RESTAURANT NEWS | FORT LAUDERDALE
Joe Anthony Looks Across the Atlantic With Tonno Nero
TONNO NERO | MAP | INSTAGRAM
By Eric Barton
9:48 a.m. ET, Aug. 18, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Fort Lauderdale faces the Atlantic, but chef Joe Anthony is looking a little farther east. At Tonno Nero, his restaurant expected to open this fall, Anthony will follow the coastline into Italy, Spain, Southern France, Greece, and North Africa before circling back to the fishing boats and farms of South Florida.
Anthony calls it “Coast-to-Coast Cuisine.” That phrase could cover considerable territory, especially around the Mediterranean, where countries have argued for generations over who first thought to grill a fish and squeeze lemon over it. The common ground comes in the ingredients: seafood, handmade pasta, vegetables, grains, herbs, olive oil, citrus, and plenty of fire.
“Great food starts long before it reaches the kitchen,” Anthony said. “It starts with fishermen heading out before sunrise, farmers paying attention to the seasons, and producers who choose to do things the harder way because they still believe it matters.”
Anthony grew up in Delray Beach and graduated from the Florida Culinary Institute before leaving for New York in 2009. He worked at Daniel, Union Square Cafe, and The Modern, then spent 12 years with chef Gabriel Kreuther. During that run, Restaurant Gabriel Kreuther earned two Michelin stars. Anthony eventually returned south to serve as executive chef at The Moore Building in Miami’s Design District, and I gave the now-departed restaurant Elastika a five-star review with Anthony in the kitchen. He is also executive chef and managing partner at Arvine in Manhattan’s West Village.
For Tonno Nero, he has planned a menu that occasionally takes an unexpected exit from the Mediterranean. Grass-fed bison tartare comes with Calabrian chile hot sauce and house country bread. Pansotti will be filled with smoked beet ricotta, while squid ink orecchiette arrives with Grandma’s Bolognese, suggesting someone’s grandmother had a more interesting pantry than most.
The Florida coast shows up in roasted snapper prepared Sicilian-style and flounder poached with bay leaf and served with Champagne sauce. Bread comes with local stracciatella and olive oil-poached tomatoes. For dessert, olive oil-semolina cake gets a spoonful of brown butter cream.
Anthony plans to work with regional fishermen, farmers, ranchers, and other producers as the seasons change. Tonno Nero may borrow its map from the Mediterranean, but its best chance of establishing an identity will come from what arrives at the docks and grows in the soil nearby.
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