Hot New Fla. Restaurants

Chris Sherman | 6/1/2009

Meat Market 915 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach 305/532-0088 Grouper with browned goat butter and bacon chipotle conch broth

Restaurateurs who want to grow despite the recession are relying on recipes and tastes as old as grandma’s or Uncle Bert’s diner.

Many new operations not only are looking back for inspiration, but also close to home. They’re eager for local ingredients and know that local favorites are what customers want. Whether retro, comfort or old-fashioned, many chefs just call the menus smart — and cook smarter, often in smaller restaurants.

That’s why there’s a new/old-fashioned fish camp among high-priced new waterfront homes on the Intracoastal Waterway south of Jacksonville Beach. It’s run by one of the city‘s most stylish chefs, Ben Groshell of Marker 32.

Soup Swift 2510 Miccosukee Rd., Tallahassee 850/576-7687 (Clockwise from top right) Sun-dried tomato bisque, corn chowder, vichyssoise, lemon chicken, black bean, cream of asparagus

At Palm Valley Fish Camp, hush puppies may have cilantro, but the menu consists of familiar platters and baskets of fish and shrimp — grilled, broiled or fried, even buttermilk-fried chicken with collard greens.

“We’re just cooking the kind of food people always eat, whether good times and bad,” Groshell says. The idea was to be small, seat 70 or so and have a small staff.

Back at sleek Marker 32, Groshell trimmed back as well, by aggressively sourcing and adding new pork entrees and tweaking others to bring more entrees back from the mid-$20s.

Meanwhile across the state at Apalachicola’s grand old Gibson Inn, which had been a gourmet high-flier for a few years as Avenue Sea, new proprietors from Hawaii have renamed it Café Momi, lowered prices and refocused on seafood, especially, surprise, oysters — the way the locals like them, cold and raw. “I just don’t like to cook oysters,” says chef Michael Feil. “You lose something.” With oyster crackers and ketchup both made from scratch and gourmet savvy, Feil’s aiming at year-round locals, not out-of-town foodies with summer cottages.

Mamajuana Café 225 Altara Ave., Coral Gables 305/443-0505

Red Mesa Cantina 128 3rd St. S., St. Petersburg 727/896-6372 Cantinita Ceviche with mahi, shrimp, calamari, crab, chile arbol oil, orange, tomato and onion Café Momi 51 Ave. C, Apalachicola at the Gibson Inn 850/653-2193 Minted fresh spring rolls with red chile almond sauce

In St. Petersburg, Peter Veytia and Chris Fernandez, whose Red Mesa had set new highs for gourmet Mexican, could not pass up a big space in downtown’s McNulty Station, but they agreed from the beginning to keep it low. The menu is still smart — eight ceviches, duck tacos, shrimp-potato bombas, mofongo and a dozen entrees from chorizo burgers with Chihuahua cheese to tofu skewers and pork steak, all less than $14. “We want people to come back regularly” for lunch or a cold cerveza or tequila and bar snacks, Fernandez says, not just special occasions.

The thinking’s the same at little 10-seat Soup Swift in Tallahassee, which Meagan Lagasse started last year after 20 years in traditional restaurants. “Simple, straightforward, honest. I didn’t want a huge restaurant.” She has six picnic tables outside next to the herb garden and oak tree squeezed between hospitals on a busy highway. She keeps to a tiny healthful menu of handmade soups, seasonal salads and a sandwich that she changes daily to get regulars in several times a week.

In south Florida, the newest spots are hot, hot, hot (and not cheap) but still garnished with the allusion of simpler times. Mamajuana Café, opened in Coral Gables this spring, is one of the first to elevate the country flavors of the Dominican Republic to upscale status. The key is jugs of the namesake potion, a spirited folk brew of herbs, roots and spices that perks up rum, wine or honey.

On Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, the sexy new offering from Touch is a bar/restaurant with crudo of yellowtail with truffles and mango, quail eggs, ranch-branded steaks and wild pheasant. It goes by the simple name Meat Market.

Palm Valley Fish Camp SR 210 on the Intracoastal Waterway, Palm Valley 904/285-3200

Tags: Dining & Travel