Beginning next week and continuing every third Thursday of the month, the parking lot at the corner of Main and Adams Streets downtown will be transformed into a food and beer lover’s paradise. At least that is the hopes of downtown advocate Mike Field. Field’s vision is to create another monthly destination event downtown like Art Walk. Thus, Jaxsons Night Market, a food-centric event is born.
Cities across the country and world have had night market traditions for decades, even centuries. Generally dedicated to casual browsing, socializing, eating and drinking, night markets are traditions that draw eclectic crowds of foodies and curiosity-seekers alike.
In San Francisco, the hugely popular ‘Underground Market’ is a monthly event that brings together foragers and as many as 35 of the Bay area’s best home cooks. In Richmond, BC, on weekend evenings, more than 200 vendors set up shop on a 10-acre site in the Vancouver suburb and get to work on Chinese, Thai, and Italian dishes. Families and foodies line up Thursday evenings all summer in the lower parking lot of Yamashiro Japanese restaurant in the Hollywood Hills to taste gourmet foods like Duck Confit and pulled pork sliders. Jacksonville now joins these cities with as many as 25 food booths and, of course, craft beer.
Several of the vendors guests can expect on the inaugural night of the event include the insanely popular Hawkers Asian Street Fare, The Hyppo makers of popsicles in flavors such as Strawberry Basil and pops made with Intuition Ale Works beer and several local food trucks. In addition, visitors can enjoy foods from the event’s sponsors: Black Hog Farms, Burrito Gallery and Intuition Ale Works.
In a recent article published in the Jacksonville Business Journal, Field says, “There’s a yearning for more stuff to do Downtown. Downtown needs more reasons for people to come down, and Art Walk is such a great excuse for people to come Downtown that normally wouldn’t come Downtown. This is a different kind of monthly event that has a different spin.”
Jaxsons Night Market will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 on the third Thursday of each month in the parking lot adjacent to the Burrito Gallery downtown.
