I wish I had found out about From The Boot sooner as I went with friends for the first time last night and it was great!
Several other reviewers mentioned that it just looks like a pizza place and that the space is limited -- perhaps they've expanded since those reviews were written, because I didn't find that to be the case at all. I thought it was very casual, but they had firewood stacked neatly all around and everything was done in the muted earth tones that remind you of someplace in the Mediterranean. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. They even had a cloth napkins, so it really wasn't pizzeria-esque at all.
We arrived later in the evening (around 8:30) because they don't take reservations and we were hoping to not have to wait. At that point in the evening the restaurant was still filled, but we didn't have to wait for a table. Once we sat down the waitress opened our wine for us and explained the specials. Nothing on the regular menu really caught my eye beyond several of the appetizers, but the specials sounded (and were) great. Out of the six of us, five ordered specials -- more on that shortly.
We started with a round of appetizers. The bruschetta was excellent. The bread was nicely toasted and came tucked around the sides of a bowl of the mixed tomato topping. It was a nice mild bruschetta and struck me as on the chunky side, which made it really good. It may actually have been the best bruschetta I've ever had. We also had the eggplant rollatini (it was saucy and well presented, but a smaller portion -- two rolls, so it was tough to share amongst six). We also got the pizza that they had on special and split that as an appetizer. The pizza had gorgonzola cheese and a gorgonzola sauce as well as filet tips and some vegetables. It was very tasty and despite two mentions of gorgonzola in the pizza's description, the gorgonzola taste was pleasantly subtle.
For dinner I had the striped bass special and it was delicious. The bass was perfectly cooked and well seasoned. It was served on a bed of a very delicate, wide, ruffly pasta with a wine cream sauce. Asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes were mixed in. Before I knew it, I had cleaned my plate! It was amazing. My husband had the filet cooked rare and he was thrilled with how it came out. It was cooked perfectly to order and the glaze that came with it was enjoyable for him as well.
While everything was overall great and I would definitely go back, there were a few minor problems. The water wasn't refilled regularly and as we were all out of water by the end of the meal, we had to ask for another round of waters to be brought out to us. We also shut the place down and sometime after 10, while we were already gathering our things to leave, they shut off the music and followed us out to the door, promptly locking it behind us as soon as we stepped out. I get that they wanted to leave for the evening, but I felt as if I was being locked out. It was just kind of an unpleasantly abrupt way to end the evening after we had had a really relaxed, enjoyable meal. So just those two small things -- everything else was great and I can't wait to go back. read more