When the Florida Room went looking for top chefs, they literally found … Top … Chefs.
The Florida Room — which opened in October as part of Fort Lauderdale’s $30 million complex The Fort — has husband-and-wife star chefs Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth, both veterans of Bravo’s cooking competition “Top Chef.”
McInnis competed in “Top Chef: New York,” the fifth season of the reality show in 2008-2009, and made it all the way to episode 10. (In part one of the finale, the Florida native was brought back but did didn’t make it to part two.) Meanwhile, Booth competed in “Top Chef: New Orleans,” the 11th season that aired in 2013-2014, and made it to episode 4 before being eliminated in a team challenge. (In the “Top Chef” spin-off web series, “Last Chance Kitchen,” the Australia native won four challenges in a row, but didn’t make it back into the main competition.)
The dynamic duo’s culinary empire includes Stiltsville Fish Bar in Miami Beach, Roots Coastal Kitchen in Puerto Rico and Root & Bone in North Carolina and Indiana. Booth also has Sunny Side Up Lifestyle, a Miami-based beauty and wellness company.
Florida Room is owned and operated by film producer Shona Tuckman, who is half of another creative couple: Her husband, Brad Tuckman, co-owns The Fort along with business partner Rich Campillo.
“So, these guys, they’re real people, and we can have real conversations,” Brad Tuckman said of the chefs. “I think that it evokes in their menu, the layers of flavor they have. And I think the key is to get people who understand the vibe and the culture that we’re trying to create. Janine and Jeff, they have that. When you work with good people, good things come.”
He said the couple “were open to hearing our input,” adding, “This menu came together because they were open-minded. … When Jeff and Jannine started, I gave them a mood board and I said, ‘I’m never going to come up to you again other than this one time.’ And I gave him a whole bunch of pictures of food, right? I said, ‘My job is done. It’s now in your hands.’ And that’s what you have to do. You have to bring people around you that you trust and are amazing.”
Here is more about Florida Room in a Q&A session with Booth and McInnis that has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Sourdough flatbread with black truffle, caramelized onion, fontal cheese,aged balsamic vinegar, king trumpet shrooms, watercress at the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Chef Jeff McInnis unveils his Barbequed & Brûléed Smokey Ribs. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The dining room at the Florida Room restaurant. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Watermelon + Feta salad, with chilled summer melon, French feta cheese, cucumber, Aleppo pepper, mint, and extra virgin olive oil. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Sourdough flatbread with black truffle, caramelized onion, fontal cheese, aged balsamic vinegar, king trumpet shrooms and watercress served at the Florida Room restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Double Buttermilk Crispy Fried Chicken, 24-hour brined bird, rosemary lemon dust, hot honey at the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, November 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
A view of the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort in Fort Lauderdale. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Peachwood Old Fashioned, with Jack Daniel’s Bonded Tennessee Whiskey, crème de peache, vanilla simple, angostura bitters at the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Florida room restaurant is open at The Fort, Fort Lauderdale’s new pickleball complex at Snyder Park, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Husband-and-wife celebrity chefs Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth at the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort complex in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, Nov 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Co-owner Brad Tuckman with husband-and-wife celebrity chefs Janine Booth and Jeff McInnis at the Florida Room in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Get a view of the new pickleball stadium from inside the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort in Fort Lauderdale. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Florida Room in Fort Lauderdale offers an array of cocktails. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
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The Florida Room restaurant at The Fort pickleball complex in Snyder Park on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Q: How would you describe the overall vibe of Florida Room?
Booth: When you kind of walk into the dining room, it’s very lush and green. It kind of plays into, maybe, your grandma’s Florida room in her home. And it really kind of plays into the ambience of the restaurant as well. … We get this gorgeous breeze off the lake. We can open up the windows and so you truly do feel like you’re in a Florida room. … I didn’t grow up in Florida, but we do have a similar kind of indoor-outdoor dining in Australia, and it does kind of take me back to those childhood memories, but with a really modern take.
McInnis: We preach the gospel of Southern hospitality. We try to give the best service we can and take care of our customers. We believe that if we take care of our customers and feed them right, that everything else kind of falls into place.
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
A view of the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort in Fort Lauderdale. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Q: What can you tell readers about the “Southern American and coastal comfort food” culinary direction of the menu?
McInnis: I love the word nostalgia. I love when I remember something from taste. And I think it’s an important part of the restaurant business, to be able to bring that to people, to not just feed them but bring them something comforting and something that’s a memory. … I was blessed to grow up in North Florida, in a town called Niceville. I spent my first real culinary career, where I was a professional, in Charleston, South Carolina. I think that’s where I really started getting into it. So, all of those flavors — my grandma teaching me how to make biscuits and fried chicken — all of that stuff reigns very heavily with me as North Florida food. You get down into Miami and people kind of look at you crazy when you’re cooking biscuits, but it does work and people like it. So to me, the answer is we cook from our hearts and soul.
