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the [only ] boca raton magazine

Autumn Fashion Showdown for the PreSidency

$5.95 september/october 2012

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lynn university hosts the Final Debate 0

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Blain Hefner

Sept./Oct. 2012, Vol. 32, Issue 5

features

96

The GReaT debaTe

Boca Raton presents an insider’s guide to the local event of the year as Lynn University prepares to host the final 2012 presidential debate.

by kevin kaminski and marie speed

when U want to know

104

CenTeR of aTTenTion

Fall fashion finds an appropriate backdrop when our model walks the hallowed halls of Town Center at Boca Raton in the latest styles. photography by billy coleman

112

PuRsuiT of a PolTeRGeisT

The paranormal chase is on for teams of local “ghostbusters” in search of supernatural phenomena in South Florida. by john thomason

[ bocamag.com ]

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Sept./Oct. 2012 vOl. 32 nO. 5

71 151 departments

22

Mail Readers comment on articles in recent issues of Boca Raton.

26

Editor’s lEttEr South Florida looks to exorcise some of its political demons as Boca welcomes the world to the final presidential debate. by kevin kaminski

29

CurrEnts Boca Raton keeps you connected to South Florida with the latest trends, tips and news in five categories.

29 Shop: Must-have school style; tips on making alterations to existing wardrobes 35 Body: Local specialty workouts for kids and teens; nutritional tips 41 home: The latest trends in South Florida bathroom design 47 Travel: French lessons on the island of St. Barts; local travel buzz 61 a&e: The next big thing in radio; catching up with a rock photographer

71

Florida tablE Grab some drawn butter and mustard sauce as we crack the case on lobster and stone crabs. In addition, we check out the local restaurant scene and kick off football season by putting chicken wings to the Challenge.

by bill citara

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[ bocamag.com ]

80

FaCEs Meet a local photographer who honors the unyielding spirit of breast cancer survivors, a local entrepreneur with flights of fancy, and a heavily tattooed Boca artist renowned for her needle work.

by kevin kaminski and marie speed

88

Q&a Commentator, author and part-time Delray Beach resident Dick Morris weighs in on the upcoming election, the Clintons, and his life in the political arena. by kevin kaminski

119

dining guidE Don’t leave home without it—our comprehensive guide to the best restaurants in South Florida, including new reviews of Assaggio del Forno in Boca and Park Tavern in Delray Beach.

151

our town Spend time with the locals who make our community so special—including a firefighter on the front lines during 9/11, a recent Diamond Award recipient, the founder of a nonprofit that gives adults with disabilities a chance to shine in the workplace, and a Countess turning 100.

by kevin kaminski, cassie morien, marie speed and john thomason

159

PEoPlE You might just see some familiar faces in our snapshots from talked-about social events in and around Boca Raton.

by cassie morien

167

sPEEd buMPs Our peek into the local paranormal world brings back some haunting memories for the author.

by marie speed

168

My turn There is no quick fix for America’s problems, but rebuilding the family is a good place to start. by john shuff

On the cOver phoTographer: Billy Coleman model: Danielle King, Next Model Management/Miami STyliST: David A. Fittin, Artist Management/Miami hair and makeup: Davide Calcinai, Artist Management/Miami FaShion/jewelry: Etro blouse and earrings from Neiman Marcus; Marni jacket, from Saks Fifth Avenue. Prices upon request. All items from Town Center at Boca Raton

september/october

Boca Raton, town centeR Mall, 5800 Glades Rd. call 561.393.9100, VIsIt saKs.coM/BocaRaton oR FInd Us on FaceBooK, twItteR, itUnes and saKsPoV.coM

View the new

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BOCA RATON

bocamag.com WEB EXTRAS

Robert Watson

Check out these bonus items related to stories in the Sept./ Oct. issue of Boca Raton: DEBATE COVERAGE: Visit bocamag.com and click on the “Debate Watch” link for up-tothe-minute news on the event of the year in Boca. Also, read more of our interview with Lynn University professor and presidential historian Robert Watson.

KICKOFF AT FAU: Boca Raton

sits down with head coach Carl Pelini as FAU embarks on a new football era.

SPOOKY STORIES:

Intrigued by the paranormal after reading our “Pursuit of a Poltergeist” feature? Catch John Thomason’s recent interview with renowned psychic/medium Chip Coffey.

LIGHTS OUT: Learn more about the upcoming “Dining in the Dark”—a unique and insightful foodie event that benefits Stand Among Friends.

Stay connected with our blogS: a&e: John thomason takes readers inside the arts with concert, exhibition and movie reviews, cultural news and special profiles every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Shopping: Discover upcoming trunk shows, store openings, moneysaving tips and fashion trends Tuesday through Thursday.

10

[ bocamag.com ]

dining: bill citara breaks down the tri-county restaurant scene—from new reviews to the latest buzz—every Monday, Tuesday and Friday. community: melissa malamut covers the local health and beauty scene every Wednesday, while our inhouse team keeps you on top of news in and around Boca throughout the week.

debate watch:

Stay tuned to bocamag.com for updates, interviews and special reports heading into and including the day of the Oct. 22 presidential debate at Lynn University.

delray beach:

marie Speed reports every Thursday on news and events in the Delray world.

september/october

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bocamag.com The Naked TruTh featuring Angela Lutin

I’ve been faithfully following “The Naked Truth” [at bocamag.com], and I just love your style. You’re the opposite of me; I’m the wallflower when out with my friends. They’re wild and crazy—and attracting men. I’m shy and reserved—and meeting no one. What are some baby steps I can take to start “putting myself out there”?

—Charlene, Deerfield Beach ChArLene: When I was newly single again, I wanted to shrink into my barstool every time a man looked my way. By changing my expectations, I learned to relax and not be intimidated by the dating process. Rather than having the mind-set that I must be looking for “the one,” I started viewing social interactions as a way to meet new and interesting people.

When I wasn’t so concerned about someone being a love match, I was more comfortable dropping my guard. So where do you start? Here are my suggestions: [1] WeAr An AppeALing outfit that will draw attention to you.

(Think sexy, not slutty.)

Men are visual creatures.

Your friends’ boisterous personalities are hard to miss, but a flattering dress in a bright color will have you standing out from the crowd.

[2] try onLine dAting. You may find that,

even though you are a wallflower when out in public, you are funny and entertaining in e-mail/text form.

Don’t hide behind your computer screen forever, though. Eventually, you will want to meet in person.

[3] go out ALone.

This is one of the hardest things to do, but it certainly goes a long way in building self-confidence. Without the

armor of girlfriends around you, you’ll have no other option but to engage with strangers. Even if there’s no love connection, it’s an excellent way to hone your flirting skills. If a bar or nightclub seems too intimidating to start, try a restaurant bar with a busy lunch crowd. Boca is filled with great places that always have professionals dining out alone during the day.

[4] MAke eye ContACt with someone you find attractive and hold his gaze for at least five seconds. After five seconds, he will definitely know you have interest. Make sure you smile. You don’t want to look like a stalker.

Do you LIKE Boca Raton magazine? Write on our Facebook wall:

[ ] Lantana Jacks Bar & Grill thanked us for our food blog about their recent opening.

[ ] Harvey Loewenstein thanked us for featuring Hotdog-Opolis in our May/June issue.

[ ] YES! Palm Beaches invited us to “A Night of Fashion” at The Cottage in Lake Worth, benefiting Dress For Success Palm Beaches. Boca Raton was there, and you can view our photo gallery at bocamag.com.

[ ] The Salt Suite in Delray Beach thanked our health/beauty reporter, Melissa Malamut, for a well-written review.

12

[ bocamag.com ]

About the nAked truth Follow Boca Raton’s popular dating blogger, Angela Lutin, every Thursday at bocamag.com. No topic is off limits for the local fitness instructor, single mom and reality show participant, who shoots from the hip about everything from dating in the workplace to problems in the bedroom. Send your questions to nakedtruth@bocamag.com.

enter to Win! Five Facebook fans of Boca Raton magazine won passports to Tastemakers of Delray Beach as part of a giveaway competition.

Visit our Facebook page each month for chances to win tickets, gift cards and more!

Follow us / bocamag september/october

THE CURRENT EVENT THURSDAY–SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20–23 SNAP UP THESE EXCLUSIVE EARRINGS from Kendra Scott, with your $300 regular-priced Contemporary/CUSP purchase in stores or online.

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the [only] boca raton magazine group editor-in-chief

marie speed

editor

kevin kaminski

assistant editor

john thomason

web editor

HANdwRITTEN

cassie morien

PEOPLE OF THE LAByRINTHs

art directors

lori pierino kathleen ross photographer

aaron bristol production manager

Celebrating 25 Years

adrienne acton

contributing writers ROYAL PALM PLACE BOCA RATON 561-367-9600 LAS OLAS FT. LAUDERDALE 954-524-2585

melissa malamut john shuff

contributing photographers/illustrator

billy coleman blain hefner cristina morgado scot zimmerman food editor

Lunalba

bill citara home editor

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brad mee

editorial/web interns

rachel almeida krissy slazyk jen stone

account managers

georgette evans candace rojas national account manager

carey mckearnan

director of special publications

bruce klein jr.

special projects manager

gail eagle

JES publishing 561/997-8683 (phone) 561/997-8909 (fax) www.bocamag.com

magazine@bocamag.com (general queries) editor@bocamag.com (editorial)

Boca Raton magazine is published seven times a year

by JES Publishing. The entire contents of Boca Raton magazine is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the publisher.

Boca Raton magazine accepts no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts and/or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. Boca Raton magazine reserves the right to edit, rewrite or refuse material and is not responsible for products. Please refer to corporate masthead.

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september/october

JES publishing

president/publisher

margaret mary shuff group editor-in-chief

marie speed

controller

jeanne greenberg

circulation director

david brooks

subscription services

david shuff

JES publishing

5455 N. Federal Highway, Suite M Boca Raton, FL 33487 561/997-8683 www.bocamag.com

publishers of Boca raton / delray Beach Mizner’s dream / worth avenue greater Boca raton chamber of commerce annual salt lake / Utah Bride and groom Utah style & design / o.c. tanner Florida Magazine association 2011 charlie awards charlie award (first place) best new magazine (Delray Beach) best custom publication (Worth Avenue)

bronze award best overall magazine (Boca Raton)

2010 charlie awards charlie award (first place) best overall magazine (Boca Raton) best overall design (Boca Raton) best overall use of photography (Florida Table)

silver award best written magazine (Boca Raton)

2009 charlie awards charlie award (first place) best overall magazine (Boca Raton) best overall design (Boca Raton) best feature (Boca Raton)

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best written magazine (Boca Raton) best overall use of photography (Florida Table)

bronze award best in-depth reporting (Boca Raton)

2008 charlie awards (honors below all for Boca Raton) charlie award (first place) best overall magazine best feature best single, original B&W photo

silver award best overall design best department best editorial/commentary/opinion

bronze award best overall use of photography best department best in-depth reporting

september/october

12TH STREET BY CYNTHIA VINCENT • 291 • 7 FOR ALL MANKIND • 10 CROSBY BY DEREK LAMM • ALC • ALICE + OLIVIA • AARON ASHE • AT PIECE • ATKO • BCBG MAXAZRIA RUNWAY • BLU MOON • BOULEE • BOYOD • BY CHANCE • CAMILLA • CAMILLA AND MARC • CHASER • CHELSEA FLOWER • CLOVER CANYON • CURRENT/ELLIOTT • CUT 25 • DAVID LERNER • ELIZABETH & JAMES • ENZA COSTA • ESCAPE BY MATHEW WILLIAMSON • ETOILE ISABEL MARANT • EQUIPMENT • FINDERS KEEPERS • GEMMA • GENERATION LOVE • GENETIC DENIM • GODDIS • GOLDSIGN • GRYPHON • HANKY PANKY • HAUTE HIPPIE • J BRAND • JAMISON • JENNIFER HALEY • JENNIFER ZEUNER • JENS PIRATE BOOTY • JEROME DREYFUSS • JOIE • JUST CAVALLI • KRISA • LINE • LNA • LOVE SAM •

ServiceS [ directory ]

LOVE QUOTES • MADISON MARCUS • MARA HOFFMAN • MASON BY MICHELLE MASON • MATTHEW WILLIAMSON •

Boca Raton magazine is published seven times a year, with February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, November and December/January MATTHEW WILLIAMSON • MOTHER DENIM • MYNE • NATION LTD • NAVEN • OF TWO MINDS • PARKER • POUR LA issues. If you have any questions or comments regarding VICTOIRE • RACHEL ZOE • RAMY BROOK • RAQUEL ALLEGRA • RD INTERNATIONAL • ROBBI & NIKKI • ROBERT our magazine, call us at 561/997-8683. We’d love to hear RODRIGUEZ • SEATON • SJOBECK • SON OF JOHN • SMYTHE • STRETTA • SYDNEY EVAN • T BAGS • TAJ • TIBI • from you.

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[ subscription, copy purchasing and distribution ]

For any changes or questions regarding your subscription or to purchase back issues, call David Shuff in subscription services at 877/553-5363. To inquire about MATHEW WILLIAMSON • ETOILE ISABEL MARANT • EQUIPMENT • FINDERS KEEPERS • GEMMA • GENERATION LOVE distribution points, ask for circulation director David • GENETIC DENIM • GODDIS • GOLDSIGN • GRYPHON • HANKY PANKY • HAUTE HIPPIE • J BRAND • JAMISON • Brooks at the same number.

BOULEE • BOYOD • BY CHANCE • CAMILLA • CAMILLA AND MARC • CHASER • CHELSEA FLOWER • CLOVER

CANYON • CURRENT/ELLIOTT • CUT 25 • DAVID LERNER • ELIZABETH & JAMES • ENZA COSTA • ESCAPE BY

JENNIFER HALEY • JENNIFER ZEUNER • JENS PIRATE BOOTY • JEROME DREYFUSS • JOIE • JUST CAVALLI • KRISA • LINE • LNA • LOVE SAM • LOVE QUOTES • MADISON MARCUS • MARA HOFFMAN • MASON BY MICHELLE MASON •

MATTHEW WILLIAMSON • MCQ BY ALEXANDER MCQUEEN • MINKPINK • MINNIE ROSE • MISSONI SCARVES & SHOES • MONROW • MW BY MATTHEW WILLIAMSON • MOTHER DENIM • MYNE • NATION LTD • NAVEN • OF TWO MINDS • PARKER • POUR LA VICTOIRE • RACHEL ZOE • RAMY BROOK • RAQUEL ALLEGRA • RD INTERNATIONAL •

[ advertising resources ] Take advantage of Boca Raton’s prime advertising space—put your ad dollars to work in the premier publication of South Florida. For more information, contact manager Carey McKearnan (carey@bocamag.com).

[ custom publishing ]

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Create a magazine tailored to fit the needs and character of your business/organization. Ideal for promotions, special events, introduction of new services, etc. Contact Marie Speed (editor@bocamag.com).

[ story queries/web queries ] Boca Raton magazine values the concerns and interests of our readers. Story queries for the print version of Boca should be submitted by e-mail to Marie Speed (editor@bocamag.com) or Kevin Kaminski (kevin@ bocamag.com). Submit information/queries regarding our website to Cassie Morien (cassie@bocamag.com).

We try to respond to all queries, but due to the large volume that we receive, this may not be possible.

[ letters ]

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[ arts & entertainment ] Where to go, what to do and see throughout South Florida. Please submit information regarding fundraisers, art openings, plays, readings, concerts, dance or other performances to A&E editor John Thomason (john.thomason@bocamag.com). Deadline for entries in an upcoming Arts & Entertainment section is three months before publication (e.g., to list an event in July/ August, submit info by April 20).

[ dining guide ] Our independent reviews of restaurants in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. A fine, reliable resource for residents and tourists. For more information, contact Marie Speed or Kevin Kaminski.

[ people ] A photo collage of social gatherings and events in Boca Raton and South Florida. All photos submitted should be clearly identified and accompanied by a brief description of the event (who, what, where, when); photos will not be returned. E-mail images to people@ bocamag.com. Or mail photos to: “People” Boca Raton magazine 5455 N. Federal Highway, Suite M Boca Raton, FL 33487

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Online Code: BOCAMAG25

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Your thoughts and comments are important to us. All letters to the editor may be edited for style, grammar and length. We reserve the right to withhold any letters deemed inappropriate for publication. Send letters to the address listed below, or to Kevin Kaminski (kevin@bocamag.com).

7/16/12 9:23 AM

september/october

From your vision to your living space.

Sklar has everything you need for the home that you’ve always envisioned. Our huge, award-winning showroom offers a complete range of beautiful furnishings, luxury contemporary to transitional and traditional. You'll also find a wide variety of custom Window Treatments, Wall Coverings, art, accessories, lighting and more.

With our design studio, talented designers and personal services we have everything you need to realize your vision.

6300 N. Federal Highway Boca Raton [North of Yamato] Tel 561.862.0800 Open Mon – Sat 10-6, Sun 12-6 Evening hours by appointment. sklarfurnishings.com

ServiceS [ directory ] tHANK yoU For SUBScriBiNG to BOCA RATON MAGAZiNe!

We appreciate your business and want you to get the most from your subscription. This customer guide will help you contact us for all your subscription needs.

[ first issue ] Your first issue will be mailed four-to-six weeks after receipt of your order. Subsequent issues will arrive every other month and monthly in November and February.

[ missing or late issues ] Once in a while, production, transportation or the postal service may delay delivery. If you don’t get an issue, or if your magazine is repeatedly late, please call and report your problem to our subscription department at 877/553-5363, or send an e-mail to: subscriptions@bocamag.com.

[ if you have questions about your invoice ... ] If you have already paid your bill and then receive a new bill, here’s what you should do: 1. If you have paid your bill within the past four weeks, ignore the new invoice. (The computer simply has not given your account credit quickly enough.)

FALL PACKAGE Package Price $325* ($392 value) | Valid Sept. 15 – Oct. 31, 2012 Includes the following treatments and a complimentary Pink Lady Apple martini.

2. It’s most likely that your payment and our notice just crossed in the mail; check the date on the notice to see when we mailed it.

Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Facial | 50 min Pink Lady Apple Body Polish | 25 min Swedish Massage | 50 min Eye Lift Treatment Paraffin Hand Treatment

3. If you get another bill or renewal notice, call our subscription department at 877/553-5363, or send an e-mail to subscriptions@bocamag.com, and we will straighten out the problem.

[ change of address ]

permanent: If you are changing your address, send us your complete old address, complete new address, including ZIP code, and the effective date of the change.

You can also leave us a message with your old and new address by calling 877/553-5363.

Enjoy the spa even if you’re not staying as a guest.

561.665.4950 | theseagatespa.com Open daily 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Located at The Seagate Hotel & Spa 1000 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach

temporary or seasonal: Please send us your complete permanent address, your complete temporary address and the dates that you want your issues forwarded.

[ back issues ] If you are interested in purchasing any back issues, please call 877/553-5363, indicating the issue date you would like. The cost of each issue including shipping and handling is $9.95.

* Tax and gratuity are not included. While supplies last. State of Florida, Department of Health, Massage Establishment. License # MM 23691

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You’ll find a subscription to Boca Raton magazine makes a thoughtful and useful gift that lasts throughout the year. If you’d like more information about giving a gift subscription, please call our subscription department at 877/553-5363.

[ online subscriptions ] Receive additional savings by subscribing online. Visit bocamag.com for more information.

[ for any of the above services, please contact our subscriptions services department ] Call TOLL FREE: 877/553-5363 E-mail: subscriptions@bocamag.com

e-newsletter Weekly dining, shopping + entertainment picks from the editors of bocamag.com 20 thescoop.indd [ boca1 mag.com ]

5/24/12 12:28 PM

Write: Boca Raton magazine Subscription Department 5455 N. Federal Highway, Suite M Boca Raton, FL 33487

september/october

Key TO THe CuRe Get the shirt.

Shop the weekend.

Show your support.

Join Saks Fifth Avenue in the fight against women’s cancers. Get the shirt, designed by Carolina Herrera, available exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue this October. Then shop October 18 to 21, when Saks will donate 2% of sales to local and national women’s cancer charities.* Special thanks to Penélope Cruz, the 2012 Ambassador for eIF’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund and Saks Fifth Avenue’s Key To The Cure.

*Saks will donate 2% of participating vendor sales from Thursday to Sunday, October 18 to 21, along with 100% of the Key to the Cure T-shirt sales to Boca Raton Regional Hospital for the Key To The Cure campaign.

Visit saks.com/KTTC to learn more.

Boca Raton, town centeR Mall, 5800 Glades Rd. call 561.393.9100, VIsIt saKs.coM/BocaRaton oR FInd Us on FaceBooK, twItteR, itUnes and saKsPoV.coM

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Special ThankS

I was so touched by [John Thomason’s “Take 5”] article [May/June, Our Town], which was multidimensional and spoken with a first-person perception. [He] is such a talented writer. Thank you for thinking of us, for truly seeing us and for giving us this opportunity.

Jane Kelly, founder The Actor’s Workshop of South Florida

RemembeR When

facebook.com/CaraElyseSkin 561-988-9391 222 Yamato Rd, #104 Boca Raton, 33431 (next to Panera)

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Subscribe Today!

The gift that lasts all year! Buy one subscription, give another to someone special—$19.95 combined—and, as a bonus, you’ll both receive 6 free issues of our newest publication, Delray Beach magazine.

I read with interest your [“Florida Explorer”] article that included the art/ architecture of Miami in the [May/June] issue of Boca Raton magazine. There are a few points I would like to bring to your attention since I grew up in Miami Beach in the 1950s. I was in high school when both the Eden Roc and Fontainebleau were built. Many popular hotels during that period included the Roney Plaza, Saxony, Sans Souci, Seville, Algiers, Carillon, etc. However, I never heard of the Vagabond and wondered where it was located. Also, I lived on 79th and Byron Avenue (three blocks west of Collins), and that was considered Miami Beach. Surfside began around 88th Street, and then there was Bay Harbor, etc. before North Miami Beach actually began. I may not recall what I ate or did yesterday, but my memory of the years I grew up in Miami Beach is pretty clear.

Ruth Bloom Boca Raton ediToR’S noTe: It’s so nice to hear from you, Ruth. We’re sure you have great memories of those days. The 1950s, drive-in-style Vagabond Motel is at 7301 Biscayne Blvd., part of what is now the Miami Modern historic district.

Taking iSSue

To subscribe today, go to bocamag.com or call 877/553-5363, ext 222 Sales tax included. Outside U.S. add $45 postage; cash repayment in U.S. currency. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of first issue. For questions or additional information, please call 877/553-5363, ext. 222.

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7/24/12 3:37 PM

I want to comment on the John Thomason blog, “Q&A with Psychic/Medium Chip Coffey.” I love to read feature stories, and normally I wouldn’t point out fact errors to magazines/newspapers because they get stuff wrong no matter how many times you tell them, but I couldn’t let this sit. september/october

As someone who has been through surgery more than once, I’ve learned a few things. First, your faith helps give you strength. Second, knowing

“COMPASSION IS NOT A CORPORATE POLICY; IT’S A PERSONALITY TRAIT.”

you’re at a top-rated hospital is crucial. And finally, your hospital should employ the kind of people for whom compassion is second nature. Compassion and hope aid the healing process and make your experience so much better. When it comes to all of the above, Holy Cross Hospital is your natural choice in South Florida. – Regis Philbin

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5/21/12 1:56 PM

mail My mother and I were the victims of a psychic scammer in Fort Lauderdale three years ago, and they stole $10,000 of our money. My mother was deeply saddened, and so was I, at the loss of my father, and we wanted to commune with him on the other side. It turned out to be all total bull, because the psychic left town and never came back after swindling our family.

Sorry to get on a rant, but it really angers me that you would publish a Q&A with a so-called psychic [on the website of ] the magazine that I subscribe to and not have the decency as a journalist to vet these frauds, even the celebrity ones.

And it hurts even worse when your writer questions this guy like he’s the real deal.

There’s not even a trace of skepticism in this article. Even [blogs] should do their research before swallowing anything a psychic has to say, especially from one who claims to commune with the dead.

I’m really disappointed with Boca Raton and the writer of this article.

Harvey (last name withheld) E-mail Editor’s notE: We’re sorry to hear about the aforementioned scam. The writer, in this case, was interviewing a renowned personality, and a regular on TV shows like “Paranormal State,” in advance of his spring appearance at Seminole Casino in Hollywood. The interviewer does address skepticism and inaccuracies; Mr. Coffey even states that he does not “profess to being 100 percent correct. I’m not all-knowing, all-seeing.”

PionEEring sPirit

I remember the excitement, enthusiasm and pride we pioneers had in developing our beautiful city of Boca Raton.

I do believe we grew too fast—so many new organizations competing for funds, every week a new inaugural ball or luncheon. In approximately 25 years, we turned a sleepy resort town into a fullfledged city, with tourists [visiting from] all over the world.

I wonder what the next 25 years will have in store for the most beautiful city in the world.

Flossy Keesely Highland Beach september/october

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editor’sletter [ by kevin kaminski ]

One Shining Moment B

oca Raton has been down a similar road before with the leader of the free world. In October 1964, the road won.

Lyndon Johnson was on his way to the official opening for Florida Atlantic University, set to debut as the fifth state college, when the presidential posse pulled up lame. The limousine carrying Johnson blew a tire on Glades Road, thus delaying the dedication ceremony. The famously short-tempered president, sitting in a car with no air-conditioning, reportedly blew a gasket of his own.

Forty-eight years later, another sitting Democratic president will head down a Boca road, this time en route to Lynn University. Barring a flat, President Barack Obama will make it to the Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center on time to do verbal battle with Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the final televised debate of this election season.

For the candidates, the stakes on Monday, Oct. 22 couldn’t be higher. For Boca, it’s a chance to make good on a sentiment that Lyndon Johnson shared during his FAU dedication speech.

“The past is your teacher,” the president told those in attendance. “But it holds you in no bondage.”

Unless, that is, the shackles are made of butterfly ballots— in which case, the past is never too far from the present during an election year.

But if time can’t heal that particular wound for South Florida, maybe Boca can—especially given the combined 10,000 journalists and high-level staffers about to descend on our area. Not only is Boca staring at a signature moment in the city’s history, it also has an opportunity to repair some of the PR damage that the road to the White House has inflicted on our corner of the electoral map.

“The Commission on Presidential Debates estimates that millions of dollars will be poured into [our local] economy,” says Robert Watson, author, political analyst, and professor and presidential historian at Lynn. “You’ll have [several] thousand people flying into the airport, renting cars, staying at hotels and dining at our restaurants.

“But it’s also a chance for this county to put on a good face politically. It’s a chance, perhaps, to finally put the bogeyman of the 2000 election and the hanging chads behind us.”

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Boca Raton is proud to be the official magazine of the debate—and equally honored that Lynn University invited us to be part of the discussion along with city and business officials regarding the logistics and ramifications of hosting the debate.

Starting on page 96, Boca Raton prepares readers for the big night with a behind-the-scenes look at how Lynn landed the event, what it takes to stage such a mammoth production, some debate history lessons and how Lynn is sharing this moment with the community.

In addition, our fashion team showcases the latest in fall styles (page 104) against one of the most iconic retail backdrops in the state—Town Center at Boca Raton. Plus, our fearless A&E editor, John Thomason, takes readers on a ghost-busting expedition with some of the leading paranormal teams in the area (page 112).

Drawing parallels between Florida and Texas that October day in 1964, President Johnson remarked that, in both places, “the sun is warm, the people are friendly and the tomorrows are always bright with hope.”

Tomorrow has arrived for Boca Raton; this is our moment to shine. Please join me in welcoming the world to our backyard— and, as always, enjoy the issue.

september/october

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shop

currents [ by cassie morien ]

Make the Grade

Class is back in session, and, for many youngsters, that means more than just stocking up on school supplies. Turn the page for a peek at the latest fall style trends for kids.

Look for coLLegiateinspired apparel with a mix of varsity and military detail.

Backpack available at Gap Kids, Town Center at Boca Raton

when U want to know

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currentsSHOP

Back-to-School Fashion

Earn an “A+” in fashion by following this fall style advice for kids.* GO PrePPy

by PairinG

StOCk uP on denim, nautical stripes and cableknit sweaters.

Layer uP. Classrooms get cold; make sure your child stays warm with a cardigan or sweatshirt.

neutral colors with pops of hot pink, animal prints and stripes.

aaron bristol

GO briGHt

with fun sneakers and laces.

COmfOrt iS key. Kids run, jump, skip and play all day.

Make sure their clothing can move with them.

* Items reflect fashion trends; pieces may or may not be available at stores this fall. All products from GapKids, Town Center at Boca Raton, except boy’s sneakers (from Journeys at Town Center).

KIDS CORNER

Natalia Benjumea-Ross, general manager of GapKids at Town Center (6000 Glades Road, 561/391-2224), offers back-to-school fall fashion advice for children.

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[ ] Is your child growing faster by the day? Look for pants, skirts and shorts that come equipped with adjustable waistbands. (GapKids has several such options.)

[ ] Always buy more than two pairs of shorts, pants and polo shirts. The store may run out of uniforms, and it’s difficult to find the same items later in the year.

[ ] Buy clothing a little bigger to last through the semester.

[ ] Popular trends: skinny jeans and riding pants, and cable-knit tops.

[ bocamag.com ]

[ ] Gap’s woven uniform bottoms are specially treated—so they are stainand water-repellent. [ ] Staple pieces to purchase for school include polo shirts, pants, shorts, skirts, socks, backpacks and lunch boxes.

[ ] Awesome accessories: Jewelry continues to be popular with girls, especially charm bracelets. [ ] Stopwatches, wallets and sunglasses are fun for boys.

september/october

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located at the crossroads of flamingo road and west sunrise boulevard . easy access from i - 595, i - 75 and the sawgrass expressway . 954-846-2350

currentsSHOP

Alter Your WArdrobe Before you hit the stores to update your work wardrobe, check out your closet. Your out-of-style, but still-cherished clothes can be tailored for a brand new look.*

If sleeves are too wide, you can taper them, or remove them completely, for a new, sleeveless look.

Emphasize different areas with darts, zippers or buttons.

elizabeth Kuzia, owner of Fit On U (9774 Glades Road, Suite A-6, Boca Raton, 561/4826645), has been altering wardrobes for local residents since 1992. “People come to see an alterationist because they want to look elegant with perfect fitting clothing,” she says. Nobody does that better than Kuzia, who offers the following advice when it comes to getting the most out of your clothing.

THe realiTy: Mass-marketed clothing does not come custom made for your body. As Kuzia notes, the saying, ‘One size fits all’ is a fallacy. Everyone’s body is different, and it often takes a little extra stitching to achieve that perfect fit.

SHOP aT HOme: “I tell people to go ahead and shop in their own closet, because they have beautiful clothes, expensive clothes, but they are out of date,” Kuzia says. “We can remodel. [We can alter] the width, length, sleeves, collar and shoulders. We can make a new, beautiful outfit with that same outfit you loved.”

Crop a pair of pants into capris, Bermuda shorts or short shorts.

SearcH fOr SaleS: Kuzia encourages her clients to look for sales when out shopping. When you pay less for a garment, you can spend a little extra money to have it altered.

TwO iS beTTer THan One: If you stumble upon an outfit you love, but it’s not in your size, buy two as long as the price is right. An alterationist can use the extra fabric to make you a perfect garment.

Shorten a pencil skirt to your knee length for a look that flatters you.

in and OuT: It’s always easier to take a garment in. In the event you need to make a garment larger, sometimes fabric can be borrowed from the sleeves or length. dOn’T fOrGeT to bring the shoes you plan to wear with your outfit.

PaSSiOn fOr faSHiOn: “One thing I love about Fit On U is that we feel we are part of the community,” Kuzia says.

“I love my work. I love what [my tailors, seamstresses and I] do with such passion. I see [customers who] are happy to feel good about themselves.”

*Clothing on this page courtesy of Ann Taylor at Town Center.

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september/october

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9th annual Go Pink luncheon OctOber 26, 2012 11:00am tO 1:30pm bOca ratOn resOrt & club Proceeds support the fight against breast cancer at the Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital tickets aRe $150 and will Be on sale BeGinninG auGust 27, 2012 FaBulous sPonsoRshiPs availaBle Please contact Kimberly M. Read at 561.955.4142 or kread@brrh.com for ticket and sponsorship information.

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currents [ by melissa malamut ]

body AAron Bristol

Youth is Served

CrossFit Hardcore in Boca

when U want to know

According to the American Council on Exercise, this fall’s fitness trends are all about kids. School-based physical education is just not enough activity, as evidenced by the rise in child and teen obesity. Turn the page for local kid-friendly workouts geared toward reversing that trend.

[ bocamag.com ]

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currentsBODY

Let’s Get Physical The following local workouts will keep your youngsters in shape—and hold their attention.

CrossFit For Kids The CrossFit brand, renowned nationally as an intense and transformative training method, offers programs designed specifically for the developmental needs of kids and teens. In addition to encouraging teamwork and positive thinking, the focus is on 10 basic areas of fitness—cardiovascular endurance, stamina, strength, power, speed, flexibility, agility, accuracy, balance and coordination. Kids and teens do some of the same exercises as adults, like tire flips, box jumps, rope climbs and burpees—but in a class with peers and specially trained instructors.

CrossFit HardCore (1121 Holland Drive, Boca Raton; 561/241-3077; crossfithardcore.com): Kids (ages 8–12), Mon. and Wed. 4–4:45 p.m; teens (ages 13-17), Wed. and Fri. 5–5:45 p.m.

CrossFit delray BeaCH

(1405 N. Congress Ave.; 561/2763699; crossfitdelraybeach.com): Kids (ages 6–12), call for fall schedule and fees.

Zumba For Kids Zumba created its own kids program called Zumbatomic. It’s just like the highenergy dance class that we love, but it’s choreographed for kids and teens with the latest in music and dance moves. Zumbatomic classes improve coordination and memory, and burn calories. Your kids will think that they are at a dance party, which, in essence, they are—except this party will get (and keep) them fit.

Bravo aCademy BoCa raton

(21073 Powerline Road, #47; 561/482-3700; bravoacademy.com): Wed. 4:15–4:45 p.m. or 4:45–5:30 p.m.; $68 per month.

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ross JCC Boynton BeaCH (8500 Jog Road; 561/740-9000; jcconline.com): Mon. 1:15–2 p.m., Thurs. 3:15–4 p.m.; call for membership and class prices.

