We'll Always Have Paris

Chris Sherman | 2/1/2010

Around Florida

In Florida, a new crop of small places makes breakfast and lunch out of omelets, quiche, salads Nicoise and bistro (with a poached egg on top), crepes sweet and salty and sandwiches on croissants and baguettes in dozens of bakeries and creperies.

Pork shank at La Cuisine in Ocala

» La Cuisine, Ocala. While French can have an Asian or Caribbean accent, most diners and restaurateurs focus on traditional flavors. “French cooking is more recognized as a value than a trend or fashion,” say Patrice Perron and Stephane Gattacieca from Lyon, who opened La Cuisine in Ocala two years ago. They consider themselves old school in cooking and found they did not have to adapt their recipes much for local tastes. They insist La Cuisine is not fine dining, just comfortable and very good, and they take pride that their diners linger in the European style.

» Pistache, West Palm Beach. In West Palm Beach, one young Frenchman hungry for a daily bistro, Thierry Beaud, opened Pistache with some Franco-Floridian friends in 2008. “We loved Café Boulud, but we couldn’t eat there every day for the food we grew up with.” Which is why they built Pistache in the shell of a Tommy Bahama on Clematis Street. The surroundings remain urban shopping area, yet Pistache looks like a favorite old hat and cozy as coq au vin or a cheese-crusted bowl of onion soup.

Au Pied de Cochon in South Beach

» Au Pied de Cochon, South Beach. Some cases, like the new branch of the Au Pied de Cochon chain in South Beach, are more clearly theme restaurants, with more brassy décor than food or feel. It has a Bibendum look appropriate to Miami, and the signature fried pigs foot, but the bread, salads and service of a theme park.

» La Goulue, Bal Harbour. Luxurious dining has not gone the way of the ancient regime. La Goulue, the perfect replica of French elegance, closed in New York, is now at home in Bal Harbour; Miami has a chic caviar-forward salon at Kaspia.

» Escargot 41, Naples. Naples’ appetite for escargot is richly satisfied at Escargot 41, where Patrick and Jackie Fevrier serve tournedos with anchovy butter and cook the namesake snails seven luscious ways. Prices are not extravagant, and the mood is more playful than stuffy. Patrick Fevrier sticks to tradition without apology. “I don’t know how to make a cream sauce without cream” or cook beans without pork fat, he says. Not to fret. “This is a destination restaurant,” he says. “You are not going to eat like this every night.”

Or will we?

Read reviews of hundreds of top restaurants in Florida. Florida Trend's Great Florida Restaurant Guide 2010.

Tags: Dining & Travel