
The Robert W. Tolf Award
for Best New Restaurant
The late Florida Trend Restaurant Editor Robert W. Tolf ran the Golden Spoon Awards for 34 years. This selection is in his honor.
Boia De - Italian - Miami
5205 N.E. 2nd Ave. - (305) 967-8866
Subtle hand-crafted Italian in a 24-seater in Little Haiti next to a laundromat. The chefs met at NYC’s Eleven Madison Park and NoMad and turned their big-city chops to a taco cart and now a tiny restaurant of their own. A valiant and delicious show of smarts in these times: Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer make tomato-rubbed lamb rib with peaches, wild mushrooms with soft egg, clams and ‘nduja, or tonnato on beef carpaccio instead of veal; daily hand-made pasta from tagliatelle with rabbit to green pea garganelli. Plus, they opened their larder to sell home cooks the ingredients they work with, like house muffuletta sauce, Green Goddess dressing, pastas and small estate wines. Boia de! is an exclamation of amazement in dialect heard in Livorno, and this fresh taste and thinking deserves one.
Coral Gables
• Bachour - Latin Bakery
Delray Beach
• Elisabetta’s Ristorante - Italian
• Taru at Sundy House - New Florida
Jacksonville
• New Berlin Fish House & Oyster Bar - Seafood
Miami
• BAKAN - Mexican
• Cafe La Trova - Cuban
• Maska - Progressive Indian
Naples
• Grappino - Italian
Orlando
• 534 Scratch Kitchen - Contemporary
• Taste of Chengdu - Chinese
• The H - Steakhouse/Mediterranean
Palm Beach Gardens
• Stage Kitchen - Regional Small Plates
Pensacola
• Angelena’s - Modern Italian
Ponte Vedra Beach
• Valley Smoke - Southern Barbecue
Santa Rosa Beach
• Black Bear Bread Co. - Bakery/Wine Bar
Sarasota
• 1592 Wood-Fired Kitchen - Mediterranean
St. Petersburg
• Baba - Mediterrean Bakery/Cafe
Tampa
• Counter Culture - Contemporary
West Palm Beach
• High Dive - Seafood
Winter Park
• BoVine - Steakhouse