Yoga For Kids According to the Mayo Clinic, yoga can be a gentle method for children to experience physical activity and enhance their overall well-being. Studies suggest that yoga can

calm children, reduce obesity, enhance concentration and help children manage health conditions, from headaches to irritable bowel syndrome. In some Eastern countries, it’s not uncommon to see children who are advanced yoga students. yogaFox at tHe Colony Hotel

(525 E. Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach; 561/7031236; yogafox.com): Sun. 9:30–11 a.m.; call for membership and class prices. yoga Center oF deerField BeaCH (827 S.E. Ninth St.; 954/427-2353;

yogacenterdb.com): Kids (ages 8 and older), Tues. 4:30–5:15 p.m.; $10/class ($8 per sibling)

mixed martial arts For Kids Love it or hate it, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is the country’s fastest growing sport. The professional MMA organization, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), recently signed deals with network television, which means your kids may already be fans and asking for lessons. There are plenty of safe options for martial arts disciplines in our area, from Brazilian jiujitsu to Taekwondo. Worried about your child doing battle inside the octagon? Don’t be—unless, that is, Mom and Dad are cool with the idea. If so, there are youth options for beginning cage fighters. Either way, it’s a challenging, confidence-building workout. veloCity martial arts (5970 S.W. 18th St., Suites 8 & 9, Boca Raton; 561/4167373; velocitymartialarts.com): Call for prices and schedule. ameriCan FigHt team (3155 S. Federal Highway, inside Level 5 Fitness, Delray Beach; 855/622-2622; msamericanfight team.com): Call for prices and schedule.

september/october

The Best New Joint in Town.

Our Orthopedic Institute offers the most sophisticated and innovative joint repair, spine care and sports medicine available in healthcare today.

We provide state-of-the-art total knee replacement and minimally invasive surgical techniques, like anterior hip replacement, which gives patients a faster recovery, less pain and enhanced mobility. We specialize in joint resurfacing, an alternative to total joint replacement. In fact, we’re a leader in clinical research on the procedure.

Our advanced preoperative navigation system gives our orthopedic surgeons added precision in the operating room.

Our pain management protocols and team approach to care are considered best practices in the field. All in an orthopedic unit that features newly renovated private rooms with patient amenities such as flat screen TVs and WiFi. Superior physician skill. The latest in technology. Stellar patient environment. The Orthopedic Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Orthopedics. Redefined.

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800 Meadows Road • Boca Raton, FL 33486 • 561.95.LEARN • BRRH.com

currentsBODY

Fitness Apps

Food For ThoughT

For less than the price of a latte, you can have a nutritionist, a yoga instructor, a personal trainer and a GPS in your pocket.

Pocket Yoga

Fooducate Plus

Nike traiNiNg club

Designed by instructors from Gaia Flow Yoga, this was named “The Best App for Practicing Yoga” by MacLife (impressive, considering there are hundreds of yoga apps). There are more than 27 different sessions available—with 145 illustrated pose images. Clear voice instructions guide you through every pose. There’s also a dictionary with descriptions and benefits of each pose, plus a log that tracks your progress.

What’s really in your food? This app contains information on 200,000 unique food products. If it’s in your supermarket, then it’s likely in this app. Scan the UPC code of the product and receive information that goes beyond the label. We love the easy-to-understand grading system (iceberg lettuce gets a B+). It’s like having a 24/7 nutritionist.

Nike’s celebrated app has more than 85 custom workouts from personal trainers-to-thestars—and also from the stars themselves (actress Lea Michele, Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson).

Workouts are 15, 30 or 45 minutes and range from cardio intervals to kettlebell sessions.

Stats are tracked, and there are equipment-free options for days when you are on the go.

cost: $3.99 for

iPhone; free for Android

cost: $2.99 for iPhone and Android; $3.99 for iPad

cost: free

MaPMYWalk It’s easier than tying your sneakers.

Simply press start at the beginning of your walk, and this app maps your route, GPS-style, giving you distance, time, pace and walking speed.

It saves maps for future walks, plus you can input your food intake—and the app will track your daily calorie burn. cost: free

Rachel Feldman—a board-certified holistic health coach and digestive wellness expert— lectures at public and private schools in our area on healthy eating habits for parents and children. The Boca Raton resident and mother of two young children offers five potentially life-altering dietary tips for moms and dads.

[1] briNg Your kids iN the kitcheN: “Have them prepare simple, healthy and nutrient-rich foods. This is a huge turning point for kids because they feel empowered when they are creating food.”

[2] get iNvolved iN Your childreN’s health: “Make sure you pack healthy snacks, prepare healthy lunches and talk to your child about what is served at school.”

[3] Make siMPle sWaPs: “If I take away an unhealthy food when I work with kids and teenagers, then I replace it with a healthier food. For example, instead of Pringles, I would suggest Popchips.”

[4] read Your Food labels: “The fewer ingredients on the label, the less processed the food is—and the easier it is for your child to digest. Proper digestion decreases inflammation.

Inflammation is what leads to weight gain and obesity.”

[5] alWaYs sNack sMart: “Parents need to have a list of healthy snacks that will satisfy their children and not make them feel deprived. For snacks during or after school, I pack fruit, veggie sticks, healthy meal bars, yogurt, rice cakes, blue corn chips, carrots or dried fruit.”

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september/october

home

currents [ by brad mee ]

Bath & Beyond

Until recently, bathrooms were more about wow-factor than function. Those days, however, are gone according to the experts; savvy homeowners now favor bathroom elements they actually use—like the following fashionably functional bathroom fixtures.

Freestanding Tubs

Leave the multifunction features for the shower and create a focal point with this clean-lined, stand-alone sculpture. What’s hot: single-piece, footless models; composite tubs (quartz mixed with resin) that boast sleek lines, matt finishes and big-time durability.

when U want to know

The Wish Tub by Neptune features a sculpted silhouette styled for today’s modern bath.

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ScoT ZImmerman

ScoT ZImmerman

currentsHOME

A steam system and uncluttered controls enhance the corner shower in a traditionally styled bathroom.

This square ceiling-mounted showerhead by Hansgrohe exemplifies the practical, high-fashion features adorning today’s showers.

Undermount sinks and tubs foster streamlined design while making the countertops and decks easy to clean.

Best in Bath, Part i See why these stylish, functional items are all the rage. sculPture-like faucets WHat’s tHE allurE: In many updated baths, the faucet is replacing the vessel sink as the room’s showpiece, and with good reason. Faucets can act as art pieces—look no further than new wall-mounted versions, which are stunning.

integrated and undermount sinks WHat’s tHE allurE: For starters, the easy-to-clean forms mean

no more struggles trying to scrub the countertop surface beneath a glass bowl. The clean-lined styles and assorted sizes are two more reasons why these are trumping vessels and bowls in popularity.

Material interest Stone and tile add subtle color and cool character to today’s baths. French Linen Limestone by Walker Zanger, Ripple Border and San Marco Field Tile by Encore Ceramics, and Seagrass Limestone by Walker Zanger.

sleek, streamlined vanities WHat’s tHE allurE: Options like wall-hung models make today’s bathrooms appear more modern and feel more spacious. High-end manufacturers including Duravit offer modular pieces allowing consumers to customize the formation of their room’s vanity.

lighted mirrors WHat’s tHE allurE: Modern design and efficient illumination create state-of-the-art, clutter-free lighting for the bath. No room for sconces? No problem. These mirrors provide plenty of light without requiring excessive wall space.

instant Bidet

If a bidet is on your bathroom wish list but you don’t have the space (or the budget), simply add a specialized seat from innovators like Toto or Inax to your existing toilet. The bidet features are built into the seat; all you need is a toilet and an outlet for power.

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september/october

currentsHOME

Best in Bath, Part ii Here’s the scoop on

Bath design tips ronnie halPern has been decorating homes in South Florida for nearly 40 years. The founder of Ronnie Interior Designs (954/349-6363, ronnieinteriordesigns. com) offers the following decorating and redecorating tips for the bathroom.

[ ] rOll yOur tOwEls and arrange them on a bathroom step or, depending on the motif, keep them rolled in a straw basket. [ ] sHElls can bE an inExpEnsivE way to decorate. A nice-sized shell can hold a bar of soap, and a conch shell can hold little wash rags.

showers

ScoT ZIMMerMAn

[ ] usE wHat yOu alrEady Own. Why waste money on store-bought accessories when your crystal candy dish can double as a soap dish? How about a decanter to hold mouthwash— or a metal cup for Q-tips?

showers, drains and toilets that combine the best in function and form.

Glass walls enclose a spacious shower equipped with two unobtrusive control columns. A dropped ceiling crowns the transparent feature.

infinity drains

wHat’s tHE allurE: These simple, effective drains run along the edge or perimeter of shower floors, eliminating the need for unsightly, poorly positioned, slow center drains.

[ ] dEcOratE yOur batHrOOM walls with little pieces of art. You can purchase artwork inexpensively at stores like Michael’s.

wall-mounted toilets

[ ] add a rEal (Or fakE) plant to a bathroom corner. People also like decorating with candles. Place things in groups. A trio of candles on a tub platform looks best, or pair a plant with two candles. [ ] kEEp yOur batHrOOM fixturEs and walls neutral and add color through towels and accessories.

This will be easier to change later.

wHat’s tHE allurE: Multifunction showerheads reign supreme in the modern bathroom.

Waterfall flow and whirl-spinning spray heads are popular options, along with steam systems enhanced with aromatherapy. Showers with fewer controls on the wall reflect a continued desire for uncluttered design—but they’re actually equipped with more functions that are cleverly integrated. Many top manufacturers offer green, waterconservation options.

Today’s showers, as evidenced by this offering from Hansgrohe, feature multiple functions and clean, stylish hardware.

wHat’s tHE allurE: Streamline the look of the bathroom with sculpted silhouettes and anythingbut-bulky designs. Equally as important: They eliminate the chore of cleaning around and behind toilets attached to the floor.

[ ] placE Extra rOlls Of tOilEt papEr in a basket and tie ribbon on the handles to give it a more designed look. [ ] MakE surE all carpEt in the bathroom has a nonskid backing to avoid the risk of injury. [ ] It has become increasingly popular to add flat-scrEEn tElEvisiOns to the master bathroom. Make sure your remote controls have a specific place and are not just left on the counter.

Streamlined bathroom fixtures and contemporary furniture shape this high-style bath suite by Neptune.

Functional features fill the shower while a chic tub takes center stage.

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september/october

From Planning to Perfection

Built-Ins • Space Planning • Window Treatments • Custom Furniture • Architectural Drawings Lighting • Accessories • Flooring • Carpeting • Outdoor Furnishings • Turn Key Service

LET BROWN’S BRING YOUR GRAND SCALE PROJECT DOWN TO PROPORTION

A very important element that designers bring to a project is their familiarity with the process of creating a livable space. Their knowledge of scale and proportion can also help to avoid erroneous purchases.

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4501 N. Fed. Hwy, Boca Raton / (561) 368-2703 1628 US Hwy One, Jupiter / (561) 744-1116 License #IBF000548 / License #IB0001203

Interior Design since 1975

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Let us introduce you to a whole new color of sunset.

AbadiMTStd-Italic_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz`1234567890-= [] \;’,./≠ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:”<>? å∫ç∂´ƒ©˙ˆ∆˚¬µ˜øπœ®ß†¨√∑≈¥Ω`¡™£¢ §¶•ªº–≠“‘«…æ≤ ÷≠ÅıÇÎ´Ï˝ÓˆÔÒ˜Ø∏Œ‰Íˇ¨◊„˛Á¸`⁄‹›fifl‡°·‚—±”’»ÚƯ˘¿ Á¸`⁄‹›fifl‡°·‚—±”’»ÚƯ˘¿|áéíóúâêîôûàèìòùäëïöüÿãñõÁÉÍÓÚÀÈÌÒÙÄËÏÖÜŸÑÃÕÂÊÎÔÛ ”“’‘ '" € $‚Ǩ¬£¬•‚Ç©‡∏ø—Ä—É–±

Let us offer the peace that comes with a massage in a private cabana.

Let us guide you on a kayak through Shingle Creek.

Let us show you another world you don’t have to go far to discover.

Comfort You – The ideal package to create fond memories for the entire family. Includes breakfast for two and $50 resort credit

$259*

nightly for Deluxe Rooms or $100 resort credit nightly for Executive Suites. For reservations, contact your travel professional, call The Ritz-Carlton at 407-206-2400 or visit ritzcarlton.com/orlando.

*Rates starting at $259 per night. Offer valid at participating hotels, valid year round. Package is subject to availability and cannot be combined with any other offer. Advance reservations are required; rates do not apply to groups. Rates listed are per room, per night, single or double occupancy, and exclusive of taxes, gratuities and other charges unless otherwise noted. Hotel and resort credits cannot be used toward room rate, tax, resort fee or gratuities. Credit cannot be reimbursed or exchanged if not used. Credit must be used during stay. ©2012 The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C.

currents [ by kevin kaminski ]

travel Serenity by the Sea

It’s not exactly the land that time forgot, but St. Barts in the French Caribbean certainly is a modern-day throwback. Gentility and tranquility— along with world-class cuisine—pervade the island, as evidenced by a stay at Hôtel Le Toiny.

Turn the page for more on this quiet paradise only a few hours from South Florida.

IF YOU GO St. BartS: FaSt FactS PoPulation: Somewhere between 7,500 and 8,500 (depending on the source) Size: The island is roughly 8 square miles; it takes about a half-hour to go from one side of St. Barts to the other.

language: Residents speak French, but most also speak English.

CaPital: Gustavia Celebrity watCh: Hollywood and music royalty from Brad Pitt and Uma Thurman to Beyoncé and Jon Bon Jovi spend quiet time on the secluded beaches of St. Barts.

how to get there: American Airlines offers direct flights, just under three hours, to St. Martin (aka St. Maarten). From there, it’s either a 45-minute ferry ride or a quick 15-minute puddle jumper on a carrier such as St. Barth Commuter. It’s stressfree travel either way.

The restaurant and all suites at Hôtel Le Toiny overlook the Caribbean Sea.

when U want to know

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The suites at Hôtel Le Toiny all have private infinity-edge pools.

5

Reasons to stay at Hôtel le toiny

Need a home base during your trip to St. Barts? Look no further than one of the island’s most exclusive luxury properties.

[1] The view: Imagine pulling back the mosquito netting on your four-poster mahogany bed each morning to find breakfast awaiting on the deck next to your infinity-edge pool. Only this pool, perched high on the easternmost side of St. Barts (aka St. Barth), overlooks 30-plus acres of lush hillside that slopes gently toward the Caribbean Sea. That’s hardly the only reason to book one of the 15 villa suites at Hôtel Le Toiny, but it’s a good start.

[2] The vibe: General managers Guy and Dagmar Lombard have created an air of sophistication and style that meshes seamlessly with the relaxed, openair calm that draws visitors from all over the world for secluded R&R. The staff is downright stealth at times, staging white-tablecloth room-service meals on the patio without you realizing they were there.

A red mailbox flag at the gated entrance of each suite guarantees additional privacy.

[3] The cuisine: Meals at Restaurant Le Gaïac (named for the Gaïac tree in front of the resort, said to be the largest on St. Barts) are so masterfully prepared and presented that customers spend as much time photographing their dishes as they do eating them. Credit Stéphane Mazières, honored two years ago by Relais & Châteaux with the prestigious “Grand Chef ” title, for his inspired take on French cuisine with Caribbean flair— from conch raviolis to flaked king crab in green apple foam to rack of lamb with angel-hair pasta, bulgur-eggplant caviar and cheese

beignets. If heaven exists, rest assured that the homemade mint ice cream encased in an artistic sphere of dark chocolate is on its menu.

[4] The insider: For the scoop on everything from island history to who’s living in that $10 million home on the cliff, ask the resort to set you up with professional guide Helene Bernier.

Among her insights: Electricity didn’t come to the island until 1962; at 15, residents of St. Barts have to travel to St. Martin to finish school; there are only two gas stations on the island; and, given a choice, residents prefer to drink wine instead of water.

[5] The layouT: The chic villa suites cover nearly 800 square feet under air with huge bay windows, kitchenettes and spacious bathrooms done in dark Italian tile with open showers.

The resort has a small workout center and the quaint Serenity Spa Cottage, which features a good dozen treatment options. Check with the staff when it comes to aquatic activities (sailing, snorkeling, etc.) at one of the island’s 22 beaches, each with its own distinct character. Driving in St. Barts is a challenge on the tight, winding, chunked-up roads. conTacT: Visit letoiny. com for rates and info.

More Food for Thought Here are two more culinary reasons to visit st. Barts.

tHe wall House: Seafood is king in St. Barts, but don’t tell that to executive chef Teddy Le Roux and managing partner Julien Tatin, who successfully delivered a steak-house concept to the capital city of Gustavia. Their charming corner spot on the harbor features an outstanding roster of cuts—including bone-in rib-eye marinated for five days in a whiskey sauce that renders the meat tender beyond description. In addition to an impressive wine list (250 offerings), check out the homemade flavored rums— from vanilla to orange to coffee.

The Wall House in Gustavia

48

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l’esprit de saline: This gem from former Eden Roc chef Jean Claude Dufour, set in an open-air garden, combines local ingredients in unexpected ways. Don’t miss the foie gras specialities.

september/october

Indulge in unrivaled cuisine, luxurious accommodations and exceptional personalized ser vice

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561/395-6670 800/248-8404

326 E. Palmetto Park Road Boca Raton, FL 33432

Golf at Turnberry Isle Miami

traVel buzz

Check out the latest news and hottest deals involving destinations and activities in South Florida.

Volun-tourism at the mandarin: Experience Everglades National Park like never before as part of an educational and ecosensitive program developed

by Mandarin Oriental, MiaMi. The resort’s two-night “Miami Everglades” package features a daylong trip to the Everglades that includes lunch and an afternoon tour led by a park ranger. In the morning, guests will participate in a volunteer “mission”—from planting new trees to removing exotic plants to recycling projects. The Mandarin also is providing hybrid car rentals for its guests to make the onehour drive to the Everglades.

Rates start at $698 now through Sept. 30, and from $798 Oct. 1 to Nov. 29. (500 Brickell Key Drive, 305/913-8383, mandarinoriental.com) Kudos to the Wyndham: Congratulations to the

WyndhaM deerfield Beach resOrt, which recently earned

“Certificate of Excellence” honors 50

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from the website TripAdvisor. com. Only resorts that maintain reader reviews of four or higher (out of five) qualify for the award, one that only 10 percent of hotels on TripAdvisor receive. See for yourself why the Wyndham was so honored by booking the “Beach Romance Package,” an overnight escape running through Dec. 31 that includes deluxe lodging, Champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries, dinner and wine for two at the Patio Bar & Grill, and breakfast the following morning. Rates start at $319 per night. (2096 N.E. Second St., 954/428-2850, wyndham.com/hotels/FLLDB) Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort

a riVer runs through it: October marks the first of Paddle flOrida’s five outdoor adventures in 2012– 2013—a 65-mile trek down the Suwannee River (Oct. 26–31).

The Paddle Florida team scouts the route, sets up camping spots, provides canoes and kayaks and offers meal plans; it’s a rare opportunity to experience Florida at its most pristine. In addition to the Suwannee trip, the nonprofit has announced four other paddling getaways: Wekiva/St. Johns rivers (30 miles, Nov. 30–Dec. 3); Florida Keys (35 miles, Jan. 18–21); Withlacoochee/Rainbow

rivers (60 miles, Feb. 13–18); and Ochlockonee River in the Panhandle (76 miles, March 16–22). For pricing and details, visit paddleflorida.org. turn for the better: Not to be outdone by its fellow South Florida resorts, turnBerry isle MiaMi

is offering its own summer promotions through Sept. 30— including a golf package starting at $299 per night that includes complimentary greens fees at one of its two challenging and majestic golf courses (the Soffer or Miller). Meanwhile, the award-winning spa, consistently ranked among top resort facilities in the world, has raised the bar with new LifeFitness cardio equipment, and Schwinn and Tour de France bikes in its third-floor fitness center—as well as $2 million worth of renovations on the second floor, including new whirlpools and couples treatment rooms.

(19999 W. Country Club Drive, Aventura, 305/932-6200, turnberryislemiami.com) september/october

Fall Fashion preview Fall Fashion Launch Party Join us Sept. 6, from 6–7:30 p.m., at Town Center at Boca Raton’s Center Court to celebrate the launch of Boca Raton’s September/ October issue, featuring fall fashions from Town Center at Boca Raton. Enjoy appetizers and a complimentary drink while previewing fall fashion tips and trends. Catch a sneak peek of the upcoming Simon Fashion NOW event Sept. 28–29, and enter for a chance to win a fabulous door prize.

Town Center at Boca Raton 6000 Glades Road, Boca Raton 561/544-2313 RSVP by August 31 at RSVP@bocamag.com (limited to the first 150 guests)

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Boca Raton celebrates Fashion’s Night Out on Sept. 6, from 6–9 p.m. Guests will enjoy a fall trend fashion show at 7:30 p.m., tastings from Boca Raton’s finest restaurants, talented acrobatic performers, a photo booth and makeovers in the beauty department.

Town Center at Boca Raton 5860 Glades Road, Boca Raton 561/417-5151

Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure

Worth Avenue Fashion’s Night Out is coming back to Worth Avenue on Sept. 6, from 6–8 p.m. The Worth Avenue Association and The Fashion Doctors have planned an unforgettable evening filled with luxury automobiles, Four Seasons Palm Beach Lounges, and much more.

100-300 Worth Ave., Palm Beach 561/843-9554

Shop at Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, and saks.com from Oct. 18–21 for Key to the Cure, when Saks will donate 2 percent of sales up to $500,000 to local and national women’s cancer charities. Pick up a limited-edition T-shirt designed by Carolina Herrera exclusively to benefit Saks Fifth Avenue’s Key to the Cure.

Town Center at Boca Raton 5800 Glades Road, Boca Raton 561/393-9100 saks.com/kttc

a special promotional section

Fall is in the air along with changing fashions. Check out Boca Raton magazine’s guide to the hottest local fashion events and the latest trends available at these fine retailers.

Edward Beiner, purveyor of fine eyewear cusp by neiman marcus Neiman Marcus Boca Raton has recently unveiled its new CUSP shop (formerly Contemporary Sportswear, Level 2).

The new area has a distinctive look and attitude. CUSP is for fashion-savvy customers who prefer to curate an individual style by mixing and matching ready-to-wear and accessory collections, and items across all price ranges. CUSP offers a unique, modern and unexpected shopping experience.

Vendors featured include, Alice + Olivia, Helmut Lang, DVF, Rag & Bone, Vince, Theory and Alexander Wang.

For more information, visit www.cusp.com.

Edward Beiner is an eyewear designer, purveyor and retailer who offers today's aspiring lifestyle-oriented customer the most unique collections of superior eyewear coupled with an unparalleled customer experience. They proudly present the Mande by Oliver Peoples, ultrafeminine sunglasses handcrafted of substantial, rounded acetate. An upswept cateye, inspired by 1950s retro fashion, was designed with the style-savvy woman in mind. It’s offered in five custom colors, including the new amber tortoise/buff gradient. Available with cr39 polarized gradient lenses.

For store locations, visit www.edwardbeiner.com.

omega

saks fifth avenue

SEAMASTER AQUA TERRA CHRONOMETER: steel on steel, 41.5 millimeter, black dial, self-winding movement with co-axial escapement, Caliber 8500, water resistant to 150 meters (500 feet).

Town Center at Boca Raton 6000 Glades Road, Boca Raton www.omegawatches.com

Meet Tim Quinn, celebrity face designer at Giorgio Armani, on Thursday, Oct. 25 and Saturday, Oct. 27 from 11 a.m.– 4 p.m. at Saks Fifth Avenue Boca Raton. Experience the new fall collection and learn how to create the look of the moment as seen on the fashion runways of Milan and Paris.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 561/620-1365.

a special promotional section

[ a special advertising section ]

Looking for a great travel package? Go to our website and click on the Great Getaways splash image on

bocamag.com to check out some amazing deals from these fine hotels.

Great Getaways

[ a special advertising section ]

Great Getaways Boca Raton magazine readers LOVE to travel!

Affluent Boca Raton magazine readers with household income of $100,000+ are 58% more likely than the market average to frequently stay in hotels.

Boca Raton magazine readers spent (last year): • $40 million on lodging • $130 million dining at full service restaurants • $111 million on personal care services (includes services at spas) • $71 million on airfare Source: The Media Audit 2011 Palm Beach & Broward County and the Annual Consumer Buying Power Report

today at canyon ranch A designer was wowed by her suite and its view, de-stressed completely by a Canyon Stone Massage and thrilled with her dinner of seared scallops – nutritious and divine.

This Is Your Moment.

Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach Florida residents – Enjoy a $200 hotel credit for spa, dining, wellness & more, plus complimentary valet parking and daily breakfast for two.

Simply mention “Floridian Mid-Week Beach Break.”

Book online at canyonranch.com/miamibeach or call 800-742-9000 or your Travel Professional Through December 20, 2012. Specific arrival days required. Credit may not be applied to suite rate. Blackout dates, minimum stay and other restrictions apply.

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currents [ by john thomason ]

arts & entertainment

Snapshots of a Subculture

Photographer Bobby Grossman captured the essence of underground art and music in New York City during the late 1970s, shooting the likes of Blondie singer Deborah Harry, artist Andy Warhol and filmmaker John Waters. Read more about Grossman, now living in Boynton Beach, on the next page.

More A&e coverAge At bocAMAg.coM Visit bocamag.com for increased A&E coverage, including John Thomason’s Monday breakdown of the upcoming week’s cultural events; movie, concert and theater reviews; interviews with local entertainers—and much more.

when U want to know

“Debbie Harry, Pepsi, New York, 1977”

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“Bobby Grossman and John Waters, Soho, 1977”

Bobby Grossman

Punk rock PhotoGraPher

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ike many hipsters in the mid-1970s, Bobby Grossman had the foresight to take his art degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and move back to New York. This was back when New York was New York; it was gritty and full of twitchy energy, anchored by an unrivaled nightlife.

Grossman assumed he would continue his passion for illustrations and seek employment at a magazine. Instead, he found himself hooked on the city’s burgeoning punk scene. He was already friends with Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and David Byrne, three pals from RISD who had formed Talking Heads and were the talk of New York’s underground. It wasn’t long before Grossman was taking his point-and-shoot Konica or Polaroid to CBGB, Max’s Kansas City and other hot spots, shooting his new friends before, after and during concerts; Blondie, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Ramones were among his subjects. He also ingratiated himself with Andy Warhol, becoming a top photographer of the artist’s Factory.

Images by the Boynton Beach-based artist have appeared in nationally released documentaries about William S. Burroughs and Jean-Michel Basquiat, in the pages of Vogue and on the airwaves of MTV. Interest in his photographs hasn’t waned since he moved to Palm Beach County eight years ago. He has exhibited at the Sundy House in Delray Beach, and his retrospective “Low Fidelity” was a hit at Vertu Fine Art at Boca Center earlier this year.

“As time goes on, people seem to have more interest in collecting them,” says Grossman, 58. “I’m planning that it will see me through my retirement.”

Q1

Do you feel like you were at the right place at the right time?

I always say I came to the party a little late.

The scene had started in the early ’70s with the New York Dolls. But I guess I was there at the right time ... people from all over the world were coming to New York to see what was going on.

Toward the end it had gotten so commercial that I had had enough.

Q2

Did these musicians and artists ever have a problem with you documenting them so closely?

I tried to not be obtrusive. I made a point of being [in the] background. At times, I missed out on things, being that way, but I figured being less aggressive was better than being in someone’s face.

Q3

Did you witness anything dramatic between band members?

There would be dayto-day stuff that would happen ... you’d read in the paper the next day that one of the Ramones got beat up, or the Dead Boys’ roadie got stabbed, and it would be on the front page of the New York Post. It was life in the New York in the ’70s.

Q4

Why do you think there is still such a clamoring for the short-lived punk/new wave scene that you documented?

Because everybody is more interested in a generation other than their own. It was like that for me with ’60s bands.

As time passes, this becomes more history.

For instance, young art students now admire Jean-Michel Basquiat; as time goes on he seems to be more popular.

Q5

What do you think of punk music today?

It depends what it is. I sometimes will impulsively give something a listen, thinking that it’s something I’ll be interested in; most of the time, I’m disappointed and it doesn’t hold my interest. Each generation has its own music.

From left: “Johnny Rotten and Danielle Boothe”; “William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol”; and “Fred Brathwaite, Debbie Harry, and Lee Quinones”

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did you know?

when U want to know

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AArOn BrIStOl

The artist posing in front of “Andy Warhol, Corn Flakes,” part of his “Corn Flakes” series

In 1977, Grossman had the opportunity to photograph Deborah Harry. His first-ever shot of the Blondie vocalist—donning a Pepsi jacket and staring arrestingly into the camera (on page 61)—became an iconic classic. In 2010, Shepard Fairey, the street artist known for creating the famous “Hope” poster for Barack Obama, appropriated Grossman’s image of Harry for a sepia-toned screen print and pricy metal serigraph, bringing new eyes to Grossman’s work.

Visit bobbygrossman.com to see more of his images.

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spotlight currentsa&e

Radio’s New FRoNtieR

In a world of increasing AM syndication and expanding Internet options, the Web is becoming the newest refuge for local radio hosts to make their voices heard. Here’s a look at three South Florida pioneers charting the frontier of Internet radio.

Jorge rodriguez

Fridays, noon to 3 p.m., at soFloradio.com e’ve seen the future of radio, and it broadcasts from an unfashionable warehouse district in Hollywood, out of a narrow two-story house with green doors and two palm trees perched out front like sentinels. The upstairs recording studio shares space with a panoply of man-cave essentials: an extensive collection of liquor and B movies, a life-sized stand-up of Snoop Dogg and a shelf filled with gewgaws, including a homemade clay composite of Neil Rogers, the South Florida talk radio icon who died in 2010.

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This is the building that houses SoFlo Radio, the Internet venture pioneered by Jorge Rodriguez, the erstwhile producer and co-host of Rogers’ longtime show on WQAM. The station fired Rodriguez in 2009, weeks before it forced Rogers into retirement.

“This house goes all the way back to when I used to make money,” Rodriguez, 47, says, in his trademark deadpan. “It was originally a clubhouse for my friends and I. I had a tenant in here for a while, and when the Neil show ended, he said, ‘Why don’t you just keep in touch with the audience and keep it going online?’ because half of the audience was already listening online.”

It wasn’t quite that easy for Rodriguez, who had been involved in the traditional radio world since he was 17. When WQAM ended his contract, he thought he would find another job. “I’ve had no other existence, really,” he says. “Everyone knew who I was. My ratings spoke for themselves. I thought I would just walk in to a radio station and they’d go, ‘Oh, Jorge! Welcome! Here’s the control room. Here’s the talk studio. Go nuts.’ But there isn’t a radio station in town to accommodate the kind of show that I do, which is a general interest show.”

“Vivian Schiller, the former CEO of NPR, gives five to 10 more years for traditional broadcast towers. They’ll either be shut down or they’re going to become Wi-Fi transmitters. ... People will always go to the medium that does more for less.”

AAron Bristol

—Jorge Rodriguez

Jorge Rodriguez in his SoFlo studio

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Two months after his terrestrial radio career ended, Rodriguez launched sofloradio.com with a little help from his friends.

Supported by loyal sponsors and fans of “The Neil Rogers Show,” Rodriguez began webcasting five days a week from noon to 3. He brought on other refugees from the South Florida airwaves to fill more timeslots on his station. SoFlo Radio airs shows dedicated to politics, wine, sports, comedy, sex and more.

The transition from stagnant traditional radio to the endless expanse of the Web has proved liberating for Rodriguez. Internet radio listenership jumped 30 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to a study by Edison Research. Anyone with a computer or smart phone, anywhere in the world, can tune in to Rodriguez’s show, or september/october

Nicole SaNdler

MoNday through Friday, 10 a.M. to NooN, at radioorNot.coM efore she became a prominent progressive talk radio host, South Florida’s own Nicole Sandler made Internet radio history. At the turn of the 21st century, Sandler was working as program director at FM-103.1, an “adult album alternative” station in Los Angeles. The station was about to be sold thanks to an industry merger, so Sandler attempted the unthinkable: seamlessly transitioning the format from the airwaves to online, becoming the first station to do so.

“At whatever time it was, we flipped a switch, and we were Internet-only,” Sandler recalls. “We got a lot of press—The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, they all covered it. We were too early, because broadband wasn’t very common then. It was tough to get a quality sound.”

Sandler has done plenty of traditional radio work in music and talk, having hosted shows on the doomed Air America network and its doomed South Florida affiliate AM-940. But her foresight to dive into the untested waters of new media back in 2000 has placed her

B

Nicole Sandler in her home studio

at the forefront of the current boom in webcasting.

For two hours each weekday, she broadcasts online at Radio Or Not (radioornot.com), where guests like Jackson Browne, Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz call in to discuss the issues of the day—and the issues the mass media isn’t talking about.

(In addition, Sandler still serves as guest host on traditional radio for nationally syndicated liberal talker Randi Rhodes.)

What began as a fledgling extension of her nighttime Air America show has since sprouted into a multiheaded hydra of talk.

Her show is simulcast on three other Internet networks, including Jorge Rodriguez’s SoFlo Radio.

“It’s the whole idea of getting out on as many channels as possible,” Sandler says, from her home studio in Coral Springs. “Jorge’s show isn’t overtly political, [so] SoFlo reaches a different audience that might never find me at radioornot.com. The more places you can get the show out, the more potential audience you can grab.”

Sandler has become a darling of the left, with a show that permits her to say whatever she wants—and use whatever language she wants—without feeling beholden to any party. “I answer to nobody,” she says. “If you listen to my show, I’m very critical of President Obama. But I will vote against Mitt Romney.”

she reclaims its rock kingdom—on the Web local internet radio isn’t just for talk. Ten years ago, South Florida radio veterans Alan Michaels and Marty Burstell founded shesonlyrocknroll. com as both a tribute to and a continuation of WSHE 103.5FM, a beloved South Florida rock station that lasted for more than 30 years. (The station has changed formats five times since abandoning classic rock, currently settling on a variety format.)

when U want to know

“We had the knowledge to put the audio on the Web, even though this was all low-band crap back then,” Michaels says.

“So we came on the air and said, ‘What are we going to call it?

SHE just went off, so let’s bring SHE back.”

