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.

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• 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