4. Barbecue & Jacksonville-style mustard-based barbecue sauce

The grand opening of the Mathews Bridge on April 15, 1953, featured an open-pit barbecue, a fitting tribute to one of Jacksonville’s enduring cultural traditions. | State Archives of Florida

The word “barbecue” comes from barbakoa, an Indigenous Taino term for open-fire grilling. Indigenous peoples of Florida, such as the Timucua, West and Central Africans also practiced open-pit cooking, roasting meat and fish over flames. Learning how to barbecue hogs from Caribbean natives, the Spanish are said to have introduced the hog to Florida and the South around 1521. Enslaved Africans blended these traditions, shaping the regional barbecue styles known today, including a Jacksonville-style of mustard-based barbecue sauce.

After World War II, the rib sandwich or plate became a local favorite. The sandwich consisted of three or four ribs served between slices of bread and mustard-based barbecue sauce. Eaten by hand, it remains a signature dish at many local legacy barbecue restaurants, including Holley’s Bar B Q, the city’s oldest restaurant.

5. Soul Food

Oxtails, macaroni and cheese, yellow rice and collard greens served with cornbread and sweet tea at Soul Food Bistro. Founded in 1998, The Potter’s House Soul Food Bistro is one of the city’s most popular soul food destinations. | Ennis Davis, AICP

Soul food’s roots trace to West African cuisine, where staples like okra and rice originated before being brought to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. Blending African traditions with available Southern ingredients, it became a hallmark of African American culture. After Reconstruction, freedmen settling in Jacksonville brought these flavors, establishing eateries serving dishes that remain central to local culinary life. This culinary history lives on in local restaurants like Blu Diner, Soul Food Express, and Uncle Gene’s Soul & Seafood.

6. Shrimp & Grits

A dish of Shrimp & Grits served at Uptown Kitchen & Bar in Springfield. | Ennis Davis, AICP

Originally created by Native Americans through the grounding of corn, grits were passed on to enslaved Africans as a part of their food allowance provided by plantation owners. Maximizing local resources along the coast, enslaved Africans and their Gullah Geechee descendants caught and used shrimp and fish in a variety of ways, including combining them with grits. What was once a simple Gullah meal prepared by using food allowances, natural seasonings and readily accessible Lowcountry seafood is now a staple of Southern cuisine and a pricey dish on the menu of Jacksonville’s trendy restaurants.

Coming Soon: Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Heritage

A Community Story. A Cultural Record. A Call to Remember.

Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee history lives in the land, the water, the neighborhoods, and the memories passed down through generations. Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Heritage brings those stories forward, rooted in place, shaped by community, and preserved for the future.

Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Heritage, a new book written by Ennis Davis, AICP and Adrienne Burke, AICP, Esq. will be released by Arcadia Publishing on April 28, 2026.

“Gullah Geechee is a foundational culture for the United States influencing everything from our foodways and music to the way we speak. It has a descendant community that numbers in the hundreds of thousands internationally. Many of them contributed greatly to the economic engine that has fueled Jacksonville’s growing metroplex since Reconstruction. However, there are no universities or colleges in Florida (or elsewhere in the Gullah Geechee Corridor) that consistently offer courses in Gullah Geechee studies and none that provide a major or degree in the field. Works of public history like Davis and Burke’s “Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Culture” that successfully mine Florida’s public archives, government records, oral histories and scholarly publications demonstrate that a foundation for a teachable canon and generative scholarship about the centuries-long history of the Gullah Geechee people of Northeast Florida exists — and should be endowed.”

— Heather L. Hodges, Former Executive Director, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (2017-2020)

Order your signed copy today

Click here to preorder signed copies of Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Heritage book by Ennis Davis, AICP and Adrienne Burke, AICP, Esq. Available in hard and soft cover, books will ship after release on April 28, 2026.

Editorial by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com