Last updated: September 15, 2025

In the Weeds

The beach is a place for relaxation, laughs, and a few days where decisions come easy. Rum cocktails, white wine, oysters on the half-shell. There are days when you can’t just pick up and head to the beach, or, even if you had the time off, you couldn’t get there soon enough to dowse a day that had you putting out fires.

For those days, there is Fin & Fino.

Bankers walk in to this Uptown restaurant underneath the Mint Museum and shed their stress along with their blue sport coats and cardigans, taking over the bar and high-top tables at 5 p.m. A Rare Roots Hospitality Restaurant, Fin & Fino’s marble bar, blue tiles, and oyster shells dangling from the chandelier force an calming exhale as you hop up onto a bar stool for a cocktail.

Beyond the restaurant’s impeccable branding, courtesy of local food marketing company Plaid Penguin, is a menu influenced by coasts around the world. Dishes driven by seasonality means that there are some Southern touches, but dishes such as the fried calamari with a fennel slaw and chili hoisin sauce, satisfyingly crispy with some kick, borrow an international influence.

The grilled banh mi shrimp takes a similar approach, a plate of juicy shrimp with the toppings you’d expect from the Vietnamese sandwich, like pickled root vegetables and cilantro. The anchor of this menu is seafood, but it’s hard to categorize beyond that, and while Jon Dressler is the face of Rare Roots Hospitality, the restaurant has touches of his most trusted employees. The artwork, including the outline of a whale painted on one inset wall, was the idea of Tim Buchanan, general manager over the group but based out of Fin & Fino. The open kitchen is big enough for catering and spared no needed expense, made with significant input from executive chef Scott Hollingsworth.

This collaborative spirit creates a sense of ownership that permeates the restaurant and helps retain talent. Turnover has been a struggle for a lot of restaurants, and by keeping a solid core staff, customers can expect consistency from the kitchen and get to interact with someone who knows the menu in and out. Servers guide you through ordering enough small plates, or recommend their favorite entrees—the options are diverse enough to be an intimate date night over shared dishes or a work meeting where everyone orders a quick composed plate and heads home.

To end the night, enjoy a glass of sherry at the bar or a tiki cocktail concocted by bartender Brittany Kellum, letting laughs wash over you. You may not be able to hear the ocean, but you’ll head home feeling relaxed just the same.

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