Charming cafe with above average food.

When Greg Gentile opened this massive two-story restaurant in a renovated family steakhouse, everyone thought he was crazy and that the place would close in one year. That was about two decades ago. Why did it succeed? Simple: good food, good service and an atmosphere for everyone; fine dining upstairs and a casual deli down.
The best dish I sampled is the anitra con rosmarino all’agrodolce, which I’m sure you know is roast duck. The duck meat, free of bones, was moist and tender. Spit roasting gives it a terrific flavor, but to enhance the taste, there’s a wonderful sauce of balsamic vinegar, rosemary and maple syrup (yes, maple syrup). The syrup isn’t overpowering and the flavors are just meant for each other.
The downstairs deli is a wonderful place for friends to meet. It’s cramped, with tables set up throughout the market area, but it adds to the atmosphere.

Originally one of the tenants of Church Street Station, Brick & Fire cut its losses and moved from the historical confines of that downtown entertainment complex to a location on South Orange Avenue whose only history is as a Moe’s Southwestern food chain and a Pizza Hut joint. Better pizzas are coming out of chef Mark Dollard’s ovens, and the place is often filled with neighbors and workers from the nearby medical complex and their families. The wine list here isn’t stellar, but it’s cheap. Note: there is a second location at 1410 Semoran Blvd., Casselberry; phone 321-332-6430.

The website for Four Guys Pho says that the Vietnamese restaurant is also the project of brothers, though no names are offered. And when I called the restaurant to ask, the gentleman who answered the phone said that if I wanted to know their names I would have to come to the restaurant because he wasn’t authorized to give that information out over the phone.

Maybe it should be called the Soup of the Secretive Siblings.

Whatever. The food, especially the pho, was quite good when I visited recently.

Winner of the 2019 Best Pizza Foodster Award for Independent Restaurants.