And bring it back they did, complete with Michaels and the original SHE deejays Cory James and Robin Martin programming the music, with

a song selection that dwarfs most FM station capacities. But Michaels and Burstell didn’t stop there. “We realized there were other broadcasters here in South Florida doing the same struggle, as all of Internet radio was struggling together,” he says.

“So we formed the South Florida Radio Network.”

Today, SHE is one of more than 10 streaming stations on southfloridaradionetwork.com,

which offers a variety of programming tailored to Alan Michaels South Florida listeners, from country, rap and Top 40 to Miami club music to Neil Rogers comedy archives. Next up for Michaels and Burstell?

The Internet revival of another lost South Florida rock station: Zeta-4.

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AARoN BRISTol

any of the estimated 44,000 radio shows on the Net. But the move has been taxing; a reliable profit model has yet to be established for Internet radio. Rodriguez acts as his network’s general manager, programming director, marketing director, and traffic and continuity director. The responsibilities have eaten into his time to simply host his show, which has been scaled back dramatically; these days, Rodriguez only hosts new shows on Fridays.

“We’re all performers; we’re not suit-wearing businessmen,” he says.

“Turning this into dollars has been challenging. It’s an eternal struggle.”

currentsa&e

theHOTlist Fort LauderdaLe InternatIonaL FILm FestIvaL

Where: Various theaters in Broward County oct. 19– nov. 11 Details: Florida’s longest film festival returns for a monthlong selection of more than 200 independent and foreign films, documentaries and shorts. The festival, which continues to spread far beyond its home base of Fort Lauderdale’s Cinema Paradiso, extends to theaters in Pompano Beach, Sunrise, Coral Springs and Hollywood—not to mention Grand Bahama Island, which will host FLIFFrelated screenings and parties from Oct. 25–28. We’re particularly excited about the opening-night festivities, scheduled for Oct. 19 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale; expect clips from the opening-weekend films, and food and beverages from six Gulfstream restaurants and bars. tickets: TBA contact: 954/525-3456 or fliff.com

oct. 24– Jan. 20

the art oF vIdeo games

Where: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton Details: To play anything on an Xbox, Wii or PlayStation3 is to be immersed in videogame technology so state-of-the-art that ... oh, who are we kidding? These game consoles will be obsolete, like, tomorrow. But each new must-have gamer gadget is a far cry from the 8-bit space invasions of the Atari 2600. The exciting evolution of the form will be displayed at this touring exhibition, which was organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The threepronged exhibit begins with a look at the pioneering designers, animators and musicians who built the industry, segues into a game room where visitors can play everything from Pac-Man to Myst, and concludes with a history of the art form. tickets: $4–$8 / contact: 561/392-2500 or bocamuseum.org

oct. 26–28

mIamI cIty BaLLet’s Program I

Where: Broward Center for the Performing Arts Details: If any company is able to reconcile the serious artistry of ballet with the arena-show spectacle of the Ice Capades, it’s Miami City Ballet. The renowned company kicks off its 20122013 season by doing just that; it will present “Les Patineurs,” a piece it premiered a dozen years ago, which simulates the whirling, fluid movements of ice skating, complete with a tumble or two.

The evening’s stellar lineup continues with Paul Taylor Dance Company’s “Piazzolla Caldera,” a steamy immersion into the culture and dance of tango. Finally, MCB takes on “Apollo,” George Balanchine’s first great masterpiece, which redefined ballet for the 20th century. tickets: $20–$175 contact: 305/929-7010 or miamicityballet.org

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amadeus

oct. 30– nov. 11

Where: Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter Details: “This was a music I had never heard. Filled with such longing ... such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.” Has there ever been a more moving description of music’s implacable transcendence? The quotes are from “Amadeus,” Peter Shaffer’s Tony-winning play about the rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The words are Salieri’s, reflecting on Mozart’s magical propensity to turn seemingly banal compositions into things of beauty. In charting the triumphs and downfalls of these classical-music titans, the play posits Salieri as a tragic figure trampled under the greatness of his fellow composer. Expect a wonderful soundtrack of Mozart compositions, pitchperfect costume design and top-notch acting in the Maltz’s season opener. tickets: $51–$63 contact: 561/575-2223 or jupitertheatre.org

Bonnie Raitt

Oct. 21

Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater Details: Bonnie Raitt has been making great music for longer than most people think. She released her first album, “Bonnie Raitt,” in 1971, but it took her 18 years— and bouts with alcohol and drug abuse—to achieve a top 20 Billboard record, rocketing to No. 1 with 1989’s “Nick of Time.” Raitt’s signature confection of ragged blues, rollicking country and heartbroken balladry refinished in a slick studio polish finally found its niche in the 1990s, with three platinum albums to show for it. At 62, Raitt still sounds like an iconic blues banshee on her most recent release, the reggae-inflected “Slipstream.” American Songwriter magazine called it “one of the best albums of her 40-year career.” tickets: $36.50–$76.50 contact: 561/750-1668 or ci.boca-raton.fl.us/mizneramphi

COME CELEBRATE OUR

OYSTER FESTIVAL From September 19th to October 16th, Legal Sea Foods’ Oyster Festival offers featured menu items.

For more information visit www.legalseafoods.com

To w n C e n t e r i n B o c a R a t o n

1 w hlegalseafoods_brm0912.indd en U want to know

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561.447.2112

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september/october sep

oct

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19 16

Legal Sea Foods Fall Oyster Festival

Let’s Move Boca

Legal Sea Foods, known for its award-winning New England fare, celebrates everything oyster with its Fall Oyster Festival, featuring special menu items and seasonal standouts including the Oyster Choister, Oysters Legal (baked), Oyster Stew, Oyster Po’Boy, and Pickled Oysters.

Learn to fight obesity at Let’s Move Boca. This Royal Palm Place event will focus on health, wellness and fitness, featuring group fitness classes, healthy cooking demonstrations and more. Proceeds from the event will benefit FLIPANY (Florida Introduces Physical Activity and Nutrition to Youth). For more information, visit flipany.org.

Legal Sea Foods Town Center at Boca Raton, 6000 Glades Road 561/447-2112 legalseafoods.com

Royal Palm Place 101 Plaza Real S., Boca Raton 561/392-8920 royalpalmplace.com/events

oct

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4th Annual PROPEL Golf Classic

9th Annual Go Pink Luncheon

Enjoy a day on the links and help support an organization dedicated to transforming Palm Beach County’s economically challenged communities, one life at a time. Sponsorship opportunities are available. Proceeds from the event will benefit PROPEL.

Join more than 1,400 people in raising awareness and supporting the fight against breast cancer by attending the Go Pink Luncheon. Every dollar raised stays in our community, benefiting breast cancer programs at the Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

PROPEL 499 E. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton 561/955-8553 propelyourfuture.info

Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation 745 Meadows Road, Boca Raton 561/955-4142 brrh.com/foundation.aspx

From left: Chuck Laser, Jim Batmasian, Sunny Reznick and Marta Batmasian

Keynote speakers: Bill and Giuliana Rancic

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[ 72 lobster cakes 73 ask the experts 76 the buzz 78 boca challenge ]

floridatable Essential Claws

No, this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t English 101. It is, however, a lesson in two seafood staples of South Florida. Lobster season already is under way (and runs through March 31), and stone crab season is nearly upon us (Oct. 15 to May 15). Turn the page for some basics on these hard-shelled classics.

when U want to know

AAron Bristol

Colossal stone crabs from Captain Frankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Seafood Market in Boynton Beach

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floridatable

Captain Frank’s

Florida Lobster Cakes

reCipe Courtesy oF Joey sClaFani 4 Florida lobster tails, shelled, cooked and diced 2 tablespoons each red pepper, celery and onion, finely diced 4 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 cup each Panko and Italian seasoning breadcrumbs 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning Squeeze lemon juice Combine all ingredients and form into eight cakes. Refrigerate to firm up, then sauté in butter until golden and heated through.

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Florida is by Far the largest producer of stone crabs, accounting for 99 percent of all stone crabs caught in the U.S.

Where to Buy them Get your fresh stone crabs and lobsters at the followinG local outlets Carmine’s Gourmet market:

2401 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, 561/775-0105 Cod and Capers: 1201 Federal Highway, North Palm Beach, 561/622-0963 Captain Frank’s seaFood market:

435 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach, 561/732-3663 old dixie seaFood: 7000 N. Dixie Highway, Boca Raton, 561/988-0866 the Fresh market: 100 W. Camino Real, Boca Raton, 561/338-2444 Whole Foods market: 1400 Glades Road, Boca Raton, 561/447-0000

september/october

Ask the experts

Wine Pairings for Crab/Lobster

Two local seafood shop proprietors weigh in on buying, storing and eating stone crabs and Florida lobsters. larry SiemSen Co-owner, old dixie Seafood, BoCa raton ◆ Dark-shelled stone crab and lobster are caught in deep water off Florida’s west coast; lighter-shelled crustaceans in the waters off the Keys. There is no difference in flavor. ◆ Don’t crack stone crab claws until you’re ready to eat them. The shells help keep the meat moist. ◆ To crack stone crab claws with minimum mess, wrap them in a dish towel and crack the claws with a hammer. Or put them in a heavy-duty freezer bag and use a meat mallet.

Joey SClafani owner, Captain frank’S Seafood market, Boynton BeaCh ◆ When buying stone crab claws, look for bright-colored shells. Dull colors can indicate the claws are past their prime. ◆ Ideally, you should eat stone crab claws the day you buy them. If you must store them in the fridge overnight, place the claws in a colander filled with ice—then put that container in a bowl to catch the water from melting ice.

Crab Claws: David Leschen of Jake’s Stone Crab suggests leaner, drier wines, like Sauvignon Blancs from California wineries Girard and Silverado Vineyards, and The Crossings from New Zealand.

Joey Sclafani

Cover with a moist paper towel but not with tightly stretched plastic wrap. And never let claws sit in water. ◆ Sclafani swears by (and uses) a custommade stainless steel cracker from Tom Herring of Park City. They’re available at Captain Frank’s for $39. ◆ When buying Florida lobster whole, make sure the tail is tight to the body. If the tail is slack, the lobster is probably old. And, obviously, if it doesn’t smell good, it likely isn’t good. To store it, remove the tail and stick it in a plastic bag over ice.

lobster: Rich, oak-infused

Chardonnays from Jordan, Sonoma-Cutrer and B.R. Cohn pair best.

other Complementary wines: French Muscadets and

Sancerres, Italian Pinot Grigios and Orvietos, and Spanish Albariños and Verdejos

Larry Siemsen

Where to order them

AArOn BrISTOl

The following are among The local resTauranTs specializing in sTone crabs and/or florida lobsTers.

Chops Lobster bar: 101 Plaza Real South, Boca Raton, 561/395-2675 Jake’s stone Crab: 514 Via de Palmas, Boca Raton, 561/347-1055 prime CatCh: 700 E. Woolbright Road, Boynton Beach, 561/737-8822 riggins Crabhouse: 607 Ridge Road, Lantana, 561/586-3000 truLuCk’s: 351 W. Plaza Real, Boca Raton, 561/391-0755 City Fish market: 7940 Glades Road, Boca Raton, 561/487-1600

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The sTone Crab can regenerate a new claw every 18 months and does so three or four times in its life. spiny LobsTer are reportedly able to live 15 or more years and can weigh as much as 15 pounds.

Size Matters

And now For Something Completely diFFerent Think outside the shell when it comes to working with crabs and lobster. can do with blue, king or Dungeness crab you can do with stone crab claws, though it’s a lot of cracking and picking out meat. David Leschen of Jake’s Stone Crab says to try everything from crab cakes, crab salad and crab cocktail to crab with pasta, crab soup or even deviled crab.

that’s ItalIaN: Leschen says that chunks of Florida lobster make an excellent companion to pasta. Try it with spicy marinara or creamy Alfredo sauces. some lIke It hot: The classic

accompaniment to chilled stone crab is mustard sauce, but many people like their claws served like lobster, warm with drawn butter.

Pass the mayo: Do the traditional

mustard sauce one better with mayonnaise flavored with anything from basil pesto to lemon juice and capers to curry powder.

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Blow off the steam: Instead of the

usual steamed lobster, Larry Siemsen of Old Dixie Seafood suggests cutting the tail into segments and deep-frying it—or butterflying a whole lobster and basting it with lemon butter on the grill. Or, as they do at Old Dixie, mix lobster chunks with lemon juice, dill, celery, lemon pepper and mayonnaise and serve it over greens, in a hollowed-out tomato or piled onto a soft roll.

MediuM: 6 to 8 claws per pound Large: 4 to 5 claws per pound JuMbo: 3 claws per pound CoLossaL: 2 claws per pound TiTan: about 3/4 of a pound each

David Leschen

thrIll of the grIll: Split the whole

crustacean down the middle or just the tail, baste with a compound butter and grill over medium heat, turning once, for eight to 10 minutes (depending on the lobster size). Baste with more compound butter and serve.

more Butter comBos: Thai red curry paste, wasabi paste and lime juice, curry powder and garam masala, basil-garlic pesto (tIP: crush a Vitamin C tablet in with the pesto to keep the basil from turning brown).

aaron bristol

No stoNe uNturNed: Anything you

Let your palate be your guide when it comes to the weight of a spiny lobster, but, when it comes to stone crabs, bigger is better, according to David Leschen, owner of Jake’s Stone Crab in Boca Raton. The reason? Bigger claws have more fat and more oil, which equals more flavor. Stone crab claws are marketed in the following five sizes:

september/october

VIp

tickets

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tastemakers at Tuesday, sepTember 18 Wednesday, sepTember 19 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Two nights of food, wine, cocktails and entertainment plus three months of exclusive dining offers Aug. 1 - Oct. 31.

mizner park boca raton a modern american bistro

Benefitting:

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buzz the

SiSterly love: Clay Conley loves his little sister. And lots of other people love Clay Conley’s little sister too. That would be Imoto (350 S. County Road, Palm Beach, 561/833-5522), Japanese for “little sister,” and the next-door neighbor of big brother Buccan, which, more than a year after its debut, remains one of the hottest restaurants in town.

Think Conley’s modern American interpretation of the Japanese izakaya, a casual neighborhood joint that just happens to serve really good food. There’s a small sushi bar dispensing a limited selection of nigiri sushi and sashimi, a small-plates menu where you can snack on rock shrimp tempura or Peking duck tacos, and a handful of larger dishes like Wagyu beef short ribs and swordfish a la “Oscar” (with king crab and hollandaise).

With a new daughter and a little sister, the Conley family just keeps on growing.

BuSy BeeS: Actually, bees have nothing on chefs when it comes to busily buzzing, pollinating this restaurant here and that restaurant there.

This season’s gold medal for the busiest and buzziest of them all may go to John Belleme, who, in a little over a year, has gone from turning out Asian fusion dishes at Palm Beach Gardens’ Umi Fish Bar to modern Mexican favorites at Cinco Cantina in Coral Gables to Frenchslash-Mediterranean cuisine at the recently opened Stephane’s (2006 Executive Center Circle, Boca Raton, 561/893-8838).

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Yes, Virginia, there is a Stephane. He’s Stephane Lang-Willar, a longtime Euro-restaurateur, who brought a team of hotshots (chef Belleme, sommelier Virginia Philip, GM Patrick Keenan), plus $4.5 million to the old Copper Canyon locale. He didn’t leave any of those millions on the ground either, with gold-plated touches like seating for 240, mother-of-pearl tiles, red velvet booths and individual iPads instead of dead-tree wine lists.

Belleme’s menu, though, is more brass(erie) than gold, with items like salmon tartare, duck a l’orange and Mediterranean sea bass sharing space with such crowd-pleasers as pastas, burgers and prime rib. Oh, and there’s weekend brunch and curbside to-go service for all you other busy bees out there, so you don’t even have to get out of your car to stay out of the kitchen.

Small BiteS: All buzz is not good. Sometimes it’s the sound of restaurants going down in flames. Like Fiorentino in Lake Worth, a quite charming neighborhood Italian eatery that’s one more indication why making a go of it in the city’s struggling downtown is still a pretty tough proposition. ... Like Smokehouse Grille & Wingery, which lasted not much longer than it takes to barbecue a rack of ribs in a spiffy west Boca location. ... And like a pair of departures from CityPlace: McCormick & Schmick’s from its brutal Okeechobee Boulevard spot and Taco Vida, bounced to make room for a fancy-pants bowling alley. Buzz didn’t even know bowlers had fancy pants. september/october

cristina Morgado

Painting the town: Red, of course. Or Rosso. Or both.

Those would be Red The Steakhouse and Rosso Italia, siblings of the same Cleveland parent and next-door neighbors in Boca’s Wyndham Garden Hotel (1901 N. Military Trail, 561/353-9139 for Red, 561/353-9819 for Rosso).

Buzz knows that steak houses and Italian restaurants are as common as July thunderstorms in our little corner of paradise, but this crimson duo aims to give both a shot of big-city style.

Red keeps the warm and cozy steak-house ambience but dispenses with the stuffy, men’sclub attitude. Rosso is a lot more dramatic and devoid of faux-Italian garnishes, like murals of the Old Country. We’re talking all sleek, contemporary, Milan design-studio red and white.

Neither menu tries to reinvent the culinary wheel, but when you’re dealing with the two most popular cuisines in the gastronomic universe it doesn’t take a bee on the wall to tell you not to muck around with them.

Red The Steakhouse’s sushigrade tuna served with vegetable slaw. Inset: Jarod Higgins, Red’s executive chef

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chicken wings I

n the pantheon of useless appendages, the chicken wing ranks right up there with the coccyx, wisdom teeth and the vice president.

Unless, of course, that paltry poultry appendage happens to be deepfried until crispy, slathered with a sinus-blistering blend of hot sauce and butter, and piled onto a platter with celery sticks (healthy!) and vat of blue cheese dressing (not so much). A pitcher of cold brew helps, not to mention a room filled with high-def flat-screens and screaming, unintelligible football fans.

So in celebration of Sundays spent watching 22 very large men in tights run into each other, not to mention the prime achievement of the city of Buffalo (besides coping with yearround snow), this month’s Challenge takes on the Buffalo chicken wing.

It’s an odd yet compelling mélange of tastes and textures—crispy skin and tender meat; spicy, vinegar-y sauce and creamy, cheesy dressing; with the grassy crunch of celery a bonus. Judging was based on taste (chicken and sauce—all were ordered medium), texture (chicken skin and meat) and dressing (duh). Wings were also judged for value, then given an overall score. Which, frankly, was higher than anything earned by the tailbone, wisdom tooth or No. 2 guy at the White House. —Bill Citara TASTE

TEXTURE

DRESSING

VALUE

OVERALL

Crispy, greaseless wings were slightly overcooked, but the Buffalo sauce had a nice kick and the blue cheese dressing tasted of real sour cream and big chunks of cheese. $7.99/10.

BIG JOE’S

Jumbo wings from the Schwarzenegger breed of chickens. Meaty and crispy right from the fryer, but eat right away or the heavy breading gets leaden and soggy.

Pretty pricy at $10.95/10.

BREwzzI

HURRIcANE GRILL & wINGS

The best wings of the tasting—crisp, tender, sauce ignites a long, slow burn—also the second-most expensive. The blue cheese dressing, though, tasted bottled with a few tiny pieces of cheese. $9.49/10.

MILLER’S ALE HOUSE

Well-cooked wings, moist-n-meaty, lots of buttery, sneakily spicy sauce, decent enough blue cheese dressing. Good qualityto-value ratio made them the surprise winner. $7.99/10.

wINGS pLUS

Surprisingly scrawny wings come in a pool of fiery hot sauce-inflamed butter. Not an excess of meat on these tiny bones, but there’s no thick breading to get in the way of crackling crisp exteriors. $8.95/10.

ratings:

fair

Big Joe’s, 2831 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, 561/447-7995

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good

Brewzzi, 2222 Glades Road, Boca Raton, 561/392-2739

very good

Hurricane Grill & wings, 22191 Powerline Road, Boca Raton, 561/395-3306

excellent

Miller’s Ale House, 1200 Yamato Road, Boca Raton, 561/988-9142

wings plus, 4455 S. Congress Ave., Lake Worth, 561/965-0907

september/october

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faces

a few minutes with the people who help define south florida

Susan Buzzi

I

t started with a vague idea, a tight deadline and no connection to the world she was about to enter.

Susan Buzzi was fresh off a successful showing of her environmental photography at the Coral Springs Museum of Art when Broward County Libraries Division approached her in the summer of 2008 with an intriguing albeit challenging proposal.

Using a grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure, she would conceptualize, execute and stage an exhibition themed somehow around breast cancer awareness. Buzzi had roughly three months to bring it to life.

Four years, several shows and some 300 subjects later, the assignment remains an intentional work in progress.

Shooting in her preferred black-and-white film, Buzzi produces candid, often riveting portraits of breast cancer survivors at every conceivable stage of their journey. She’s photographed women on the operating table during mastectomies and women suffering through chemotherapy drips. She’s shot survivors as young as 26 and as old as 97—as well as five men with breast cancer.

“I was in the room once with a woman being fitted for a prosthesis,” says the Tamarac resident, who works as a grant writer and “Lead Now” faculty member at St. Thomas University. “She takes it off and says, ‘This is my scar, this is my war. And I won.’ They’re proud. And they should be.

“If I can be their warrior, their voice, then I’m happy.”

Though she graduated from St. Thomas with a degree in criminal justice, Buzzi has long been connected to the arts, both as an award-winning freelance photographer and as a former executive director of Broward 80

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Art Guild. Still, she never envisioned the original Komen assignment as an ongoing passion project.

“My idea that first year was to pull back the curtain on the process,” Buzzi says.

“But I had no contacts; I was starting from scratch.”

With the clock ticking, she cold-called Memorial Healthcare System hospitals in Hollywood and Pembroke Pines and pitched her idea. Much to her surprise, physicians, oncologists, and patients and their families all showed interest. She chose black and white for its captivating quality—“there are no pretty colors; it is what it is, and it better be good.”

The success of the first exhibition prompted two more grant-driven projects with Komen and a separate breast cancerrelated project with Broward Health. But, by then, it was more than just another photography assignment.

“It’s their journey, of course,” Buzzi says.

“But it compelled me to embark on my own journey.”

In addition to helping her mother through a fifth battle with skin cancer, Buzzi is a health and wellness advocate, staging workshops for teens at Broward County libraries and raising breast cancer awareness wherever and whenever possible. This fall, that includes the release of I Am a Strong Woman, her first book, which features

approximately 50 of the subjects she’s photographed over the years.

“One of the first women I photographed [will be in the book]; she was diagnosed when she was eight months pregnant,” Buzzi says. “She delivered the baby, went through chemo for six months to reduce the size of the tumor—and then had a double mastectomy.

Ten days later, she came to the opening of my exhibit, tubes still hanging out of her. The day after the opening, I accompanied her to reconstructive surgery; she was holding my hand so tight prior to the anesthesia, I thought she was going to rip it off.

“There’s an aura about these women. Not only do they have a commitment to family and friends but to themselves. They find a way to overcome so much adversity and live.”

—Kevin KaminsKi september/october

AAron Bristol

PhotograPher of breast cancer survivors

SAVE THE DATES

Meet Susan Buzzi and see examples of her photography at two upcoming events: • SEpT. 29: Health fair (sponsored

by Susan G. Komen for the Cure); 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; African-American Research Library and Cultural Center (2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954/357-6282) • OcT. 16: I Am a Strong Woman book launch; 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; Broward County main library (100 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954/357-7443)

Clockwise from top: Margie, Gail and Paula (last names withheld) are among the breast cancer survivors photographed by Susan Buzzi

when U want to know

did you know?

According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 226,870 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed by the end of 2012. Visit cancer. org and ww5.komen.org for information and events connected to Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.

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81

faces Ray Leavitt

R

ay Leavitt’s first business plan as an FAU business and marketing student involved flying cars. Not the plutonium-fueled DeLorean that Marty McFly rode when he went back to the future, but cars that could take passengers to business meetings between L.A. and San Francisco, avoiding congested freeways and offering a more scenic bird’s-eye view.

“I had this dream originally all about the flying car, building highways in the sky between areas of interest,” Leavitt says. “But no one is ready for this technology. It already exists in the defense industry, but it’s not ready to be commercialized. It is an idea that evolved into my EvoLux concept. Since I was living so far in the future, my advisers suggested I focus on what was available now—and that became helicopters.”

Leavitt describes EvoLux as “an aviation technology company that is building a dispatch and reservation system that allows for per-seat on-demand helicopter transport.” He is building software that will allow people to reserve helicopter transportation for themselves, and share that information with larger networks so others can book the

same trip, lowering the cost for everyone.

He will match up operators with demand, serving as something of a concierge as well as a logistics center.

“We’re raising $1.5 million to build iPhone applications,” he says, “so helicopter pilots can check in and communicate where their current location is so I can send them real-time excursions and trips.” EvoLux, an incubator high-tech company under the Enterprise Development Corporation umbrella at FAU’s Research Park, is plugging into megatravel databases like Amex Travel, Expedia and Priceline to build efficiency and promote global distribution.

“There is just so much more connectivity now with all the different technologies and services—these databases are getting very sophisticated,” Leavitt says. “A company like ours can just come in and immediately plug into this big infrastructure that already exists.”

short takes Ray’s dReam Ride: An AgustaWestland AW609 (formerly the Bell/ Agusta 609) tilt rotor aircraft with VTOL facilities (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) “that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane.”

Ray’s customeR base: “A new host of people who might not have been able to afford helicopter travel but can when they team with others. People should [be able] to fly over traffic—without having to be a billionaire.”

Ray at home: “What free time? I am a big Miami Heat fan; I play basketball and work out. I love hosting and cooking—I’m a grill master. But I’d really just like to get the business going.”

Leavitt, 28, was not always one foot in the future. He was a kicker at FAU and hoping to pursue an NFL career (“I had a strong 62-yard field goal”) when his car was hit by a drunk driver one night on his way home from his job as a server at Houston’s. His spleen burst, his medial collateral ligament on his kicking knee was torn, and football was over. He ended up interning in Singapore for a bank his junior year, and that is where he said he had the “epiphany” for EvoLux. An unforeseen $30,000 insurance settlement for the auto accident became the seed money for the company.

Today, Leavitt is on his fourth business plan, more convinced than ever that “vertical flight is where it’s at.” (Vertical flight king Richard Branson himself has expressed an interest.) Leavitt says the company is still in the startup stage, but operational; he can book flights, but what is going to make the business work is global distribution. And that’s why he needs the funding.

“The concept is evolution in luxury transport—and at the same time being able to distribute tourists to all these wonderful places in South Florida—without getting them stuck or stressed in traffic. I have built this awesome machine. The key is in the ignition.”

—Marie Speed

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september/october

AAron Bristol

Founder and Ceo, evoLux

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faces

Léa Vendetta Artist, model, tAttoo speciAlist

I

t may not be polite to stare, but don’t bother trying to hide your curiosity around Léa Vendetta. The Boynton Beachbased painter and nationally renowned tattooist doesn’t just live her art, she’s covered in it—from the double-headed tiger on her left arm to the bearded dragon on her ribs to the roses on her right kneecap.

As a self-described walking art installation, she understands people are going to look. Just do Vendetta one favor. Before rushing to judgment, understand that there’s more to her than meets the eye.

“Because I’m a woman, I’m aware that some people think tattooed girls are all whores,” says the native of France, who does appointment-only tattoo work at A Stroke of Genius in Boca. “Or that tattoo people are trashy. ... [But] I have my iPad and iPhone, I’ve traveled the world, and I enjoy fine dining and fine wine.

“People look at me and may think I just ride motorcycles and drink beer—not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Trying to stereotype Vendetta, 41, is like trying to interpret the striking, ornate work of Japanese-style tattoo master Henning Jorgenson that covers her upper body. At a certain point, you realize that you’re in the presence of an original.

In the case of Vendetta, that identity took shape as a teenager in the Alsace region of France soon after she discovered The Clash’s “London Calling” in her brother’s vinyl collection. The classic punk album so resonated with Vendetta that she began searching for a similar muse to inspire her burgeoning art career.

She found it in the form of Otto Dix, the German painter known for his dark realism.

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“Hey sailor,” from one of vendetta’s collections

“His work struck me as so modern, even though it was painted in the 1930s,” Vendetta says. “I remember his portrait of a tattooed lady from a circus sideshow. I’d never seen anything like it in my life; full body tattoos—so beautiful.

“Everything began from there.”

At 18, Vendetta moved to Paris, where she discovered both tattoos (her first was a Celtic dragon that she later had removed) and a world straight out of a Woody Allen movie that dovetailed with her newfound interest in Dix. “There was a micro-culture of people in Paris attracted to the 1930s—they wore shoes and underwear from the era, they wrote with pens from the ’30s, they danced at clubs that [celebrated] the ’30s,” she says. “It was magical, like an escape from real life.

“For two years, I lived amid this culture.

Then, one day, I snapped out of it. My boyfriend, who was immersed in it, freaked out

because I used a regular pen instead of one from the 1930s. I realized then that something was wrong.”

The dye, however, was cast. To this day, one of Vendetta’s ongoing collections of Art Deco paintings (she works out of a studio in Boynton’s art district) celebrates the burlesque underworld of Paris in the ’30s.

As for tattoos, Vendetta, who moved to South Florida in 1996 with her (now ex-) husband, never considered picking up an ink gun until the owner of a shop in Pompano Beach suggested that she learn the trade.

It turned out that Vendetta was a natural.

She and her husband would open Big Kahuna in Boca (still on Federal Highway under new ownership), and by the mid-2000s, national tattoo magazines were lauding her work and putting Vendetta on their covers.

Twenty years earlier, when Vendetta and her “tattoo friends” dined at higher-end establishments, she recalls being seated in the back of the restaurant, “far from the crowd.”

Now, that same interest in tattoos as a craft and as body art has landed her modeling gigs in Maxim and, last year, on the Spike TV series “Ink Master.”

Asked how many tattoos cover her body, Vendetta says it’s impossible to say. Several that started as small solo pieces evolved into larger, more complex works.

Her favorite, however, may be the simplest. It’s a script tattoo on her right hand that reads, “Life is Now.” “Sometimes I get so caught up in everyday problems that I forget that,” she says.

“There is no yesterday. There is no tomorrow. Life really is now.”

—Kevin KaminsKi

september/october

fruit for thought

Ever wonder how a tattoo artist learns the trade? In France, Vendetta says, tattoo apprentices practice on pigskin. Here in Florida, she learned by tattooing oranges and grapefruits. “The problem is that, with fruit, the ink can splatter all over the place,” she says. “But it’s more about getting the weight of the [ink gun] and the feel of a needle touching the skin.”

This pin-up image, Taken by RobeRT alvaRdo, is paRT of a calendaR ThaT vendeTTa is Releasing This fall. foR moRe infoRmaTion visiT leaslounge. com—and foR moRe of vendeTTa’s inTeRview, visiT bocamag.com.

when U want to know

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85

name

Philip Neal age

44

T h e occupation

Palm Beach liaison for Miami City Ballet (fundraising, representation, special events and teaching); works for the George Balanchine Trust

claim to fame

Principal, New York City Ballet for 23 years outside interests

Contemporary art, beach time why he reads Boca Raton magazine

“Boca Raton is in between the fast pace of Miami and the slower regal pace of Palm Beach—it has a healthy outdoor environment but people who are worldly and sophisticated. You have to earn Boca Raton. And I think Boca Raton magazine reflects that lifestyle brilliantly.”

Photo by Aaron Bristol, Bristolfoto

[O n ly]

B O c a

Look Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Reading

R a T O n

M a g a z i n e

q&a [ by kevin kaminski ]

Tell It Like It Is

AuThor, commenTATor And former WhITe house AdvIser Dick Morris WeIghs In on eLecTIon-yeAr poLITIcs—pAsT And presenT—WITh no-hoLds-bArred cAndor.

W

hen asked if he’s ever considered running for political office, dick morris cuts off the question in mid-sentence. “don’t you know that it’s unconstitutional to run for office?” the part-time delray beach resident notes with a mischievous grin. “The 13th Amendment to the constitution prohibits involuntary servitude.”

That hasn’t kept morris from scoring his share of backstage passes inside the political arena. The one-time adviser and campaign manager for president bill clinton remains a sought-after consultant on the international stage and a go-to analyst for fox news, where, for the past 14 years, he’s pulled no punches on programs such as “The o’reilly factor” and “hannity.” In addition, morris and wife eileen mcgann have co-authored several books, including their latest collaboration, Screwed: How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off and Plundering Our Economy—And How Our Leaders Help Them Do It. his insights never cease to draw interest at home and abroad. morris has advised and/or served as a campaign consultant to candidates in countries from mexico and Argentina to Taiwan and the ukraine. by his own count, he has ties to “14 currently serving presidents and prime ministers.” he’s also as polarizing a figure as they come, from a well-documented scandal in 1996 to the present-day grenades he lobs at the left—like his contention, following a republican debate last winter moderated by Abc, that george stephanopoulos was a “paid democratic hit man.”

Love him or loathe him, morris brings plenty to the table when it comes to an election-year conversation—which is why Boca Raton sat down with the 63-year-old over lunch at the seagate beach club in delray beach.

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The poliTical climaTe seems more polarized Then ever. You worked in The whiTe house during an era where democraTs and republicans managed To find common ground. how did ThaT happen?

I was born a liberal Democrat. As the 1980s wore on, I became convinced, really by Ronald Reagan, to become more of a Republican. The deciding factor for me was the threat of nuclear annihilation. I opposed everything Reagan did—I was against Star Wars, against increased defense spending, in favor of negotiations with the Russians, in favor of a test-ban treaty.

And then, all of the sudden, Russia collapsed, and we won. There was no more threat of global annihilation. That gave me an “aha” moment. I had to start rethinking my stances.

The interesting thing is that my partner in a lot of that rethinking was Bill Clinton. We were very close in the 1980s when I worked with him in Arkansas. We both looked at the Carter agenda of just writing checks, and the Reagan agenda of not, and we focused on the idea that there had to be a third way that was kind of contractual. We’ll give you health, you do public service. You take responsibility, we’ll give you opportunity.

That was the philosophy we adopted in the 1980s. That kind of accessibility to both parties was what led to our re-election strategies, which, at the time, I dubbed “triangulation”—take the best of each party and merge it to a higher place. september/october

My Favorite Moment in Politics

when U want to know

ZUMA Press/NewscoM

“When I was working for Clinton, I was inside the White House typing a State of the Union address, and he was standing over me like a sequoia tree,” Morris says. “I looked up at him and said, “You know, Mr. President, I’ve wanted to be doing exactly this, in exactly this way, since I was 8 years old.”

