"I had an amazing experience today that I must share with everyone especially anyone from Gainesville and the surrounding area, and anyone who ever plans to visit Gainesville. For many years I have known about Leonardo 's 706 Restaurant (706 West University Avenue and have eaten there and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the atmosphere, but I had never experienced the Sunday Brunch! I didn 't even know about it until my friend Mike told me, and took me there today. This Brunch is nothing less than a masterpiece work of art! When we walked in the door, Master Chef, Mark Newman, the artist who creates this experience every Sunday, was delivering fresh potato latkes to every table. (I embarrassed myself by saying they were the best 'hash browns ' I had ever tasted and Mike gently set me straight on that technicality! We sat in the buffet room and Chef Mark came over to greet us and even gave me a tour of all the wonderful dishes he had been preparing for us since long before I even got out of bed, and as he described each creation, he was checking to make sure that they were presented properly and that the temperature of each was perfect. After the tour, I grabbed a plate and filled it with samples of the first six dishes. A waiter came and brought delicious coffee and a glass of refreshing fruit punch. As soon as I finished the first sampling, my plate was whisked away and I went back with a clean plate for the next round. Delicately sweet pastries, several exotic fruit dishes, pastas, so many offerings of vegetables, vegetarian and vegan selections, gluten free selections, various healthy protein selections all brilliantly seasoned (sorry I just don 't have the vocabulary to adequately describe it! Every single taste was a delightful complement to the next one. It was performance art, culinary art, social art, presentation art, atmosphere art all to perfection! I 'm not exaggerating! You really need to try this if you haven 't already! Thank you MH Weiss and thank you Mark Newman for your dedication to your art!"
