Popular Jacksonville 'hidden gem' restaurant is planning a second location — with a twist

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One of Jacksonville’s favorite go-to restaurants for foodies isn’t at the St. Johns Town Center, the Beaches or in the historic districts of San Marco, Riverside, Avondale or Springfield.

Instead, it’s found in an area populated with warehouses, storage units, strip malls and apartment complexes that haven’t changed much in 30 years or so dating back to the restaurant’s founding as a commercial bakery.

In fact, driving by, it’s easy to miss the restaurant’s name painted on its glass doors.

But for those who know, it’s easy to find from the long line of diners queued up outside the nondescript commercial building in all kinds of weather, sometimes even 30 minutes before the 10:30 a.m. opening of The French Pantry.

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Known for its lunch-only menu of sandwiches, burgers, panini and bruschetta — all made with freshly baked bread from the large commercial bakery housed in the Powers Avenue building — as well as gourmet salads and decadent desserts, The French Pantry has developed a cult following among diners, a kind of IYKYK, underground dining experience that’s hidden in plain sight.

Now, after years of rumors of expanding to the former Edgewood Bakery spot in Murray Hill, The French Pantry is growing. Though instead of Murray Hill, the restaurant under owner John Valentino is targeting St. Augustine for a second location.

According to plans submitted to the state, Valentino is partnering with popular Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based Vietnamese cuisine restaurant Little Miss Ha to open a multi-concept, 200-plus-seat restaurant at 36 Granada St., just steps away from Flagler College, St. Augustine City Hall and the Lightner Museum in the southern end of the city’s Historic District.

The plans show distinct dining areas for The French Pantry and Little Miss Ha, a shared “main bar” and a separate, rear bar labeled “speakeasy bar.”

Included in the French Pantry space is a “dessert/coffee/bread station,” a space that, like the original restaurant, will showcase the bakery's must-try desserts (Wedding Cake, Carrot Cake, Pound Cake and more) and fresh-baked breads.

The new restaurant comes from Valentino — whose Legacy Restaurant Group includes Jacksonville-area Mellow Mushroom restaurants, Burrito Gallery, Uptown Market and French Pantry — and Johnny Hudgins doing business as Camaraderie LLC, according to Florida incorporation records. Both are owners of multiple Mellow Mushroom restaurants in their respective markets.

Hudgins and his wife, Janice, launched Little Miss Ha in early 2020 after building a following by cooking private dinners and catering events using family recipes from Janice’s mother, Thu-Ha, whose co-workers at Piggly Wiggly called her Miss Ha, according to 2022 profile in Charleston City Paper. When Janice Hudgins first began cooking for others, she called herself Little Miss Ha and honed her cooking skills and perfected her mother’s recipes working out of a Mellow Mushroom kitchen, the paper reported.

The restaurant has earned rave reviews for its egg rolls (named for Miss Ha), dumplings, pho (“Best in the low country!”), curry, bahn exo sizzling crepe, vermicelli bowl (“My go to dish!”) and Saigon salad.

The unique pairing of the two concepts comes more than two years after Little Miss Ha joined The French Pantry for a successful, COVID-era, pre-Thanksgiving 2020 pop-up event in Jacksonville showcasing the restaurant’s traditional Vietnamese cuisine.

Now the two are planning to come together again at the Granada Street building, which previously housed The Corazon Cinema and Café and was once planned as the first location of Alder & Oak, a full-service restaurant from Mark Janasik, whose Southern Grounds coffee shop concept was also planned for the site.

Jacksonville-based Cronk Duch Architecture & Planning is listed as architect for the project in plans submitted to the city a year ago.

Additional details on the proposed restaurant were not immediately available.

But one good sign for French Pantry customers: With plans for a bar, expect the restaurant to be open for dinner and weekend service, not just lunch.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: French Pantry, Little Miss Ha teaming up for St. Augustine restaurant