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What's the recipe for a good restaurant?
Excellent food is the No. 1 ingredient, and good service is a must. A stylish clientele and a pretty (and clean) setting are icing on the cake.
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 17, 2002
Here's a closer look at what mattered most to me in choosing Tampa Bay's Best:
FOOD
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A culinary salute
We choose 30 bay area restaurants -- newly opened and long established -- and explain what makes them the best. |
Good restaurants show great concern with quality, freshness and ripeness of ingredients and seek out the best. This goes beyond stocking the wine list with famous labels or buying prime beef and fancy veal; care and imagination must extend to vegetables, seasonings, cheese and breads as well. The best will look for local foods too, such as Cedar Key clams and Minneola tangeloes.
A good kitchen doesn't require expensive porcini mushrooms and haricots vert, but it needs to go beyond broccoli, carrots and zucchini. Butternut squash, white beans and fennel are just as cheap. But if it promises fancy mushrooms it should not serve supermarket buttons, and if it pops for baby green beans, it shouldn't overcook them.
Ideally a chef or two runs the kitchen. If not, the cook, owner or manager is passionate about food.
Whether the recipes are simple or exotic, the kitchen prepares as much as possible from scratch, can make smooth sauces, stocks and soups and cares about presentation.
Entrees are as well-made as the appetizers. In the main course, the accompaniments are chosen and prepared carefully. The menu changes depending on ingredients and inspiration.
Finally, the food looks appealing and tastes great.
SERVICE
Tableside fuss, hand-kissing and fancy courtesies do not matter much. Actual service and knowledge of food does. All staff should be welcoming, prompt, flexible and attentive, starting at the door.
Servers should know the food and ideally the beer and wine menu, and be as proud of it as the kitchen. They should be able to describe dishes candidly, recommend confidently and answer nutritional worries. Sadly, I've come to accept botched pronunciations, but not at the best establishments.
Whether in black tie or T-shirts, they should make us feel at home and treat us as individuals. Nose rings and green hair are okay, but rude attitude is way out of style; cleanliness in clothing and person remains in fashion.
VALUE
Prices reflect a restaurant's pretensions.
While there can be good meals for $10 (and I've included a few), top restaurants are going to have higher costs and higher prices. But at every level, the meals should deliver fair and even good value for the money. If the tab is over $50 for two, the restaurant had better be very good; over $100 it ought to be the best.
DECOR AND AMBIENCE
Although I delight in a lively restaurant and love good design, my first priority is what's on the plate. Then, a stylish clientele, a pretty setting and well-chosen music are icing on the cake.
So a few of Tampa Bay's Best dish out great food but could use some primping (or a thorough cleaning). I wish I could say they all buzzed with a lively patronage; in fact, some could be on a list of Best Places Where You're Not Eating.
That's because we do have plenty of places with splashy decor, loud music, cute gimmicks and marketing that builds big followings.
FINALLY
All these factors come together in meals that left me satisfied, even charmed and willing to come again, spending my own money.
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