Here I am again, advising you the best restaurants in Florence. This time I’ll bring you in Via de’ Neri, behind Piazza della Signoria square, where at the 12r more or less a year ago “Bar & Cucina” (Bar and Kitchen) has opened. This restaurant has a very particular story, whose protagonists are two boys with many things in common, starting from their name: Matteo Boglione and Matteo Mechelli, both florentine and with a working and life experience in New York, but with two completely different roles. The first one is a Chef that in the big apple had opened a restaurant in the Tribeca District (also praised by the New York Times) the second one, instead, is a real estate developer passionate about food. Both of them has come back in their hometown for personal reasons, (“no place is like home”, they say) they had meet each other and decided to combine their knowledge, passions and energy, in a common project, that’s how they detected the historic “Bar Silvana” and founded “Bar & Cucina”, exactly.
As the same name they have chosen suggests, their place is not just a restaurant, but also a place where to go before or after dinner, to drink something (the barman is exceptional as well as his cocktails) passing some great free time. “We have created a place where you will be comfortable, where you can take off your tie” explains Matteo Mechelli, and the taste with which he and his partner have furnished their restaurant, certainly give you a help: cured but at the same time informal and with some amazing pieces of modernity, let’s say that the American experience must have influenced them in this too! A long bar of wood and pink marble with perfect stools for the aperitif is protagonist of the first room with some coffee table where to eat, others follow in the second one.
The choice of the menu is completely cured from the origin with seasonal products of high quality and delicacy. “Bar & Cucina”is opened both for lunch and dinner and for this reason Matteo Chef has designed two types of menus for the two different moments of the day even if, in both cases, you can taste the original and delicious dishes: from Marinated Ventresca Tuna with lard cream, to red shrimp tartare with stracciatella and melon, or mozzarella with panzanella of green asparagus, Porcini Mushrooms and summer black truffle. In the evening, don’t miss the opportunity to try the Veal with tuna sauce with capers mayo, roasted tomatoes and lenìmons – believe me, it’s an unforgettable experience, as well as cod coat with red onions, or marbling salad with cannellini.
Also their cellar is very good, with wines of varied but excellent extraction and some labels from true connoisseurs or, alternatively, and the perfect “New York” style – also the possibility to dine with a great cocktail.
Prices, finally, are absolutely affordable (lunch on average on 10 € and dinner with dishes between 12 and 18 €) in a really nice place, with a truly enviable position in one of the most beautiful streets of Florence, immersed in a new style that we could define “international made in Italy”.
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