Word of Mouth — Back 40 Urban Cafe
By Drift on May 4, 2009 in Drift Magazine
By Travis Hill
There are whispers. Rumors. Theories.
But most of them are way off.
“There’s no secret meaning,” said Jeff Sapp, owner of the Back 40 Urban Café. “The address is 40 South Dixie Highway and the ‘Urban’ is from what’s on the menu. It was really that simple.”
Sapp likes to keep things straight-forward like that. Great food, reasonable prices, casual atmosphere are the driving forces behind his restaurant tucked into the swaying trees on South Dixie Highway.
And they have worked. Back 40 recently celebrated its one-year anniversary and is only gaining in popularity.
Sapp is somewhat of a First Coast culinary prodigal son. He grew up in Jacksonville Beach, doing everything kids up there do: Surf, go to Fletcher High and search for good, cheap food. He also made many forays into St. A.
“My mom said the first concert I ever saw was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at the old St. Augustine Amphitheatre when I was 10 years old,” he said.
After he graduated from Fletcher, Sapp took a trip that changed his life. He went with a group of friends to Jamaica. They rented a big house and ran around the beaches. But Sapp ended up in the kitchen, soaking up the cooking skills of a local chef.
“We just hung out,” Sapp said. “He taught me his jerk chicken recipe. It was great.”
Back 40 Urban Café
40 South Dixie Hwy
824-0227
myspace.com/theback40urbancafe
That began a long, winding adventure of a life where Sapp lived in Hawaii, San Diego, Portland and Colorado. He worked in restaurants, soaking up different cultures and perhaps most importantly, recipes.He returned to the First Coast in 2000 and decided he liked the vibe in St. A. He opened Local Heroes in downtown, and later sold it.“I was living in the neighborhood (behind South Dixie Highway), and kept seeing this building for sale,” he said. “And I thought, ‘I’m an idiot if I call about it. I’m not calling, not calling. Finally, I called it.”And bought it. And opened the restaurant with the mysterious name and awesome food. Sapp’s travels and eclectic tastes are evident on the menu, which includes items like the Island Chicken Bowl, the Shrimp Curry salad and the Avocado and Roasted Red Pepper Tacos.
Of course, there’s plenty of jerk chicken.
“That’s on the menu here, but it’s much less spicy than what he taught me.”
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1 Comment(s)
By Vicky Woolfe on Feb 14, 2010 | Reply
This is my all time favorite place to eat in St.Augustine. The menu selection is so different, everything is fresh, the service is excellent and it CLEAN. The atmosphere is very relaxing, nothing stuffy about this place. I can only hope the restaurant stays around for a long, long time. I even like visiting the cats in the parking lot, they add to the place!!!!