First Look: Florentin in the Delmar Maker District in St. Louis

Florentin, the latest restaurant from Ben Poremba’s Bengelina Hospitality Group to open in the Delmar Maker District, will soft open at 5090 Delmar Blvd on Friday, June 7. Named after one of Poremba’s favorite areas of Tel Aviv, Florentin draws inspiration from that neighborhood’s bohemian culture and vibrant food and drink scene, with a brunch and lunch menu that includes fresh juice, coffee, overnight oats, hummus, various dips, shakshuka and a selection of toasts (dinner service will be added at a later date).

Florentin is located directly across Delmar Boulevard from Esca, the “coastal Mediterranean bar and grill” Poremba opened in late March 2024. Esca has been very well received so far, with table reservations hard to come by during peak hours. Bengelina also recently extended its AO&Co. brand, opening a new cafe location inside the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in early March.

Initially, Florentin will be open as a daytime cafe serving breakfast, brunch and lunch. Starting at 8 a.m., a limited menu including coffee, tea, pastries and other items will be served via grab-and-go counter service. Dine-in customers and table service take over from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., when the full brunch and lunch menu is offered. From 2:30 until 4 p.m., Florentin reverts to counter service and the grab-and-go menu. Poremba said he has plans to add dinner service and a selection of wines and beers in the near future, but wants to start by focusing on daytime. “My immediate intention is to just make sure we have a space that fills in a little bit of a void for coffee and lunch in that neighborhood,” he said.

When he announced his plans for Florentin in January, Poremba said the restaurant’s menu would showcase “a little bit of many different things I like about Tel Aviv.” Chef Teagan DuBois heads the kitchen under Poremba’s overall guidance, and the menu is full of dishes that highlight fresh produce, herbs and spices. There’s also a pronounced emphasis on vegetarian dishes, with only one or two items on the menu containing meat.

The menu’s highlights include challah toasts with toppings like brown butter fried egg, labne and harissa, and the Florentin shakshuka: The poached egg and tomato-based breakfast dish here is thick and rich with spices, and perfect for eating with the restaurant’s satisfyingly thick, warm and spongy pita bread. There are also lighter and sweeter breakfast dishes, but these are no less interesting: rice puddings and overnight oats topped with rotating combinations of fruits, nuts and spices – pistachio, pecan, apricot, cinnamon, cocoa and more – and a delicious parfait with thick Greek yogurt, granola and dried cherries.

Florentin also offers ample opportunities for snacking and sharing. These items can be ordered individually, but the Shuk Experience collects everything from plump, flavorful olives, baba ghanoush and hummus to a trio of irresistible dips – mohammara, green tahini and tzatziki – in one meal-sized platter, with plenty of pita on the side. The menu also includes salads and borekas (filled pastries).

Barista Lily Ogier’s coffee program uses beans from Central West End roaster Quarrelsome Coffee to create vanilla bean lattes, dark chocolate mochaccinos and the Bauhaus, a Viennese-style double espresso topped with whipped cream and cocoa. Ogier also let us try the tahini date steamer, a tasty latte drink made without coffee, but with tahini, date, steamed oat milk, cardamom and orange zest.

The sorbet selection, which includes options like rich, creamy coconut, fresh mango and dragonfruit, is a must if you’re looking for a sweet finish or something to help you cool down. A range of fresh blended juices is also available, in addition to teas and canned and bottled sodas. 

The restaurant has patio seating at the front of the restaurant and also in the garden (with wood-fired oven) to the west side of the restaurant. The garden will be used not only for dining, but also activities including yoga, tai chi and events for parents and children. “We have this beautiful lawn,” Poremba said. “We’re going to engage the community to do more than just food service, but also beautiful community activities.”

Florentin is located in the space that was formerly Brew Tulum, the Mexican-inspired coffee shop that closed in September 2023 amid a dispute between the owners and the Mexican-inspired coffee shop over lead contamination. Poremba said he is satisfied that no such issues will arise for Florentin and stated that he feels “very, very, very comfortable” serving guests – including his own family – in the space.

“We have full trust in our landlord and full trust that they have conducted whatever possible processes that they had to conduct to ensure that we are safe and that we are inheriting a space that’s OK to do business in,” Poremba said. “I would never lease a space that I thought there was even an ounce of doubt about whether it's safe or not.”

Poremba’s 2024 to-do list still includes a significant amount of work on Delmar Boulevard. Next on the list is completing Nixta’s move from Botanical Heights to the forthcoming Maker’s Locale project at 5232 Delmar Blvd., only a few hundred yards west of Florentin. Nixta will share that complex with Steve’s Hot Dogs, The Fountain on Delmar and Alpha Brewing Co. After that, Poremba will focus his energy on installing his other erstwhile Botanical Heights establishments, Olio and Elaia, in their new homes on Delmar.

Poremba said that Florentin’s hours of operation will soon be expanded, but the restaurant will initially open on Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Reservations for brunch and lunch service are available on Resy, with the first slots available at 10:30 a.m.