Clinton looked down at me and said, “Me too.”

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89

q&a Why did that Work then, and Why can’t it Work noW? America goes through phases because we’re a successful democracy. In Italy and France, they debate the elections and never resolve anything; they’ve been fighting the same fight for 200 years. Japan doesn’t use elections to flesh out disagreements.

The U.S. does use its elections to flesh out disagreements. Right now, we don’t want compromise. We want to hear what [President Barack] Obama has to say and what the Republicans have to say, and the country will make a choice. Once they make the choice, then the president wants everyone to get together.

But today, we’re in the process of adjudicating issues. Until we finish, we will not welcome compromise because that’s papering over the issues instead of making decisions and following through.

So compromiSe, even in a political climate aS heated aS thiS, iS leSS about the Winning adminiStration Setting a tone and more about fleShing out diSagreementS? Whoever wins the election will have a mandate to enact his vision. If Obama wins, and I don’t think he will, you’ll see single payers for health care, a dramatic expansion of the public sector and things like that. And anyone who is inadvertently not on food stamps will sign up.

If Mitt Romney wins, the Republicans will enact their vision—and the country will go along because there will have been an adjudication. hoW haS the role of a campaign manager changed in a 24-hour 90

[ bocamag.com ]

“Until [the country finishes adjudicating the issues], we will not welcome compromise.”

—Dick Morris

neWS cycle? and hoW do you keep from overreacting to a Single meSSage?

It’s fashionable to say 24-hour news cycle, but it’s not. It’s a three- or four-hour news cycle; there are several throughout the day. It’s like the old days with afternoon newspapers.

Something breaks in the morning, you spin it in the afternoon, and the other side comes back at you by the evening.

The challenge for a campaign is to make the tactics serve your strategy. [Democratic strategist] Hilary Rosen said [in April] that Ann Romney had never worked a day in her

life. So you get this, and you have to spin it one way or another—and fit it into your strategic construct. It’s not just to win the fight of the hour, it’s to win it in such a way that it serves your overall goals.

Here’s an example of when it didn’t. In the last week of the 2004 campaign, there was a story on the front page of The New York Times that said there was an unguarded ammunition dump in Iraq and that al-Qaida and the insurgents had freely drawn on it to get their weapons, which they were using to kill American troops.

John Kerry seized on the opportunity, took all of his ads off the air, and focused on that particular issue. Now, the Kerry campaign felt that he was defeating [George W.] Bush on all domestic issues but was losing on the foreign issue. So his strategic

goal had to be to focus the election on domestic issues. His debate negotiator scheduled the final debate on domestic issues—and, coming off that third debate, Kerry was on a roll.

So now he pulls all his media and focuses only on the foreign message. It’s a short-lived success tactically because it embarrasses Bush—but it was a mistake strategically because it replaced the domestic focus with a foreign focus. As it turned out, the Times story was inaccurate and blew up in Kerry’s face. I think that mistake may have cost him that election.

As far as an overreaction, there’s no such thing. Now, your overreaction today may be replaced by the overreaction tomorrow, but you damn well better overreact both days. take uS inSide an election aS it nearS the finiSh line. What iS the moSt important role of the campaign adviSer? Politics is really divided into two broad categories: message and mechanics. The message is the rhetoric, the speeches, the ads, the line of argumentation. Mechanics is raising money to project that and mobilizing your voters.

My expertise is message. You’re constantly testing what the candidates are saying in polls. In the final months, you’re tweaking your message and seeing what holes are in the opponent’s message. It becomes a daily conversation, with your polls as the guide.

In this election, the Republican candidate has a relatively minor part in his own campaign. The bulk of the Republican campaign will be Super PACs, which, by law, are not allowed to coordinate with the campaign. Romney, of course, will control his own tongue. But most of the money will be spent through the Super PACs. So whereas President Obama will be in total control of his message, Romney really won’t be. That’s an interesting dynamic in this election.

When you’re controlling the meSSage, hoW negative iS too negative?

You don’t cross credibility. If your negative september/october

is credible and accurate, you can go with it.

If it’s highly personal, like George W. Bush’s DUI that came out a few days before the 2000 election or Clinton’s situation with Paula Jones, those are all fair game if they’re accurate.

On the other hand, if you get caught saying something that isn’t true—like Bush used contacts to get out of National Guard service—then it can blow up in your face and destroy your campaign.

The key ingredient always has to be credibility and accuracy—because, inevitably, any mistake that is caught will be blown way out of proportion. That ends up hurting you far more than the ad ever would have helped you.

two camps that glare at each other from their trenches, like in World War I. So what’s really important, for these people, is to get their base animated, angry, mad at the other side, and determined to vote. That’s really Obama’s strategy.

My view has always been that there is a large group of voters in the middle who believe a little bit of what each side is saying. They may somewhat approve or somewhat disapprove about how Obama is running the country, but they don’t feel strongly in either category. And they might be undecided—which means they can be persuaded one way or another.

I don’t know if I’m wrong or not. We’ll find out.

At this lAte stAge in the cAmpAign, Are there reAlly enough undecided voters out there to mAke or breAk the election?

That’s really the key question that’s unresolved about this year. There are people, largely working for Obama, who believe that this is a polarized country with

WhAt hAppened to your relAtionship With bill And hillAry? People always ask that. I believe that Bill Clinton was a very good president. I’d love to have him back now as opposed to Obama. We balanced the budget, we cut capital gains tax, we reformed welfare, we passed gun control, we put extra cops on the streets—major changes that were good for the country.

During the impeachment process, when I was talking about it a lot, I constantly stated that he should not be removed from office.

But I also said that he was guilty, and that all of his explanations [about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky] were garbage.

Because of that, I got typecast as more antiBill than I really was.

In terms of Hillary, I know her awfully well—and I do not believe she should be president for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with hating Hillary. For example, I don’t think she has anywhere near Bill’s intellect. I think her powers of analysis and thought are way overblown by the media. Until her current post, everything she’s done in life, to me, has been derivative of Bill.

But now she’s making a record on her own, and it’s OK. Not great, but OK. I think they’re bad on Palestinian/Israeli relations, inadequate in their pursuit of Iranian sanctions, and very weak on North Korea and China. There are limited success stories.

There was never a bad moment between us. I just don’t think she should be president.

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september/october

he Grea ebate Boca Raton gives readers an inside look at what promises to be a signature moment in our city’s history: the final presidential debate of 2012 at Lynn University.

By Kevin KaminsKi and marie speed n Oct. 22, an estimated 60 million viewers are expected to tune in for the final debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Whether either candidate can produce a signature sound bite remains to be seen.

But this much we do know: It’s a defining moment for Lynn University and Boca Raton.

In the last year alone, Lynn has raised millions of dollars to cover debate-related expenses, changed its physical landscape to accommodate the thousands of participants and press invading its campus, and drafted an elaborate battle plan to ensure that it all can be accomplished. There have been countless meetings, highly classified Secret Service mandates, and the detailed design of a “debate city” on a campus that has never hosted anything approaching the scope and scale of such a spectacle.

But the seemingly unrelated series of events that led to such debate fever started long before university administration even considered it. In fact, the ultimate dialogue between two presidential contenders can be traced to another kind of dialogue, in a symmetry

when U want to know

that Lynn president Kevin Ross can’t help but recognize.

“Conversations have always been important to us,” he says.

So important that the university—led by Cynthia Patterson, vice president for academic affairs—introduced a revamped core curriculum in fall 2008 that fosters discussion, public speaking, critical thinking and curiosity regarding fundamental life questions. Lynn’s “Dialogues of Learning” examines those questions and prepares students for 21st-century challenges through seminars, small Socratic method classes (linked to a student’s major) and experiential learning. The core curriculum has drawn raves from the educational community, and opened up a world of ideas for students at Lynn.

With this new curriculum, a detailed strategic plan (Lynn 2020) and the completion of the dazzling Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center, all systems aligned for the university to think about hosting another kind of conversation—one that, since 1960, has been a cornerstone of the presidential election process in the United States.

Here is a look at the Lynn University team spearheading the debate, details about the event, a little debate history—and much more as our community counts down the days until Oct. 22.

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Kevin Ross

The Standard-Bearer Name: Kevin Ross Age: 39 Title: President, Lynn University

How colleagues describe him: Fun, true believer, visionary, fearless Debate responsibilities: “A significant amount of fundraising, meeting an awful lot of people, welcoming them on campus, and familiarizing them with what we do. My job will ramp up significantly as we near the debate; a big part of it will be spokesperson for the campus at key moments; I’ll have the opportunity to talk about Lynn—how excited we are, who we are and why we are doing this.”

When landing the debate seemed possible: “When we got to the list of 40, and we were the only school in Florida—and they need Florida—I thought to myself, ‘This is getting interesting.’ When we were on the list of 12, I thought we had it. I really did. ...

When the Commission on Presidential Debates’ executive producer, Marty Slutsky (in another life, he was a guitarist with Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs) came down that first time, we stayed with him all day long.

As he was walking out, Greg Malfitano and I were standing there, and he said, ‘You guys got this.’ I looked at Greg and I said, ‘Is he supposed to say that out loud?’”

What keeps him up at night: “After going through what we went through [following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti] ... [after losing] our students and our faculty members, nothing does.”

Why he thinks Lynn was selected: “Florida is important—it’s a swing state this year—we knew that when we applied. Also, when the folks at the CPD got here, they noticed a couple of things. They noticed our commitment to the notion of learning by dialogue, of people coming together to speak.

And I think also they saw the type of school we are through the lens of the Haiti crisis.”

Why he felt Lynn could pull it off: “We don’t know any better here. Honestly, we’ve pulled off some pretty big things. We don’t do it with a swagger; we put our heads down and we do it.”

What it means: “I’m a big fan of life experiences—this is an unparalleled one. It’s the ultimate dialogue. It could be the biggest thing that will ever happen to this institution. But I have a feeling it is probably not.”

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PrelIMInary DeBates In addition to the final presidential debate at Lynn, three other debates will be televised (networks and air time to be determined).

Oct. 3: University of Denver; presidential debate Oct. 11: Centre College (Danville, Ky.); vice presidential debate Oct. 16: Hofstra University (Hempstead, N.Y.); presidential debate

Jason Walton

What It Means to Boca Palm Beach County commissioner Steven AbrAmS and Boca Raton mayor SuSAn Whelchel discuss the impact of the debate on the community.

AbrAmS: “Beyond the public relations boost and economic shot in the arm, the debate means we get to be part of history. Florida is the largest battleground state, and the remaining undecided voters who can swing the entire election could be making up their minds based on the last debate happening right here in our city. Plus, there might be a memorable exchange that will run as a

TV clip for years. That’s a lasting impact for our community.”

Whelchel: “The debate will showcase the city to national and international viewers. Media representatives will be broadcasting live from areas within [Boca] and will be reporting on activities and experiences in our town. ... This will [boost future] tourism and economic development. It also gives [Boca] an opportunity to celebrate community and country through a series of events—including speakers, concerts, films and programs with political and patriotic themes—in the weeks leading up to the debate.”

september/october

Debate timeline The Navigator name: Jason Walton age: 37 title: Chief of staff

how colleagues describe him: Intense, inventive, proud, information junkie Debate responsibilities: “I am co-chair of the debate with Greg Malfitano and engaged with fundraising, as well as making connections with the community—important sectors like business, education, government, cultural affairs and the arts. You want the debate to be worth it not just for the site location, but for the community.”

Why lynn went after the debate: “We had a couple of catalysts. A differencemaker came to the forefront—Elaine Wold—who put a performing arts center on our campus. So we had this venue designed by Herb Newman, the architect and master planner at Yale. ... The first Dively lecture at the Wold was with David McCullough, America’s history teacher. It was fantastic for a lecture, for the spoken word, for the exchange. “[And then the Ron Klein-Allen West debate happened], and that was the first time this campus had seen every seat filled and felt the electricity of an exchange like that. It demonstrated what we could do with this venue. I quietly began to look into the prospect of [hosting a presidential debate]. It sounded so audacious. It’s like saying ‘Here’s a basketball, see if you can make a half-court shot.’” gee whiz moment: “There have been several along the way, but when [we opened the FedEx package from the CPD] and read it together in Kevin’s office, that was probably the biggest golly-gee moment. We felt as if we had hit that halfcourt shot.” biggest challenge: “I feel like we’ve been entrusted with something really important, and I want it to be thought of as an effort well-executed when it’s all over with.” moment he is most looking forward to: “Kevin Ross standing on stage at the Wold welcoming the assembled dignitaries, [with] the full Obama White House and campaign present, the challenger’s campaign present ... [watching Ross] with a captive audience of probably the most important people in the American political scene and telling them why they need to know about Lynn University.” when U want to know

Here are the key moments leading up to Lynn’s selection as a 2012 debate host.

July 1, 2006: Kevin M. Ross takes office as Lynn University’s fifth president, succeeding his father, Donald E. Ross, who retired after serving the university for 35 years. may 2007: Announcement of Elaine Wold’s gift of $6 million through her foundation toward construction of the Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center.

august 2008: Lynn transforms its curriculum into the “Dialogues of Learning” model. march 2010: The Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center opens.

OctOber 2010: Lynn University is considered, but ultimately not chosen, to host the debate between gubernatorial candidates Alex Sink and Rick Scott.

Oct. 12, 2010: A Congressional District 22 debate is held at Lynn in cooperation with the SunSentinel between thenincumbent Ron Klein and challenger Allen West.

Dec. 10, 2010: Lynn’s master plan, including breakdowns for future growth and site utility, as well as a transportation analysis and sustainability study, is approved by the City of Boca Raton. (Note: Detailed knowledge of the campus is a key component of the debate application process.)

Jan. 3, 2011: Lynn assembles a team to complete the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) application; the university is one of 40 institutions nationally to express interest in hosting a 2012 presidential debate. march 31, 2011: Lynn submits the CPD application.

april 2011: Lynn is one of 12 finalists, joining Belmont University (Nashville, Tenn.); Centre College (Danville, Ky.); Dominican University of California (San Rafael, Calif.); Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, Ky.); Hofstra University (Hempstead, N.Y.); Indiana University (Bloomington, Ind.); Saint Mary’s College of California (Moraga, Calif.); The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (Pomona, N.J.); University of Denver (Colorado); Wake Forest University (WinstonSalem, N.C.); and Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri). may 4, 2011: Four CPD staff members visit Lynn and meet with administrators and community leaders, including county commissioner Steve Abrams, Boca Raton mayor Susan Whelchel, Palm Beach County Schools police chief Jim Kelly, Boca Raton police captain Coy Dixon and Boca Raton assistant fire chief David Woodside. may 23, 2011: Ross and his chief of staff, Jason

Walton, travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with Janet Brown, CPD executive director, and discuss why Lynn is the ideal debate host site.

Oct. 17, 2011: A special meeting of the Lynn Board of Trustees at the offices of Osborne & Osborne, P.A. secures final authorization to enter into a countersigned agreement if Lynn is selected as a host site.

Oct. 20, 2011 Ross and Walton open an overnight package from the CPD and learn that Lynn has been selected as the site for the fourth and final presidential debate—Oct. 22, 2012. They are asked to embargo the information until otherwise notified.

Oct. 31, 2011: The CPD announces the four colleges that will host the 2012 presidential debates (see opposite page for other sites). Former White House press secretary (under Bill Clinton) Mike McCurry calls Ross the same day and says, “Mr. President, what are you going to be doing Oct. 22?” To which Ross replies: “Sitting next to you, sir!” Lynn releases a statement announcing its selection as a host site. nOv. 1, 2011: During Lynn’s annual Founders Day celebration, Ross shares the exciting news in person with students, faculty and staff. The following day, Lynn holds a press conference with community leaders at the Wold Center.

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Class is in session Lynn students will have ample opportunity this fall to complement their debate experience with courses specific to the political process. Here are just a few of the classes being offered during the Fall 2012 semester.

[1] The Politics of Religion: Analyzing the impact that religion has had on prior campaigns—and how it will play a role in 2012.

[2] Why Women Should Vote: This dialogue delves into social, political and election-year issues that have been driven by or have affected women throughout history.

[3] The Debates Go Global: Drawing connections between U.S. presidential elections and international events/relations.

[4] Campaigns of the 21st Century: How candidates are using technology and social media to drive their messages—and the big-picture ramifications.

[5] Bush vs. Gore/The 2000 Election Fiasco: Enough said.

The Executor

Name: Greg Malfitano Age: 58 Title: Senior vice president, Administration

Continuing eduCation Security may be at an all-time high for the debate, but Lynn has opened its doors when it comes to involving Palm Beach County students from kindergarten through 12th grade in this once-in-a-lifetime process.

Debate guide: Lynn has prepared a free 70-page curriculum guide for students that includes everything from learning activities to the history of the electoral college to debate trivia to a quiz that determines whether you’re a Democrat or Republican.

Debate roundtable: In September, Lynn will invite class presidents, debate team leaders and student government representatives from middle schools and high schools—and have them debate the debates. Is this process a proper format for determining the president?

Mock vote: On Oct. 23, the day after the debate, students of all ages throughout the county will be able to vote for president via a computer program in their history/social studies classes. The next day, Lynn will invite local media to a press conference announcing the results of the mock vote.

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How colleagues describe him: Fast, hard worker, all about the details, doer of all things Debate responsibilities: “I’m co-chair with Jason Walton, in charge of operations, physical plant and maintenance, aka everything.”

How he got his arms around it: “It’s been months of thinking, discussing, and really taking it one step at a time. I have aligned myself operationally with 10 people I can turn to who will assume ownership of certain areas—for example, everything from inside the Wold, inside the fence, all the trailers, credentialing. We have met for almost eight months now every Monday morning just talking about operations. The success of this event is largely based on how this is going to work, down to every single detail.”

The impetus: “The love for the institution; I would not have been here for 40 years if I didn’t love it. This is our 50th year, and I have seen triumphs for this university, buildings built and dedicated, the best do-

nors in the world, 19 national championship rings. I have seen great triumphs and this is the largest one. It makes it exciting and challenging and thrilling; that’s what drives me.”

On his penchant for order: “Yes, I am detailed. When it comes to the presidential debate, inside that fence it’s got to be perfect. There is no room for error here.”

What motivates him: “I like empowering people. This is not about me; this is about the people around me and the students who will be volunteering. These are lifetime experiences that these kids are never going to forget. They don’t realize it today, but when they have children of their own, they are going to look at the television and say, ‘When I was in college, the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, was having a dialogue on my campus—the last [debate], the biggest one, 15 days before the election of 2012.’ That is the real core of what we’re doing. This is for the kids. That’s what keeps me the most excited.”

Three biggest challenges: “Time, money and talent—and blending them all.”

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Blain Hefner

Transforming a Campus

At press time, the Secret Service had embargoed any graphic depiction of the event site or much detail related to security. We do know that a mini-city is rising on the Lynn campus, with a new five-lane entrance, 100 miles of cable, and an 8-foot fence around the perimeter of the debate site. About 3,000 journalists are expected and 10,000 people total during the debate weekend, including security, campaign staffs, White House staff and CPD staff. Here’s what else we can report: ■ The De hoernle SporTS anD CulTural CenTer will become the media center, with 200-plus hanging televisions and about 1,000 work stations.

■ expeCT 18 TrailerS for the likes of CNN, ABC, CBS and other media outlets—as well as various campaign and CPD trailers.

when U want to know

■ The riTTer aCaDemiC CenTer will have 18 different classrooms dedicated to the six big media outlets—Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, C-Span and CNN. It also will house the elaborate IT information technology infrastructure.

■ An area near the media center—Spin alley—will

activate after the debate and will be the site for campaign surrogates and news people to weigh in on the event.

and invited guests to host booths touting one cause or another.

■ The WolD performing ■ The “CauSe Way” and student viewing area will be on the Lynn soccer field and will serve as a viewing area and party site—as well as a location for students, staff

arTS CenTer will be ground zero for the debate, with everything branching out from it. The level of security and technology will be unprecedented.

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The Fundraiser

Name: Barbara Cambia Age: 52 Title: Director, corporate relations How colleagues describe her: Wonder Woman, hustler, tenacious, go-getter Debate responsibilities: “It’s a privilege to be able to host the debate, but the cost is anywhere between $4.5 million and $5 million. The university is responsible for all of that, from putting up fencing, to cabling, food, hotel rooms, to all the IT requirements that the Commission [on Presidential Debates] has.”

Plan of attack: “The original plan was to start with the major corporations in Boca and work our way out, but we’re finding that many people do not understand the magnitude of this Barbara Cambia debate—they don’t realize that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have 2,500, 3,000 journalists in the same place. We have since launched our official small-business partner program—my goal is to have 2,012 people enroll in this. ... We have also gotten impressive private donations, corporate donations, in-kind IT donations and food donations.”

Why she is suited for the job: “I attended this school and I am a big believer in this university. People have no idea what is here; it is a huge secret, and that will no longer be the case after this debate. I have such a passion to put the school on the map. And I really like connecting people, so that everybody receives a benefit.”

Ratings WinneRs

Here are the top 5 most-watched presidential debates in television history based on millions of viewers, according to Nielsen figures.

Rank

Candidates

date

VieweRs

1

Carter/Reagan

Oct. 28, 1980

80.6 million

2

Bush/Clinton/Perot

Oct. 15, 1992

69.9 million

3

Ford/Carter

Sept. 23, 1976

69.7 million

4

Bush/Dukakis

Oct. 13, 1988

67.3 million

5

Reagan/Mondale

Oct. 21, 1984

67.3 million

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DiD you know?

The second Barack Obama/ John McCain debate drew 63.2 million viewers; that was the most-watched presidential debate of 2008 and ranks 10th on the all-time list. It wasn’t, however, the most-watched debate of that campaign season. The much-anticipated encounter between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden drew 69.9 million viewers, crushing the previous high for a vice-presidential debate (1984, Geraldine Ferraro/George H.W. Bush) by more than 13 million viewers.

tale of the tape

Here’s the pop culture breakdown between the contenders for the presidency of the United States.

Barack obama

Mitt Romney

age

51

65

PolitiCal affiliation

democrat

Republican

CamPaign singing

“let’s stay together”

“america the Beautiful”

faVoRite moVie

“the godfather”

“Raiders of the lost ark”

geek faCtoR

Big “star trek” fan

watches “american idol”

late-night moment

slow-jammed the news with Jimmy fallon

did top-10 list with david letterman

aRtists on Playlist (PaRtial list)

no doubt earth, wind & fire wilco florence and the machine sugarland Reo speedwagon

the Beach Boys Johnny Cash kid Rock the soggy Bottom Boys Roy orbison Carrie Underwood

mUst-see tV

“homeland”

“friday night lights”

snl imPeRsonatoR

fred armisen

Jason sudeikis

september/october

Key MoMents in Debate History RobeRt Watson—coordinator of the American Studies program at Lynn, esteemed author, and go-to source for all things related to debate history—selects four moments that altered the way candidates approach the podium.

[1] JoHn KenneDy vs. ricHarD nixon, 1960: “This was the first nationally televised debate. Nixon had been sick—he hurt his knee and had been hospitalized.

So he had lost weight. Plus, he picked a black suit; he looked like a mortician. He refused to have professional makeup, even though he sweated heavily. So he was dabbing his upper lip with his hankie throughout the debate. 1960 introduced us to image—and the power of television. It changed history.

[2] GeralD ForD vs.

JiMMy carter, 1976: “Ford receives a question about Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, and he says, ‘There is no Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, and there never will be in a Ford administration.’ Ford was president at the time, and there was complete Soviet domination in that area. He just had one of those ‘What on earth am I doing?’ moments.

Carter laughed uncomfortably, the audience murmured.

It made Ford look like the dummy that [he was being portrayed as on ‘Saturday Night Live’], even though he wasn’t. This is an example of perception becoming reality.

[3] bill clinton vs.

GeorGe H.W. busH vs. ross Perot, 1992: “It’s the first three-person debate,

when U want to know

and it’s a town hall setting. The three men are sitting on bar stools. A woman asks President Bush, ‘How does the recession personally impact you?’ Bush says that he doesn’t understand. She repeats the question, and he says, ‘Well, we’re not really in a recession ...’ She interrupts him and says, ‘That’s not what I asked.’ Clinton says, ‘Can I take this question?’ And he gets up and walks across the stage and uses her name. It didn’t matter what he said.

He used her name, and he made the connection. Now, all candidates address people by name in a town hall setting.”

[4] ronalD reaGan vs. Walter MonDale, 1984: “In ’84, Reagan was the oldest president ever to serve. There were stories that he was napping, spending more time at Camp David.

When the question arose during the debate, Reagan says, ‘Well, I wasn’t going to bring up the age question because I didn’t want to exploit my opponent’s relative youth and inexperience.’ The moderator is laughing. The crowd is laughing. Mondale is almost peeing himself. Reagan crushed him in that one moment. After that line, how could you attack Reagan’s age if you’re Mondale? Now, every candidate tries to prepare the big zinger—or tries to avoid walking right into one.”

The Communicator

name: Joshua Glanzer age: 38 title: Director of public relations How colleagues describe him: Strategic, sleeper, newsy, detail-oriented Debate responsibilities: “To properly support the CPD in all operations involved in holding the debate here, including making sure [the 3,000 media expected to cover the debate] are able to get their jobs done. Second, we have to work to ensure that our investment in this massive event is leveraged to earn us coverage by media not only regionally but also nationally, so that the school achieves a level of name recognition that it has not yet enjoyed to date.”

Most daunting task: “Exactly how we are going to staff these locations and what the staff will need to do to help the media get their jobs done. We are a small institution, and we have to scale up our personnel very quickly through volunteers and others.”

Him on the weekend of debate: “Hiding under my desk?

The weekend before the debate, we’ll be in the media center, the credentialing center or the command center set up specifically for the event. I imagine [we’ll work] around the clock for quite a few days. It will be a very busy time. It will also be exciting; I look forward to it.”

What the debate does for lynn: “We got a lot of publicity for a tragic event in 2010 from the Haiti earthquake, but now through this debate we have an opportunity to get more name recognition for one of the premier events in American democracy. It’s an amazing opportunity for Lynn.”

Gee whiz moment: “The fact that they need to bring in mobile cell towers just to handle the amount of cell traffic.”

For up-to-the-moment news on the debate, visit bocamag.com and click on the “debate watch” link.

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september/october

The rich colors and stylish textures of fall come to life inside the iconic corridors of Town Center at Boca Raton.

Center of Attention PhoTogRaPhy By Billy Coleman

Prada dress and Stella McCartney handbag, from Neiman Marcus; gloves, from Macyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s; necklaces, from Bebe; Trina Turk coat, from Bloomingdaleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s; turtleneck, from Banana Republic All clothing and accessories from Town Center at Boca Raton; all prices upon request

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Dries Van Noten dress and Celine handbag, from Saks Fifth Avenue; Oscar de la Renta necklace, Prada blouse, and Yves Saint Laurent bracelet, from Neiman Marcus; tights, from Express; shoes, from Aldo 106

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Lanvin dress, Helmut Lang leggings, and Yves Saint Laurent necklace, from Neiman Marcus; Marni purse, from Saks Fifth Avenue; ring, from Michael Kors; cuff, from Ann Taylor; gloves, from Macyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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Fur stole, from The Fur Salon at Saks Fifth Avenue; bracelets, from Macyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s; bracelets, from Michael Kors; Dolce & Gabbana skirt, Givenchy handbag, Fendi shoes and earrings, from Neiman Marcus; belt, from Bebe

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Dolce & Gabbana dress, from Neiman Marcus; tights, from Express; necklace and ring, from Aldo; bracelet, from Bebe; Prada coat, from Saks Fifth Avenue

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Prada blouse, from Saks Fifth Avenue; necklace, from Aldo; Oscar de la Renta dress, from Neiman Marcus; handbag, from Michael Kors; belt, from Macyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Model: Danielle King, Next Model Management/Miami StyliSt: David A. Fittin, Artist Management/Miami Art directorS: Lori Pierino, Kathleen Ross StyliSt ASSiStAnt: Ken Crane Photo ASSiStAnt: Javier Sanchez digitAl tech: Raul Herrera hAir And MAkeuP: Davide Calcinai, Artist Management/Miami

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visiT BocAmAg.com FoR A look BEhind ThE scEnEs AT ouR FAshion shooT insidE ToWn cEnTER mAll.

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The search for spirits in the material world takes the county’s paranormal investigators on one ghostly journey after another.

By John Thomason

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t’s almost sundown, and Vickie Burnett is attempting to communicate with a ghost.

“Hi, my name’s Vickie; I’m quite sure you know who I am,” she says. “You know I’ve been coming here for a while, trying to see if there’s anything I can do to help you. I’ve gotten EVPs (electronic voice phenomena) from you telling me, ‘Help me.’ But you never let me do it.”

Burnett, 45, is speaking into several recorders and short-range walkie-talkies, which she has placed in the bedroom of a single-story house in a sleepy suburban neighborhood in Port St. Lucie. It’s a bedroom that Burnett and her team, the Lake Worth-based P.O.I.N.T. Paranormal, have investigated countless times before. Burnett refers to it as “The Devil’s Den.” when U want to know

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F

or years, the owner of the home, Liz, and her roommate Linda, have experienced supernatural phenomena in the house, and this room is one of the haunted hotbeds. Ariel, Liz’s great-niece, has been visited by a spirit she calls “The Monster”; she’s not the first child to see it. When the young girl, age 4, describes the spirit to Liz, she raises her hands like claws and grits her teeth. Ariel won’t walk down the hallway at night unless the light is on.

In all, Liz and Linda have chronicled hundreds of inexplicable events, from the unusual (chairs and decor moved from one side of the room to another) to the hair-raising (the presence of, what appears to be, a 19thcentury man standing over them at night). To obtain a second opinion after P.O.I.N.T.’s first investigation, the homeowners contacted another Palm Beach County paranormal out-

lot of hard work and effort into this house, and I’m not going to let this thing win.”

“Depending on your level of bravery, you can be afraid in your own home,” Burnett says. “I liken it to a person who is a victim of domestic violence. The difference is, if you’re a victim of domestic violence, you know who your enemy is. If you’re the victim of a haunt, you just know something’s there; that something might hurt you, but you don’t know who it is. Or even the nature of what it is.”

In the living room of the house, one of Burnett’s colleagues, Ann Smith, is staring at the black-and-white, infrared flicker of four live video feeds from different areas of the home, which beam through a Dell monitor hooked up to a clunky mainframe computer that Burnett calls “Bertha.” The kitchen table appears to have the most activity this evening; at 8:18, a shadowy mass blips across the

“A lot of [paranormal] teams have aspirations of being on television. But what you have to realize is that you’re in this to help people. If you think it’s fun and games, it’s not.”

-Vickie Burnett fit. The members of that group were allegedly spooked off the job after receiving EVPs such as “Where’s Vickie?” and “Kill them all.”

“The last thing you think about when you move into a home is that it’s haunted,” Liz says. “One of my big things is to be able to comfort other people who have gone through the same experience, because this is not fun.

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screen, and at 8:26, what may have been an orb flashes on the monitor.

Back in the bedroom, having not received an overt message from the spirit, Burnett’s tone grows harsher and more scolding, reflecting her day job as a Palm Beach County schoolteacher: “You want me to leave you alone? You better say it, and you better say it big. Because you know that I don’t give up.”

aaron bristol

Right: Ann Smith (left) and Vickie Burnett from P.O.I.N.T. Paranormal review footage from the Port St. Lucie investigation.

Far right: Kris Richardson from PCI checks images from the Lake Worth Playhouse.

Burnett always has been sensitive to spirits, and her grant-aunt supposedly had the ability to communicate with them. Inspired after watching a daylong “Ghost Hunters” marathon on TV, she formed P.O.I.N.T. in 2007. Later, she would host a paranormal radio show on WBZT 1230-AM. Her story is not uncommon: The booming popularity of paranormal television shows has catapulted ghost-hunting from the shadows to the mainstream. Today, there are more than a thousand investigative teams across the country, with at least 23 teams operating out of South Florida. Like most of them, Burnett does not charge a dime for her services.

“A lot of teams will charge for gas and tolls if they travel,” she says. “I have a problem with that. Since this field doesn’t have anything concrete to show you—I can’t put a ghost in a box and show it to you—I feel that it’s taking advantage of people.

“A lot of teams have aspirations of being on television. But what you have to realize is that you’re in this to help people. If you think it’s fun and games, it’s not.”

Alas, on this night, the spirit fell silent, with Burnett receiving no EVPs through her multiple recorders.

But, in Palm Beach County, the spirits never seem to rest for long. september/october

a GHostly Glossary

Want to be a paranormal investigator? Here are a few terms you absolutely must know.

Cold spot: An area of extreme cold in any given space, which may mean the presence of a spirit passing through.

Earthbound: Term for a spirit that, for whatever reason, has not crossed over to the “other side,” and remains shackled in the world of the living.

EMF MEtEr: Reads the amount of electromagnetic frequency pulsing through a given place. Paranormal investigators believe ghosts change the electrical current of the atmosphere, thus causing movement on the meter.

EVp: Stands for “electronic voice phenomena”—brief, electronically generated words or phrases that appear on digital recordings, which some think represent spirits communicating with the living.

Full body apparition: A spirit that has manifested itself in a humanoid form, sometimes as a shadow and other times as a flesh-and-blood person. This is the Holy Grail for ghost hunters. orb: A flash of light that appears on photographic images and may indicate the spirit of a deceased person.

Because there are many natural reasons for visual phenomena to appear on an image, this is one of the more dubious forms of evidence. proVoking: Using provocative or harsh language to incite a response from an entity. Example: “We know what you can do; what are you waiting for? Show yourself!”

this is an artistic rendering

Haunted PlayHouse

Paranormal Crossroads Investigations (PCI) is on the case, touring Lake Worth Playhouse, a location rife with haunted history.

It’s the site of the former Oakley Theatre, a hurricane-devastated structure founded by brothers Lucien and Clarence Oakley, who died within a year of each other during the Great Depression. Both are said to frequent their old workplace from beyond the grave, along with a number of other spirits who congregate in the theater’s bowels.

Since 2007, the famed Florida Ghost Team has been hosting public tours of the Playhouse at about $65 a pop, with the funds benefiting the playhouse. Florida Ghost Team founder Shaun Jones retired in 2011, and she took the name with her. Today, Kris Richardson, a 43-year-old business owner from Plantation, runs the organization, which she renamed PCI. With more than 20 active members, PCI is arguably the largest investigative team in South Florida, with divisions in Arkansas and Peru.