I don’t know if I want to just start naming dishes that … fit that Florida Southern comfort. But if I did, it would definitely be some of our fried chicken that we do a lemon dust on. …. Our ribs are to die for. We kind of smoke them tableside with rosemary in it. … Then, of course, we have some upscale dishes. We have a lot of seafood on the menu, but we tried our best to pay respects to good grits and good chicken and good ribs first.
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Chef Jeff McInnis unveils his Barbequed & Brûléed Smokey Ribs. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Booth: I think Jeff kind of touched on some of the more comforting kind of items. Outside of that, we have kind of directed this menu with a focus on local mangoes, Florida avocados and really fresh produce … We have this beautiful mango salad with a sesame vinaigrette. We kind of char the mangoes and dice them up, and it’s kind of this earthy, salty, sweet tart, very balanced salad, but really kind of focusing on making the Florida mango shine. … So we do have this comforting kind of side of the menu, and then we have this light and bright and fresh side of the menu.
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Sourdough flatbread with black truffle, caramelized onion, fontal cheese, aged balsamic vinegar, king trumpet shrooms and watercress served at the Florida Room restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Q: Chef Booth, what about you Aussie influences?
Booth: Yes, the sausage rolls are one of my prized possessions, I guess. Jeff comes from this Southern background where he’s bringing the fried chicken. I’m bringing the sausage rolls. So we have an Australian lamb sausage roll. It’s wrapped in puff pastry, topped with some sesame seeds, and they’re a golden puffy delicious [dish]. And we topped them off with a mango chutney, so there’s a little spice in the lamb. So it’s a little bit of heat, but it’s more of like those warming spices. And with the mango chutney, it just all comes together. It’s like a really fancy Australian pigs-in-a-blanket minus the ketchup and you’ve got your mango chutney.
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The dining room at the Florida Room restaurant. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Q: Is it true that you are both very conscious of not using seed oils, a growing trend among foodies?
McInnis: Honestly, I think that it’s a trend that’s here to stay. I think that the conversation of health has turned. It’s not just, let’s eat less fat. It’s more of, what are we putting in our bodies that’s going to give us longevity? … I really believe that a lot of the issues that we’re seeing today with our children, with Alzheimer’s, with cancer, it’s all what we’re putting in our bodies. And I think just taking a stand against seed oil is a big one. I think that the world’s waking up to it.
Q: And this is also a very personal issue for you two, right?
McInnis: One of our children battled with issues with gluten for so long. And what we found out was that it wasn’t gluten. It was poison that was hurting her. And it’s poison that’s hurting all of us. I think a lot of these ingredients that are really inexpensive are really inexpensive for a reason. And if you just put the extra effort to the research and make your bread from scratch and everything, you’ll see a lot of these people will start having a lot less issues. And yes, of course, during that travail of figuring out what was going on with our daughter, we did live a gluten-free lifestyle for a long time. But now we’ve been able to reintroduce it by just using real ingredients, whole foods. We do that for our family at home, why wouldn’t we do it for our guests?
Q: What about the desserts?
Booth: There’s an amazing baked Florida, a [take on a] baked Alaska, which has a very nostalgic feel. I would say it’s basically a Buddhist Hand citron cake on the bottom and then we mix a combination of a vanilla bean ice cream and a lemon sorbet. So you get that kind of citrus creamsicle vibe going on, and then it is topped with a piped meringue and it’s torched and finished with the Buddhist Hand zest. It is absolutely divine and something that you should not sleep on for sure. We have a beautiful panna cotta that’s topped with a passionfruit jelly. … You could just come in for a cocktail and dessert and leave completely blown away.
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Get a view of the new pickleball stadium from inside the Florida Room restaurant at The Fort in Fort Lauderdale. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Q: Is there something you just can’t wait for guests to experience?
Booth: From the moment you walk in the door, you’re kind of hit with this gorgeous restaurant. There’s amazing art — it’s almost like something out of a gallery. You could literally just stand there and look at the works of art, which our designer [and chief development officer], Chris Romero, he created these beautiful works of art himself. And he’s in charge of all of the little touches, from the napkins to all of the furniture design. … As you walk in, you’re seeing all these little touches of elements of design … even down to the silverware, the plateware, everything was so elegantly picked out for the purpose of how it feels.
McInnis: The temperature just dropped outside, and the dining room was always beautiful, but for the first time a few days ago, we started opening this huge wall that was designed on the bar. It brings the inside outside and vice versa. And it’s really magical. Especially … when the sun’s setting. We just started doing that, with the fresh air coming in. It really does feel like this nostalgic Florida room to me.
Florida Room is at 891 SW 34th St., Building B, Fort Lauderdale. Visit floridaroomftl.com or call 754-295-4141.
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Florida Room in Fort Lauderdale offers an array of cocktails. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Watermelon + Feta salad, with chilled summer melon, French feta cheese, cucumber, Aleppo pepper, mint, and extra virgin olive oil. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)