Thrive
New Doc Ford’s restaurant opens Friday
On the website for the new Doc Ford’s Jungle Terrace Rum Bar and Grille (8790 Bay Pines Blvd.), novelist Randy Wayne White – creator of the Doc Ford character, and spiritual advisor to the team that owns the restaurant chain – admits that it’s not, in the technical sense, where it says it is.
“My novels are fact-based, so I must also admit that this restaurant is not actually located in Bay Pines or Jungle Terrace,” White writes. “Nor are you. Not if you’re reading this. Bay Pines is across the bridge, an enclave of classy people surrounded by water on three sides. And, officially, the Jungle Terrace boundary lies 502-yards south where 40th Ave. attempts to lure inattentive drivers into Boca Ciega Bay before it dead ends.”
Photo provided.
There were good reasons for so naming the fourth Doc Ford’s, which will open for business Friday at 11 a.m. It’s in a spot previously occupied by the Green Iguana. “Let us turn to history for an answer that allows us to ignore bridges and maps and choose a location name for ourselves,” White continues, before launching into a detailed explanation of why he and his business partners chose the name.
In an earlier interview with the Catalyst, White spoke excitedly about the new restaurant, the chain’s second St. Pete location.
“The signs will say ‘Doc’s Jungle Terrace,’” he said. “I love the history of that area.
“The inside will be completely re-done. These people are experts; they did our last two restaurants. They re-use salvaged wood, really beautiful wood, and cover it with epoxy. And reclaimed tin. It’s going to be spectacular.”
The original Doc Ford’s, on Sanibel Island (where the novelist lives) was severely damaged by Hurricane Ian in September. Afterwards, White told the Catalyst, he retrieved a large brass bell that had hung on the restaurant’s front porch.
“I had it made in Cartagena, Columbia,” he said. “I grabbed it out of the muck. It’s in the back of my truck now. And it will ring again – at Doc Ford’s Jungle Terrace, when we open.”
Doc Ford’s Jungle Terrace website.
The brass bell, post-Ian, on Sanibel. Photo: Randy Wayne White.
Paul Boudreaux
December 8, 2022at10:05 am
The caption on the first photo in this article says “Doc Ford’d Jungle Terrace”. But surely this is really a photo of the damaged Doc Ford’s on Sanibel, is it not?
Bill DeYoung
December 8, 2022at11:10 pm
Paul Boudreaux:
Indeed, that’s the new Jungle Terrace restaurant, photographed Tuesday morning, Dec. 6.
Jocko
December 7, 2022at8:37 am
” All the way” LOL
Could add about 45 seconds to the excursion
Robert Rothlein
December 6, 2022at1:07 pm
The only problem with that location is if you’re coming from the Tyrone area going towards the beach and you get to that location you cannot make a left there you have to go all the way down to the next light and make a U-turn and come back which is very inconvenient so I will not be going there since I live in St Pete