The deal is on!
A good seafood restaurant isn't just the perfect place to practice close-up magic on unsuspecting patrons; it's also a great spot to meet friends and share Burton Gilliam gossip: with today's Groupon, $20 gets you $40 worth of fresh sea fare and innovative globally inspired cuisine at Marker 32.
Nestled across an intracoastal waterway from San Pablo Island, Marker 32 serves up dazzling sea fruits on the waterfront for optimal reflection and potential mermaid visitations. Start an elegant evening with an order of the crispy cracked conch ($10), served with a spicy red-pepper aioli, or opt for a mouthful of the Atlantic with oysters on the half shell ($7), or broiled with bacon, spinach, and sundried tomatoes ($7). With the opening ceremonies slurped from their handsome shells, customers may graduate to the main course. Accomplished gymnasts will want to tumble into the seared scallops ($18), served over creamy grits with a red-wine-and-mushroom gravy, or caked blue crabs ($19), with a caper dill aioli, cozily nestled on a scenic platescape of steamed spinach and new potatoes. In addition to a selection of Southern-style fried seafood, Marker 32 also offers fresh-and-fun landfare for the fishophobe in your group, like a bone-in pork chop ($19), with butter beans and poblano-cheddar potatoes, or the white-bean ravioli ($13), with a roasted corn, bacon, and wild-mushroom sauce.
Known for its excellent service, the upscale eatery boasts a warm and elegant interior complete with plush wrap-around booths large enough to accommodate triple dates or meetings of the astronaut aspirants club, and the waterfront location offers picturesque views of the adjacent waterway. As such, it is an ideal location to celebrate your life's next milestone, like graduating from knitting school, or successfully making it through croquet camp unscathed.
Reviews
Gayot puts Marker 32 on its Top Ten Food Ratings in Jacksonville, the Florida Times-Union recommends it, and Jacksonville magazine placed it among 2009's Top 25 Restaurants:
- For more than a decade Marker 32 has attracted a loyal following with a combination of homemade artistry in the kitchen and a casually sophisticated setting. – Jacksonville magazine
- To truly capture the atmosphere, make a sunset reservation and watch the glittering Intracoastal Waterway fade into night. Then prepare for dishes that showcase all-American ingredients with flourishes from the Pacific Rim, Mediterranean and Southern traditions. – Gayot
- Let me tell you about this pork chop. It was easily 2 1/2 inches thick and cooked perfectly, with a seared outer edge and a deliriously good demi-glace with smoked bacon and onions softened in a balsamic vinegar. The whipped white potatoes and ragout of squash, onions and zucchini was, to my mind, a perfect dinner. – Erika Burks, Florida Times-Union
Groupon Says
Under the Sea
Seafood fans might feel a little twinge of guilt when they bite into their delicious fruits de mer, knowing that life "under the sea" is a nonstop musical number, as proclaimed by Sebastian, the overbearing crab from The Little Mermaid. Through song, Sebastian insists that "the newt play the flute" and "the carp play the harp," but not every fish is a musical prodigy. What are some of the lyrics he had to cut?
- The fluke plays the uke.
- The flounder plays the hammered dulcimer at Renaissance fairs on weekends.
- The catfish played some bassoon in high school, but now just brings it out as an affectation at parties.
- The walrus comes through periodically and eats a fifth of us, but that's basically cool.
- Finding the music garish and coarse, the clownfish prefers to express himself through the refined art of mime, but is unable to compete with the nearby spectacle. He quietly returns home to his coral reef to find a grant-application rejection letter waiting for him. Again.
-
- Share this on Twitter
Comment on our feelings board
Discuss the Deal