The Florence Review

So, a few weekends ago, the hubby and I dined here with my parents and some friends from work to celebrate my parents' 28th wedding anniversary. Located on Victory, this place is fairly new (they opened up earlier this Summer) and named after the city in Italy AND Florence Martus, also known as the Waving Girl (look her up, she was kind of awesome).

The Florence features an attached coffee shop, but as we were there strictly for dinner, I'll talk about that. First off, the reservation process was relatively easy and very professional. I was a little disappointed at first that they aren't on Open Table (my FAVORITE reservations app, no muss no fuss) but you can send an email with all the pertinent information to request your table. We ended up with 5:30, which I was happy for as it was pretty last minute. And they called the day of our reservation to confirm which was a nice touch.

So the food! Amazing. For appetizers, we ordered the Bruschetta Grande to split. Four different pieces, one of which features smoke trout and caviar. For those that have never had caviar before, I can tell you it's not half bad. More texture than flavor but it paired nicely with the trout. For dinner, I had the Woodfire Sirloin while the hubby ordered the Cider Glazed Pork Ribs. The ribs were sweet while the sirloin was cooked to perfection (I requested medium, NO steak sauce required!) My dad ordered the Fishermen's Stew which actually features octopus tentacle for the adventurous diner.

Dessert was good though not extremely sweet (a plus for most people, but I AM  sweet-aholic afterall). I had an apple pastry while the hubby ordered the olive oil pound cake.

The Florence was actually adapted from an old ice factory. They preserved much of the original architecture which results in a industrial chic vibe (you know, exposed wood beam ceilings, track lighting throughout, the whole nine).

All in all, our experience with The Florence was delightful. The food was good. Easy access location (helpful hint: Turn on Barnard just before you get to the restaurant for quick access to the free parking garage behind the building) and amazing service from the reservations staff and our waitress, Kailey. We'll be back for sure!