If you’re not on a budget right about now, you probably should be. Chances are your house is worth less than when you bought it and you didn’t get a bonus last year. Budgets suck though because you’re basically stuck eating eggs and pasta on rotation, one after the other. This is enough to make anyone lose their appetite.
There is one restaurant that at least sort of understands that we’re in need of a night out once in awhile. Spris, the casual Italian restaurant with locations in Coral Gables and on Lincoln Road, has a fabulous special from 5:30-7 p.m. daily. Called Beat the Clock, the time you arrive is the price you pay for a limited menu. If you get there at 6:05, you pay $6.05. The Coral Gables restaurant has a more extensive menu, which includes a pasta dish and even gnocchi, but either way, it’s a tasty deal.
Pizzas at Spris have thin crusts and are cooked in a wood-burning oven. Although thin crusts leave a hungry-man hungry, you can always get a side salad or something and leave completely satisfied for around ten bucks. Besides, wood-burning ovens make everything taste pretty good, so no loss there.
No one’s saying this is like being in Little Italy, but the atmosphere in Coral Gables is decidedly homey and comfortable and Lincoln Road does tend to remind one of a beach day on the Mediterranean. The northern Italian cuisine has something that will please anyone, even if its just the desserts.