PCI is so named because its members consider themselves at the crossroads of the supernatural and the scientific. Like most responsible paranormal teams, they rule out all rational possibilities before jumping to ghostly conclusions.

“We go in looking for real-world answers,” says AJ Garcia, 47, a burly police detective who serves as PCI’s Latin Division manager. when U want to know

Lake Worth Playhouse

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LocaL Haunts check out these other Palm Beach county locales, which have a history of paranormal activity.

have claimed that their hair was pulled, and full-body apparitions in period clothing have been spotted.

holIday Inn exPRess

Boca Raton Inlet: A young woman is said to have been buried near the marina; apparitions, localized changes in temperature and orbs have been reported.

the Blue anchoR PuB (804 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach): The Travel Channel named this historic landmark “Florida’s Most Haunted Pub” in 2004. At the original Blue Anchor, a notorious Chancery Lane watering hole in London, a woman named Bertha Sharkey was stabbed to death by her jealous husband. Bertha is said to have traveled 4,000 miles to haunt the reconstructed Blue Anchor in Delray Beach.

Owner Lee Harrison has cited footsteps on the ceiling, the shattering of half-inchthick glass on the anniversary of Bertha’s demise, and candles extinguishing themselves and re-igniting moments later.

“Ghost Adventures” investigated this historic building in the Fairgrounds’ Yesteryear Village in 2008, and they walked away rattled and spooked. The building is reportedly haunted by the nasty spirit of a worker who hung himself at the turn of the century. Objects have moved by themselves, employees

(480 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach): Guests have spotted numerous apparitions roaming the hallways, and employees have confirmed that the hotel is a supernatural hot spot. The most common explanation: The hotel was built on an old Native American burial ground.

JuPIteR Inlet lIghthouse and MuseuM (500 Captain Armours Way, Jupiter): Visitors have reported feeling hands pressed against their shoulders, along with cold spots and unexplained noises.

ouR lady Queen of Peace ceMeteRy (10941 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach): Strange shapes and orbs have been spotted on foggy nights in this Catholic cemetery, though Administrator Thomas J. Jordan has not heard, firsthand, of any paranormal occurrences.

“But I do find it comforting to consider that some of our loved ones are continuing to watch over us and pray for us as we carry out our ministry,” he says.

Note: Reference material included information from theshadowlands.net.

the RIddle house at South Florida Fairgrounds (9067 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach): Investigators from the Travel Channel’s

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Cutline

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“You may have a complaint: [Someone hears] scratching on the walls at night. Well, you have a nest of raccoons in your attic, for instance. Or, I hear, ‘Every time I come in this room and stand right here, I get this cold chill.’ Yeah, because the air conditioner vent is above you. Duh.” But when clients do have a supernatural presence in their home, it is not PCI’s job to banish it. Instead, they hope to bring peace to the client, helping whatever entity is in the home coexist with its human dwellers. Asked if most of the spirits haunting clients’ homes are harmful, it touches a nerve in Garcia.

“We’re a Hollywood culture in this country,” he says. “In the last 25 years, there were only three movies that involved a ghost that wasn’t trying to kill someone. That is the very essence of the problem. Our job is to explain to the client what they’re dealing with ... and to show them there is no need to be afraid.”

The night’s investigation began at 10 p.m., with fewer than 20 participants taking turns searching for spirits in the green room, the cinema, the main stage and the prop room.

Sequestered in shadowy, cocoonlike spots for the next four hours, the groups received instruction from the PCI staff and were handed ghost-hunting necessities like EMF meters, cameras and digital recorders, which are used to track electromagnetic fields, suspicious images and EVPs, respectively.

“Visual phenomena is very rare here, so don’t expect to see Napoleon jump out in front of you with his funny French hat; that’s not going to happen,” says PCI assistant director Chuck Aurin, who was with the team for two years before he experienced any activity firsthand. “But there are some phenomena that may happen, that could happen, that have happened in the past.”

On this night, nothing happened. Even voice phenomena were absent, and the experience was nothing if not long.

If you watch ghost-hunting shows on TV, you might have the misconception that paranormal investigations are a thrill-a-minute enterprise, where spirits respond to every beck and call, and mysterious sounds greet the intrepid investigators upon entry. But that’s the magic of editing.

Most investigations are more like this: a group of people gathered in stifling spaces, making unanswered requests to an unseen entity, and staring penetratingly at the green light of an EMF reader that rarely, if ever, lights up. The labor usually continues at home, where you sift through hours of digital recordings,

John Marc Carr on a ghost tour in Fort Lauderdale.

hanging on every stray cough or yawn in hope that it’s a sign from the other side.

It’s a painstaking process that often does not pay dividends. Until, that is, the other side decides to speak up.

Ghosts on tour

John Marc Carr is camped on a creaky front porch outside the Philemon Nathaniel Bryan House in Old Fort Lauderdale Village. The house was built for Bryan, a grove owner, in 1905. Nineteen years later, his wife Lucy slipped on a pod while shucking peas on this very porch, dying five days later from a broken pelvis. Since then, she’s continued to haunt the place—and, apparently, some friends followed.

Carr, an animated paranormal researcher, is working with an Ovilus PX, a handheld electronic device that converts electromagnetic waves into audible words. It’s become a must-have item for spiritual communication, having been mentioned or used on five paranormal TV shows.

“Lucy, are you here?” Carr asks, clutching the Ovilus. “Can you talk to us, please? Use this device with the red dot on it. You can talk through this.”

At first, the words that spill from the device seem both random and relevant: Hide

... Order ... Spirits … Electric … Attic … Milk.

After scolding the spirit for “rambling,” Carr adjusts the device to make communication more “difficult” and continues his questioning: “What is my name?”

The response: Enemy.

Later, those on the porch will compare goose bump stories about this moment.

Carr is undeterred. “No, no, no. I’m not your enemy. I may be on your porch, but I’m not your enemy.”

Soon enough, the device changes its tune: Friend … Yourself … Endless … Spirits.

“Can one spirit step forward and give us your name?” Carr asked.

Mary … Hyde.

Skeptics on the porch are convinced they have witnessed paranormal activity. Carr is accustomed to these sort of conversions. He founded Southeast Florida Ghost Research in 1998, and he still performs free investigations for clients. In 2008, he published the book Haunted Fort Lauderdale, and he’s made his reputation as the founder and guide of the Fort Lauderdale Ghost Tour, a year-round walking tour that takes visitors to nine locations across 10 city blocks along the New River. continued on page 166 [ bocamag.com ]

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dining

cristina morgado

souTh flA.

stars next to restaurants in the guide: Boca raton Hall of famer

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park tavern review assaggio del forno review yard house review neighborhood pick boca sports bars pita party on the waterfront

PARK TAVERN

Delray Beach scores another culinary hit with this charming spot overlooking Atlantic Avenue from the team behind Cut 432. Turn the page for food editor Bill Citaraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full review of Park Tavern.

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dining guIde

Pork belly at Park Tavern. Inset: Brian Albe

review

ParK taVErn

32 S.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach, 561/265-5093

Cristina Morgado

I

taly has the osteria. France has the bistro. Japan has the izakaya. England has the pub. And America has the tavern. Almost every country has its version of the casual, unpretentious, moderately priced neighborhood restaurant.

Of course, in the U.S. nowadays it’s fashionable to re-brand the tavern as a “gastropub,” signaling that its food is of higher quality than peanuts, pretzels and frozen “product” from some giant food service company. Personally, I like “tavern” better. “Gastropub” sounds too uppity, the exact opposite of its supposed nature.

And I really like Park Tavern.

It’s the latest project of the guys behind Cut 432—Brian Albe, Brandon Belluscio and Tony Pizzo— who’ve nailed the execution of this contemporary American tavern the same way they hammered home the concept of a younger, hipper steak house with Cut. Though steak may be money at more traditional restaurants, pork is the new currency at with-it eateries.

Vegetarians and dieters may want to avert their eyes, but the rest of

us will want to pig out on Tavern’s lusty-luscious pork belly, a square of striated meat and fat, bronzed and crunchy top and bottom, set in a pool of tart-sweet apricot mostarda flecked with mustard seeds and bits of fruit.

If pork belly is the new lead singer at restaurants, then crab cake is the guitar solo. Which is to say, everyone does it but hardly anyone does it well. Tavern does it very, very well. The crab-to-cake ratio is something like 90/10, fat chunks of succulent blue crab barely clinging together to form a fist-sized patty that’s the essence of crab-a-liciousness. The accompanying celery root tartar sauce, however, is bland and gluey, and with a crab cake this good, totally unnecessary.

They sell a lot of burgers here, but for a handheld meal of a different sort, check out the classic New Orleans po’ boy. This one is a roll smeared with fiery Creole tartar sauce and stuffed with summer-ripe tomatoes, lettuce and a quartet of humongous crisp-fried shrimp.

Good luck putting this monster away in one sitting.

Desserts are limited to a handful of sweet treats, or just-sweetenough treats like an Italian-style blueberry-almond cake, a moist, nutty-tasting disc speckled with fresh blueberries and set off by blueberry compote and vanilla ice cream.

Really, who needs a gastropub when you have Park Tavern?

—Bill Citara

The “Park” in Park Tavern

The “Tavern” in Park Tavern

With pretty, plant- and flower-bedecked Worthing Park at its front door, the Tavern occupies one of the most enviable pieces of real estate on East Atlantic Avenue. Sit on the cozy, brick-paved patio, and you get the bustle of the Avenue and the balm of greenery. If you have to wait for a table, there’s no better place to kick back until the hungry hordes thin out.

All food and no drink makes Jack a thirsty boy. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about going thirsty here, not with some two-dozen beers on tap and another 80 or so in the bottle, plus wines ranging from California Pinot Grigios to Italian Super Tuscans. Good selection of wines by the glass too.

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IF YOU GO PRICE RANGE: Entrées $13–$29 CREDIT CARDS: MasterCard, Visa, American Express HOURS: Sun.–Wed. 5 p.m.–midnight, Thurs.– Sat. 5 p.m.–2 a.m.

Prime Deal on Prime rib The best meal deal this side of free has got to be Tavern’s prime rib, a massive, primordial slab of blood-rare beef large enough to be seen by orbiting satellites for a reasonable 29 bucks.

Not just a terrific deal, it’s an excellent piece of meat, tender and flavorful, rimmed with just enough fat and served with deliriously cheesy scalloped potatoes.

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S E I R E V I L DE :00PM E T A R O P R 2 C O F R O M 1 1 : 0 0 A Mle a-t 3rear of restaurant } take { pick up and

out availab

561-368-2900

WWW.NICKSPIZZERIABAR.COM 2240 NW 19th St.

•

Glades Plaza Suite 904 • Boca Raton, FL 33431

dining guide

Dining Key $ Inexpensive: Under $17 $$ Moderate: $18–$35 $$$ Expensive: $36–$50 $$$$ Very Expensive: $50 +

palm beach county boca raton abe & louie’s—2200 W. Glades Road.

Steaks. This outpost of the Boston steak house cooks up slabs of well-aged, USDA Prime beef like nobody’s business. Two of the best are the bone-in ribeye and New York sirloin. Start with a crab cocktail, but don’t neglect side dishes like steamed spinach and hash browns. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. Brunch Sun. 561/4470024. $$$ arturo’s ristorante—6750 N. Federal Highway. Italian. Arturo’s quiet, comfortable dining room; slightly formal, rigorously professional service; and carefully crafted Italian dishes never go out of style. You’ll be tempted to make a meal of the array of delectable antipasti from the antipasti cart, but try to leave room for main courses like giant shrimp with tomatoes, cannellini beans, rosemary and an exceptionally well-done risotto.

• Lunch Mon.–Fri. 561/997-7373. $$$ biergarten—309 Via De Palmas. German/Pub.

Part vaguely German beer garden, part all-American sports bar, this rustic eatery offers menus that channel both, as well as an excellent selection of two-dozen beers on tap and the same number by the bottle. The food is basic and designed to go well with suds, like the giant pretzel with a trio of dipping sauces and an upscale burger featuring Florida Wagyu beef, knockwurst, cheddar cheese and several other accouterments. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/395-7462. $

bistro provence—2399 N. Federal Highway.

French. With the convivial ambience and hearty good food of an authentic Parisian bistro, this inviting, unpretentious restaurant deserves its local popularity. Mussels are a specialty, and roasted duck is excellent too. • Dinner nightly.

561/368-2340. $$ 122

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bonefish grill—21069 Powerline Road. Sea-

food. Market-fresh seafood is the cornerstone—like Chilean sea bass prepared over a wood-burning grill and served with sweet Rhea’s topping (crabmeat, sautéed spinach and a signature lime, tomato and garlic sauce.) • Dinner nightly. (Other Palm Beach County locations: 1880 N. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach, 561/732-9142; 9897 Lake Worth Road, Lake Worth, 561/965-2663; 11658 U.S. Highway 1, North Palm Beach, 561/799-2965) $$

the capital grille—6000 Glades Road.

Steaks. This is one of more than three dozen restaurants in a national chain, but the Boca Grille treats you like a regular at your neighborhood restaurant. Steaks, dry-aged if not Prime, are flavorful and cooked with precision, while starters from Wagyu beef carpaccio to a lighter version of the hardy chopped salad are nicely done too. Parmesan truffle fries are crispy sticks of potato heaven; chocolate-espresso cake a study in shameless, and luscious, decadence. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner daily. 561/368-1077. $$$

carmen’s—999 E. El Camino Real. Continen-

tal. The Rat Pack lives and the view of the Intracoastal is sublime at this throwback restaurant on the top floor of the Bridge Hotel, where pianistsinger Michael Masci channels the likes of Sinatra with aplomb. The menu mixes the familiar with a few more modern updates. Favorites include a mild-tasting Caesar salad and tender charbroiled filet mignon. Cocktails are a strong suit. • Dinner Thurs.–Sat. 561/368-9500. $$$

caruso ristorante—187 S.E. Mizner Blvd.

Italian. Former Chicago chef-restaurateurs Lillo and Gina Teodosi bring big-city dining to town.

The ambience is welcoming, the service rigorously professional and the food is so lovingly prepared it makes even the most familiar dishes special.

Among them: a farm-fresh caprese salad, giant truffle-perfumed veal chop and zabaglione that’s made to order. The light, feathery, delicate gnocchi are merely the best in South Florida. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner daily. 561/367-7488. $$$ casa d’angelo—171 E. Palmetto Park Road.

Italian. Angelo Elia’s impeccable Italian restaurant is a delight, from the stylish room to the suave service to the expansive wine list, not to mention food that’s by turn elegant, hearty, bold, subtle and always delicious. Dishes off the regular menu make excellent choices, like fat prawns wrapped in pancetta and grilled. But pay attention to specials like pan-seared snapper and scallops in a spicy, garlicky cherry tomato sauce. • Dinner nightly. 561/338-1703. $$$

the cheesecake factory—5530 Glades Road. American. Oh, the choices! The chain even has a Sunday brunch menu in addition to its main menu, which includes Chinese chicken salad and Cajun jambalaya. Don’t forget about the cheesecakes—from white chocolate and raspberry truffle offerings. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/393-0344. (Other Palm Beach County locations: CityPlace, West Palm Beach, 561/802-3838; Downtown at the Gardens, Palm Beach Gardens, 561/776-3711) $$ chops lobster bar—101 Plaza Real S., Royal Palm Place. Steak, seafood. Steaks are aged USDA Prime—tender, flavorful and perfectly cooked under a 1,700-degree broiler. There’s all manner of fish and shellfish, but you’re here for the lobster, whether giant Australian tails flashfried and served with drawn butter or sizable Maine specimens stuffed with crab. • Dinner nightly. 561/395-2675. $$$$ cuban café—3350 N.W. Boca Raton Blvd.

Cuban. Diners pack this traditional Cuban restaurant for lunch specials that start at $7.95, including slowroasted pork served with white rice and black beans.

Other highlights include the Cuban sandwich and (on the dinner menu only) lechón asado. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/750-8860. $

curries & more—217 E. Palmetto Park Road.

Indian. There’s a lot more than just curries at this cozy Indian restaurant—crisp, beignet-like pakoras, perfect for dipping in one of three mild but flavorful chutneys; tender and juicy grilled meats and poultry; an array of palate-piquing vegetarian dishes. The curries are good, too. • Lunch and dinner Tues.–Sat. Dinner Sun. 561/392-2999. $ gary woo asian bistro—3400 N. Federal Highway. Chinese. Everything about this popular restaurant is restrained—the ambience, the decor, the presentations. And the food can be that way, as well. Even supposedly spicy dishes are bereft of heat. Still, the ingredients and preparation are first-rate. Try the duck spring rolls to start, and then enjoy steak kew or Grand Marnier prawns.

• Lunch Mon., Wed.–Fri. Dinner Wed.–Mon. 561/368-8803. $$ grand lux cafe—Town Center at Boca Raton.

American. The Cheesecake Factory’s sister brand is an upscale take on the original formula, with an atmosphere inspired by the great cafes of Europe.

The menu offers a range of international flavors, and the specialty baked-to-order desserts are always a big hit. • Lunch and dinner daily; breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. 561/392-2141. $$ september/october

dining guide

the grille on congress—5101 Congress Ave. Chicken Marsala from Assaggio del Forno

review

ASSAGGIO DEL FORNO 3011 Yamato Road, Boca Raton, 561/613-6460

i

f the weekend crowds at Assaggio del and delicate, but the jaunty green sauce had Forno are any indication, west Boca is been over-reduced almost to knife-and-fork hungry for the kind of hip, casual, conconsistency. Fried baby artichokes were tentemporary Italian-esque trattoria that’s beder and tasty but also glistening with oil; their come as ubiquitous as Olive Gardens in much accompanying lemon aioli had an odd grayish of the rest of the country. cast and was pucker-your-lips tart.

Of course, “hip” is relative, A slab of snow-white and west Boca is hardly South swordfish, on the other IF YOU GO Beach. But proprietor Denhand, was perfectly cooked, nis Max knows just how far topped with an assertive PRICE RANGE: to push the stylistic envelope tapenade and bedded down Entrées $18–$26 without scaring off his more on sautéed spinach studCREDIT CARDS: conservative customers, addded with pine nuts, olives All major cards ing such hoary old Italianand raisins. Rigatoni with HOURS: Sun.–Thurs.

America favorites as veal Sunday gravy was the kind 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri.– piccata, shrimp scampi and of hearty Italian pasta that Sat. 11:30 a.m.–11 p.m. chicken Marsala to the menu sticks to your ribs ... and not long after the restaurant pelvis and sternum and opened. backbone. It’s a dish—sauced with restraint to So far, at least, the kitchen handles the highlight the pasta, plus meatballs, shredded teeming weekend masses better than the pork and chunks of sausage—that will not let young, inexperienced wait staff, which, on this you leave hungry. night, seemed overwhelmed. But west Boca Desserts were on point too. Tiramisu may effort is preferable to South Beach ’tude, so be common, but when done this well it’s still you roll with it and concentrate on your food. worth your appetite. Ditto cute little cannoli The evening’s crush did seem to get to the and crunchy almond cookies. It’s not South kitchen with our appetizers. Gnocchi in a Beach, but it isn’t Olive Garden either. creamy pesto sauce were surprisingly light —Bill Citara

Sweet Deal Everybody likes to save a buck, and Assaggio’s prix fixe menu lets you save a bunch of them. It offers three courses—appetizer, entrée and dessert—for $29.95.

Not just a handful of choices either; most every dish on the regular menu is available prix fixe, and in portions that will have you taking home leftovers. Oh, and did we mention the price also includes a glass of house wine?

American. Dishes range from the aptly named “big ass” T-bone steak (a generous 32-ouncer) to more healthful options like pistachio-crusted snapper or simply grilled yellowfin tuna. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/912-9800. $$

houston’s—1900 N.W. Executive Center Circle.

American. With rustic features like butcher-block tables and comfy padded leather booths, Houston’s has successfully created a “nonchain” feel, although there are more than 40 nationwide. The menu is straightforward—big burgers on sweet egg buns, Caesar salad, roasted chicken, filet mignon—but it’s not lacking in ingenuity. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/998-0550. $$ jake’s stone crab—514 Via de Palmas, Royal Palm Place. Seafood. Jake’s has made a name for itself with delicious claws and excellent service.

Crusty hash browns and nutmeg-y creamed spinach are fine accompaniments. Lobster and filet mignon surf ’n’ turf comes generously adorned. • Dinner Wed.–Sun. 561/347-1055. $$$ josephine’s—5751 N. Federal Highway. Italian.

Familiarity breeds content with the soulful Italian cookery at this Boca favorite, where tradition trumps trendy and comfort outweighs chic. The ambience is quiet and stately but not stuffy, and the menu is full of hearty dishes to soothe the savage appetite, like three-cheese eggplant rollatini and chicken scarpariello. • Dinner nightly, except Tues. 561/988-0668. $$

kapow noodle bar—431 Plaza Real.

Pan-Asian. This wickedly stylish Asian-inspired gastropub delivers a delicious and inventive punch to the taste buds. Among the hardest hitters are plush-textured green tea-cured salmon with micro and fried basil and longan berries stuffed with yuzu kosho gelee, and cheesecake springrolls with a nothing-exceeds-like-excess banana caramel dipping sauce. • Dinner daily. 561/347-7322. $ kathy’s gazebo café—4199 N. Federal Highway. Continental. This local stalwart smoothly rolls along with its signature blend of French and Continental dishes. The ornate, formal dining room and equally formal service are anomalies these days but are comforting nonetheless. Classic dishes like creamy lobster bisque, house-made duck paté, broiled salmon with sauce béarnaise and dreamy chocolate mousse are as satisfying as ever. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/395-6033. $$$ kee grill—17940 N. Military Trail. American.

The attraction here is carefully prepared food that is satisfying, flavorful and reasonably priced. The

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september/october

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dining guide

Street tacos (below) and a 3-foot vessel of beer at Yard House

review

Yard House

201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, 561/417-6124

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cristina morgado

i

f it didn’t occupy a prominent corner in Mediterranean, Caribbean, American, seafood Mizner Park, the name “Yard House” and vegetarian options. From apps to desserts, might conjure the kind of you’ll find familiar favorites restaurant with dart holes in festooned with avant-garde the wall, peanut shells on the flourishes. In the ahi poke IF YOU GO floor and Harleys parked out bowl, marinated raw ahi is front. But this growing chain served with avocado, carrots, PRICE RANGE: is anything but pedestrian; it’s bean sprouts, macadamia Entrées $11.95–$31.45 a gourmet spin on the neighnuts and wontons; artichoke, CREDIT CARDS: borhood sports bar—immaclobster and four cheeses spice Visa, MasterCard, ulate, chic and very Boca. up a traditional crab dip.

American Express This second Palm Beach I started with a grilled HOURS: Sun.–Thurs.

County outpost for Yard artichoke, served with 11 a.m.–12:30 a.m., Fri.– House (the other is in Palm roasted aioli dipping sauce Sat. 11 a.m.–1:30 a.m.

Beach Gardens) has been an and delectable house-made instant hit since opening this potato chips. The artichoke spring. And it’s easy to see why. itself could have burst with more natural flaDim lighting, a modern-industrial interior vor, but the dipping sauce made this appetizer and an attractive, capacious floor plan radiate more than welcome. I also enjoyed a satisfying upscale ambience. All that juxtaposes surprisand tangy Caesar salad, with shredded cheese ingly well with the 28 flat-screen televisions inventively replaced by Parmesan crisps. My and eclectic classic-rock mix pumping from entrée was angel hair pasta in olive oil complethe sound system. Like Clark Kent transformmented beautifully with roasted eggplant and ing into Superman, the quiet family restaurant roma tomatoes. can become a rowdy watering hole during maFor dessert, the presence of caramelized jor sporting events. bananas will provide an extra impetus to order The drink list is a beer snob’s Mecca (see Yard House’s outstanding crème brûlée—as if sidebar), and the food menu is a thick, inyou needed one. timidating tome of Italian, Mexican, Chinese, —John Thomason

You’ve Got Ale Yard House offers a staggering 140 beers on tap, from Alaskan Amber to Young’s Double Chocolate. The libations beckon diners from all around the circular bar, with taps in the shape of sharks, cherubs, soccer players and hobgoblins. The hops come courtesy of some 300 kegs, which are on display in back rooms that, with the tangles of tubing, resemble either a science laboratory or a dorm room, depending on where you went to college.

september/october

For 29 years the family tradition continues...

r i s to r a n t e

DistinguisheD restaurant of north america

visit us on

new elegant outDoor Patio available perfect for After dinner drinks And cigArs

Authentic itAliAn cuisine for your dining pleAsure

Open daily for dinner and lunch (M-F) and special events for parties of 6-150. Live music nightly.

6750 North Federal Highway, Boca Raton | (561) 997-7373 | www.ArturosRestaurant.com

dining guide

neighborhood pick

TAPAS RESTAURANT AND WINE BAR

210 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana, 561/533-5580

e

verybody loves a happy ending, and perhaps there finally is one for one of the prettiest restaurant spaces in all of South Florida.

That would be the rustic-elegant, indooroutdoor spot on East Ocean Avenue that was formerly home to Apicius, a rigorously Italian restaurant known for its excellent food, breathtakingly high prices and, ah ... mercurial proprietor, Leo Balestrieri.

Well, everything is different now, and that, as Aunt Martha would say, is a good thing. The Ocean Avenue location is now home to Tapas Lantana, specializing in the modestly priced small plates of Spain. The ambience, under chef-owner David Rodriguez, is as relaxed and inviting as this idyllic setting deserves.

Sip a glass of Rioja or Albariño, listen to the flamenco guitarist and snack your way through a satisfying and enjoyable meal.

Among my favorites are classics like Caldo Gallego, a hearty ham and white-bean stew from the region of Galacia; albondigas, plump, savory lamb meatballs in a creamy vegetable sauce; and gambas al ajillo, the can’t-miss combo of succulent shrimp swimming in garlic- and chili-infused olive oil. Spring rolls filled with molten-textured slow-roasted pork weren’t exactly Spanish but were pretty tasty eating, especially when dragged through a piquant chipotle aioli.

Unlike many restaurateurs in Spain, Rodriguez has a light hand with salt, so you may want to add a few grains to your dishes to perk up the flavor. But you’ll leave smiling, part of Tapas Lantana’s happy ending.

—Bill Citara

DiD You Know?

The wine room at Tapas, which is open daily at 4 p.m. except Monday, is a sight to behold, featuring outstanding wines from Spain, South America, Italy and Napa Valley. Also, check out the restaurant’s Facebook page (tapaslantana) for daily specials and wine-tasting events.

fist-sized crab cake is a good place to start, followed by sea bass with a soy-ginger-sesame glaze. • Dinner nightly. 561/995-5044. $$$

la rosa nautica—515 N.E. 20th St. Peruvian.

Expect no ambience, no pretensions, low prices and food that satisfies on a very high level. Good starters include antichuchos, chunks of grilled beef heart, and causa, a terrine-like layering of mashed potatoes and chicken salad. Ceviche and the lomo saltado are among the best in South Florida. • Lunch daily. Dinner Tues.– Sun. 561/296-1413. $$ la tre—249 E. Palmetto Park Road. Vietnamese.

For almost two decades, this elegant little spot has been celebrating the delicate, sophisticated flavors and textures of traditional and contemporary Vietnamese cuisine. A house signature, shrimp tossed with coriander curry pesto, is an inspired riff on Vietnamese classics. Even better, service and wines match the refinement of the cuisine. • Dinner nightly. 561/392-4568. $$ la villetta—4351 N. Federal Highway. Italian.

This is a well-edited version of a traditional Italian menu, complete with homemade pastas. Try the signature whole yellowtail snapper encrusted in sea salt, deboned tableside. Shrimp diavolo is perfectly scrumptious. • Dinner nightly. (closed Mon. during summer). 561/362-8403. $$

legal sea foods—6000 Glades Road. Seafood.

This faux-New England-ish seafooder in Town Center mall may be a little short on fish shack romance, but it makes up for it with a full roster of fresh fish and shellfish, well prepared and competently served by an earnest young staff. The signature clam chowder is made in corporate kitchens but is still better than most, while crab cakes chock-full of sweettasting crab and hardly any binders have even fewer equals. There’s a selection of DIY fish and sauces too.

And for dessert, what else but Boston cream pie? • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/447-2112. $$

le rivage—450 N.E. 20th St. French. It’s easy to overlook this small, unassuming bastion of traditional French cookery tucked away in a strip mall off Federal Highway. That would be a mistake, because the dishes that virtually scream “creativity” can’t compare to the quiet pleasures served here— like cool, soothing vichyssoise, delicate fillet of sole with nutty brown butter sauce or perfectly executed crème brûlee. Good food presented without artifice at a fair price never goes out of fashion. • Lunch Tues.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/620-0033. $$ maggiano’s—21090 St. Andrews Blvd. Italian.

The concept is that of a neighborhood spot where

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families might congregate for great food, fun music and a good time. Do as the Italians do and order family-style, sit back and watch the endless amounts of gorgeous foods grace your table. In this manner, you receive two appetizers, two salads, two pastas, two entrées, two vegetables and two desserts. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/361-8244. $$

mario’s osteria—1400 Glades Road. Italian.

One of Boca’s most popular Italian restaurants is swanky in its reincarnation, but the rustic Italian and Italian-American fare keeps with an osteria’s humbler pretensions. Signature dishes like the garlic rolls, lasagna and eggplant “pancakes”—basically deconstructed eggplant Parm—are on the new menu, as are posh veal osso buco ravioli in truffle cream sauce and thick, juicy rib-eye served “arrabiata” style.

• Lunch and dinner daily. 561/239-7000. $$ matteo’s—233 S. Federal Highway. Italian. Like

the wheel, Matteo’s brand of hearty Italian and Italian-American food, served in giant “family style” portions, needs no reinventing. Though there is no shortage of local restaurants cooking in that genre, it’s the details of preparation and service that make Matteo’s stand out. Baked clams are a good place to start, as is the reliable chopped salad. Linguini frutti di mare is one of the best in town. • Dinner daily.

561/392-0773. $$

max’s grille—404 Plaza Real, Mizner Park. Contemporary American. Though its signature California-influenced cookery and “American bistro” ambience are no longer furiously trendy, this stylish restaurant is as popular as ever due to consistently tasty and well-prepared food. Dishes run haute to homey, from seared-raw tuna to meatloaf wrapped with bacon. And don’t miss the luscious crème brûlée pie for dessert. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/368-0080. $$ morton’s the steakhouse—5050 Town

Center Circle. Steak house. There’s seemingly no end to South Florida diners’ love of huge slabs of highquality aged beef, nor to the carnivores who pack the clubby-swanky dining room of this Boca Raton meatery. The star of the beef show here is the giant bone-in filet mignon, which trumps the filet’s usual tenderness with unusually deep, meaty flavor. The side of Grand Marnier soufflé is a cloud of luscious, citrus-y beauty that says while beef may be what’s for dinner, I am what’s for dessert. • Dinner daily.

561/392-7724. $$$

new york prime—2350 N.W. Executive Center Drive. Steak house. There are several reasons why the steak house has flourished since the caveman roasted a hunk of woolly mammoth september/october

dining guide

over a fire. All of them are obvious at this popular Boca meatery, from the swift, professional service to the classy supper club ambience to the extensive wine list. And, of course, the beef—all USDA Prime, cooked to tender and juicy lusciousness over ferocious heat. The bone-in rib-eye is especially succulent, but don’t neglect the New York strip or steak-house classics like oysters Rockefeller, garlicky spinach and crusty hash browns. • Dinner daily.

561/998-3881. $$$$

nick’s new haven-style pizzeria—2240 N.W. 19th St. Italian. Cross Naples (thin, blistered crust, judicious toppings) with Connecticut (fresh clams and no tomato sauce), and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the pies coming out Nick Laudano’s custom-made ovens. The “white clam” pizza with garlic and bacon is killer-good; Caesar salad and tiramisu are much better than the usual pizzeria fare. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/368-2900. $ ovenella—499 S. Federal Highway. Italian.

Game On! Catch your favorite sports teams in action this fall at one of these Boca watering holes.

IrIshman spOrts pub and eatery 1745 N.W. Second Ave., 561/368-1129 the scOre: This fully renovated Irish bar features 15 big-screen HD televisions, 32 beers on tap, 22 Irish whiskeys and an eclectic menu filled with paninis, wraps, quesadillas, homemade lasagna, fish-n-chips, shepherd’s pie and lamb shank stew.

bOca ale hOuse 1200 Yamato Road, 561/988-9142 the scOre: This South Florida chain (there is another location in west Boca at 9244 Glades Road) packs them in on game days with enough high-def TVs to keep fans of all pro and college persuasions happy. In addition to a solid roster of beer, wine and liquor, the Ale House is known for its monstrous menu—everything from wings and zingers to burgers and pasta to oysters and fajitas to steaks and seafood.

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duffy’s spOrts GrIll 21212 St. Andrews Blvd., 561/869-0552 the scOre: The self-proclaimed official sports grill of the Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers, Miami Marlins and Miami Heat has you covered no matter the season. There is even a Duffy’s party bus for certain Dolphins and Marlins games. Enjoy coconut-crusted dolphin fingers, Atlantic salmon, Philly cheese steak, Tex-Mex taco salad and wings— and don’t forget to ask about the M.V.P. rewards program.

backstreet GrIlle and spOrts bar 9101 Lakeridge Blvd., 561/883-2002 the scOre: This family-owned bar was created with the sporting public in mind—and it shows. Take a seat at the 40-foot fully stocked bar and watch the marquee game on a giant projector screen. In addition to classic burgers and hot wings, check out the spinach salad, barbecue baby back ribs, chicken stir-fry, fajitas—and the killer fries.

—Cassie Morien

Fernando Davila’s modestly stylish ristorante promises “a new take on Italian classics.” Pizzas from the oak-fired oven are a joy; we especially love the Etruscan (by request only), laden with chicken, bacon, escarole and creamy-dreamy Stracchino cheese. Vegetarian lasagna is good enough to make the meat version obsolete. Don’t miss one of the inventive cocktails, like a sweet-smoky-salty baconmaple old fashioned. • Lunch Mon.– Fri. Dinner daily. 561/395-1455. $$

p.f. chang’s—1400 Glades Road. Chinese.

