Boca, Winter Park

I was going to pick up dinner in the area, so I chose what must be the tenth and latest iteration in ten years of the space at the end of Park Ave. It's now called Boca. The prices were too high and the selection too perishable to risk getting it home and waiting until dinner. I sat at the bar and ponied up the $17 for coriander crusted ahi tuna. I busied myself by composing in my mind how I would tear apart the shoddy contracting (stained ceiling, sloppy outlets, etc), the over priced ($20-$40) dinner menu, the quasi-gastro-bore dishes, the lethargic staff and a host of other things and then I received the tuna. The tuna itself was tiny (like a Milky Way bar) and the coriander was a bit overpowering, but, the wilted spinach and fresh green beans and sweet beets around some heavy cream drops and a shower of dry aged cheese was fantastic. It almost became a "fisherman's" borscht (beets and cream). There is a hunter's borscht. Maybe we have something new here. I suspect it wasn't what they were going for and I don't like borscht, but, it just popped into my mind. The prices still are ridiculous. Burgers were near $20 for dinner. They had a ribeye above $40. If you go here just go for brunch. Prices are almost two thirds lower. The interior looks like they hired the same guy that did Prato. Very faux-rustic. The main room is almost all bar and hightop seating. The back has some fabric covered booths (not most of the space) and they seem to have a retail area back there. I think upstairs may still be a club, though I think they halved the space. They have a wood burning oven that they unfortunately dedicate to flat breads. They source conscientiously and locally (except I suspect the things in the exposed refrigerator). The place was packed. A post thirties crowd. I recommend it if you have money to burn and your curiosity isn't too adventurous. Or just use it as a bar.