great spin on florida cuisine!. we eat at "nouveau southern" restaurants often because they usually offer locally-sourced food, they're owned locally, and even if they're not always brilliant, they're always *interesting*. so i was thrilled when we found the floridian in st. augustine. unlike all the other farmed-chinese-fish, red-lobster-knockoff, boring "seafood restaurants" in st. augustine, the floridian offers florida-caught fish and shrimp on a unique, regionally inspired menu.
our family of five arrived on a sunday evening to a packed house and so were seated on the back patio, which was lovely, shady, cool, and includes a ping pong table which kept my kids occupied whenever they weren't stuffing their faces. we ordered the pickled shrimp, the cheese plate, the posole floridian, the barbecue chicken & waffles, the barbecue pork & waffles, the shrimp & grits, and pilau. everything was fantastic. i was particularly thrilled to find pilau (pronounced "purloo") on the menu. pilau is an intensely regional dish that goes back to the original european settlers in florida, who grew rice up and down the st. johns river. the datil peppers featured in many dishes are also grown commercially only in the st. augustine area. despite the packed house, our waiter was prompt and attentive, and our food came out in reasonable amounts of time. the beer was cold and the food was worth savoring over a long dinner.
the floridian is better than nouveau southern, it's nouveau cracker, and i heartily approve. i hope other hotshot chefs pay attention- honoring your region with seasonal menus and doing the research on local food and agricultural history works. we will definitely be back.