There may have been no revolution if Mao had simply eaten at P.F. Chang’s—the portions are large enough to feed the masses—and the exquisite tastes in each dish could soothe any tyrant. We particularly like the steamed fish of the day, as well as the Szechuan-style asparagus. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/393-3722. (Other Palm Beach County location: 3101 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, 561/6911610) $$

philippe—200 E. Palmetto Park Road (closed for the summer). Chinese. The kitchen turns out Chinese cuisine of admirable subtlety and refinement. Satays are a signature, and dressed up in the culinary equivalent of black tie and tails, deservedly so. Green prawns are loudly colorful but quietly delicious. Crème brûlée is pure—and perfectly realized—French. • Dinner daily. 561/393-4666. $$$ piñon grill—6000 Glades Road. Contemporary

American. With a menu that seemingly lists every recent trendy dish to come out of modern American restaurant kitchens, you might think Piñon is a “been there, done that” kind of place. If the execuseptember/october

dining guide

tion weren’t so spot-on, the portions so large and the prices so reasonable, it might be. But you can’t argue with grilled artichokes with a zippy Southwesternstyle rémoulade, a pair of giant crab cakes with more of that good rémoulade or a chocolate-peanut butter pie that is the irresistible definition of lusciousness. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/391-7770. $$

racks downtown eatery + tavern—402 Plaza Real. Contemporary American. Though the menu generally falls under the heading of modern American comfort food, that can mean anything from elegant presentations like the jaw-dropping lobster cobb salad to homier offerings like burgers and pizza, fiery Buffalo-style calamari, succulent chicken roasted in the wood-fired oven and an uptown version of everyone’s campfire favorite, s’mores. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/395-1662. $$ raffaele—508 Via De Palmas. Italian. The highly evolved simplicity that is the glory of true Italian cuisine is on display—from sea-sweet lump crab and earthy-tasting green beans lightly dressed with lemon juice and olive oil to squid ink tagliolini with just a bit of delicate tomato sauce and shellfish.

Oven-roasted quail wrapped in pancetta and stuffed with sausage, pine nuts and raisins is nothing short of exquisite. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner daily.

561/392-1110. $$ renzo’s of boca—5999 N. Federal Highway.

Italian. The buzzword is fresh for this longtime staple of the local culinary world. Fish is prepared daily oreganata or Livornese style, sautéed in white wine with lemon and capers or grilled. Each homemade pasta dish is artfully seasoned, and Renzo’s tomato sauce is ethereal. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly.

561/994-3495. $$ ristorante sapori—301 Via de Palmas, Royal Palm Place. Italian. Sapori features fresh fish, veal and chicken dishes imbued with subtle flavors. The grilled Italian branzino, the veal chop Milan and the zuppa di pesce served over linguine are especially tasty, and the pasta (all 17 kinds!) is available in full and half orders, with your choice of 15 zesty sauces. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/367-9779. $$ ristorante saporissimo—366 E. Palmetto

Park Road. Tuscan. This little restaurant is making culinary magic. Here, a taste of Italy is brought to life with rabbit cacciatorá (Tuscany style), veal ossobuco, homemade pasta with wild boar sausage, and a tasty rack of venison. Homemade desserts, including tiramisu, panna cotta and zuppa ingles, will take your breath away. Service is out of this world. • Dinner nightly. Outdoor dining. 561/750-2333. $$$

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rosario’s—145 S.E. Mizner Blvd. Italian. A

simple menu reading doesn’t reveal the quality of ingredients and the care and skill that go into the preparation here. The often fusty, rubbery clams casino is remarkably light and fresh-tasting. Perciatelli Amatriciana is hearty and meaty but no less finely crafted, while the signature chicken Rosario’s (with sausage, potatoes and peppers) is full of old-fashioned goodness. With effortlessly competent service and comfortable, unpretentious ambience, this is one book you’ll want to read all the way through. • Dinner daily. 561/393-0758. $$

ruth’s chris steak house—225 N.E. Mizner

Blvd., Mizner Park. Steaks. This is a refreshing departure from the dark-wood-and-cigar-crowded ambience common to many steak houses; the room is comfortable, and conversation is possible. Naturally, we come here for the steak (they are sublime), but the lobster and fish are great. All your favorite sides are here, too. • Dinner nightly. 561/392-6746. (Other Palm Beach County locations: 661 U.S. Highway 1, North Palm Beach, 561/863-0660; CityPlace, West Palm Beach, 561/514-3544) $$$

seasons 52—2300 Executive Center Drive.

Contemporary American. The food—seasonal ingredients, simply and healthfully prepared, accompanied by interesting wines—is first-rate, from salmon roasted on a cedar plank to desserts served in oversized shot glasses. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/998-9952. (Other Palm Beach County location: 11611 Ellison Wilson Road, Palm Beach Gardens, 561/625-5852) $$ sushi ray—5250 Town Center Circle. Japanese/

Sushi. Sushi Ray offers all the comforts and ambience of an upscale “white tablecloth” restaurant while serving up impeccably fresh and exactingly prepared sushi and other Japanese specialties. The Nobu-esque miso sea bass gives a taste of this modern classic at a fraction of the price of the original, while the chef’s sushi assortment offers a generous arrangement of nigiri and maki for an exceedingly reasonable $20. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner daily.

561/394-9506. $$

table 42—399 S.E. Mizner Blvd. Italian. A contemporary Amer-Italian osteria with pizza is as good a way as any to describe Gary Rack’s reborn Coal Mine Pizza. The menu is compact but offers many mix-and-match opportunities done with great attention to detail. The results are on your plate in the form of irresistible chicken wings spiked with lemon, scallions and Parmesan; linguine in deliriously rich and creamy pesto and tiramisu so good it transcends cliché. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/826-2625. $$

taverna kyma—6298 N. Federal Highway.

Greek/Mediterranean. Few present Greek cuisine better than Kyma. The menu is brimming with expertly prepared dishes that cover the spectrum of Mediterranean cuisine, from cold appetizers (dolmades; grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs) to hot starters (spanakopita, baked phyllo with spinach and feta cheese) to mouthwatering entrées like lamb shank (slow-cooked in a tomato sauce and served on a bed of orzo), massive stuffed peppers or a variety of kebobs. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/994-2828. $$ trattoria romana—499 E. Palmetto Park

Road. Italian. This local mainstay does Italian classics and its own lengthy list of ambitious specials with unusual skill and aplomb. The cozy dining room is a welcome respite from the outside world, and service is at a level not always seen in local eateries. Pay attention to the daily specials, especially if it includes impeccably done langostini oreganata and the restaurant’s signature jumbo shrimp saltimbocca. • Dinner daily. 561/393-6715. $$$

truluck’s—351 Plaza Real. Seafood. This stylish and sophisticated Mizner Park restaurant applies the steak house formula of classy, clubby ambience, formal service and an extensive wine list to seafood from across the nation, generally with success. Crab is the specialty here and there are myriad versions— stone, Dungeness, Alaskan, soft-shell and more.

Crispy soft-shells stuffed with crab and andouille are very good, if served without a drizzle of ketchup-y sauce on top. • Dinner nightly. 561/391-0755. $$$ uncle julio’s—449 Plaza Real, Mizner Park.

Mexican. Taking Tex-Mex cuisine gently upscale with better-quality ingredients and more skillful preparation, this raucous, colorful eatery offers a bit more than just the usual Mexican culinary suspects.

You can get frog’s legs and quail (the latter quite tasty under a mop of chipotle barbecue sauce), as well as favorites like beef and chicken fajitas, and one of the only palatable tamales around. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/300-3530. $

uncle tai’s—5250 Town Center Circle.

Chinese. In an area with more cookie-cutter Chinese restaurants than cookies, Uncle Tai’s stands out for the elegance of its decor, the professionalism of its service and its careful preparation of familiar and less-familiar dishes. The “specialties” section of the menu is where the most exciting dishes are, like the Hunan vegetable pie, finely minced veggies sandwiched between sheets of crispy bean curd skin, and Hunan-style lamb, whose seared and succulent meat shows off the kitchen’s skill in the use of wok qi.

• Lunch and dinner daily. 561/368-8806. $$$

september/october

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dining guide

villagio italian eatery—344 Plaza Real.

Italian. The classic Italian comfort food at this Mizner Park establishment, which opened in 2009, is served with flair and great attention to detail.

The reasonably priced menu—with generous portions—includes all your favorites (veal Parmesan,

Caesar salad) and some outstanding seafood dishes (Maine lobster with shrimp, mussels and clams on linguine). There is a full wine list and ample people-watching opportunities given the prime outdoor seating. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561-447-2257. $$

PITA PARTy

vino—114 N.E. Second St. Wine Bar/Italian. A globe-trotting wine list of some 250 bottles (all available by the glass) offers a multitude of excellent choices, especially among Italian and California reds. The menu of “Italian tapas” serves up everything from tasty breaded and fried artichoke hearts to a trio of Italian sliders (topped with three different cheeses) to ravishing ricotta and fig-stuffed ravioli with prosciutto, balsamic syrup and brown butter.

• Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/869-0030. $ vivo partenza—1450 N. Federal Highway. Ital-

ian. On the heartier side of the menu at Tony Bova’s eatery is an appetizer of three giant meatballs in a well-made San Marzano tomato sauce that could easily serve as an entrée. More delicate fare includes a brilliantly prepared salmon. Do the zabaglione with fresh berries for dessert. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561-750-2120. $$

west boca

If you’re over that $5 foot-long sandwich but still want a healthy lunch, try swapping that tube of dough for a pita. Pita bread is thin, it’s light and it’s eminently stuff-able. Here are four local spots perfecting the pita.

PITA PIT

PITA PRINCIPLE

the buzz: Pita Pit is new to Boca Raton but a staple in most college towns across the country. Select your pita bread (white or wheat), meat of choice (try the juicy chicken breast or Dagwood with turkey, ham and prime rib), and pack your pocket with everything from lettuce and spinach to red pepper hummus and pineapple chunks. If you choose to eat in, grab Connect Four or Jenga, and play while you eat. Pita Pit also serves smoothies.

the buzz: Open Monday through Friday, Pita Principle offers takeout, delivery and catering from an extensive menu of chicken, deli and vegetarian pitas—as well as unique options like meatball Parmesan, fried fish, turkey cranberry mayo, hamburger and pizza. Each order comes with a side salad: Greek, garden or Caesar.

BOCA PITA EXPRESS

the buzz: Within HotDog-opolis lives Pita-opolis, a pita menu created specially by respected chef Gary Wood (late of Aura and 32 East). Try the southwestern chicken pita, filled with black beans, cilantro, avocado, fresh lime juice and chipotle lime cilantro dressing, or the BLTita, topped in buttermilk ranch dressing. Any of the eight pita options on the menu also can be prepared as a salad.

—Cassie Morien

2200 Glades Road, Boca Raton, 561/544-0810

7158 N. Beracasa Way, Boca Raton, 561/750-0088

the buzz: Commonly referred to as BPX, this kosher restaurant serves lunch and dinner with a full menu (including sushi and burgers), as well as six different pita options. Try the classic falafel, Moroccan kabob, or shawarma, a mix of turkey and chicken. If you are really feeling feisty, go for the chicken schnitzel.

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109 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, 561/367-7644

HOTDOG-OPOLIS 6020 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, 561/988-5959

city fish market—7940 Glades Road. Seafood.

A multimillion-dollar remodel of the old Pete’s has turned it into an elegant seafood house. The whole package is here: friendly and efficient service, lengthy seafood-friendly wine list, impeccably fresh fish and shellfish cooked with much care and little artifice. Do sample the fresh oysters and the plump crab cake. Simply griddled fish is an honest, uncomplicated pleasure. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner daily.

561/487-1600. $$ phuket thai restaurant—Palms Plaza,

22191 Powerline Road. Thai. It’s nothing to look at—just another little restaurant in another west Boca strip shopping center. But appearances can be deceiving; this restaurant serves excellent and authentic Thai cuisine in a cozy and unpretentious atmosphere. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly.

561/447-8863. $$

tempted thai & sushi—21065 Powerline Road. Thai/Japanese. There’s more than sushi to lure you here, though the sushi is up to the caliber of local competitors. There’s an extensive menu of Thai dishes and Thai- and Japanese-style creations, among them spaghetti in a fiery green curry sauce with grilled shrimp; a sushi roll with sheets of seared-raw New York steak; and a zippy take on tuna tartare that gilds the fish with kimchee sauce. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/353-2899. $ tempura house—9858 Clint Moore Road,

#C-112. Japanese, Asian. Dark wood, rice paper and tiles fill the space. An appetizer portion of Age Natsu, fried eggplant, is a consummate Japanese delicacy. Don’t miss the ITET roll with shrimp september/october

tempura and avocado, topped with spicy mayo, tempura flakes and eel sauce. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/883-6088. $$

villa rosano—9858 Clint Moore Road.

Italian. Step into the dining room, and you could be forgiven for imagining yourself in some rustic Italian hill town as the smells of garlic and tomato sauce waft through the air. Start by sopping up the house olive oil with slices of crusty bread, then move on to a stellar version of clams Guazzetto, delicate fillets of sole done a la Francese and one of the few versions of tiramisu to actually hold your interest. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner daily. 561/470-0112. $$

South Florida’s Top Seaside Italian Restaurant

boynton beach

2012 Readers’ Choice Winners:

bar louie—1500 Gateway Blvd. Eclectic.

Best Sunday Brunch

Attempting to split the difference between happening bar and American café, Bar Louie mostly succeeds, offering burgers, pizzas, fish tacos and a variety of salads, all at moderate prices and in truly daunting portions. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/853-0090. $

china dumpling—1899-5 N. Congress Ave.

Chinese. The dim sum basket is an absolute musttry. A choice of signature steamed dumplings are likewise spot on. The steak kew is delicious, and the clay pot casseroles are mighty enticing. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/737-2782. $

prime catch—700 E. Woolbright Road. Sea-

food. Simple pleasures soar—full-belly clams, fried sweet and crispy, or a perfectly grilled piece of mahi or bouillabaisse overflowing with tender fish. Don’t miss one of the best Key lime pies around. • Lunch and dinner daily, Sunday brunch. 561/737-8822. $$

sushi simon—1614 S. Federal Highway.

Japanese/sushi. Local sushi-philes jam the long, narrow dining room for a taste of such impeccable nigirizushi as hamachi and uni (only on Thursdays), as well as more elaborate dishes like the sublime snowy snapper Morimoto and opulent tuna tartare. Creative and more elaborate rolls are a specialty. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/731-1819. $$

Best Italian Best Wine list

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Open 7 days, serving Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Weekend Brunch.

Live Entertainment. Valet Parking.

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delray beach 32 east—32 E. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American. At a time when chefs and restaurants seem to be constantly shouting their own praises, Nick Morfogen and 32 East go quietly about their way of serving thoughtfully conceived, finely crafted dishes with a minimum of fuss and artifice.

34 S. Ocean Blvd, Delray Beach • 561-274-9404 caffelunarosa.com • facebook.com/caffelunarosa

561.368.5520 3360 N. Federal Highway (South of Spanish River Blvd. East Side Of Fed Hwy.) Boca Raton, FL 33431

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dining guide

The menu changes daily, but recent examples of Morfogen’s culinary expertise include plump scallops given an elegant bouillabaisse treatment and fork-tender venison with a terrific Asiago-fig risotto.

When the food is this good, you don’t need to shout.

• Dinner daily. 561/276-7868. $$$

atlantic grille—1000 E. Atlantic Ave. SeafoodContemporary American. This posh restaurant in the luxurious Seagate Hotel & Spa mines quality ingredients for maximum flavor. A light, chunky gazpacho with soothing cucumber cream is perfect warm-weather dining, and though braised short ribs

with mashed potatoes is heartier fare, it’s hard to resist the gum-tender meat ringed by a silken potato purée. The butterscotch-white chocolate bread pudding with rum crème anglaise (an occasional special) is pure wickedness. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/665-4900. $$

buddha sky bar—217 E. Atlantic Ave. Pan Asian. Don’t miss a meal at this stylish Asia-meetsindustrial chic spot with a view of the Delray skyline.

Chinese-influenced dim sum is inspired, while rock shrimp tempura and Wagyu tenderloin skewers with twin chimichurri sauces touch the heart and the taste buds. Veggie fried rice is exemplary thanks to the kitchen’s application of wok chi. • Dinner Wed.– Sun. 561/450-7557. $$

Casual Corner

cabana el rey—105 E. Atlantic Ave. Cuban tropical. Little Havana is alive and well in Delray Beach. The menu is a palette-pleasing travelogue.

Mariquitas (fried banana chips) are a tasty way to start your meal. For dinner, seafood paella is a winner, with mussels, shrimp, conch, octopus, scallops and clams. And the churrasco is terrific. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/274-9090. $$

South Florida has its share of restaurants with a friendly, neighborhood vibe and highquality cuisine at reasonable prices. Here are some of our favorites.

Brewzzi Generous portions of Italian and American fare—from thin-crust pizzas and homemade pasta fagioli to the milehigh Brewzzi meatloaf sandwich—put this bistro a step above the rest. Then there is the famed microbrewery, which keeps this locally owned chain crowded throughout the year. The popular Boca Blonde Lager blends Saaz and Hallertau hops into a smooth, crisp brew. 2222 Glades Road, Boca Raton, 561/392-2739; CityPlace, West Palm Beach, 561/366-9753

Burgerfi As much as you’ll enjoy the view (the beach is right across the street), the menu is even better with huge, all-natural Angus beef burgers, “hipster dogs,” dozens of toppings, fresh-cut fries, beer, wine, shakes, frozen treats and much more. 6 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, 561/278-9590

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CariBBean grill The Grill feels like a Little Havana lunchroom with daily specials that could feed a family of eight—including lots of yellow rice, pork, and plantains and beans. This is a family-style plastic-tablecloth kind of place with no pretensions. 1332 N.W. Boca Raton Blvd., Boca Raton, 561/362-0161

Toojay’s gourmeT Deli Like a nice warm bowl of chicken soup, TooJay’s is there for you when you need a little comfort food, such as matzo ball soup, chopped liver, more than a dozen salads, burgers and chicken sandwiches, a to-die-for Reuben and stuffed cabbage.

Don’t forget the legendary black and white cookies. 5030 Champion Blvd., Boca Raton, 561/241-5903; 2200 Glades Road, Boca Raton, 561/392-4181; 3013 Yamato Road, Boca Raton, 561/997-9911; 419 Lake Ave., Lake Worth, 561/5828684; 2880 N. University Drive, Plantation, 954/423-1993; Boynton Beach Mall, 561/740-7420; The Mall at Wellington Green, 561/784-9055; 313 Royal Poinciana Plaza, Palm Beach, 561/659-7232; Downtown at the Gardens, Palm Beach Gardens, 561/622-8131

caffé luna rosa—34 S. Ocean Blvd. Italian.

This favorite is always lively, and alfresco dining is the preferred mode. Entrée choices are enticing, but we went with the penne alla vodka with pancetta, tomato and basil. Also delicious was the costoletta di vitello, a center-cut 14-ounce veal chop lightly breaded and served either Milanese or parmigiana.

For dessert, you can’t go wrong with the cheesecake imported from the Carnegie Deli. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/274-9404. $$ casa di pepe—189 N.E. Second Ave. Italian. A welcoming staff, familiar Italian dishes done right and moderate prices define this cozy spot with a spacious outdoor patio. Two could share the fist-sized meatball with fresh-tasting tomato sauce and dollop of milky basil, before moving on to house-made linguine with clams, tender veal Francese and one of the best versions of tiramisu this side of Veneto.

• Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/279-7371. $$ city oyster—213 E. Atlantic Ave. Seafood. This

stylish mainstay of Big Time Restaurant Group serves up reasonably priced seafood that never disappoints, such as crab-stuffed shrimp with jalapeño cheddar grits, bacon, shiitake mushrooms and warm vinaigrette. • Lunch Mon.–Sun. Dinner nightly.

Outdoor dining. 561/272-0220. $$

cucina mio—16950 Jog Road. Italian. There are

many Italian restaurants in our culinary universe, most mining familiar culinary territory. This popular september/october

eatery does so, too, offering sturdy renditions of Italian favorites in enormous portions at correspondingly modest prices. The menu highlight is perhaps tiramisu, rarely made as well as it is here. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner daily. 561/499-9419. $$

cut 432—432 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. Steak house. Hipper decor, a more casual vibe and an inventive take on steak-house favorites make this sleek restaurant just different enough to be interesting.

Starters such as ceviche (prepared Peruvian style) and ultrarich oysters Rockefeller are first-rate, while the wet-aged beef is appropriately tender and tasty. • Dinner daily. 561/272-9898. $$$

d’angelo trattoria—9 S.E. Seventh Ave. Italian. Don’t go expecting all the tired old “Italian” culinary clichés at Angelo Elia’s wickedly stylish trattoria. Instead, open your palate to more authentic and exciting Roman-style cuisine, like roasted veal bone marrow with brisk caper-parsley pesto, creamy-dreamy burrata with roasted fava beans and watercress salad, the classic tonnarelli cacio e pepe (“cheese and pepper”) and the best gelato this side of a real Roman trattoria. • Dinner daily. 561/330-1237. $$ deck 84—840 E. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary

American. Burt Rapoport’s ode to laid-back tropical dining is like a day at the beach without getting sand between your toes. Though the restaurant is casual, the kitchen takes its food seriously, whether the steallar flatbreads, the thick and juicy 10-ounce special blend burger or homey apple cobbler. And the waterfront location just seems to make everything taste better. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Brunch Sat.–Sun. Dinner daily. 561/665-8484. $

dig—5199 W. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American. Proprietor Robert Greenfield has turned the former Greenfield’s restaurant into organichealthy-sustainable DIG (“Doing It Green”). Luckily, diners don’t have to suffer in pursuit of gastronomic rectitude with dishes like plump pan-seared diver scallops with pineapple-mango salsa, and luscious chocolate mousse cake. The four different greens mixes at the salad bar are crisp and pristinely fresh. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner daily. 561/638-0500. $$ fifth avenue grill—821 S. Federal Highway.

American. Since 1989, this upscale tavern has been a Delray favorite. The straightforward menu focuses on entrées, especially the famed Allen Brothers beef; choose from numerous cuts and preparations—and add a lobster tail for good measure. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/265-0122. $$

gol! the taste of brazil—411 E. Atlantic Ave. when U want to know

Steak house. The classic churrascaria formula— grilled meats, served until you can’t eat another bite—is done efficiently and quite satisfyingly. Start off at the well-provisioned salad bar, which offers more than three dozen preludes to meat eating, among them well-made calamari and ham salads, rounds of smoky eggplant, and rich and delightfully old-fashioned four-cheese chicken. Meats with a bit of fat are the best choices, especially the garlicky sirloin, slices of medium-rare flank steak and hugely flavorful beef ribs. • Dinner daily. 561/272-6565. $$

jimmy’s bistro—9 S. Swinton Ave. Eclectic.

Look up “cozy” and “charming” in the dictionary, and you’ll see a picture of Jimmy Mills’ tiny restaurant. Jimmy’s cheerily unpretentious atmosphere applies to the eclectic menu, which flits from China to Italy to New Orleans at will. Best bets are a lovely salad of ripe tomatoes and fresh, milky house-made mozzarella; a rich, elegant version of lusty Cajun etouffee; and caramelized bananas in puff pastry with silken vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. • Dinner daily. 561/865-5774. $$

greek bistro—1832 S. Federal Highway. Greek.

la cigale—253 S.E. Fifth Ave. Mediterranean.

henry’s—16850 Jog Road. American. This casual,

lemongrass bistro—420 E. Atlantic Ave. Pan-Asian. Casually hip ambience, friendly service, moderate prices and a blend of sushi and nouveau pan-Asian fare make this original Lemongrass and its three younger siblings some of the most popular eateries around. The quality of its seafood and care in its preparation are what gives Lemongrass its edge, as evidenced by impeccably fresh salmon, tuna and yellowtail sushi. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/278-5050. $

If you care more about well-prepared, generously portioned and fairly priced food than Opa!-shouting waiters, you’ll love this modest little restaurant.

Flaky, overstuffed spanikopita and miraculously light and delicate beef meatballs should be at the top of your appetizer list, and though entrées don’t always reach those heights, both a long-braised lamb shank and grilled whole snapper are certainly satisfying.

And the baklava is great. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/266-8976. $

unpretentious restaurant from Burt Rapoport in the west part of town never fails to delight diners.

Expect attentive service and crisp execution of everything—from meat loaf, burgers and fried chicken to flatbreads and hefty composed salads. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/638-1949. $$

house of siam—25 N.E. Second Ave. Thai. The

normally riotous flavors of Thai cuisine are muted at this charming, family-friendly downtown spot, but that seems to suit diners just fine. Dishes, generally well-prepared and generously portioned, include steamed chicken and shrimp dumplings with sweet soy dipping sauce and crisp-fried duck breast in a very mild red curry sauce. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner daily. 561/330-9191. $$

il girasole—1911 S. Federal Highway. Northern Italian. This South Florida classic is not trendy, but it offers a level of comfort and consistency that has been bringing people back for 30 years. The food is fine hearty Italian, with excellent service. Try the veal Kristy or the frogs legs. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/272-3566. $$

j&j seafood bar & grill—634 E. Atlantic Ave. Seafood. This local favorite on the Avenue— owned by John Hutchinson (also the chef) and wife Tina—serves up everything from burgers and wraps to a menu brimming with seafood options. Don’t forget to inquire about the stunning array of 10 specials—every night. • Lunch and dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/272-3390. $$

It’s a pleasure watching the professionals here at work. That extends to the kitchen, which turns out gently updated and classically oriented dishes notable for the quality of their ingredients and careful preparation. Sweetbreads in chanterelle cream sauce are simply glorious; a barely grilled artichoke with mustardy remoulade is gloriously simple. And watching your server skillfully debone a whole (and impeccably fresh) Dover sole is almost as satisfying as eating it. • Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/265-0600. $$

max’s harvest—169 N.E. Second Ave. Con-

temporary American. Restaurateur Dennis Max, instrumental in bringing the chef and ingredientdriven ethos of California cuisine to South Florida in the 1980s, is again at the forefront of the fresh, local, seasonal culinary movement. Max’s Harvest soars with dishes like plump Cedar Key clams with house-made tasso, savory bourbon-maple glazed pork belly, and crispy-skinned wild sockeye salmon with yuzu-truffle vinaigrette. The made-toorder donuts are pure decadence. • Dinner daily.

561/381-9970. $$

the office—201 E. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American. It’s a safe bet that your office is nothing like this eclectic gastropub, unless your office sports red leather and cowhide chairs, more than two dozen craft beers on tap and a menu that flits from burgers and fries to mussels. Don’t miss the restaurant’s winning take on the thick, juicy Prime beef burger and simply wicked maple-frosted donuts with bacon bits and two dipping sauces. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/276-3600. $$ [ bocamag.com ]

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prime—110 E. Atlantic Ave. Steak/Seafood. Prime

is aptly named for its heart of the action location, classy neo-supper club decor, extensive wine list and roster of designer steaks. Starters and desserts fare better than entrées, especially plump, crabby Maryland-style crab cakes and indecently luscious chocolate bread pudding. Service is a strong suit too, so with a bit of work this good-looking restaurant will fully live up to its name. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/865-5845. $$$

sundy house—106 S. Swinton Ave. Contemporary American. Everyone knows about the spectacular garden, home to hundreds of species of exotic plants. But the comforting-contemporary food deserves notice too, realized in such dishes as expertly fried calamari with zesty Moroccanstyle aioli; savory rack of lamb crusted with herbs, mustard and horseradish; and pistachio-crusted salmon with marinated fennel, artichoke, sherry wine and a citrus gastrique served with black rice.

Portions are enormous, so bring your appetite.

• Lunch Tues.–Sat. Brunch Sun. Dinner Tues.– Sun. 561/272-5678. $$ tramonti—119 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian. With its

roots in New York’s Angelo’s of Mulberry Street, this venue is always packed. Homemade stuffed manicotti is aromatic and glorious. Tramonti’s platter for two, containing fillet marsala, veal cutlet with prosciutto, fried zucchini and potato croquettes, is terrific. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. Outdoor dining. 561/272-1944. $$

tryst—4 E. Atlantic Ave. Eclectic. It’s tough to beat this hotspot with the lovely outdoor patio, wellchosen selection of artisan beers and not-the-usualsuspect wines, and an eclectic “gastropub” menu of small and large plates. Try the crisp-fried rock shrimp with chipotle-mayonnaise sauce. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/921-0201. $$ vic & angelo’s—290 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian.

God is in the details at this upscale trattoria, and He doesn’t miss much, including stellar service and an outstanding wine menu. Ingredients like Buffalo mozzarella, house-made pastas and San Marzano tomatoes are first-rate, and execution is spot on. Try the “Old School” meatball to start, the whole-wheat tagliatelle with garlic and chili-infused olive oil and the perfectly cooked veal chop. Portions are substantial. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/278-9570. $$$

Lake worth couco pazzo—915-917 Lake Ave. Italian. De-

spite the name, there’s nothing crazy about the cooking at this homey eatery. It’s the hearty, soul-satisfy-

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ing Italian cuisine we’ve all come to know and love.

Spaghetti Bolognese is a fine version of a Northern Italian classic; house-smoked mozzarella—breaded, fried and presented with a tangy tomato-basil fondue—is equally tasty. • Dinner nightly. (Tues.–Sun. during summer). 561/585-0320. $$

paradiso ristorante—625 Lucerne Ave. Italian. A Tomasz Rut mural dominates the main dining room, and there is also a pasticceria and bar for gelato and espresso. Chef Angelo Romano offers a modern Italian menu. The Mediterranean sea bass branzino is definitely a must-try. Plus, the wine list is a veritable tome. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/5472500. $$$ safire asian fusion—817 Lake Ave. Pan-

Asian. This stylish little restaurant offers food that gently marries East and West, plus a roster of more traditional Thai dishes and inventive sushi rolls.

Menu standouts include tempura-fried rock shrimp or calamari cloaked with a lush-fiery “spicy cream sauce.” Expect neighborly service and reasonable prices. • Lunch Tues.–Fri. Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/588-7768. $

LaNtaNa the station house—233 Lantana Road.

Seafood. If you’re hungry for Maine lobster, plucked live out of giant tanks and cooked to order, this modest replica of a 1920s train station is the place to go. Lobsters come in all sizes (up to 8 pounds) and are so reasonably priced that getting a taste of one without reservations is highly unlikely. • Dinner nightly. 561/547-9487. (Other location: 1544 S.E. Third Court, Deerfield Beach, 954/420-9314) $$$

PaLM BeaCh

café boulud—The Brazilian Court, 301 Austra-

lian Ave. French with American flair. This hotel restaurant gives Palm Beach a taste of Daniel Boulud’s world-class cuisine inspired by his four muses. The chef oversees a menu encompassing classics, simple fare, seasonal offerings and dishes from around the world. Dining is in the courtyard (not available during summer), the elegant lounge or the sophisticated dining room. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

561/655-6060. $$$

café l’europe—331 S. County Road. Current

international. A Palm Beach standard, the café has long been known for its peerless beauty, the piano player, the chilled martinis and the delicious Champagne and caviar bar. Try one of its sophisticated classics like Wiener schnitzel with herbed spaetzle, grilled veal chop and flavorful pastas. • Lunch Tues.– Fri. Dinner nightly (closed Mon. during summer).

561/655-4020. $$$

cha cha’s—150 Worth Ave. Latin/Tapas. A variety of small plates, from Mexican tacos and Argentine empanadas to Spanish potatoes make up the menu of this elegant yet casual pan-Latin eatery. Though not every dish is successful, the best ones—crusty-creamy papas bravas, savory shrimp and scallion crêpe, buttery cauliflower and fennel gratin, and indecently luscious dulce de leche pot du crème—will make your taste buds do a happy dance.

• Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/833-8800. $$ chez jean-pierre—132 N. County Road.

French. Sumptuous cuisine, attentive servers and a see-and-be-seen crowd are hallmarks of one of the island’s premier restaurants. Indulgences include scrambled eggs with caviar and the Dover sole meunière filleted tableside. When your waiter suggests profiterolles au chocolat or hazelnut soufflé, say, mais oui! • Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/833-1171. $$$

bice—313 Worth Ave. Italian. Bice continues to hold the title of favorite spot on the island for the see-and-be-seen crowd. The venerable restaurant offers a marvelous array of risottos and fresh pastas and classic dishes like veal chop Milanese, sautéed chicken breast and stuffed rack of lamb. The wine list features great vintages. • Lunch and dinner daily.

Outdoor dining. 561/835-1600. $$$

cucina dell’ arte—257 Royal Poinciana Way. Italian. The wide range of items on the menu and the great quality of Cucina’s cuisine, combined with its fine service, ensures a fun place for a casual yet delectable meal—not to mention being a vantage point for spotting local celebs. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Outdoor dining. 561/655-0770. $$

buccan—350 S. County Road. Contemporary American. Casual elegance of Palm Beach meets modern culinary sensibilities of Miami at the first independent restaurant by chef Clay Conley. The design offers both intimate and energetic dining areas, while the menu is by turn familiar (wood-grilled burgers) and more adventurous (truffled steak tartare with crispy egg yolk, squid ink orrechiette). But they’re all good. Dinner daily. 561/833-3450. $$

echo—230A Sunrise Ave. Asian. The cuisine reverberates with the tastes of China, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam and is spec-ta-cu-lar. Crispy jumbo shrimp with soybean plum sauce is delectable, the Chinese hot and sour soup is unlike any other, and the Mongolian beef tenderloin is perfection. Sake list is also tops. This offsite property of The Breakers is managed with the same flawlessness as the resort. • Dinner nightly (during season). 561/802-4222. $$$ september/october

dining guide

MIAMI HOT SPOTS

Check out these five Miami-based restaurants drawing raves for everything from chef star power to cutting-edge cuisine to show-stopping presentation.

Azul 500 Brickell Key Drive, Miami, 305/913-8288 Clay Conley may have moved on to Palm Beach, but Azul, the chic, elegant dining destination at the Mandarin Oriental, hasn’t missed a beat under new chef Joel Huff, whose résumé includes stints with such culinary celebs as ludo lefebvre and José Andres. Huff brings Asian and “molecular gastronomy” influences (plus a touch of Thomas Keller) to the restaurant’s contemporary American menu in such dishes as “Bacon, Eggs & Toast” (suckling pig, tempura duck egg, black truffle potato puree) and almond gazpacho with foie gras “snow,” argan oil, orange essence and golden raisin pudding. The wine list is a cork dork’s dream, with multiple vintages from such legendary châteaus as Pétrus, Haut-Brion and latour.

zuMA 270 Biscayne Boulevard Way, Miami, 305/577-0277 This wickedly stylish newcomer to the Miami restaurant scene takes its inspiration from the casual Japanese dining style called izakaya. The only u.S. zuma of seven worldwide, its plush, earth-toned interior, which boasts a main dining room, robata grill, sushi bar and sake bar/lounge, is as thoroughly modern as chef Rainer Becker’s 140

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take on Japanese cuisine. That can mean sea bass sashimi with yuzu, truffle oil and salmon roe; grilled king crab with ponzu lime butter; and spicy beef tenderloin with sesame, red chili and sweet soy. zuma, at the posh Epic Hotel, also boasts a terrace overlooking the Miami River and is even accessible by boat.

