Players Café on Solana Road will be replaced by Nacho Café this November.
Tom Corsano, the owner of the restaurant, took over the Players Café’s lease Aug. 1. Since then, he has renovated the location, built a dividing wall and opened a second Two Dudes restaurant on one side of the building (the original Two Dudes is in Atlantic Beach).
The original plan was to keep the Players Café open alongside Two Dudes, but the owner wants to repackage his business and go in a new direction.
“Two Dudes has been doing great,” Corsano said. “It’s very busy, and it’s performing well. The Players Café is busy on Saturday and Sunday, but the weekdays are lackluster at most.”
One reason the Players Cafe isn’t drawing on weekdays, Corsano asserted, is that business declined under a previous owner, and it could not be recovered. The restaurant owner also suggested that the cafe never generated as much interest as Two Dudes because it wasn’t new to the community.
“When we opened Two Dudes, there was a ton of excitement,” Corsano said. “When we took over the café, it was already there so it never generated that excitement or that interest, which I underestimated.”
Corsano tried to revive Players Café, but other than increased weekend traffic, the customers never came back.
“I think it ran its course,” he said. “I think it’s time for something new and time for change, so I’m changing it. We’re moving on and we’re doing fun and exciting things.”
Corsano plans on replacing the Players Café with a casual Mexican-based restaurant called Nacho Café sometime in November.
As for Two Dudes, Corsano is ecstatic about the restaurant’s popularity and success, which he attributed to people spreading the word organically throughout the community.
“We’ve done no advertising,” he said. “We just opened the door. I turned the open sign on in the window. When you live in Ponte Vedra, like you live in Atlantic Beach, people know each other. Word of mouth is key.”
Corsano opened Two Dudes in Ponte Vedra because he lives in the area, and the restaurant location is five minutes from his home. He noted that “everything kinda fit in place,” and Two Dudes has been well received by the community.
“We’ve developed so many regulars, and we’ve only been here since Aug. 1,” he said.
Two Dudes is known for its fresh seafood, such as shrimp, scallops, oysters, crab and 10 to 15 different species of fish.
“People can expect a huge variety, the highest quality and freshness,” Corsano added. “We have a full bar to compliment that, and we have one of the largest wine lists in Ponte Vedra.”
Visit www.twodudesrestaurant.com or call (904) 473-5272 for more information on Two Dudes. For more information on the soon-to-be-opened Nacho Café, call (904) 273-5595.
