Maple Street Biscuit Company

2004 San Marco Blvd, 32207 $

“Do one thing and Do it well” has been used as a slogan and motivational tool for business and individuals of all industries.  All industries, that is, except for restaurants.  Doing only one thing well in a kitchen cannot provide the average eatery enough turn over and return business to keep the lights on.  But occasionally this model works, and Maple Street Biscuit Company is out to prove it can be done.  They have taken the beloved buttermilk biscuit of the Southern kitchen and created a menu unique and well-rounded enough to satisfy any palette.

In the former Moe’s of San Marco, owner/operators Gus Evans and Scott Moore have taken the southwest eatery and turned it upside down with a sturdy renovation.  And instead of the “WELCOME TO MOE’S!!!” upon entering, you are now greeted with the amazing smell of fresh baked biscuits that are made right behind the register.  The old hot line of beans and rice has been turned into a bar that ends with a specialty coffee station, which includes their house blend of Maple Coffee.  Along the other wall are several individual tables for two to four diners and at the very front a large community table.  It is a very casual place, much like the address’ predecessor, you review the large menu on the wall and walk up to order.  They get the customer more involved by using little questions to call your order as opposed to your name.  Today’s was “What is your favorite band?”, so instead of dining with Maren and Kelam, on this day I dined with Rascal Flats.  We sit at the community table and wait for the band names to be called more impatiently than not.

The biscuit is a difficult art, if not made with the right ratio of ingredients, it can go from the extreme of a hardtack style piece of bread to a mushy lump of school paste.  But at Maple Street, they know and understand the biscuit and what it takes to make a good one.  They would not tell me much about the biscuit’s ingredients, but I did get some insight on the technique.  I was told they do not use the Southern staple of White Lily Self-Rising Flour, but they trade it for their own made in house mixture.  And like any good mother or father in the kitchen making biscuits, they are sure the fat is nice and hard before cutting it into the dry ingredients.  Simply put, the biscuit is a biscuit, nothing to write home about, but nothing to shy away from, it is still one good piece of bread.  The major difference you will find between their biscuit and mom’s is in the texture, since they shred in the cold fat instead of cut or knead it in, it creates a more layered biscuit, but it does not affect the final product.

The Reinhold, all natural fried chicken breast, crunchy dill pickle, house made honey mustard, $6.

Not sure if named after the actor famed for Beverly Hills Cop and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but if it is, I like his style.  For a place that focuses on the delivery vehicle, they do a damn good job making sure the accompaniments are just as good.  The chicken is juicy and well seasoned, could possibly give Beach Road Chicken a run for their money.  The pickles are thick cut and just right for the dish, nothing over powering coming from the brined cucumber.  It is finished off with simple honey mustard, not overly sweet or spicy from one of the ingredients overtaking the other.  A very well balanced dish.

Squawk on the Street, all natural fried chicken breast, house made pepper jelly, $6.

The biscuit.  Then the chicken.  Now the pepper jelly.  Sweet, tangy and spicy all rolled into one tasty treat most southerners eat by the gobs with cream cheese and crackers.  Though not made from the regional favorite of Datil peppers, and I personally felt it could have used a little more spiciness, it was still really tasty.

The Squawking Goat, all natural fried chicken breast, fried goat cheese medallion, $7.50.

Apparently we all thought the idea of chicken and biscuits for breakfast would be awesome this day.  The “Goat” portion is a simple breaded and fried medallion of Chevre. They add a little twist of herbs, nothing over powering.  We felt the portion of the goat’s cheese could have been a little heavier.

The Garden Bird, all natural fried chicken, collard greens, fried egg, hot sauce, $6.

One final chicken biscuit, then we get to the others.  Nothing special about the individual components on this one, standard southern greens, an egg, a dash of Tabasco, and it turns out they all work really well together.

The Blues Biscuit, pulled pork, slaw, honey bbq, $7.

Truthfully the only one we found lacking, though it may have been because we were enjoying all the others that it just got cold on us.  The pork was not over or under cooked, and the bbq sauce was not too sweet.  The slaw was a not as creamy as we liked either.  But, like I said, this one was one of the last tried and it was most likely our fault for it getting cold, which very well may have been perfect when we first got it.  I may give this one another shot, but honestly, the others are good enough to forget this one.

The Ralphie Deluxe, spicy sausage gravy, fried egg, $6.

Biscuit, sausage gravy, spiciness, a fried egg, I am pretty sure this is how a weekend southern breakfast is depicted in magazines.  I remember my mother making biscuits and gravy rather often, and it is always hard to stack up against Momma’s cooking.  They may not get the belt in this round, but they sure did give her a run for the money.  I mean after all, Mumsie Dearest never made fried chicken and pepper jelly to go with hers. Hint, hint.

A very pleasing visit to the Maple Street Biscuit Company left us wanting to just grab a quick nap in our chairs or go for a whiskey tasting at the Grape & Grain Exchange before we go for another round.  Needless to say, I will be back for more biscuits and I will be back soon.  I am hoping I can get them to let me build my own combination of flavors.  If they let me do that with their convenient breakfast and lunch hours, and even dinner hours on the weekends, I may be there often enough to get a biscuit named after me.

Green Erth Bistro

1520 Hendricks Avenue, 32207
$$

There has been a movement in the restaurant industry that has made its’ way into Jacksonville and beyond.  It is a movement that is loved by many: the chef, the farmer, the foodie.  It is the Farm to Fork movement.  A movement defined simply as food produced locally as natural or organic as possible without the use of GMOs or hormones.