PuBBElly 1418 20th St., Miami Beach, 305/532-7555 From the neon pig’s head above the entrance to the pig logo splashed all over the restaurant, you might get the feeling that this “Asian-inspired gastropub” in an obscure corner of South Beach is all about pork. you’d pretty much be right. Pork belly with kimchee barbecue, bacon-wrapped dates, pork belly and scallion dumplings, and udon noodles with pork belly confit and poached egg are just a few of the piggy dishes on the mostly small plates menu. Of course, there is more, from oysters on the half-shell to Buffalo-style sweetbreads, all of it served in a cozy 45-seat space with an extensive selection of craft beers, sakes and boutique wines.

SCARPETTA 4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 305/538-2000 New york celebrity chef and Food Network personality Scott Conant is the force behind this opulent Italian ristorante in

The dining room at Azul

the über-luxe Fontainebleau Hotel.

Though no expense has been spared to create this swank, view-rich setting, Conant’s “Italian soul food” relies on prime ingredients and surgically precise technique rather than puffed-up “creativity” and showy presentations.

The restaurant is probably best known for the chef’s deceptively simple (but surprisingly complex) “spaghetti with tomato and basil,” an astonishingly flavorful and rich-tasting pasta that is to the stuff at your local red sauce joint what a Rolls-Royce is to a bicycle.

DB BISTRO MODERNE 255 Biscayne Boulevard Way, Miami, 305/421-8800 Daniel Boulud’s second local restaurant (after Café Boulud in Palm Beach) is in downtown Miami’s upscale JW Marriott Marquis hotel. The pair of dining rooms ooze big-city sophistication—modern but not stark, elegant but not pretentious and boast soaring 18-foot ceilings. There’s also an outdoor patio with views of the Miami River. Boulud’s contemporary EuropeanAmerican fare shows off that kind of seemingly effortless sophistication, whether re-imagining classics like vitello tonnato with tuna crudo and crispy sweetbreads or celebrating local ingredients in slowroasted grouper with royal trumpet mushrooms and smoked bacon jus. september/october

leopard lounge and restaurant—The

palm beach gardens

Chesterfield Palm Beach, 363 Cocoanut Row. American. This is British Colonial decadence at its finest. The restaurant offers excellent food in a glamorous and intimate club-like atmosphere.

In fact, it’s advisable to make early reservations if a quiet dinner is the objective; the place becomes a late-night cocktail spot after 9. The menu is equally decadent. • Breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner daily. 561/659-5800. $$

cabo flats—11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Ave. Mexican. Mexican cuisine often has more personas than Madonna. This highly stylized cantina adds another—that of California’s Chicano culture. All your favorite Mexican dishes are there, as well as enormous margaritas, but also niftier items like the terrific tuna ceviche in “tomatillo broth.” • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/624-0024. $

nick & johnnie’s—207 Royal Poinciana Way.

café chardonnay—4533 PGA Blvd. Contem-

Contemporary American. Expect flavorful, moderately priced California-esque cuisine in a casual setting with affordable wines and young, energetic servers. Try the short-rib or jerk chicken quesadillas as appetizers, and don’t miss the four-cheese tortellini as a main course. • Lunch and dinner Mon.–Sat. Breakfast Sun. 561/655-3319. $$

renato’s—87 Via Mizner. Italian with continental flair. This most romantic hideaway is comfortably buzzing in season and quietly charming all year long with Italian classics and a Floridian twist—like the sautéed black grouper in a fresh tomato and pernod broth with fennel and black olives and the wildflower-honey-glazed salmon fillet with crab and corn flan. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly.

561/655-9752. $$$

the restaurant— Four Seasons Resort, 2800

South Ocean Blvd. Contemporary American. With a casual, yet refined ambience, The Restaurant is the premier dining venue at the Four Seasons Palm Beach. Savor fresh Atlantic seafood in a contemporary setting complemented by innovative cocktails.

Don’t miss the mouthwatering dessert selections.

Live entertainment is featured on Saturday nights. • Dinner Mon.–Sun. 561/533-3750. $$$$

ta-boó—2221 Worth Ave. American. This

self-described “American bistro” is less typical “American” restaurant or classical French “bistro” than it is posh-casual refuge for the see-and-be-seen crowd in and around Palm Beach. The eclectic menu offers everything from roasted duck with orange blossom honey-ginger sauce to dry-aged steaks and an assortment of pizzas. • Lunch and dinner daily.

561/835-3500. $$

trevini ristorante—150 Worth Ave. Italian.

Maitre d‘ Carla Minervini is your entrée to a warm experience, complemented by a stately but comfortable room and excellent food. We love the crispy fillet of herb-crusted sole in a rich, buttery sauce and the veal scallopini in a lemon caper Chardonnay sauce. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/833-3883. $$$

when U want to know

porary American. This longtime stalwart never rests on its laurels. Instead, it continues to dish finely crafted American/Continental fare with enough inventiveness to keep things interesting. The popular herb-and-Dijon-mustard rack of lamb, regular menu items like duck with Grand Marnier sauce, and always superlative specials reveal a kitchen with solid grounding in culinary fundamentals. • Lunch Mon.– Fri. Dinner daily. 561/627-2662. $$

WellIngTOn pangea bistro—10140 W. Forest Hill Blvd.

Contemporary American. Add culinary influences from the tropics, Europe, Asia and Latin America to a trio of chefs from the Four Seasons Palm Beach, plus one Venezuelan designer-turned-restaurateur, and the result is this smartly modern bistro that’s bringing a real sense of gastronomic adventure to Wellington. Every dish sports an element that will tickle your taste buds, whether crunchy Asian slaw on ahi poke flatbread or beguiling lemongrass-kaffir lime vinaigrette with a slab of various blackened fish.

• Lunch and dinner Mon.–Sat. (Dinner only during summer months) 561/793-9394. $$ WesT palm beach b.b. king’s blues club—550 S. Rosemary

Ave. American. The restaurant at this club-dining spot won’t leave you singing the blues, but it will leave you wishing for more than a spoonful of the lusty flavors of its Southern/New Orleans cuisine.

Punch up the flavors of pan-fried catfish and shrimp with jambalaya sauce and chicken-fried chicken on a bed of mac ’n’ cheese, and you could let the good times roll. Buffalo wings, fried pickle chips and luscious banana bread pudding are good bets. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/420-8600. $

cabana las palmas—533 Clematis St. Nuevo Latino. With its bold, vibrant decor and flavors, this colorful restaurant is a treat for the palette and palate. Must-orders include mariquitas, thin, crispy plantain slices that are the irresistible Cuban answer to potato chips; cookbook-perfect ceviche of shrimp,

octopus and calamari that shows how chili heat can be both fiery and subtle; and the signature “Coco Cabana,” a habanero and coconut milk-infused curry with a wealth of veggies, tubers and fat, succulent shrimp. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/833-4773. $$

café centro—2409 N. Dixie Highway. Italian.

There are many things to like about this modest little osteria—the unpretentious ambience, piano nightly after 7 p.m., the fine service, the robust portions and relatively modest prices. And, of course, the simple, satisfying Italian cuisine. The kitchen breathes new life into hoary old fried calamari, gives fettucine con pollo a surprisingly delicate herbed cream sauce, gilds snowy fillets of grouper with a soulful Livornese. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner daily.

561/514-4070. $$ china beach bistro—407 Northwood Road.

Chinese. South Florida may not be a hotbed of fine Chinese cuisine, but anyone who loves the incredibly diverse, sophisticated food of the Middle Kingdom should be fired up about this chic restaurant. From exquisite dim sum (like steamed chicken and mushroom dumplings perfumed with kaffir lime leaf) to a superb version of Peking duck with impossibly crisp skin, tender meat and house-made pancakes, the food here is a revelation. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/833-4242. $

leila—120 S. Dixie Highway. Mediterranean.

Flowing drapes and industrial lighting complete the exotic decor in this Middle Eastern hit. Sensational hummus is a must-try. Lamb kebab with parsley, onion and spices makes up the delicious Lebanese lamb kefta. Take your Turkish coffee to the patio for an arguileh (water pipe) experience. • Lunch Mon.– Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sun. 561/659-7373. $$

marcello’s la sirena—6316 S. Dixie Highway. Italian. You’re in for a treat if the pasta of the day is prepared with what might be the best Bolognese sauce ever. Another top choice is the chicken breast, pounded thin and filled with fontina and prosciutto.

• Dinner Mon.–Sat. (closed Memorial Day–Labor Day). 561/585-3128. $$ pistache—101 N. Clematis St. French. Pistache

doesn’t just look like a French bistro, it cooks like one. The menu includes such bistro specialties as mussels mariniere, coq au vin and steak tartare. • Brunch Sat.–Sun. Lunch and dinner daily. 561/8335090. $$

rhythm café—3800 S. Dixie Highway. Casual

American. Once a diner, the interior is eclectic with plenty of kitsch. The crab cakes are famous here, and the tapas are equally delightful. Homemade ice [ bocamag.com ]

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cream and the chocolate chip cookies defy comparison. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/833-3406. $$

rocco’s tacos—224 Clematis St. Mexican.

Big Time Restaurant Group has crafted a handsome spot that dishes Mexican favorites, as well as upscale variations on the theme and some 150 tequilas. Tacos feature house-made tortillas and a variety of proteins. Made-to-order guacamole is a good place to start, perhaps followed by a grilled yellowtail (an occasional special) with mango-pineapple salsa. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/650-1001. (Other Palm Beach County location: 5250 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, 561/416-2133) $

umi fishbar + grill—2401 PGA Blvd.

Asian fusion/sushi. The tired Asian fusion genre is worked so carefully and sensitively here that it all seems new again. Choices abound on the fusion and sushi menus, but highlights include fluffy Chinese-style pork buns with heritage pig filling, terrific Mexican-style corn cooked on the robata grill and Nobu-esque sake-miso-marinated sea bass that’s a symphony of delicate and lusty flavors. • Dinner daily. 561/472-7900. $$

top of the point—777 S. Flagler Drive.

Contemporary American. The food is not only good but surprisingly adventurous, and the service is exceptional at this Intracoastal spot. Though there are plenty of steaks for the more conservative of palate, the edgier offerings, like smoky grilled octopus with “Catalan salad,” are definitely worth going out on a limb for. • Dinner Tues.–Sat. 561/832-2424. $$$

broward county deerfield beach brooks—500 S. Federal Highway. Continental.

Brooks remains a reliable source for fine cuisine.

Guests may choose from an à la carte menu or the more economical “complete menu,” which includes first course, entrée and dessert and a bottle of wine.

There also are plenty of alternatives to seafood, including duck, rib-eye or rack of lamb. • Dinner Wed.–Sun. 954/427-9302. $$$

tamarind asian grill & sushi bar—949

S. Federal Highway. Asian. Quiet and soothing, this multicultural venue serves sushi, sashimi, yakitori and wide-ranging Japanese appetizers, but Tamarind 142

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also presents a full menu of Thai classics and a sake lounge. Try the complex masaman curry. Finish with the red bean or green tea ice cream. • Lunch and dinner daily. 954/428-8009. $$

with raspberry jalapeno sauce, or coconut-crusted snapper. Go all out with any of a dozen or so unique desserts, cakes and pies. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Wed.–Sat. 954/564-3663. $$

fort lauderdale

café martorano—3343 E. Oakland Park

15th street fisheries—1900 S.E. 15th St.

Seafood. Surrounded by views of the Intracoastal, this Old Florida-style restaurant features seafood and selections for land lovers. Entrées come with a choice of soup, salad, a sorbet course and fresh breads. We love the prime rib. • Lunch and dinner daily. 954/763-2777. $$

3030 ocean—Harbor Beach Marriott Resort,

3030 Holiday Drive. American. The menu is heavy on seafood and changes several times a week. We recommend the sautéed Florida red snapper or the indulgent butter-roasted Maine lobster. For dessert, try the popular roasted banana crème brûlée.

• Dinner nightly. 954/765-3030. $$$

bistro 17—Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Hotel,

1617 S.E. 17th St. Contemporary American. This small, sophisticated restaurant continues to impress with competently presented food. The menu is surprisingly diverse, with everything from seafood chowder, burgers and pizza to cherry-glazed breast of duck. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

954/626-1701. $$

bistro mezzaluna—741 S.E. 17th St. Italian.

The bistro is all Euro-chic decor—mod lighting, abstract paintings. It also has good food, from pastas to steaks and chops and a wide range of fresh seasonal fish and seafood. Don’t forget the phenomenal wine list. • Lunch and dinner daily.

954/522-6620. $$ bongusto ristorante—5640 N. Federal Highway. Italian. This is a well-kept secret, featuring dishes that will meet the standards of those who savor authentic Italian. Mussels with scallions, garlic and heavy cream sauce is an appetizer highlight. Involtini capricciosi—tender-rolled veal stuffed with spinach, prosciutto and fontina cheese—is equally satiating, while the yellowtail snapper oreganatta melts in your mouth. • Dinner Tues.–Sat. 954/771-9635. $$ by word of mouth—3200 N.E. 12th Ave. Eclectic. It’s not just the words from the mouths of satisfied customers that make this obscurely located restaurant so consistently popular; it’s the homey, satisfying food that goes into those mouths. The menu changes, but you can always count on home cooking with a gourmet spin, like pork tenderloin

Blvd. Italian. What’s the magic that has people lining up for tables? We pondered the question over crispy calamari in marinara sauce, tender meatballs and sweet-buttery scampi with huge shrimp, followed by intensely flavorful veal osso buco. Our conclusion: explosive flavor, attention to all the details and fresh, high-quality ingredients.

Waiters whisper the night’s specials as if they’re family secrets. • Dinner daily. 954/561-2554. $$

café sharaku—2736 N. Federal Highway.

Fusion. Chef-owner Iwao Kaita’s Japanese-French restaurant may be modest in scale but is hardly modest in culinary ambitions. Its sophisticated offerings include an ethereal bay scallop soufflé with an unctuous sauce Americaine and roasted duck breast with a divine port-foie gras sauce that would be the envy of any classically trained French chef. • Dinner Tues.–Fri. 954/563-2888. $$ canyon—1818 E. Sunrise Blvd. Southwestern.

Billed as a Southwestern café, this twist on regional American cuisine offers great meat, poultry and fish dishes with distinctive mixes of lime, cactus and chili peppers in a subtle blend of spices. The adobe ambience is warm and welcoming, with a candlelit glow. • Dinner nightly. 954/765-1950. $$

casablanca café—3049 Alhambra St. Ameri-

can, Mediterranean. The restaurant has an “Arabian Nights” feel, with strong Mediterranean influences.

Try the peppercorn-dusted filet mignon with potato croquette, Gorgonzola sauce and roasted pepper and Granny Smith relish. • Lunch and dinner daily.

Outdoor dining. 954/764-3500. $$

casa d’angelo—1201 N. Federal Highway.

Italian. Complimentary bruschetta begins an adventure that runs from course to course. Many dishes are specials—gnocchi, risotto and scaloppine. The veal chop is grilled and blanketed in a thick layer of Gorgonzola. A delightful pasta entrée is the pappardelle con porcini: thick strips of fresh pasta coated in a light red sauce and bursting with slices of porcini mushrooms. • Dinner nightly. 954/564-1234. $$

chima—2400 E. Las Olas Blvd. Steaks. The Latin American rodizio-churrascaria concept—all the meat you can eat, brought to your table by a succession of waiters—is done with high style, fine wines and excellent service. The prime rib, sausages, filet september/october

dining guide

mignon, pork ribs and lamb chops are very good.

So are the swordfish and salmon. • Dinner daily.

954/712-0581. $$$

china grill—1881 S.E. 17th St. Pan-Asian. “Less

is more” is not the mantra of this huge edition of Jeff Chodorow’s iconic nouveau pan-Asian eatery.

The food, too, is all about more—more of it, more flavor and more satisfaction with dishes like plum and sesame-glazed lamb spareribs and deeply savory Korean-style kalbi beef. • Breakfast and dinner daily.

954/759-9950. $$$

eduardo de san angel—2822 E. Com-

mercial Blvd. Mexican. Try master chef Eduardo Pria’s pan-sautéed Florida blue crab and yellow corn cakes. As far as soups go, there’s the pasillachile-flavored chicken broth with fresh “epazote” (fried corn tortilla strips, sliced avocado, sour cream and homemade cheese). The pan-seared beef tenderloin filet mignon has so much gusto, it’s far too much to consume in one sitting. • Dinner Mon.–Sat. 954/772-4731. $$$

emunah café—3558 N. Ocean Blvd. Kosher, organic. Don’t let the New Age “spirituality” of this recently renovated restaurant (reopening Oct. 15) throw you off. Instead, focus on the fresh, organic ingredients that are incorporated into inventive sushi, soups and salads and (mostly) Asian-influenced entrées. • Lunch and dinner Sun.–Thurs. Sat. late evening hours. 954/561-6411. $ hi-life café—3000 N. Federal Highway. American. Get ready to enjoy delicious food and excellent service inside this unpretentious but pretty venue.

Check out the Cajun kisses, jalapeños stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. Hi-Life has a nice contemporary wine list with good choices by the glass. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 954/563-1395. $$ il mulino—1800 E. Sunrise Blvd. Italian. This

modest, unpretentious Italian restaurant doesn’t attempt to reinvent the culinary wheel. Instead, it dishes up big portions of simple, hearty, flavorful food at extremely reasonable prices. Zuppa de pesce is a wealth of perfectly cooked seafood over linguini

on the waterfront Cool off at one of the area’s popular outdoor watering holes by ordering one of their signature thirst-quenching cocktails.

Boston’s on the Beach 40 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, 561/278-3364 wacky Daiquiri: Take a sip of this frozen mix of Bacardi light rum and your pick of strawberry, banana, mango or lemon-lime. Have it your way.

GoomBay smash: Chill out with this concoction of Bacardi and coconut rums, orange juice, pineapple juice, a splash of grenadine and dark rum.

Benny’s on the Beach 10 Ocean Blvd., Lake Worth, 561/582-9001 mimosa: It may be the pier—or could it be the salty ocean breeze? Whatever “it” is, it makes this classic orange juice and Champagne cocktail taste that much better.

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JB’s on the Beach 300 N.E. 21st Ave., Deerfield Beach, 954/571-5220 the cosmo: Presentation is everything, and this electric drink comes with a dolphin on the side. Sip on this mix of vodka, Triple Sec, cranberry juice and freshly squeezed (or sweetened) lime juice. Cheers! remy’s manGo morninG sky: The morning sky couldn’t be more alluring thanks to this blend of coconut and peach Smirnoff and Tropics mango puree, swirled with Chambord.

Deck 84 840 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561/665-8484 the Deck fizz: Treat yourself to this medley of sparkling white wine with guava—and your choice of strawberry, pineapple, peach or mango puree.

Burto’s Berry lemonaDe: On the one hand, it’s a thirst-quenching lemonade concoction with berry puree— but don’t underestimate the subtle kick courtesy of Svedka raspberry vodka.

in a light tomato-based sauce. • Lunch and dinner daily. 954/524-1800. $

indigo—Riverside Hotel, 620 E. Las Olas Blvd.

Seafood. Enjoy delightful alfresco dining while sampling fresh seafood and exotic specialties.

Dependable choices like ahi tuna is joined by more intriguing dishes like sea bass and salmon, and landlubbers will enjoy a selection of steaks and chops. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 954/467-0045. $$ johnny v—625 E. Las Olas Blvd. American.

Johnny Vinczencz made his mark at Boca’s Maxaluna and Max’s Grille and (the former) De La Tierra at Delray’s Sundy House. Now in his own restaurant on Las Olas Boulevard, Vinczencz has evolved. As for the impressive wine list, Johnny V has more than 600 selections. • Lunch and dinner daily. Outdoor dining. 954/761-7920. $$ sea watch—6002 N. Ocean Blvd. Seafood. For

a right-on-the-beach, welcome-to-Florida dining experience, there’s Sea Watch. Decked out in a pervasive nautical theme, this is definitely tourist country, but it’s pretty and on the beach. The perfect entrée for the indecisive: Sea Watch medley, with lobster tail, jumbo shrimp and scallops broiled in butter, garlic and white wine. • Lunch and dinner daily. 954/781-2200. $$

shula’s on the beach—Sheraton Yankee Trader, 321 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd. Steaks.

This steak house on the beach provides what could be the best ocean view in two counties. Meat is the focus, with a compact menu of all your faves, as well as your new favorite steak, Mary Anne: two mouthwatering 5-ounce filets in a creamy cognac and shallot sauce. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

954/355-4000. $$ sublime—1431 N. Federal Highway. Vegetarian.

You can’t help but appreciate the passion of Nanci Alexander, founder of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida and owner of Sublime. Not only does her menu offer an alternative to animal agriculture, the company’s profits support animal welfare. The haute vegetarian cuisine delivers with dishes like mushroom ravioli and the Tuscan quiche. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 954/539-9000. $ sunfish grill—2775 E. Oakland Park Blvd.

Seafood. This spot continues to turn out the kind of inventive, sophisticated food that made the original Pompano Beach restaurant a major foodie destination. Its take on tuna tartare is still the gold standard, and you can’t go wrong with entrées like onioncrusted salmon or the grilled Atlantic swordfish. • Dinner Tues.–Sat. 954/561-2004. $$ september/october

dining guide

timpano italian chophouse—450 E.

Las Olas Blvd., #110. Italian. Sink yourself into oversized booths with elegant white tablecloths and prepare to dive into excellent signature bonein steaks. The menu includes chops and a diverse array of fresh fish and pasta dishes. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner daily. 954/462-9119. $$

HOllywOOd lola’s on harrison—2032 Harrison St.

New American. Chef-owner Michael Wagner reinvigorates quintessentially American dishes with exacting technique and inventive flavor combos.

Potato skins go upscale with purple potatoes that are filled with sun-dried tomato crème fraîche and caviar. Short ribs braised in Coca-Cola come with thick-cut onion rings and indecently rich, tarragon-laced creamed corn. • Dinner Tues.– Sun. 954/927-9851. $$

taverna opa—410 N. Ocean Drive. Greek.

POmPaNO beacH calypso restaurant—460 S. Cypress Road.

Caribbean. This bright little dining room and bar (beer and wine only) has a Caribbean menu that is flavorful, imaginative—and much more. Calypso offers a spin on island food that includes sumptuous conch dishes, Stamp & Go Jamaican fish cakes and tasty rotis stuffed with curried chicken, lamb or seafood. • Lunch and dinner Mon.–Fri. 954/942-1633. $

darrel & oliver’s café maxx—2601 E. At-

lantic Blvd. American. The longstanding institution from chef Oliver Saucy is as good now as when it opened in the mid-1980s. The peppered sea scallops appetizer is a must, as is Café Maxx’s cheese plate.

Main courses offer complex flavor profiles, such as the sweet-onion-crusted yellowtail snapper on Madeira sauce over mashed potatoes. Parts of the menu change daily. Oh, and don’t miss the sensational wine list. • Dinner nightly. 954/782-0606. $$$

Bring all your friends here and order a million mezes (Greek appetizers). Try the keftedes, Greek meatballs, and the lamb chops or snapper, which is filleted at the table. Don’t be surprised when your waiter pulls you up on the table to dance. • Dinner nightly. 954/929-4010. (Other locations: 700 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach, 561/8200002). $$

romantico ristorante—1903 E. Atlantic Blvd.

lauderdale-by-tHe-sea

cheese course—1679 Market St. Bistro.

Locals flock here for the made-to-order bistro sandwiches on fresh baguettes, daily quiche selections and cheese plates. Favorites include the applewood-smoked bacon with goat cheese brie sandwich and the Spanish salad with manchego, orange slices and black olives. • Lunch and dinner daily. 954/384-8183. (Other locations: 3451 N.E. First Ave., Unit 100, Miami; The Village at Gulfstream Park, 601 Silks Run, #1480, Hallandale, 954/458-4670; Mizner Park, 305 Plaza Real, #1305, Boca Raton, 561/395-4354.) $

blue moon fish company—4405 W. Tradewinds Ave. Seafood. This is one of the best spots around for waterside dining; the two-for-one lunch special makes it one of the most affordable.

Choose from a raw bar, fish nearly every which way, as well as daily, seasonal fish specials. • Lunch and dinner daily. Brunch Sun. 954/267-9888. $$$ lIGHtHOuse POINt le bistro—4626 N. Federal Highway. Global. This eclectic menu has French, Moroccan and Indian influences. Michelin-trained chef/owner Andy Trousdale prepares everything to order. We love beef Wellington (for two) and the yummy napoleon.

• Dinner Tues.–Sun. 954/946-9240. $$$ seafood world—4602 N. Federal Highway.

Seafood. This seafood market and restaurant, more suited to a pier, offers some of the freshest seafood in the county. Its unpretentious atmosphere is the perfect setting for the superb king crab, Maine lobster, Florida lobster tails and much more. Tangy Key lime pie is a classic finish. • Lunch and dinner Tues.–Sun. 954/942-0740. $$$ 146

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Italian. This is the perfect setting for good conversation, a glass of wine and delicious food. Fettuccine alla Romantico is hot homemade fettuccine poured into a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano. • Lunch and dinner Mon.–Sat. 954/946-9100. $$

westON

mIamI-dade county aveNtura bourbon steak—19999 W. Country Club Drive. Steaks. Michael Mina’s elegant steak house in tony Turnberry Isle features impeccable service, an encyclopedic wine list and a roster of USDA Prime Angus, Wagyu and Kobe steaks. You’ll also discover such Mina-esque flourishes as irresistible foie gras

“sliders,” and feather-light beignets accompanied by cookbook-perfect crème brûlée and chocolate pot du crème. • Dinner Mon.–Sun. 786/279-6600. $$$$

bal HarbOur la goulue—Bal Harbour Shops, 9700 Collins Ave. French. La Goulue means “the glutton,” and this stylish brasserie offers many excuses for gluttony.

Glisteningly fresh oysters for one, luscious foie gras presented in a green apple for another, opulent lobster risotto under shaved black truffles for a third.

• Lunch and dinner daily. 305/865-2181. $$$ bay HarbOur IslaNd the palm— 9650 E. Bay Harbor Drive. Steaks.

The Palm’s signature caricatures add a touch of comedy to the classic gentlemen’s-club scene. The portions are giant, but you’ll surely clear your plate of 3- to 7-pound jumbo Nova Scotia lobster or a tender filet mignon. S&S cheesecake shipped from the Bronx is pure heaven. • Dinner nightly. 305/8687256. $$$ cOcONut GrOve bizcaya grill—Ritz-Carlton, 3300 S.W. 27th

Ave. European-American. The versatile menu features “simply grilled” items. The boldly flavored menu also offers “house specialties,” contemporary takes on bistro fare. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 305/644-4670. $$

cOral Gables caffe abbracci—318 Aragon Ave. Italian. The

dining room is handsome and understated, a fitting ambience for Miami’s Action Central for movers and shakers. That’s just part of the draw of Abbracci, though the regional Italian fare has achieved its own status as some of the best in the Gables. You can’t go wrong with the porcini risotto or the pounded veal chop “tricolore.” • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly.

Outdoor dining. 305/441-0700. $$

la palme d’or—The Biltmore, 1200 Anastasia Ave. French. Chef Philippe Ruiz emphasizes modern French fare from the southern regions of France, doing so with classic technique and lighthanded manner. The portions are relatively small, encouraging five courses, and guests may design their own custom tastings, with a wide variation in price. • Dinner Tues.–Sat. 305/445-1926, ext.

2400. $$$ ortanique on the mile—278 Miracle Mile.

Caribbean. Bright Caribbean colors infuse the

september/october

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dining guide

atmosphere of chef Cindy Hutson’s Ortanique.

Menu highlights include tropical mango salad, spicy fried calamari salad, Caribbean ahi tuna with wasabi potatoes and jerk-spiced Cornish game hen. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly.

305/446-7710. $$$

pascal’s on ponce—2611 Ponce de Leon

Blvd. French. When Pascal Oudin ran the kitchen at the Grand Bay Grand Café, his tropical take on French cuisine earned him national acclaim. Now, he offers a more streamlined, but still contemporary, French menu. We definitely suggest the sea scallops, which are topped with short ribs and served with truffle sauce. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 305/444-2024. $$$

miami azul—500 Brickell Key Drive. Contemporary

American. From the kitchen of celebrated Spanish chef José Andres comes Joel Huff, who tricks out his luxurious Asian-European-Contemporary American menu with flashes of “molecular gastronomy.” Look for dishes like brioche-crusted yellowtail snapper with cuttlefish, chorizo brandade and squid ink “charcoal.” While looking out over the stunning expanse of Biscayne Bay from the chic, elegant dining room, look over the equally stunning wine list, which reads like an encyclopedia of the world’s great vintners. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/918-8288. $$$$

michael’s genuine food & drink—130

N.E. 40th St. American. At James Beard awardwinning chef Michael Schwartz’s unpretentious restaurant, you’ll get plenty of genuine satisfaction from genuinely delicious food, exactingly prepared and simply presented. Wood-roasted double yolk farm egg and crispy pork belly are divine. Surprisingly, all the desserts from rock star pastry chef Hedy Goldsmith aren’t rock-star quality, but dining here is such a genuine pleasure it almost doesn’t matter. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 305/573-5550. $$$

michy’s—6927 Biscayne Blvd. Contemporary

American. There’s a lot to like about Michy’s. Dishes like creamy truffled polenta with poached egg and bacon are lovely. The wine list is exciting and exceptionally well-chosen, and service is on a level rarely seen in South Florida restaurants. • Dinner Tues.–Sat. Entrées 305/759-2001. $$

romeo’s café—2257 S.W. Coral Way. Northern

Italian. There is no menu per se. After ascertaining your food allergies and preferences, Romeo will dazzle you with six courses. We loved the lightly breaded sea bass with lima beans, the risotto with 148

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scallops and cilantro, and the penne with capers and porcini mushrooms. Excellent service and a good wine list. • Lunch Tues.–Fri. Dinner Tues.– Sat. Prix fixe six-course menus. 305/859-2228. $$$

versailles restaurant & bakery—3555 S.W. Eighth St. Cuban. Versailles has been one of Calle Ocho’s most popular restaurants since 1971.

This is good-to-the-last-black-bean Cuban with a menu the size of the Old Testament. It’s also one of the better people-watching spots in town. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 305/444-0240. $ miami beach

leche and oregano-clam mojo. • Dinner nightly.

305/695-9125. $$

osteria del teatro—1443 Washington Ave. Italian. The exceptional Northern Italian cuisine at this restaurant has been consistently ranked among the best in Miami Beach. • Dinner nightly.

305/538-7850. $$ sardinia—1801 Purdy Ave. Italian. The food

is exactingly prepared, extraordinarily fresh and always delicious. Whether a selection of high-quality salumi, tube-like macaronis with veal meatballs in a lusty tomato sauce, or superb salt-baked branzino, dishes deliver the kind of soulful satisfaction all the “fusion cuisine” in the world can’t match. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 305/531-2228. $$

barton g. the restaurant—1427 West Ave. Contemporary American. Barton G., an event impresario with a flair for serious theatrics, has fashioned his unique restaurant with fun and interesting fare.

Choices include popcorn shrimp—served with real popcorn in a movie-theater container. Desserts look like props from “Pee Wee’s Playhouse.”• Dinner nightly. 305/672-8881. $$$

smith & wollensky—1 Washington Ave. Steaks. Cruise ships pass by large picture windows, while a stream of waiters carry thick, juicy, dry-aged steak—filet mignon, prime rib, N.Y. sirloin and ribeye. Creamed spinach and onion rings are textbook sides. • Lunch and dinner daily. 305/673-2800. $$

casa tua—1700 James Ave. Northern Italian.

sushisamba dromo—600 Lincoln Road.

escopazzo—1311 Washington Ave. Italian.

Escopazzo is consistently cited as the best Italian restaurant on South Beach—and bills itself as organic, with a raw foods component on the menu.

Pasta is the star here, hand-rolled and tossed with far more alluring partners than meatballs or clams—as in pumpkin ravioli with white-truffle cream sauce and pappardelle with buffalo-meat ragoût. • Dinner nightly. 305/674-9450. $$

yuca—501 Lincoln Road. Cuban. Young Cuban Yuca still packs them in—mostly because it remains one of the only places on Miami Beach to partake of upscale Cuban cuisine. There are plenty of old favorites from which to choose—like guava-glazed, barbecued baby-back ribs—and they still delight. • Lunch and dinner daily. 305/532-9822. $$

This 1925 Mediterranean Revival property with an oft-changing menu showcases simple, sophisticated ingredients that typify the best of Italian cooking. • Dinner Mon.–Sat. Outdoor dining.

305/673-1010. $$$

joe’s stone crab—11 Washington Ave. Seafood. You’re likely to wait a few hours for the privilege of getting a taste of old Florida (not to mention the best stone crabs on the planet). But it’s worth it. Fried oysters, lyonnaise potatoes, creamed spinach and Key lime pie are other specialties. • Lunch Tues.–Sat. Dinner nightly in season. Dinner Wed.–Sun., mid-May–July (Closed Aug., Sept. and half of Oct.). 305/673-0365. $$$$ ola at sanctuary—1745 James Ave. Nuevo

Latino. Creative ceviches are a signature of chef Douglas Rodriguez, none better than a mix of shellfish with octopus “salami.” Foie gras and figstuffed empanadas turn the humble into haute, as does the sublime roasted pork with garlic dulce de

Eclectic. Blend the influence of Japanese immigrants on Peruvian and Brazilian cuisines, add a dollop of Caribbean and a dash of South Florida, and you’ve got exciting and satisfying food. Sushi doesn’t get any more glamorous than when combining ahi with shiso leaf and a slab of foie gras. • Lunch and dinner daily. Brunch Sat.–Sun. 305/673-5337. $$$

miami lakes shula’s steak house—7601 Miami Lakes

Drive. Steaks. The coach with the most wins in National Football League history has a very straightforward game plan when it comes to food—large steaks and tasty sides. Classic cuts include a 32-ounce prime rib served on the bone, a 24- or 48-ounce porterhouse and a 16-ounce New York sirloin. 305/820-8102. (Other location: Alexander Hotel, 5225 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 305/341-6565.) $$$$ see our complete tricounty dining guide at bocamag.com.

september/october

7th Annual Keep Memories Alive Walk to benefit the LOUIS AND ANNE GREEN MEMORY AND WELLNESS CENTER of the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University

Caring Hearts Auxiliary·s

7

th

Annual Walk Affair

Steppin· to the Oldies - Bobby Socks Optional!

