Better is always better.
That’s the philosophy behind M&P, a new Santa Rosa Beach restaurant by Farrington Foods.
Chef William Farrington describes the restaurant as an American omakase, based on a Japanese dining concept.
M&P promises an intimate and immersive dining experience featuring sophisticated American food. It’s no coincidence that meat and potatoes – possibly the quintessential American food – can be abbreviated to M&P.
Omakase means “I’ll leave it up to you,” and an omakase restaurant features a formal dining experience where the chef chooses the meal – usually seasonal, elegant and artistic – using the finest ingredients.
“In big metropolitan areas like New York, there are a lot of omakase restaurants,” said Farrington, who was voted Best Chef in the 2022 Best of the Emerald Coast readers’ poll. “There will be 10 to 12 course tastings. Small plates. Very expensive. You’ll generally find something like seared Waygu or something similar.
“I wanted to do it with foods that are American by nature, like a tater tot, or something that showcases an ingredient or farm or fish farm. For me, food in America is generally an occupation more so than a culture. In other parts of the world, it’s the opposite.
“I want to showcase what other people in food are doing in this country. I want to make people in America as happy about food as they are in other parts of the world. It all comes down to people sitting down together and sharing a good meal.
“We love it when strangers sit down together at a table and their food comes out at the same time. They get a chance to meet people they wouldn’t normally meet. It’s a social experience as much as anything. We want them to tell stories to each other. We know there are endless dining options, but we’re a little bit of a different experience.
“So why not try to showcase what we can do in a way we can be proud of?”
Farrington’s path to the Emerald Coast took him across the country and around the world.
He grew up in Florida and began cooking in his early 20s while in college. And even while he worked in real estate, he still enjoyed cooking and experimenting with foods. Eventually, he sold everything and moved across the country to Napa Valley and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone.
He worked in Napa before moving to Los Angeles to run a Mexican food trailer. He then went to Boulder, Colorado, to work at Oak at 14th where he worked his way up the ladder learning every aspect of the restaurant business.
In March 2020 as the pandemic began, Farrington returned to Naples to pick up a family heirloom ring to propose to girlfriend Liz. Just before hopping on the flight back to Colorado, the owner of Oak at 14th called to tell Farrington the restaurant was closing because of the pandemic. Farrington and his future wife decided to stay in Florida, renting a car and driving to the Emerald Coast where her family had a house. The couple quarantined and ended up getting married in Seaside, Florida.
The pandemic also spurred him to start Farrington Foods and teach cooking classes while “everybody was going stir crazy.”
“I wanted to cook, and nobody could go out to eat,” Farrington said. “It started with family and friends, but it grew.”
Eventually, the Farringtons – with a newborn in tow – set up at a Seaside parking lot farmers market making tater tots in a portable fryer. And he still was doing in-home cooking classes. Then one day, Farrington was taking his son to preschool when he saw a building on 30A for lease.
Soon, M&P was opening its doors.
“We’re the sum of our life lessons,” Farrington said. “I’m a restaurant chef by trade. But when we moved here during COVID, nobody knew what restaurants were or what they were going to be moving forward.
This is a concept I had had in my head for a really long time. The room is small, and it lends itself to a dinner I would have done in someone’s home as a private chef. It is a perfect room for that. It’s what I’ve always envisioned.
“What I love about this is that there are no rules here. It’s 24 seats. A small room. I don’t have a walk-in fridge, so I can’t buy in bulk. Everything is meticulously planned for that week. And then I do it all again the next week.”
Since opening in January, menus have included items grown locally and on farms across the country. Some of the dishes featured have been a soup with tater tots and caviar, chicken and dumplings featuring crispy chicken skins, a marinated fish with a local citrus sauce, a Sunday pot roast ravioli stuffed with braised short ribs and mashed potatoes as well as a salad with pomegranate, strawberries and ricotta. And all dinners finish, of course, with something sweet.
The menu also includes a rotating selection of wines meant to pair perfectly with each meal. Some of the featured wines have come from Napa, Oregon, Washington, Virginia, Michigan and France.
Farrington also is proud that he makes all of his own stocks and sauces.
“Can you order prefabricated stocks that are 80 percent done?” he asked. “Sure, you can do that. But if you take the 10 extra steps, is it going to be better? Yes. Better is always better.
“One time, my wife was watching me cook and she asked, ‘Why do you do this to yourself?’ I said, ‘Because it’s better.’ I hope our guests can taste the extra time I put into it. And when dinner is over, hopefully, they’re full and ready to take a nap!”
Farrington is pleased with the response M&P has seen in the first few months.
“So far, so good,” he said. “As we move forward, we’ve been getting some really good feedback.”
Indeed, better is always better.
OTHER INFO FOR M&P by Farrington Foods
3375 East County Highway 30A in Santa Rosa Beach
Single dinner service 7 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday. Two seatings per evening, starting in spring.
Reservations required at resy.com/cities/ecp/mandp
Menus are not posted in advance, but you can follow @mandp30a on Instagram or @M&P on Facebook to see recent menu examples.
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Can’t wait to visit your M&P!