivery, catering and all those kind of things, we believe that we would probably recoup at least 50 percent of our sales just on those things alone," Russell said. "And then if we have a viable way to have a dining room so that we could tap into the city of Jacksonville and then the other businesses that are in the area, then we could do pretty well."

Russell noted it's a transitional approach business model.

"Rather than doing a ghost kitchen, where we can provide those services and cook it off-site somewhere unbeknownst to everybody, if we have a physical presence downtown then we can maintain those relationships that we've built over the last four years," Russell said.

It also would be great, Russell said, if Jumpin' Jax House of Food were fortunate enough to be in the new Gateway Jax and other new developments downtown.

"Even last week, our last week of being open, we had full dining rooms every day Monday through Friday and even Saturday was a great day. So we want to maintain that momentum that we built over the last four years," he said.

The downtown restaurant opened in January 2020 and weathered the pandemic. Now it is the third Jumpin' Jax location to shut its doors in two years.

In December 2022, Jumpin Jax closed its Mandarin restaurant after more than five years in business. Nearly a year earlier, its Atlantic Beach restaurant closed after three years there.

Jumpin' Jax House of Food's restaurant at 4887 Belfort Road — which opened in March 2023 — remains open.

Downtown closure rooted in pandemic

Russell attributed the downtown closure to an ongoing 19-month delay in the restaurant receiving its authorized federal Employee Retention Credit (ERC) funding resulting from the COVID pandemic.

"We applied for the ERC and we qualified for it, actually a significant amount. … They originally told us we were going to get it in four to seven months, but it's been 19 so far," said Russell, noting they never anticipated such a long delay, which resulted in exhausting the restaurant's reserves.

"We talked to the IRS tax advocate. Congressman Aaron Bean's office checked into it for us. And the IRS said 'Yes, you applied and we're going to get you a check. We don't know if it's been written, but we know that you have not cashed it.' That's all they could tell us," Russell said.

He said they decided to vacate the downtown space rather than ask building owner FSCJ to wait for the rent payments.

Russell said the 10 employees who worked there have been furloughed. He hopes they will return when the restaurant reopens.

The ERC money is "crucial" to them being able to keep those employees, he noted.

Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jumpin' Jax House of Food closes downtown Jacksonville restaurant