A Little Glimpse of â”Florent: Queen of the Meat Marketâ”
Garish, vibrant, and sometimes poignant, this film details the rise (not to mention the fall) of a historic restaurant and the man who worked behind it. Florent: Queen of the Meat Market is no more a reminiscence than a history lesson on the jovial and scruffy lives of the people who had passed through its doors.
The main focus of the film is the man himself, Florent Morellet, who started Restaurant Florent in 1985 right smack in Manhattan’s meat packing district. You can imagine how it looked, a single restaurant serving twenty-four hours a day every week in a place that is better known for its after-hours sex clubs and street prostitutes. It is a place that is full of dangers at night. Brawls and other disturbances are regular occurrences along its streets.
Amazingly, the restaurant defies convention. Instead of catering to an exclusive club of elites, it became the place where movie stars can rub shoulders with the common folks. It is a place that evokes a bohemian culture, where artistry and freedom is the norm. Good food, excellent drinks, and lots of fun are the biggest draws of the place.
All these are captured on film. You can liken this to a loving scrapbook of employees, regulars, and its owner about a restaurant that thrived despite difficult times (although it had to close down last 2008 due to rising rental costs). Still, it is a film worth watching. It is full of the quirks and personalities that made the restaurant famous, and the film a fitting tribute to it.