Caroline's is just warming up. This is nothing if not an ambitious restaurant. Every week Chef Elliott, assisted by Sous-chef Ron Wright, composes an additional, all new dinner menu of edible art titled Maestro's Canvas. Service is cordial, casual and, in the high season crunch of business, forgetful of such small essentials as silverware replacement. Desserts, too, are a bit out of character, judging from our clear, cornstarched rendition of Key Lime Pie.
Nobody's perfect, it's true.
But for romantic, riverside dining in a distinctively different vein, Caroline's comes darned close. Ashby Stiff is a veteran faculty member and founding director of the European Study Program in Hospitality Administration at Florida State University. A specialist in international, cultural and ethnic foods, he also has done extensive stints in hotel, club and resort management in his native Baltimore and in Washington D.C., Montana, Wyoming, Florida and the Caribbean. Handily, one of his degrees is in writing, from the Johns Hopkins University. The Tallahassee Democrat and may not be republished without permission.