By Gina Horan
You Don’t Need a Passport for This Mount Dora Bistro
Downtown Mount Dora has no shortage of charming restaurants that entice visitors from around the world looking for something worth remembering.
Most find it easily; a few find something more.
For three years, the Mount Dora Bistro Coterie Supper Club has provided that something extra.
“We are a necessity for those who want more than just food,” Chef John Rossetti says. “We offer an experience that’s nostalgic, celebratory and memorable.”
The experience begins with a French country cottage veneer. Inside is the kind of dining space you would Instagram on vacation and spend the rest of your life trying to recreate.
The décor is methodically crafted down to the last detail with antique tea pots, Eiffel Tower votive covers and iron chandeliers. Warm lighting through windows highlight tablescapes assembled with the type of care most restaurants reserve for special occasions.
It’s not Parisian pretentiousness; it’s provincial French auberge with a Paris twist that’s warm, personal and quietly sophisticated.
“We serve comfort food presented in a reverent style,” John says. “We aren’t mainstream and that is our intention.”
John came to Mount Dora after nearly three decades in restaurants and an earlier chapter in New York theater and television. That combination of culinary talent blended with a showman’s instinct is evident in every corner of the room, every napkin fold and every dish.
He also greets every guest at the door with a hug.
“If I invite someone into my house I wouldn’t disrespect them by giving them less than my full heart and the best quality,” he says. “This is like my home and these are my cherished guests.”
John and Fiorella Gullesserian certainly felt cherished when they discovered the bistro while visiting Mount Dora. Now they come once or twice a week.
“Many times, we go out and people don’t remember us,” Fiorella says. “But John is at the door with our table waiting and never stops making sure we are happy. The quality of the food is better than anywhere we have been.”
Exceptional food is by design, not accident.
Each dish is meticulously made by hand. What isn’t produced in house is imported from carefully chosen sources.
A menu featuring house-made baguettes, triple cream camembert, mussels, escargot and buttery potatoes so rich they become their own course is an invitation to step outside your comfort zone in the best possible way.
“Why do it at all if you won’t do it right?” John says.
The menu honors classic French heirloom recipes as well, like steak au poivre flambé and chicken à l’orange made with marmalade for a modern twist. Such depth of flavor is rare locally and prices remain surprisingly reasonable for the level of quality and experience offered.
Reservations are essential, not because of a full house, but because John doesn’t want a full dining room.
John believes every guest deserves his full attention.
“We don’t try to fill the room because we couldn’t give the perfect experience,” he says. “Every table is a personal experience to me.”
Memorable food keeps customers coming back; special occasions like apothecary tea service, monthly cabaret supper club and the Friday “Chef’s Table,” are the encrusted sugar on top of the Crème Brulee.
“You can eat anywhere,” John says. “But here we want you to dine and make memories.”
Recipes
Caesar Dressing
Chicken à l’orange
Steak au Poivre
Niçoise Salade
Photos: Nicole Hamel
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Gina moved to Central Florida from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021. She holds a degree in linguistics and has worked as a fashion editor, photo stylist, lifestyle columnist and food writer since 1995. She later covered travel, events, restaurants, music festivals and sports throughout Northern California, including work as a morning show host with KSAN radio and food critic for KRON Bay TV. A veteran bartender, she has worked in hospitality on and off since high school. Gina joined Akers Media in 2022 and is currently the Food and Lifestyle Editor. Her passions include travel, road trips, history books and podcasts, tasting menus and arriving in a new city without a map.
