Best New Restaurants in Florida
by Restaurant Editor Chris Sherman
Opening a business in a harsh economy probably sounds like a bad idea to most people — particularly in a sector where the failure rate is high even in the best of economic times.
But for restaurateurs, inveterate optimism is an occupational hazard.
While many high-end dinner houses struggle and shut down, a glance around the state this fall turns up dozens of new ventures, so many that singling out a score was difficult.
While they may have less money, Floridians, like most Americans, have a new fascination with food, and they still like to dine out for convenience and entertainment.
The most exciting and successful new restaurants put food forward and downplay formality. Today's diners, the young especially, want foods assembled from carefully sourced ingredients, hand-made, even lumpy and sometimes burned in the fire, with slow-cooked sauces and ethnic spices. For new flavors and lower food costs, the chefs offer cauliflowers, brussels sprouts and turnips, more pork and less expensive cuts of beef, veal and lamb. [Go to Full Story...]
