{"id":324241,"date":"2025-10-22T16:20:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324241\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T16:20:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:20:44","slug":"european-street-cafe-in-riverside-blends-history-community-and-art-deco-charm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324241\/","title":{"rendered":"European Street Cafe in Riverside blends history, community and art deco charm"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 European Street Cafe has been a Riverside staple on Park Street for about 33 years, serving lunch, sweet treats and refreshing drinks to the community.<\/p>\n

But the building itself holds a deeper history, dating back to 1941. It was one of the last art deco style buildings constructed in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Andy Zarka, owner of European Street Cafe, explained the building\u2019s unique look and origins. It began as a service station in the 1940s before evolving into other businesses.<\/p>\n

His family purchased the building in 1992 and transformed it into the cafe it is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my dad first took over the building, he had a flair for the dramatic and wanted to honor the art deco nature of the building,\u201d Zarka said. \u201cHe thought it would be fun to just make it really stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cafe incorporates the building\u2019s history into its current identity. The iconic dome is featured in artwork and on t-shirts.<\/p>\n

Zarka noted the neighborhood has grown more pedestrian friendly and diverse since the early 1990s. But his favorite memories are more personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be working behind the counter with my dad, who\u2019s no longer with us. Those were some very special memories,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Zarka hopes customers continue to create fond memories at the cafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have gotten engaged on this patio, so I think it\u2019s a special place to a lot of people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hope to continue that for many, many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

European Street Cafe\u2019s<\/a> has additional locations in San Marco and Jacksonville Beach.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 European Street Cafe has been a Riverside staple on Park Street for about 33 years,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":324242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[57902,5229,161816,3188,723,472,7310,27607,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-324241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-4-your-neighborhood","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-european-street-cafe","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-history","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-riverside","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115418734796836894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}