The Storefront That Sat Empty For Two Years On State Road 13 Just Reopened In Julington Creek

If you drive State Road 13 south of the Julington Creek Bridge on any given weeknight, you already know the stretch by muscle memory. Fish Camp on the right. Cantina Louie a little further down. The building that used to be Broudy's Liquors, dark for what felt like forever, finally lit up again in December.

That last one is the story. Not because a new restaurant opened, plenty do, but because of how long it took and what that says about a corridor most people assumed was done growing.

A Two-Year Gap Between Broudy's And Bourbon

Broudy's Liquors moved out of 138 State Road 13 N in August 2023, relocating to a larger space at 25 Village Oaks Drive. For over a year, the old building sat vacant a few hundred feet south of the bridge, about 0.3 miles north of Race Track Road.

St. Johns County approved a $750,000 build-out plan for the site on September 16, 2024, clearing the way for a restaurant called Pecan Craft Kitchen. That approval alone wasn't enough. The parcel is zoned Commercial Intensive, which allows restaurant use outright, but selling alcohol required a separate special-use permit. The county's Planning and Zoning Agency didn't vote on that piece until April 17, 2025, when it passed 6-0.

Even with both approvals in hand, the opening slipped. Co-owner Brad Chasteen had hoped to open by April 2025. Construction ran four months behind after what he described on Instagram as a demo error. The doors didn't actually open until December 20, 2025, fifteen months after the county first signed off on construction and twenty-eight months after Broudy's packed up.

That timeline matters more than the restaurant itself. A single storefront, on a road that already has a full roster of dining options, took more than two years to change hands because it needed two separate government approvals and then ran into a construction problem on top of that. If you're wondering why another empty building on this stretch might sit dark for a while before something new shows up, this is roughly the process it's going through.

What Actually Filled The Space

Pecan Craft Kitchen is a fast-casual concept built around a pecan-fired grill, with a self-serve tap wall where guests use a card to pour beer, wine, and cocktails by the ounce. The dining room seats 120, there's a covered patio, and the site plan includes 50 parking spaces. Complimentary valet runs Thursday through Sunday.

The menu leans Southern with a health-conscious edit: tamarind BBQ-glazed Joyce Farms chicken, pecan-fired salmon, a chicken umami burger, Angel Eggs with spicy bacon and jalapeño, and Jacked Up Corn Bread finished with hot honey. Banana pudding closes things out. Current hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 10 p.m., Sunday until 9 p.m., closed Monday.

Chasteen described the idea behind it plainly when the project was still under construction:

"The idea has been in the works for a long time and the concept is simple: Use local ingredients and fire to enhance flavor."

He's also been clear that the health angle isn't incidental. He told the Jacksonville Daily Record the goal was food people could eat regularly without it working against them, not a once-a-month indulgence.

Two Guys Who Already Run More Than 50 Moe's Locations

Chasteen and co-owner Darryl Nagao aren't newcomers to Northeast Florida food service. Through their company, Welcome to Moe's Inc., they operate more than 50 Moe's Southwest Grill locations across Florida, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Pecan Craft Kitchen is their first concept outside that franchise system.

That's worth sitting with for a second. These are operators who already know exactly what a Julington Creek lunch rush looks like, what a Friday dinner crowd on SR-13 spends, and how a fast-casual format performs in this specific market. Instead of adding another franchise unit, they built something of their own on a stretch of road they already understood from the inside. Chasteen has said expansion is on the table if the concept works: "If it's successful, we can take it to other parts of the city."

The Rest Of State Road 13 Didn't Move

Here's the part that puts the two-year wait in context. While one building sat empty, nothing else on this stretch closed, relocated, or announced a new concept. The corridor's other anchors were doing exactly what they were doing before:

• Julington Creek Fish Camp, part of the Southern Table Hospitality group founded by the Groshells, which also runs Fish Camp locations in North Beach, Palm Valley, and St. Augustine
• Julington Creek Fish House & Oyster Company
• Cantina Louie, the Mexican chain's Julington Creek location at 465 State Road 13
• La Nopalera, a Mexican restaurant at 111 Bartram Oaks Walk
• Salento Colombian Steakhouse
• Moon Dog Pie House
• Woodpeckers Backyard BBQ
• The Loop, at 450 State Road 13, a longtime family spot near the bridge

Notably, the same group behind Julington Creek's Fish Camp isn't reinvesting its next dollar here. Southern Table Hospitality is building a new $2 million concept called Valley Smoke on a 9.87-acre parcel in St. Augustine's Trout Creek area, a 6,689-square-foot restaurant designed to seat about 438 people. That's a much bigger swing than anything happening on this end of State Road 13 right now.

Put together, the picture is less "restaurant boom" and more "one long-vacant building finally got used." Julington Creek's SR-13 dining lineup was essentially complete before Pecan Craft Kitchen opened. What changed wasn't demand outrunning supply. It was one specific piece of real estate finally clearing the permitting steps required to reopen.

What This Means If You're Already Driving This Road

If you live along this stretch, the practical update is simple: there's a new sit-down option with a patio and a self-serve tap wall between the Julington Creek Bridge and Race Track Road, open six days a week with valet on weekends. Catering is available by calling ahead for larger events.

The bigger takeaway is about pace. This corridor is not adding restaurants by building new pads. It's occasionally recycling a building that already exists, and when it does, expect a process that runs through standard site plan approval, then a separate alcohol permit if the concept serves drinks, then whatever construction surprises show up along the way. Two years, in this case, wasn't unusual. It was the process working as designed, just slower than anyone driving past the dark windows would have guessed.

If you've been watching this part of St. Johns County and want a read on what a stretch like State Road 13 tells you about how a neighborhood actually changes, not just what's listed for sale on it, Market Makers Group tracks these shifts as part of daily work in Northeast Florida. Reach out any time you want the local context behind what you're seeing on your own commute.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.