JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — First Coast Foodies with an insatiable sweet tooth, get ready for a new restaurant concept coming soon to Sweet Pete's in Downtown Jacksonville.
Fizzies & Fare is a new restaurant featuring light bites, a soda shop, ice cream parlor and beer and wine bar, set to open in mid-July.
The Sweet Pete's website describes it as "a sweet dining experience," with "light bites, over-the-top milkshakes, champagne cocktails and more in a bubbly and whimsical space." It's listed on the Sweet Pete's website as "coming soon," but the space held a soft opening over the weekend where guests could test out the drinks and ice cream served at the new concept.
I tried a sangria sorbet float, featuring a raspberry sorbet topped with sangria and garnished with a jelly pink lemonade fruit slice and a pink sugar rim. It was delicious, rich and decadent.
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We also sampled the lime-flavored Green River soda, the Boots Beverages Red Hot Cinnamon soda, the graham cracker ice cream, cookies and cream ice cream and an Aardwolf San Marco Sour. Everything hit the spot, with no complaints from even our 12-year-old picky eater.
The new concept sees Sweet Pete's ice cream parlor brought down one floor into the restaurant space of the building, along with its assortment of more than 100 flavors of craft soda to sample. The alcohol options include local craft beers, wine and canned offerings including hard seltzer and canned cocktails.
While the food menu wasn't available to sample over the weekend, it is listed online and on the physical menus at the restaurant. Described as "light bites," the options include pub fare favorites such as boneless Buffalo wings, fried mozzarella wedges and a giant Bavarian pretzel on its shareables section, as well as an assortment of salads, sandwiches and hot dogs, with a kids' menu and several sides to choose from.
Fizzies & Fare has not yet announced a date for its grand opening, but at the soft opening, I was told the spot was aiming for later this month.
The new restaurant will mark the third new concept in the same spot since August 2018, when the Candy Apple Cafe announced it was closing. Initially, the restaurant closed its doors due to repairs to the building, but it never reopened.
After that, a restaurant called MLG opened and closed within six months, opening Nov. 23, 2018, and closing for good in May 2019.
The "Alice In Wonderland"-themed 10/Six Grille opened in October 2019, but after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the doors of restaurants and bars across the First Coast to in-person dining, owners said it would be too expensive to try to reopen.
Unlike the other restaurants that have occupied the space, Fizzies & Fare is owned by the same owners as Sweet Pete's, according to bizapedia.com.
