Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Best Quaint Florida Restaurants

Looking for new dining energy from independent restaurants away from Orlando’s grandest hotels, sizzling downtown Thornton Park or Winter Park’s posh Park Avenue? Head west of town, 15 miles to the little grove town of Winter Garden (population 30,000 and growing) to the Edgewater Hotel, where chef Kevin Tarter, formerly of Disney Victoria & Albert’s, now hangs his toque at the Chef’s Table.

Soyka restaurant
Soyka restaurant at 55th Street Station on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard
[Photo: Dalestine.com]
Fifty dollars will buy three courses the likes of wild mushroom and Gruyere cheese tart, tuna on black bean slaw, glass noodles and a soufflé with peanut butter creme anglaise.

If you are in Orlando proper itself, turn away from the bright light districts and head for the quiet streets of College Park. The old 1920s retail strip, where the hardware store sells pastel Adirondack chairs in kid sizes, is studded with restaurants, wine bars and foodie markets. Restaurants like Kevin Fonzo’s K Restaurant and Wine Bar are among the city’s most innovative.

The two Kevins highlight a trend in restauranting: Chef-smart, food-savvy restaurants moving to the new frontiers of small places, small towns that were never on the gourmet map and modest midtown Andy Hardy neighborhoods that for years had only soda fountains and coffee shops. This direction is fueled by a spread of food sophistication and aimed at upper-middle-class consumers. It puts an emphasis on comfort, modest goals serving locals, not tourists, and a strong sense of place, small places.

Red Thai curry
Red Thai curry shrimp at Mad Dogs and Englishmen in Tampa

For the smart independent, the small locales offer refuge from high-rent malls, beach-strip restaurant rows and downtown festival marketplaces. True to urbanist Jane Jacobs’ vision, they’re going where rents are low and creativity is welcomed. It’s still tough; costs keep rising and dining budgets keep dropping, but on a small scale, restaurateurs have a fighting chance.

Leaving the big city for a small pond is still a challenge. The most successful are chefs like Tarter who find cities with proud little downtowns and sufficient locals to patronize a food savvy spot with more than steak and seafood pasta. Those that depend heavily on tourist money can die in the off-season.

There are many small-town gems throughout Florida:

  • Ocala: The French chefs who started La Cuisine are not alone in downtown Ocala; there’s Primary Oven bakery, a baking and cooking school, a wine show and gourmet ingredients.
  • DeLand: Besides high-style Cress downtown, there’s regional Mexican at Penachos, a world of craft beer at the Abbey, plus independent coffee bars.
  • Punta Gorda: The southwest Florida city has award-winning Perfect Caper, Pies & Plates cook store, wine bars and more.
Marco Cudazzo Chef/owner Marco Cudazzo works the kitchen at Adriatico Trattoria in College Park.

In-town hot spots

The biggest clusters are in the more urban small places, the pre-1960s midtown neighborhoods hidden amid Florida’s sprawl. They have old diners as well as artisan bakeries and yogurt shops. Plus busy sidewalks, coffee bars, dog-friendly outdoor tables and big Saturday brunches.

  • College Park: Over the last 10 years, Fonzo has started three restaurants and wine bars. They range from sophisticated K to rustic Nonna Trattoria ed Enoteca; the tough economy has forced him to consolidate this winter to one location, but he wouldn’t think of leaving the neighborhood. He has just moved K three blocks south, where the menu will still be both imaginative and economical, like a three-course lamb dinner for $20. Again, he’s not alone. The neighbors include Harmoni, a foodie market and bistro, a rustic Italian seafood house called Adriatico Trattoria, and Paxia for 100 tequilas, scallop enchiladas and stunning Luis Barragan color.
  • Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café
    Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café in Seminole Heights offers a bacon-wrapped Angus beef and pork plate called Henry the Loaf.
    Tampa Bay: The clusters are in once-forgotten Gulfport, which has added Peg’s Cantina for homemade Mex and pizza, an Italian trattoria, a Brazilian churrascaria and global fusion to its menu, and a stretch of old retail in South Tampa that has yet to get a nickname. Food fans have flocked to MacDill Avenue and Bay to Bay Boulevard in the decades since it got an eclectic pub, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and upscale bakery and trattoria called Delizie, and Pane Rustica, a beloved artisan bakery/restaurant. The strip also includes sharp sushi at Yoko’s, regional Italian at Osteria Natalina, clever Mexican at Chihuahua, punk pizza at Cappys, funky breakfast and sandwiches at Pinky’s, and a grand new gastro-deli named Datz. In Seminole Heights, high-priced bungalows are surrounded by tough streets, but here, too, there’s artisan beer, crusty pizza and a big new palace of local craft and food at Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café. It’s a big investment with homey details from the lawn lined with bowling balls to a menu of meatloaf and vegetarian napoleons.
  • Jacksonville: The residents of Avondale, Riverside and Five Points may be the luckiest. They now have Orsay, the slick new French bistro, 13 Gypsies’ soulful Spanish/Mideast flavors, the little coffeehouse that grew into a foodie destination, Blue Fish Oyster Bar, and brick-lined Walkers bar for drinks and tapas.
  • Miami: Even South Beach chefs prefer to live and eat on the upper east side in Morningside and retro cool MiMo on BiBo (Biscayne Boulevard). The heart is probably the old showroom that Mark Soyka of News Café converted into 55th Street Station that includes Soyka, the News Lounge, Andiamo pizza and a flower shop. Farther up Biscayne, you can spend a couple of bucks at Dogma Grill for hot dogs with attitude or live it up at Michelle Bernstein’s signature Michy, Red Light, Uva 69 and more.

Datz Deli Datz Deli in Tampa, a deli, bakery, wine bar and specialty food market