New Bradenton-area restaurant serves up Middle Eastern cuisine. Look inside
Six years after starting as a food truck, Florence and the Spice Boys have opened a second Sarasota restaurant.
The restaurant at 257 North Cattleman Road, Unit 90, serves Middle Eastern cuisine in University Town Center’s West District. Inside the restaurant, diners are transported to a Middle Eastern aesthetic with carpets, hanging lights and various trinkets that include menus from around the world.
There are about 150 seats spread between the bar, inside dining and outside patio area. There is also a children’s play zone.
The bar is a new feature for Florence and the Spice Boys, which opened its first brick-and-mortar location in south Sarasota at The Landings in December 2022.
In 2019, Steven Schmitt and Carl Kolber ran a food truck called the Spice Boys before opening a traditional storefront.
“We opened as a kiosk-ordering only and then after about three months, we realized that people really wanted service,” co-owner Florence Schmitt said.
New Middle Eastern restaurant at UTC
Rainbow bowls are a signature of the lunch menu. They feature hummus, grilled halloumi, coconut blue rice, slaw, banana pepper, greens, harissa, sesame and egg as a base. Customers can choose from main ingredients of falafel, eggplant, chicken shawarma, harrisa shrimp or beef kofta meatballs.
Harissa is a spicy red pepper sauce, and halloumi is a sheep’s milk cheese. Each menu features a glossary of terms.
Various kebabs, such as chicken shawarma, harissa mushroom, shrimp, pork shoulder and more highlight the dinner menu.
Gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options are available, too, as well as a drinks menu.
“For dinner, the boys are doing these amazing kebabs,” Florence said. “So that’s kind of the link to the traditional Middle Eastern dishes. And you can get these beautiful, big platters and they have the rice, the kebabs and the sides.”
Foodie travelers open new restaurant
Florence, who is English, and Steven, who was born in Sarasota before moving to Germany in his youth, both love to travel. Florence said they structure their travels around food.
After previously working at restaurants in Miami, Steven thought he was finished with professional cooking, Florence said.
But when they visited Tel Aviv, Israel, they discovered a new passion for Middle Eastern cuisine.
“Steven just said, ‘Oh my gosh … I feel like I need to cook,’” Florence said.
A chance came when they found out Kolber was trying to open a restaurant in New York.
Steven advised him against it, Florence said.
“Steven said, ‘Don’t do it. It’s going to be horrible,’” Florence said. “‘It’s so hard. New York is so competitive. You should find a small town like Sarasota and do something much more manageable.”
That led to Kolber and Florence convincing Steven to return to the kitchen and launch the Spice Boys, a food truck that grew so popular they opened a restaurant under the current name.
“If you look at the customer response, to have over 1,000 reviews and have a 4.9 rating on Google, something is going right,” Florence said.
A new partner
The Schmitts met Collin Blakeman through a mutual friend. Blakeman is an experienced chef who previously worked for Owen’s Fish Camp in Sarasota and trained under Thomas Keller at the French Laundry, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Napa Valley, California.
“When we became friends with him and got him on board, then we felt like, ‘OK, maybe we could really do the next one,” Florence said.
What are the hours?
Florence and the Spice Boys is open daily starting at 11 a.m. Lunch is served until 3 p.m., with happy hour from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., plus a bonus happy hour from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., which features a 99-cent martini.
Dinner is available from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The bar closes at 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, and stays open until 1 a.m. on the weekend.
For more information, visit FlorenceandtheSpiceBoys.com.
