Identifying “local” flavors along Florida’s First Coast is no easy task.

Over these sandy shores has streamed a long parade of “foreigners,” from Italy’s Christopher Columbus to Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon to French Protestant Hugenots settlers and African slaves, including residents of the Caribbean islands from Aruba to Trinidad and beyond.

Along with Cubans settlers came Mexicans, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Italians.

Add to those culinary influences chefs from nearby Southern states, lured by the abundance of natural ingredients and Southern atmosphere and locale.

Together, this combination has created a seaside bouillabaisse of cultures that brings to discerning diners an array of flavors from simple to complex, from sizzle to sauté.

Sip and savor attractions
Some of Jacksonville’s attractions focus on food and drink. You can tour the Budweiser Brewery to discover the brewing process, and you can combine dinner and theater at the Alhambra Dinner Theater, a Jacksonville tradition for Broadway-style musicals and comedies served with supper.

Two local chocolate-makers have turned business into tourist attraction! At Peterbrooke Chocolatier, everything from popcorn to cookies and pretzels gets the chocolate touch, and at Whetstone Chocolates, you can take a self-guided tour through the family owned factory, then gorge on their temptations!

Casual Reigns
Casual dining is the style du jour along Jacksonville’s beaches, stretching from St. Augustine through the beaches of Ponte Vedra, Jacksonville Beach to Neptune and Apollo Beaches. In downtown Jacksonville, headquarters to many national businesses, many restaurants cater to banking and insurance industry representatives.

At the beach, such atmospheric enclaves as Ragtime Tavern Seafood & Grille, First Street Grille, Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille with its New Orleans flavor and flavors, and Manatee Ray’s island cuisine are tempting spots when sandals and jeans are in order.

In downtown Jacksonville, River City Brewing Company and The Chart House offer seafood, steaks and pasta with downright enchanting views of the ever-changing St. Johns River, and Juliette’s, cuddled into the Omni Hotel, offers a charming in time atmosphere.

Romance reigns at the elegant Hilltop Club, located in a Victorian Southern manse. Baymeadows, an office enclave on the southeastern side of the city, is also offers a bit more formal dining.

With the abundance of seafood just offshore, Jacksonville’s culinary life centers around Florida lobsters, which, like their Caribbean counterparts, are a bit smaller than the famed Maines but no less succulent; shrimp and shellfish; pompano, a light, white fish rarely found outside Florida waters and often cooked en papillote (in paper); mahi-mahi, a fancy way of saying dolphin, red snapper which also comes in yellow; the ever-popular tuna grilled to rare perfection in many restaurants; grouper, another meaty white fish, and swordfish.

So while things may get pretty down-home and countrified up here where the nights are as soft as the Southern accents, there’s plenty of culinary sophistication.

Speaking of down-home: for those who might not know exactly what that means, think thick, creamy gravy, flaky biscuits so light they’ll fly right off the plate, crispy fried chicken, fried shrimp, fried pork chops or even fried country steak. A good example: Magnolias, with its genteel Southern atmosphere and accents.

Barbecue is the national dish of the Southern states and it appears plenty in Jacksonville on simple wood-slat tables and even in upscale candlelight spots.

You’ll also find good Cuban and Caribbean cooking, often built around simple but well-loved options as paella, a vast quantity of yellow rice topped by chicken, shrimp, mild red peppers and pimento peppers; picadillo, a savory combination of ground beef dotted with raisins and served with sweet banana-like plantains and black beans; black bean soup topped with sour cream and onions; ropa vieja, featuring shredded beef in a tomato-based sauce.

Cuban cooking gets much fancier, featuring such dishes as a rich sopa de ajo or garlic soup, which may sound strange but is ethereal in presentation; gazpacho, a cold tomato-based soup brimming with fresh vegetables; and seviche, a plethora of shellfish and seafood “cooked” in lime juice.

French and Italian flavors are as popular here as elsewhere and can be found in both humble eateries and chic de chic dining rooms. You can find Thai, Chinese and Japanese, and such Floribbean fare at Plantains as pan-fried amberjack or black fettuccini topped with shrimp, clams and lobster.

Both Jacksonville and St. Augustine offer intriguing historical backdrops for dining. In nearby Mandarin, Cross Creek Barbecue and Steakhouse honors the hometown of writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlins, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling.

Along cobbled streets of St. Augustine, history seems to come to life as you dine. In this antique enclave, famed for its plethora of historical sites, dining in the shadow of the massive Castillo de San Marcos, not far from the oldest house or the oldest schoolroom, is a sublimely serene experience.

See what we mean at such prime spots as Le Pavillon, a St. Augustine mainstay tucked away in an old house, the Columbia Restaurant, a branch of Tampa’s famed 1902 restaurant that salutes the region’s Spanish ancestry; and the amusing Café Alcazar in the Lightner Museum at the deep end of what was once a massive swimming pool for wealthy guests.

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