Odette

Guest first at the pass

Josh Quick keeps the guest in view from the pass, working as Owner and Executive Chef at Odette in Florence, United States. His own rule is plain: everyone he meets is his guest. At this address on North Court Street, that rule becomes a kitchen discipline, not a line for the wall.

Quick’s training began at Walt Disney World, then moved through Alabama hotel and restaurant kitchens where scale, timing, and repetition all mattered. He worked as Sous Chef at Marriott in Alabama, Banquet Chef at Renaissance Ross Bridge resort, Banquet Chef at Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa in Florence, Head Chef at 360 Grille, and later Executive Chef at the Shoals property. Those rooms taught different pressures: banquet precision, hotel pace, and the responsibility of leading a station when service is already moving.

Since 2013, Quick has held Odette as both owner and chef, with the creative latitude and direct accountability that structure brings. The food is American, but the lane is wider than a label: Southern memory, international reference, and seasonal produce all meet on the same menu. His signature dishes at Odette include Deviled Eggs, BBQ Pork Rinds, cheeseburger sliders, Malaysian fried chicken thighs with rice noodle salad, and Alabama fried shrimp. The range matters because it shows the house preference for welcome over posture. A plate can start close to home and still reach elsewhere.

Seventy percent of the menu moves

The kitchen changes about 70% of the menu with the season, a number that tells more than a polished adjective could. Odette works with Alabama producers and growers, including Bluewater Creek Farm and Cottonwood Farm, and the method depends on what arrives in good condition rather than what fits a fixed script. Steak Frites, the Odette Cheeseburger made with Bear Creek Farm beef, and Deviled Farm Eggs Two Ways sit in that pattern: recognizable forms, handled with attention to the sourcing and the cut.

The bench work reaches beyond the hot line. The restaurant makes its own breads, mayonnaise, pickles, and roasted red pepper and thyme ketchup, and it cures meats in house. Those choices give the kitchen control over the small edges of a plate: acid in a pickle, fat in a mayonnaise, sweetness and herb in the ketchup, bread that belongs to the room rather than arriving as a neutral carrier. The bar program carries its own weight, with classic and modern drinks, a focused wine selection, craft beer, and one of Alabama’s larger bourbon collections. The George & Tonic, a gin-and-tonic slushy, belongs to that same willingness to let ease and craft sit together.

Concrete, tile, and the room’s pace

The room gives the work a modern frame without stripping away warmth. Odette’s long bar has a solid-slab concrete top and handmade tiles, a surface built for elbows, glassware, and the small exchanges that happen before a plate reaches the table. The counter holds part of the house’s character: direct, useful, quietly worked.

Historic downtown Florence is not treated as scenery here. Quick has described the city through its music history, local shops, restaurants, and its reach from Birmingham, Nashville, and Memphis. That view fits the restaurant’s scale. Odette feels tied to its block, but the kitchen does not cook as if the block sets the limit. On the pass, the work returns to the guest in front of it. Josh Quick’s first rule at Odette is the Deviled Eggs, the BBQ Pork Rinds, or the Alabama fried shrimp.