Food Friday Florence Alabama: City Hardware

This past weekend Steve and I headed down to Florence, Alabama to check out their restaurant week offerings. We were invited by Florence Main Street to take in the sights, see the town and eat some food. The list of participating restaurants were hard to chose from and there are a lot of good options in this quaint small town. If you're considering going, restaurant week in Florence runs until May 17th. 

When we were told that Atlanta bloggers and all-around nice people Grant and Marie from Marie Let's Eat were going to be in Florence as well, we knew we wanted to dine with them. City Hardware was high on both our lists, so that made our choice easy. City Hardware is located in the heart of downtown Florence, right on the main drag of Court Street. No need to worry about downtown parking though; there are plenty of spots nearby. There was a big line outside for City Hardware and next door neighbor Ricatoni's, but we were smart and made a reservation.

The inside of City Hardware looks like a dark bar. There are tons of wood features and exposed brick walls. They have plush booths, bar seating and regular tables. The place was bigger than I expected, taking up two floors of a building. The inside was nice and clean, and the low lighting was inviting.

After perusing the cocktail list I ordered a French 75 and Steve got an Old Fashioned. The French 75 was refreshing for a hot day, but a tad bit too sweet for me overall. Steve found his drink quite good, if not slightly bitter on the back end. We both agreed that too much ice was used in each drink, diluting the flavor very quickly.

The menu at City Hardware has something for everyone. It includes sushi, flat breads and burgers, as well as southern style favorites. Steve and I started with the crab cakes with chipotle remoulade. These crab cakes were crispier and flatter than what I am used to up north, but that is neither here nor there. What matters is that these were pretty darn good. The filling was all crab and I didn't detect some of the fluff that other places add that detracts from the crab. The crunchy breading worked really well and the cakes were massive. The remoulade was nice and tangy and definitely brought a southern flair to the traditionally New England dish. Even the side salad was perfectly dressed and enjoyable.

For his entree, Steve ordered the pecan crusted catfish. The fish was not over fried and the meat was very tender. The sauce on top was made with Andouille sausage and shrimp, really hitting home the Cajun inspiration. The sides of broccoli and rice were pretty boring compared to the entree as a whole. They really need to pump up the spice on the broccoli and ad something to the rice to make it more interesting.

For my entree I went with the grilled pork chop with brown sugar and balsamic apples. The chop was thick cut and cooked well. It had a lot of flavor and was really soft and slightly salty, lending me to think it had been properly brined. I do wish that they'd put a few more of those sweet apples on my plate. They worked really well with chop. My side dishes definitely laid the smack-down on Steve's. Their Brussels sprouts were my favorite thing, roasted with bacon to get that sweet and savory pork flavor. The mashed potatoes were standard until you mixed them with the drippings from the chop, then they were perfect.

Overall, our meal at City Hardware was really nice. The service was super fast, our food was tasty, and the portions were even too big for me to finish. The location is great, right in the heart of downtown. If you come down to Florence this is a great place to stop!

**While I was invited to review this restaurant for Florence Main Street, we paid for half of the meal ourselves and the opinions are 100% my own.**