Presented by Bobby Campbell Honorary Family - John and Dotsa Bitove

SAVE THE DATE!

Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 Starts at 9 a.m.

Town Center at Boca Raton, North Entrance 6000 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL For more information or to register: 561.297.4066 nurchearts@fau.edu https://fauf.fau.edu/memories

The Caring Hearts Auxiliary supports comprehensive, quality services to families struggling to cope with the difficulties posed by memory disorders. Funds from the Auxiliary's Keep Memories Alive Walk support the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center's programs, services and Day Center scholarships, so that all members of the community may be served.

Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center, Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing — Florida Atlantic University www.fau.edu/memorywellnesscenter [ Phone: 561.297.0502

OurTown celebrating people from all walks of life who make our community proud

How Does It Feel?

RemembeRing 9/11

aaron bristol

Fire rescue captain Joseph Bartlett had worked his share of disasters, but nothing could prepare the Boca resident for Sept. 11, 2001.

Turn the page and learn what it was like to spend 16 days amid the rubble of the World Trade Center.

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151

OurTown How Does It Feel?

Joseph Bartlett at “Ground Zero”

Joseph Bartlett

A retired Palm Beach County Fire Rescue captain reflects on being a first responder in New York City following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The back sTory: Bartlett retired as a

Palm Beach Fire Rescue captain in 2008 after 27 years. He specialized in heavy rigging—working with cranes to dig through the rubble on federal search-and-rescue missions. Barlett’s job took him to New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, Haiti in the fallout of the 2010 earthquake and New York City after the fall of the twin towers.

The Boca resident, 64, has hardly slowed down since “retiring.” He continues to oversee tactical training for the military, traveling across the country for grueling sessions in disaster management. “You can only play so much golf, and you can only go on the boat so many times,” he says.

On the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bartlett shares some of his recollections with Boca Raton.

In hIs own words: “I was taking my department physical [when] somebody in the doctor’s office turned on a television. Even though I belonged to a FEMA search-andrescue team, I didn’t think we were going to get called until the second plane hit. We had a pager system at that time, and I’ll never forget it. While the doctor was examining me, I said, ‘I’ve got a feeling I need to go get my pager in the locker.’ No sooner did I grab the pager than it beeped. ... We were on the road [to New York] that day.

“Was I prepared to see what I saw? No. I don’t think anybody could believe the devastation. ... It was overwhelming the first couple of hours, until you got into [work] mode.

“I worked a lot with the cranes; we would create a void, then go in and search the void. I was there 16 days. I never saw a 152

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chair. I never saw a filing cabinet. I never saw a conference table. I never saw anything other than large pieces of steel and paper.

Everything else was totally pulverized. ...

We recovered a number of firemen and Port Authority police officers, but they were deceased.

“Shifts that were supposed to be 12 hours, sometimes [went on for] 16 or 18 hours. It was acrid, smoky and dusty the whole time; at night, it was so eerie with the artificial lights and the smoke rising. ... Your eyes always burned, and they were always red.

You always had stuff in your nose that you just couldn’t clear. Even though there were

still a lot of fires going on below the rubble, we created more fires when cutting metal. It was just ongoing, complete chaos.

“The people I feel for today are the relatives of those who died. There are children who are [11] years old that have no clue who their daddy was, and that’s a shame.

“I was pleased when bin Laden was killed.

I saw what the guy did. I’m sorry it took so long. For a man to create that kind of devastation and hurt [so many] humans ... how could [anyone] do that? I don’t think he deserved to enjoy the sunlight or to breathe fresh air. I hope he was afraid right up until they put a bullet in his head.” september/october

Save the Date the 30-minute interVieW

Woman Volunteer of the Year When: Oct. 18 Where: Boca Raton Resort & Club

Local dermatologist and Diamond Award winner marta rendon has a passion for her practice that is more than skin deep.

What: The Junior League of Boca Raton’s annual luncheon (which raises about $160,000 each year for League projects) celebrates 25 years of community volunteerism. Nearly 1,000 attendees will be treated to a luncheon and auction, a fashion show staged by Neiman Marcus, and the announcement of the 2012 WVOY.

[ 1 ] The president of The Rendon Center for Dermatology & Aesthetic Medicine has been a successful businesswoman and community activist in Boca Raton since she came here in 1999. Rendon was honored for her accomplishments earlier this year with the prestigious Diamond Award by the greater Boca Raton Area Chamber of Commerce. [ 2 ] Rendon, a native of Colombia, says she chose dermatology because it allows the physician to practice medicine in a myriad of ways. “There was an opportunity to treat people of all ages—children as well as adults. You could also do surgical treatments and aesthetics in addition to medical treatments. I liked the versatility. ... [Also,] it’s not like internal medicine, where you fix [a patient’s] blood pressure and you can’t see anything. In dermatology you can see the transformation. ... You get rid of their psoriasis and their skin is clear. People cry.”

the rendon FiLe ◆ Double board-certified physician ◆ Global celebrity dermatologist for Procter & Gamble’s Head & Shoulders brand ◆ Founder of Skin Care Research Inc. ◆ Clinical associate professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida Atlantic University ◆ Former clinical associate professor, Department of Dermatology, University of Miami School of Medicine ◆ Former chairperson, Department of Dermatology, Cleveland Clinic Florida

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Chairs: Holly Meehan (chair), Deanna Wheeler (honorary chair) aWard sponsor: Boca Raton Regional Hospital Last year’s WVoy: Lu-Lu Thomas, volunteer at the Boca Raton Historical Society First WVoy: Rita Hobbs, American Red Cross of the Treasure Coast From the president: “[Junior League] has a tremendous legacy in this community, with [four decades] of service. Encouraging volunteerism is our priority.” —Jackie Reeves, president, JLBR [ 3 ] Her practice also offers fillers for wrinkles, Botox and various lasers to eliminate skin discolorations and more serious conditions. Although she does minimally invasive cosmetic surgery, she is a believer that less is more. “We have a problem here,” she says.

“People don’t know when to stop. Every day I look at my patients and say, ‘No, you don’t need any more, you are going to look like a duck, like a chimpanzee.’ I have to bring them down to reality.” [ 4 ] Rendon, 53, believes that people “get on the wagon of chasing wrinkles or fuller lips and then they start getting distorted. You will not see people in my office walk out like that.

I am very, very, very conservative.” [ 5 ] As an industry adviser, she has worked

with companies from Procter & Gamble to L’Oréal to Johnson & Johnson: “Say they’re coming out with a new antioxidant treatment.

They will ask me to do research on the active

for more on the WVoY Visit bocamag.com.

ingredient, determine the science behind it.

And once they formulate it, they send the product for me to test in terms of texture, absorption, the way it’s used, the fragrance. We analyze all the studies, and we evaluate effectiveness—I might do a little pilot study for them with maybe 10 people. ... The other part is advising how they might market their product to other doctors. It keeps me on my toes and keeps me sharp; I am constantly bringing all that ‘newness’ into my practice.” [ 6 ] Rendon’s community involvement has included fundraisers like the “Kentucky Derby Goes Pink” for Boca Raton Regional Hospital that raised around $50,000 and the art exhibit she hosted for Soroptimist, as well as free skincancer screenings she has provided. [ bocamag.com ]

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OurTown

Slice oF

liFe

Helen BaBione CommuniTy aCTivisT

Her brother’s asthma first brought the Bates, Helen Babione’s family, to South Florida from Ohio in 1946—that and the fact that her grandfather had been a builder here since the 1920s. The family settled in Lake Worth in 1948, a time when window airconditioning units were starting to appear in houses, and store merchants would place TVs in their display windows, attracting small crowds on the sidewalks. Mosquitoes, as bad then as now, were an ongoing menace.

“My sister [would say] the mosquitoes were so bad she had to wear a raincoat to hang up the laundry,” Babione says.

The farm girl and Florida transplant ended up marrying a Lake Worth boy, Bob Babione, in 1950 and moving to Delray. In 1960, the Babiones moved to Boca, where the family established a funeral business. The couple had seven children (“one for every day of the week”) and a growing business, but that didn’t stop Helen Bates Babione from giving Boca perhaps her greatest gift— a lifetime of community service to causes benefiting the disabled, the mentally challenged and countless other organizations.

Babione shares some of what she’s learned along the way with Boca Raton.

■ Before IBM, there were about 20,000 people living here. Bibletown was very active back in those days, the Boca Mall was here, and there were more gas stations than restaurants. ... We had a free ambulance service back then, which was the hearse. We took that to all the high school football games.

■ I do such a small part, but it just makes a better world. It helps you become a stronger person. The people you are helping become stronger. I could sit here and feel sorry for myself, or I can get out and help somebody else and feel good.

■ I always made a rule not to go anywhere at night; I either helped my husband or my children [in the evening].

THe BaBione File

Here are just some of the charitable organizations/ events with which Babione has been involved.

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■ I just like to help people—one person at a time. My family always gave back. We lived on a farm, and back then there wasn’t anybody who came to our door who didn’t get a meal. You do whatever you can do.

[ ] Started: “Honor Your Doctor” luncheon, and has been Co-Chair of the “Go Pink” luncheon for the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation [ ] PaSt PreSident and board member: Soroptimist

Club, where she started the “Women of Distinction” breakfast [ ] Founding member: Horses and the Handicapped of South Florida, Twin Palms Center for the Disabled and the Habilitation Center

■ Bloom where you are planted. Do what you can do wherever you are.

[ ] member or SuPPorter: Kiwanis, St. Joan of Arc, Caridad Center, Junior League of Boca Raton, Women’s Circle, DebbieRand Memorial Service League, Boca Chamber, Elks Club, American Legion, and more

september/october

AARon BRISToL

■ There are 32,000 foster children in Florida, which shocks me to no end. They have a hard time getting scholarships because they don’t always stay with the same foster parents. Many of the homeless children have an even harder time getting scholarships. My goal is to find scholarships for [these children]. I am doing a walk in the spring with Kiwanis Club to help.

■ The easiest way to get involved is with your own church or faith. There are so many volunteer organizations in Boca, and you become better friends with people when you get involved in the same things. There is so much to be done.

Hometown Hero Shawn Friedkin

Life can be altered in a single moment. No one understands that better than the founder of Stand Among Friends.

T

wenty years ago, Shawn Friedkin was newly married with a 2-year-old daughter, a thriving career and a lifetime of opportunity ahead of him.

In the time it took for an 18-wheel truck to swerve into his lane, life as he knew it changed.

Friedkin veered to avoid the truck; his car skidded off the road and flipped repeatedly. He was airlifted to a local hospital, but doctors could not repair the damage to his spinal cord. He would never walk again.

“That was my introduction to the world of disability,” he says.

It also presented Friedkin with opportunity.

In 1997, he launched a Boca-based nonprofit to serve the disabled. Stand Among Friends, headquartered at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Nursing (777 Glades Road, 561/2974400), provides educational services and business resources to those in the community with physical and cognitive disabilities. The center offers a variety of career services, including job interview training, vocational evaluations, mentoring and counseling programs.

“We’ve placed [more than] 600 people in jobs in the toughest economy I’ve ever seen

Boca Bargains CheCk out these three great finds—only in our baCkyard.

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Dining in tHe Dark

in my lifetime,” Friedkin says. “We’ve done it by thinking out of the box, by developing programs that didn’t exist, with internships and apprenticeships, on-the-job training programs, and by working with good employers that are willing to ... come up with solutions.”

One solution offered by Stand Among Friends is the development of technology skills at its on-site lab. By becoming proficient with mouth-controlled joysticks, hands-free computer mice, eye-trackers, word prediction software and more, members of the disabled community can compete—and thrive—in the workplace. Stand Among Friends also works with the state to provide added employment-

boCa bonus at the resort PriCe: Call for summer special rates Where: Boca Raton Resort & Club (501 E. Camino Real, 888/543-1277) What’s the deal? Through Oct. 8, the Resort is offering a slew of inviting bonus perks for anyone booking a package deal. Guests can receive everything from a free room upgrade on arrival (based on availability) and free cocktails to free greens fees (excluding cart fee) and free tennis court reservations.

Visit boCamag.

Com for updates on Stand Among Friends’ “Dining In The Dark” fundraiser in October.

Restaurants in the tricounty area participate in the event, which gives diners a chance to experience the challenges of a visually impaired person by enjoying a full meal in complete darkness.

related services, from vocational rehabilitation to new eyeglasses.

The work is not just rewarding, Friedkin notes. It’s vital. “[We’re getting] the word out that there are people with disabilities who want to work,” Friedkin says. “[We want to] show what people with disabilities and determination can accomplish.”

For more information, visit standamongfriends.org.

taCo tuesdays PriCe: $1 Where: Uncle Julio’s (449 Plaza Real, 561/300-3530) What’s the deal? Every Tuesday, this Mexican hotspot in Mizner Park offers dollar tacos (your choice of chicken or beef)—all day long. Time your taco feast with happy hour (Monday through Friday, 3 to 7 p.m.) for specials on beer, house wine, margaritas, premium liquors and Patron Silver (from $3 to $7).

saluting our soldiers PriCe: Discounts on clothing Where: Banana Republic, Town Center at Boca Raton (6000 Glades Road, 561/338-3490) What’s the deal? Hats off to Banana Republic for honoring the men and women serving in our armed forces with a 15-percent discount off all purchases through Dec. 31. Just show a valid military ID and let the savings begin.

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155

OurTown The big evenT

The CounTess

Turns 100 For more than three decades, henrietta, Countess de hoernle has set the standard of benevolence by which all others in and around Boca follow. Later in September, the community will honor the Countess at a gala that celebrates not only her 100th birthday but a lifetime of philanthropic pursuits. Here is just a brief glimpse at that lifetime—by the numbers.

save The DaTe Boca Ballet Theatre also will honor the Countess at its Nov. 4 fundraiser, “A Princely Affair,” at Boca Raton Resort & Club.

Tickets: $85/adults; $45/ children 13 and under

9/24/12

The Countess is born Henrietta Rach in Karlsruhe, Germany on Sept. 24, 1912. She becomes “an American by choice” in 1931, moving to Queens, N.Y. to live with her grandparents.

2&9

The Countess has two daughters (Diana and Carolina) from her first two marriages to Karl Heinz Bisping and Jeff Gass. Bisping died in an accident; Gass died due to complications from malaria he contracted in World War II. Her daughters have given the Countess nine grandchildren.

1950 Adolph Count de Hoernle, owner of Stewart Stamping Corp., which

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manufactured metal stamp products in Yonkers, N.Y., becomes the Countess’ third husband. Their marriage lasts nearly 50 years.

55

PaLmer The street address in Bronxville, N.Y., of Lawrence Hospital Center, where, while volunteering in the hospital’s thrift shop in the 1950s, the Countess becomes inspired by the donor plaques on the walls.

She and her husband launch their own donor résumé by funding music scholarships at a Manhattan social club.

WhaT: Countess de Hoernle’s 100th birthday celebration When: Sept. 24 Where: Boca West Country Club Time: Cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 7:30 p.m.

Dress: Black tie/white tie, military or Scottish equivalent honorary chairs: Christine Lynn; Barbara and Dick Schmidt gala chair: Commander Isabel K. Paul gala vice chair: Dame Alyce E. Erickson TickeTs: $375 per individual; tables of 10 available for purchase ProceeDs: The Countess’ birthday wish is to donate 100 percent of ticket and sponsorship dollars to local charities.

1981

The Count sells his business in 1965 and travels the world with his wife. In 1981, the couple decide to split their time between Bronxville and Boca; they retire here permanently in 1989.

the de Hoernle name in Boca and abroad, including ones at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, the local train depot and the Center for the Arts amphitheatre at Mizner Park.

100+

Number of multithousand-dollar charitable donations made by the Countess to organizations in and around Boca.

6

Number of “dame” titles, including Dame Commander of Justice of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller (Malta)

$1 million Donation that the Countess made to the New York 9/11 fund through United Way of Palm Beach County

40

Approximate number of buildings that bear

9/11/98 Count Adolph de Hoernle dies at age 95.

$40

miLLion The Countess does not tout overall figures regarding her donations.

However, it’s estimated that her contributions in our area alone total at least this much. september/october

Boca Raton magazine’s

Preview Calendar september/october 2012

Pellegrino’s of boCa raton Welcome to Pellegrino’s Ristorante of Boca Raton, serving authentic Southern Italian food. Also introducing our traditional meat-in-the-gravy with pasta on Sundays. Summer special: Enjoy 20 percent off the entire check on Wednesdays and Thursdays (dining room only). Happy Hour is from 5–6:30 p.m. at the bar, featuring half price on select drinks and the bar menu. The restaurant is open at 5 p.m. Wed.–Sat. and 4 p.m. Sunday; it is closed Monday and Tuesday.

3360 n. federal Highway, boca raton 561/368-5520 pellegrinosofboca.com

assaggio del forno: tHe newest dennis Max restaurant Assaggio del Forno in Regency Court at Woodfield offers classic Italian food from Dennis Max, who brought you Max’s Grille at Mizner Park. Try our new Assaggio To Go convenient pick-up service. Happy hour daily 5–6:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m.–close. Dinner: Sun.–Thu., 5–9 p.m.; Fri.–Sat. 5–10 p.m.

3011 Yamato road, boca raton, fl 561/613-6460 assaggiodelforno.com

boCa Center's all aMeriCan PartY Saturday, Oct. 20, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. at the Courtyard A tribute to Lynn University’s Presidential Debate, this free family-friendly event will feature music, face painting, balloon artists, wild animal show, children’s voting booth, guest appearances from Captain America, Spider-Man and other friends, American Hero Costume Contest, Star-Spangled Banner Singing Contest and many other surprises. For more details visit bocacenter.com. the shops at boca Center 5200 town Center Circle, boca raton 561/361-9804 bocacenter.com

lose inCHes! Zerona treatMent PaCkage: 6 sessions $1,200 (reg. $2,150)* If you’ve tried diet and exercise but still have fat and inches you just can’t lose … it’s time for Zerona. FDA approved, zero pain, zero surgery, zero bruising, zero recovery time. *9 sessions $1,700; one month unlimited $3,000. Limited time offer, restrictions apply.

Plastic surgery specialists of boca raton rafael C. Cabrera, Md, faCs / scott t. farber, Md 951 n.w. 13th st., suite 4a, boca raton 561/393-6400 pssbocaraton.com info@pssbocaraton.com If you’d like to participate in this special promotion, e-mail sales@bocamag.com.

people

Boca Raton

spotlights

the most exciting

events in the

tri-county aRea

[1]

BOCA RATON ChoColate DeCaDenCe

Where: The Shops at Boca Center, Boca Raton about the event: The Junior League of Boca Raton hosted its annual Chocolate Decadence fundraiser and treated guests to a sampling of the finest sweets from South Florida restaurants, chocolatiers and caterers. The night included live music and a raffle giveaway of prizes. The 2012 Community Sweethearts— Marta Rendon, and George and Donna Zoley—were honored for their work throughout the community.

Proceeds raised from the event support the Junior League of Boca Raton’s programs and community projects. [ 1 ] palm beach Confections

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159

people [1]

[2]

ChoColate DeCaDanCe (Cont.) [ 1 ] Merle Berman, Bud Berkowitz, amy holland and Sandra tiffany [ 2 ] elizabeth ordiray and aaron linwood [ 3 ] Jackie pasalodos and Megan Rask

[3]

[4]

[5]

[5]

ipiC GRanD openinG

Where: iPic Theaters, Boca Raton About the event: The latest luxury cinema concept from iPic president/CEO Hamid Hashemi debuted at Mizner Park with a fundraiser. More than $20,000 was raised at the red-carpet event to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Junior League of Boca Raton, American Cancer Society, Holy Cross Hospital and the Will Rogers Motion Picture Foundation.

[ 4 ] Steven abrams, anthony Majhess, Mike Mullaugh, Susan Whelchel, Constance Scott, Susan haynie and hamid hashemi [ 5 ] Jesse and Becky Winner, and Megan and Kevin Quinn

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september/october

[1]

Catherine’s hope for a Cure Golf tournament

Where: Ocean Breeze Country Club, Boca Raton About the event: The golf tournament/ fundraiser created by Boca Raton resident Catherine Abbott-Horowitz raised $20,000 for Batten disease research. Abbott-Horowitz was diagnosed with the fatal, neurodegenerative disease in 2009.

[ 1 ] syndey hill, liv otto and Catherine abbott-horowitz

[2]

Visionaries Ball

Where: Boca Raton Resort & Club, Boca Raton About the event: The Boca Raton Museum of Art held its annual gala event and raised more than $250,000 to benefit the museum’s ongoing exhibitions, permanent collection and educational community programs. The evening featured a runway show of the avant-garde garments created by the art school’s fashion design students. Boca Raton magazine was a sponsor of the event.

[ 2 ] Jacquee Wolgin, Jeff Gold, shelley Gold, acey Wolgin, Bill Wolgin, marguerite Wolgin, richard Wolgin, andrea Duque and Daniel Wolgin [ 3 ] peg and lee Greenspon [ 4 ] front row: pamela sonnenblick, Jack sonnenblick, Dani sonnenblick. Back row: steven and micki hirsch robert sonnenblick and Jon sonnenblick [ 5 ] John and michelle antonini

[3]

[4]

[5]

when U want to know

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161

PeoPLe [1]

iNstaLLatioN GaLa

[2]

[3]

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Where: Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton About the event: More than 200 members of the legal community attended the South Palm Beach County Bar Association’s 51st annual Installation Gala.

Attorney Larry Corman was installed as the association’s incoming president. David E. French, a circuit court judge for Palm Beach County, was recognized as the 2012 Distinguished Jurist of the Year. The South Palm Beach County Bar Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to excellence in the law through our local community.

[ 1 ] David French and edward Garrison [ 2 ] Jay schwartz, tracey ulch, amy macwan and Larry corman

NeimaN marcus Gives Back [5]

Where: Boca Raton About the event: Neiman Marcus Boca Raton recently hosted an event featuring the Verdura “Hollywood Collection” at the home of Gail Wasserman. The event benefited Florence Fuller Child Development Centers.

Guests had an opportunity to view the special jewelry collection and enjoy a musical performance by the Boca Raton Symphonia.

[ 3 ] Lauren Johnson and Neil meany [ 4 ] allan and madeline Naftal, Gail Wasserman, and richard Lee [ 5 ] sharon and Jay DiPietro, and Pamela cazadilla

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september/october

[1]

[2]

Boca Ballet theatre’s evening of art, cocktails & hors d’oeuvres

Where: The Ora Sorensen Gallery, Delray Beach About the event: Patrons and guests gathered to raise money for Boca Ballet Theatre’s production, “Spring Fever.” Surrounded by exquisite paintings from the Ora Sorensen collection, guests enjoyed small bites, beer, wine and cocktails.

[3]

[ 1 ] vanessa Boltz, Jane tyree, and ron and Miriam tobias [ 2 ] susan and Jim fedele, Walker and anne henderson, and Margo henderson

[4]

[5]

the ultiMate Watch fair

Where: Levinson Jewelers, Fort Lauderdale About the event: Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino joined Mark and Robin Levinson, co-owners of Levinson Jewelers, and watch company executives from around the world at this event. The latest collections of fine timepieces were featured, including Backes & Strauss, Bulgari, Dior, Hermès, Jaeger-LeCoultre and more.

[ 3 ] ken and lisa crawford, and dan Marino [ 4 ] John kross and ralph stringer [ 5 ] robin levinson, vartkess knadjian and richard Jigarjian

when U want to know

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people [1]

[2]

[3]

The WhiTe parTy

Where: One Thousand Ocean, Boca Raton About the event: Nearly 175 guests, dressed in white, gathered in Penthouse Two of One Thousand Ocean for a night of cocktails, appetizers and mingling. Doug Ellin, creator of the HBO series “Entourage,” attended the event and spoke about his successful career.

[ 1 ] Doug ellin and Bryan Drowos [ 2 ] Shayna and richard Martinoff, Jennifer and Craig Zeuner, and erik and hilary rosenstrauch [ 3 ] Jordan Sherwood, Gary lesser and David Friedlander

[4]

[5]

reD roSe Dinner Gala

Where: Brooks Restaurant, Deerfield Beach About the event: Some 200 patrons, performers, sponsors and honorees, including Jan McArt (who received a lifetime achievement award), enjoyed a spirited and entertaining evening at the annual gala for the Boca Raton/ South Florida chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters. Winners of the NSAL South Florida Musical Theater competition and scholarship recipients from Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music shared their vocal, instrumental and dramatic talents.

[ 4 ] Jan Mcart, John Gallo and Christine lynn [ 5 ] alyce erickson and Kevin Kaminski

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september/october

[1]

[2]

[3]

JAFCO MOther’s DAy LunCheOn

Where: The Polo Club of Boca Raton, Boca Raton AboUt the event: The South Palm Beach/North Broward chapter of Jewish Adoption and Foster Care Options (JAFCO) recently hosted its 10th annual women’s luncheon. The event raised more than $90,000. JAFCO serves abused and neglected children in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

[ 1 ] helene Weicholz, with niki, Carli and Caryn Marsh [ 2 ] the Mother’s Day Luncheon Committee

WOMen’s PhiLAnthrOPy instALLAtiOn CeLebrAtiOn Where: Boca Raton AboUt the event: Fifty women gathered for the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County’s Women’s Philanthropy Installation Celebration. The group celebrated the past year, welcomed new leaders and honored exceptional leadership contributions. The federation serves the Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Highland Beach areas, raising and allocating millions of dollars each year for vital human services locally, in Israel and in 70 countries worldwide.

[ 3 ] April Leavy and Anne Jacobson [ 4 ] barbara Werner and Adele Lebersfeld [ 5 ] Wendy Pressner and emily Grabelsky

[4]

when U want to know

[5]

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Carr’s tour has welcomed more than 34,000 guests since its 2004 inception.

Among the revelations: Frank Stranahan, according to Carr, continues to re-commit his suicide in perpetuity near the famed property—the Stranahan House and Museum—that draws thousands of visitors each year in Fort Lauderdale.

Carr’s own ghost story began as a child on Long Island, where he lived in a haunted house for seven years. “My father decided to make the Cape Cod-style house into a two-story Colonial,” he recalls. “And when we did that, we disturbed something that was happening in the house.” Carr and his brother would hear inexplicable footsteps and doors slamming shut, and they’d see doorknobs turn of their own volition. Their family eventually called a Catholic priest to bless the house with holy water.

The experience planted the seed in Carr that has grown into a career. Southeast Florida Ghost Research meets monthly in a Wilton Manors library; currently it only has a handful of members. Many others have come and gone, perhaps expecting fireworks and receiving only the faint, garbled, questionable spurts of communication, collected over hours or days of time, that has become the ghost hunter’s lot in life.

“Some people join the group, and they find it boring,” he says. “And I can understand that. Sometimes I’m out there, and I don’t think I have anything whatsoever, and then I pack up and I go home. Then when I review the evidence, that’s when we start getting things.

“But some people are impatient. They want to see flaming heads running through the hallways. It doesn’t work like that.”

September/October 2012 issue. Vol. 32, No. 5. The following are trademarks in the state of Florida of JES Publishing Corp., and any use of these trademarks without the express written consent of JES Publishing Corp. is strictly prohibited: Florida Funshine and Florida Style. Boca (ISSN0740-2856) is published seven times a year (September/October, November, December/January, February, March/April, May/ June and July/August) by JES Publishing Corp. Editorial, advertising and administrative offices: 5455 N. Federal Highway, Suite M, Boca Raton, FL, 33487. Telephone: 561/997-8683. Please address all editorial and advertising correspondence to the above address. Periodicals postage paid at Boca Raton, Fla., and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: $14.95/7 issues, $19.95/14 issues. Single copy $5.95. No whole or part of the content may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission of Boca magazine, excepting individually copyrighted articles and photographs. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Boca magazine, P.O. Box 820, Boca Raton, FL 33429-9943.

september/october

speedbumps [ by marie speed ]

Ghost Stories The spiriT world may be a welcome diversion.

G

rowing up, I never thought that anything was likely to be scarier than running into a ghost. It has taken decades of adulthood for me to realize that the scariest aspects of life are right here: Macy’s dressing room mirrors, the Polo Club Shoppes parking lot, people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Charlie Sheen. It’s the real world now that frightens me; between modern politics and global warming and health care and “Mob Wives,” I am way more willing to stumble over a little ectoplasm than to pick up a newspaper. That’s why I love John Thomason’s story on paranormal investigators (page 114): It reminds me of being a kid and all the ghost stories we grew up with.

When we lived in London, my mother came home one day from an Officers’ Wives Club luncheon where a Tower of London historian had been the speaker. It must have been a doozie, because my mother walked into the house completely awash in ghost stories. (Never mind that I was about 10 years old, living in a creaky old four-story house off Hampstead Heath—and already hearing things that went bump in the night.) She proceeded to tell my sister and I about the illiterate street sweeper who went screaming into a local police station one night, terrified out of his mind, and then described to authorities in minute detail an 18th century funeral procession he saw climbing through the night sky over the Tower of London. Or the Bloody Tower night watchman who routinely felt something solid but invisible brush by him on his nightly rounds up the narrow spiral staircase, sending his little dog yelping down the stairs in the opposite direction. Or the two Beefeater guards who were found hysterical and shaking, describing what could only have been when U want to know

Anne Boleyn carrying her head as she drifted along the Tower’s East Wall.

Needless to say, that was it. My sister and I decided on the spot we needed to share a room, and we opted for a nightlight. But I can still remember many nights staring into the dark, hearing the old windows rattle slightly in the wind, the floorboards creaking above me, the sound I must have imagined of an old piano playing somewhere in the attic. This was London, after all, and I knew it. Londoners do not pretend there are no ghosts; they practically invite them to dinner.

Years later, the ghost stories continued, culminating in a real-life account I heard from my old friend Larry Gordon. Larry was a longtime bartender at the iconic old Homestead restaurant in Jacksonville Beach. The Homestead was a rambling, ancient two-story log house, once inhabited by old Mrs. Painter, who was said to haunt it; people claimed to see a pale face in a window on occasion, or a shadowy figure in black hovering in a hallway. One night, as Larry was closing up, he made all his routine checks, turning out lights, testing locks and tidying chairs. Out of the corner of his eye he saw what he thought was a wisp of smoke, maybe a half-lit cigarette in an ashtray. As he walked toward the smoke, it shifted, coalesced and assumed the shape of a woman—a pale, glowing figure that drifted toward him. As soon as he blinked, it disappeared. Completely.

Larry knows he saw a ghost, and he knows I believe him.

I still love ghost stories; they give me goose bumps, and they sometimes keep me awake at night. But the best thing about ghost stories is that they provide a nice, chilling, alternative reality—which may be not such a bad thing these days. [ bocamag.com ]

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TAKING OWNERSHIP It’s tIme to resurrect the dIsappearIng amerIcan famIly.

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very day the news crawl across the bottom of our TV screen reads “Unemployment at 8.2 percent” or “Seven million workers have dropped out of the work force—permanently” or “Medicare to be reduced drastically under the new Affordable Care Act,” “National debt skyrocketing past $16 trillion,” “GDP growth an anemic 1.9 percent,” “Forty-eight percent of Americans don’t pay taxes.”

After enough of these little info bites you start to conclude that America is becoming a second-rate country, one divided by special interests and by political parties so strangled by partisan ideals that they are no longer willing to lead. There is more pessimism in this country than I have ever experienced in my lifetime. We’re in big trouble, and we don’t have a clue how to turn things around.

A good starting point might be to rebuild the American family.

Rediscover it, redefine it, support it and bring it together so that it operates as society’s most important element. Revive those Sunday dinners around the dining room table with your children and their grandparents. Today, our families cry out for parents with strength and a commitment to their core values. Think of all the TV families from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, like the Andersons, the Nelsons, the Waltons and the Cartwrights. All of these programs, as idealized as they were, were in some way a reflection of who we were. And at the center was a strong father.

I am wondering whatever happened to dad. Why has dad abdicated his role as the leader of our family unit? Why has he lost the influence and respect he once commanded? There are no simple answers, but I suspect his slow descent into ineffectuality can be found in the time dads spend with their kids these days.

Back in my day, I don’t remember my dad being around much, but when he was, he was right there for us.

My dad was a traveling sales[ by john shuff ] man, departing on Sunday evenings by train from our home in Cincinnati to places like Buffalo, Chicago and Washington, D.C. However, when he returned, we always had dinner as a family.

Dad always wore a tie (except on weekends), and he engaged all of us in conversation. The dinner table was where we heard everyone’s hopes, dreams and complaints. Interspersed in these dialogues were his quizzes about the capitals of our states and countries throughout the world. (With the exception of Africa, I still know

myturn

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The author’s father and his sons: John, Paul and Tom Shuff

most of them today.) On weekends, I would caddy for him or work alongside him in the yard cutting the grass or gardening. He was an important part of my life, and I spent as much time with him as possible.

When we first came to Boca Raton in 1980, the magazine consumed us. As a result, our children’s grandparents picked them up from school, and we couldn’t have done our jobs without them. But no matter how busy we all were, my wife, Margaret Mary, insisted that we have dinner as a family every night. It was our only chance to touch base with our children, to share the day’s experiences and to listen to their thoughts and dreams and frustrations.

The American way of life has survived a Civil War, two world wars, Korea and Vietnam. It has seen a man walk on the moon. But the very innovations that have made us so unique—like the smart phone—have also led to the demise of our families. How many times do you see a family in a restaurant quietly texting or surfing the net rather than talking to one another?

It’s time for fathers—and parents in general—to take charge, to rescue their families. It’s time to recommit to this institution and bring everyone together. The nuclear family as we once knew it may be changing, but family is family—and nothing provides a stronger building block for a healthy country.

We may not be able to solve all of America’s problems, but a good starting point is in our own homes. september/october

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