Green Erth Bistro is making its push to be in that market under the Persian cuisine banner.  Not yet fully Farm to Fork, they utilize natural and organic ingredients whenever possible.  They even pride themselves on offering a plethora of vegan and vegetarian dishes, but they do not restrict themselves to these dietary restrictions alone.  The Bistro, as they like to refer to themselves as, is tucked into one of the many strips you see in the San Marco area of town.  There is not much to distinguish it from the surrounding areas as the façade on the whole strip has no definition between businesses.  What helps it to stand out is its maroon canvas overhang leading into the patio with the simple text of Green Erth Bistro in white.  It is a quant place with a large community table in the middle as well as several smaller tables skirting the main room for a more private dining experience.  My diner with me tonight is Shelly and we decide on the community table in hopes of discourse during the main course.

After a brief moment our server takes our drink order and gives us time to peruse the menu.  They offer a wide selection of organic and local beers, though Intuition People’s Pale Ale was the only local beer on tap.  They also offer a variety of specialty teas and waters as well as some unique drinks of the vegan/vegetarian and eastern Mediterranean variety.  An order of water and tea reveal drinks are served in a plastic cup, but it is a plastic cup made of recycled materials, fitting with the theme of the restaurant.

We decide to start off with the two daily special soups:  Vegan Tamarind and Coconut Soup and Vegetarian Barley Ash.

Vegan Tamarind and Coconut Soup, $?
It is a hearty soup with a scent not far off from the familiar sweet potato dishes of the South.  The flavor?  Flat.  It was a lentil based soup with hints of sweetness from the tamarind, but this soup offered nothing more than filler.  The texture was grainy, and the flavors barely reminded you of what you ordered.  This was completely different than the broth like soup we expected, but I am not sure that even that would have salvaged it.

Vegetarian Barley Ash, $? 
No this dish does not contain any amount of remnants of a burnt piece of wood.  Ash is a consistency between soup and stew, a “stoup” if you like that terminology.  Loaded with lentils, beans and peas of all sorts, this soup is heavily accented with cilantro and finished with a touch of yogurt.   It needed a little brightness - in all actuality, all it needed was to not sit in a steam well all day which allowed the flavors and brightness drop since it was finished being prepared before lunch.

Hummus Plate, diced tomato, olive, fresh basil, $4.50. 
Being a staple, it was a must to see how they perform on a basic such as hummus.  Overall a good dish, the hummus was smooth and not over powered by any one flavor.  The pita served with it was warm and slightly toasted and had the added health benefit of flax seed.  The downfall of this dish comes with the olives.  I mean we are talking about the eastern Mediterranean, an area of the world known for the harvesting of this fruit and its many varietals and curing procedures and The Bistro chooses to use canned sliced black olives.  Nothing short of the olive you would see from the cheap chain pizza delivery guys.

Kabob Assortment: Tofu and Veggie, $5, Koobideh, $4, Jujeh, $5, saffron basmati rice. 
Large pieces of bright, fresh vegetables skewered and grilled over open flame.  The tofu is seasoned with sumac and nothing else, not even salt.  An ingredient that is essentially a blank canvas of the culinary world and they sprinkle it with a single spice, not very freshly ground, and nothing else.  The vegetables seasoned with nothing at all.  Very disappointed with these, textures are there but with no flavor it became a huge let down.  Koobideh, ground meat seasoned and skewered, can be very difficult to achieve.  Getting the meat to hang onto the skewer can turn into disaster if you do not know what you are doing.  Make the mince wrong and it can be too loose to keep on the skewer.  Not loose enough and you cannot spread it out evenly creating uneven cooking.  It is obvious these guys know what they are doing; it was a near perfect skewer of perfectly cooked and seasoned beef.  Jujeh, saffron marinated chicken, was beautifully cooked breast of chicken with a bright yellow hue from the chicken.  A little seasoning could have carried this to a whole other level, but was good eats none the less.  They prepare the saffron and basmati rice in a somewhat unique manner.  With saffron being the most expensive spice in the world, instead of making large batches and over utilizing or stretching out the saffron, they make plain basmati rice and a smaller batch of saffron rice.  It also allows for a nicer presentation instead of the bland display of nothing but rice on a plate.  Though plenty of these items were in need of seasoning, all the kebabs and rice were cooked perfectly.

At first, we debated dessert, and then we heard about Persian ice cream.  So we had to try it and, of course, Baklava.

Persian Ice Cream, pistachios, $4.50. 
Ice cream, the French concoction of frozen custard that has been bought into by many ethnicities has seen as many flavors, takes on a unique perspective in the Persian eye.  Saffron and lavender accent the dessert in a way that is a bit awkward.  With the first few bites I felt as if I was being attacked by the various scents found in the candle, lotion and perfume isles of the local department store all at once.  That taste of the musky aura associated with an elderly woman fills the mouth and mind.  After you make it past those first few bites it becomes something much more real, a light creamy floral custard whose scent gently floats into you sinuses.  The pistachio flavor is pretty much lost in the lavender but add a very nice regional texture to the dish.

Bakalava, $3. 
Very traditional, very familiar, well done.

When it comes to the food, Green Erth Bistro has more hits than misses, and this usually leads to a recommendation for dining here.  But, we received horrid service.  It was not that the server was rude or impatient; it was that she seemed to not care she had guests.  At multiple times throughout the meal, she would walk from the rear of the restaurant and see us sitting there and realize she had either not talked to us in a while to see if we needed anything, or our order taken, or that she had said she was going to bring us plates so that we could eat the entrée.  Though it seems she may have attempted to rectify her mistakes by giving us the soups on the house, they are still misses that turn any meal, even one of the best ones, into the one you do never want to experience again.

I still love the choice of food they choose to serve and their most of their techniques of serving it, but with the thought of getting the same service mean I am less likely to give them repeat business.