After AB Kitchen and Ragtime, What Happens to the Beaches Town Center Corner?

Construction work on the old Ragtime Tavern has started at the corner of First Street and Ocean Boulevard. The building went up in 1927, according to the Duval County Property Appraiser records cited by the Jax Daily Record. A few steps away, AB Kitchen is still serving dinner. It has announced that its last day is Monday, Nov. 16.

Restaurants on this corner have come and gone, and the brick building has outlasted all of them. AB Kitchen's lease ends Nov. 16, and the Ragtime building's next restaurant is targeted to open in summer 2027. The group building it is betting on the old building. Its plan keeps the facade and as much of the interior as it can.

Three Restaurants, One Corner

The corner's recent history comes from three Florida Times-Union stories, and the timeline is short.

The Times-Union lists both restaurants at the 299 Atlantic Blvd. address, and AB Kitchen and the Grafton & Fleck's site sit side by side. Ragtime was open for more than four decades. MShack lasted about ten years. AB Kitchen is leaving after what its owners called "five wonderful years."

AB Kitchen's Last Three Weeks

AB Kitchen belongs to Southern Table Hospitality, the Jacksonville Beach company started by chefs Ben and Liza Groshell. Their sons run the restaurant. Nick Groshell, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, is the executive chef, and Jacob Groshell is the manager. The family posted the closing on social media on Monday, Oct. 19. In that post, quoted by the Florida Times-Union, they said, "As we look ahead to exciting new projects, we've made the decision not to renew our lease and focus on the next chapter of Southern Table Hospitality."

The owners chose not to renew the lease. The same post said the AB Kitchen staff "will continue to be part of our restaurant family at our other locations." News4Jax lists those other restaurants as North Beach Fish Camp, Julington Creek Fish Camp, Palm Valley Fish Camp, St. Augustine Fish Camp, Dockside Seafood Restaurant, Marker 32, Valley Smoke and Billy Jacks. If you have regular servers at AB Kitchen, you may see them again at one of those restaurants.

With the steakhouse next door targeting summer 2027, the weeks before Nov. 16 are the last chance to eat at AB Kitchen on this corner.

What Is Being Kept Behind the Construction Fence

Grafton & Fleck's is named for the founders of River Restaurant Group, Jeffrey Grafton McCusker and Robert Fleckenstein. Their other restaurants are River & Post in Jacksonville and River & Fort and SAINT in St. Augustine. They are renovating the 1927 building rather than tearing it down, and that choice shapes the whole project.

McCusker told the Florida Times-Union that the team has spent about two years on the engineering and architecture, keeping the facade and as much of the building as it could. "We're trying to keep as much of the interior brick walls and some of the flow and the feel," he said. "It will be a new restaurant and a new identity, but we're doing everything we can to pay homage to the place that made so many memories."

Here is what is planned inside the old walls, based on Times-Union and Jax Daily Record coverage:

• Size: two stories, about 260 seats and at least 8,000 square feet.
• Seating breakdown filed with the plans: 158 dining seats on the first floor, 20 in private dining, 42 on the open-air rooftop and 44 on the covered rooftop.
• Kitchen: wood-fired cooking, with USDA Prime and Wagyu beef, fresh seafood, à la carte steaks, shareable sides, and dishes such as salmon and pork chops.
• Bars and wine: full-service bars on both floors and a wine locker program with 20 lockers.
• Sound: sound reduction throughout the building so guests can talk without raising their voices.
• Team: design by Cronk Duch Architects, interiors by Rebecca Davisson Interior Design, and construction by RLH Construction LLC.
• Budget: a July 15 Atlantic Beach building permit posted on a window listed $3 million in renovations.

Two Floors, Two Kinds of Evening

The two floors are planned for different kinds of visits. McCusker told the Times-Union the downstairs steakhouse will have some attire restrictions, with reservations recommended but not required. The rooftop lounge upstairs will be "walk up, no reservation."

"We want to be some place for everyone," he said. "So the rooftop will be a good place to segue folks who just want to have a more casual experience."

Ragtime was a single restaurant with one dress code. The new layout gives the corner two: a dressier dining room downstairs and a walk-up spot upstairs for people coming straight from the beach. The steakhouse menu will also be different from the group's other restaurants. "It will be its own completely unique restaurant," McCusker said.

Early 2027 Became Summer 2027

The opening target has already moved once. The media invitation for the Sept. 30 groundbreaking, reported by the Jax Daily Record and Action News Jax, said early 2027. The Florida Times-Union story two days later said summer 2027. That is the latest public target, and it is still a target, not a confirmed opening date.

A summer 2027 target means the Ragtime building will stay behind its construction fence through the 2026 holiday season and into the start of the 2027 beach season.

The Corner's Holiday Season

Beaches Town Center's yearly events will go on next to the construction fence. The biggest is the Beaches Town Center Holiday Celebration & Tree Lighting on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026, from 3 to 7 p.m. at 117 Atlantic Blvd., where Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach meet at the beach. The event is free and includes a hayride, take-home craft tables for all ages, community performers, a mayoral address and tree lighting, and a visit from Santa for children. The Beaches Town Center site lists the Beaches Town Center Agency, the Merchants Association, and both cities as sponsors.

These Atlantic Beach events also fall within the same weeks, according to the City of Atlantic Beach calendar:

1. Nov. 11: Veterans Day Ceremony, 9 to 11 a.m., Beaches Veterans Memorial Park.
2. Nov. 16: AB Kitchen's last day of service.
3. Nov. 21: Atlantic Beach Music Festival, 5 to 10 p.m., Jack Russell Park.
4. Dec. 3: Artisans' Faire, 4 to 8 p.m., Bull Memorial Park and the Adele Grage Cultural Center.
5. Dec. 5: Holiday Celebration & Tree Lighting, 3 to 7 p.m., Beaches Town Center.

The Atlantic Beach Farmers Market also runs every Sunday in November and December, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Jack Russell Park.

This will be the first tree lighting since the groundbreaking. It will take place a few steps from the 1927 building, where a July 15 permit posted in a window lists $3 million in renovations.

Sellers who are getting ready to list in Atlantic Beach can ask Julie Little Brewer about how changes like this one in Beaches Town Center fit into a pricing conversation. Request Your Complimentary Home Valuation, and Julie will walk you through what is happening near your street.