R e d i s c o v e R T h e F o u R s e a s o n s • K a y a K i n g T h e s T. L u c i e
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Great Delray lanDmarks
Cheers!! cozy up to the
classic hotel bar
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[ your town - your magazine ]
contents [ december/january 2014 ] 36
editor’s letter [ 18 ]
The weather changes, we all get a little giddy and it truly is the most wonderful time of the year. By Marie Speed
on the avenue [ 21 ]
It’s the season to get a little amped up—try out the elegance of a classic hotel bar, ride a downtown trolley to the beach, and add some sparkle to your holiday table. We’ve got all that, plus where to go and what to do. By Stefanie Cainto, Bill Citara and John thoMaSon
style [ 32 ]
After-dark dressing is all in the details this winter. photography By aaron BriStol
dine [ 36 ]
The Four Seasons brings a new level of culinary magic to Palm Beach. By Bill Citara
play [ 38 ]
Kayak the south fork of the St. Lucie for a little outdoor world therapy. By Marie Speed
10
delray beach magazine
26
54
up close [ 40 ]
out & about [ 56 ]
moments in history [ 44 ]
dining guide [ 65 ]
Meet a man with movies in his blood and a biggame writer who lives up the street. By John thoMaSon
The stories and the people behind these historic places chart Delray’s colorful history. By riCh pollaCk
business [ 54 ]
Bruce Gimmy and The Trouser Shop have been dressing local Delray men for decades—one leg at a time. By riCh pollaCk
44
Autumn was all about dancing with community stars, luminous galas and grand openings; here’s who was there. By Stefanie Cainto
Check out Delray Beach’s only review-driven dining guide.
my turn [ 80 ]
The author recalls the glory of going downhill—fast. By John Shuff
On the cOver PhOtOgraPher: Aaron Bristol cOver MOdelS (from left): Axi Mines, Jessie Holland and Megan Knott clOthIng and acceSSOrIeS: Periwinkle, Delray Beach haIr: Rebecca Mousseau at Phairis MaKeUP: Lady Lash Studio Shot on location at Jellies bar at The Seagate Hotel, Delray Beach
december/january
BOCA RATON, TOWN CENTER MALL, 5800 GLADES RD. CALL 561.393.9100, VISIT SAKS.COM/BOCARATON, DOWNLOAD THE SAKS APP OR FIND US ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND SAKSPOV.COM. * UP TO 3 MSGS/WEEK. TEXT STOP TO CANCEL, HELP FOR INFO. MSG&DATA RATES MAY APPLY. VISIT SAKS.COM/POLICIES FOR MORE INFO.
WHAT’S NEW
Our newly renovated and expanded menswear area is home to even more celebrated designers like BALLY, JIMMY CHOO and GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI.
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FOR FASHION ON YOUR PHONE: TEXT BOCA TO 75283 (S5AVE) FOR INSIDER ACCESS, EVENT PREVIEWS AND MORE*
[m a g a z i n e]
group editor-in-chief marie speed editor kevin kaminski assistant editor john thomason web editor stefanie cainto video editor jen stone senior art director lori pierino art director nancy kumpulainen photographer aaron bristol production manager adrienne mayer contributing writers bill citara, rich pollack, john shuff franktheaters-revolutions_brm1213.indd 1
10/17/13 12:11 PM
contributing photographer cristina morgado sales director mark gold, mark@bocamag.com senior integrated media sales manager georgette evans, georgette@bocamag.com national account manager carey mckearnan, carey@bocamag.com director of special publications bruce klein jr., brucek@bocamag.com special projects manager gail eagle, gail@bocamag.com account manager matthew krane, matt@bocamag.com
JES publishing
561/997-8683 (ph); 561/997-8909 (fax) bocamag.com editor@bocamag.com (editorial)
Delray Beach magazine is published six times a year by JES Publishing. The entire contents of Delray Beach magazine are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the publisher. Delray Beach magazine accepts no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts and/or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. Delray Beach 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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december/january
HAPPY NEW…
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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 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 nomad_dbm1013.indd 1
10/16/13 11:21 AM
2012 Charlie awards Florida Magazine assoCiation charlie award (first place)
For an exceptional shopping experience!
best feature (Delray Beach) best overall magazine (Boca Raton) best photographic essay (Boca Raton)
silver award
best online presence (Boca Raton) best use of photography (Boca Raton)
bronze award
best in-depth reporting (Boca Raton)
2011 Charlie awards Florida Magazine assoCiation charlie award (first place) best new magazine (Delray Beach) best custom magazine (Worth Avenue)
bronze award
best overall magazine (Boca Raton)
2010 Charlie awards Florida Magazine assoCiation 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)
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2009 Charlie awards Florida Magazine assoCiation charlie award (first place) Mashpee commons cape cod, Ma 02649 508.477.3900
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bronze award
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best overall magazine (Boca Raton) best overall design (Boca Raton) best feature (Boca Raton)
best in-depth reporting (Boca Raton)
10/8/13 1:49 PM
december/january
ServiceS directory Delray Beach magazine is published six times a year, with December/January, February, March/April, May/June, July/ August/September and October/November issues. If you have any questions or comments regarding our magazine, call us at 561/997-8683. We’d love to hear from you.
[ subscription, copy purchasing and distribution ]
For any changes or questions regarding your subscription or to purchase back issues, call subscription services at 855/276-4395. To inquire about distribution points, ask for circulation director David Brooks at 877/553-5363.
[ advertising resources ]
Take advantage of Delray Beach’s prime advertising space—put your ad dollars to work in the premier publication of South Florida. For more information, contact Mark Gold (mark@bocamag.com).
[ custom publishing ]
Create a magazine tailored to fit the needs and character of your business/organization. Ideal for promotions, special events, introduction of new services and/or locations, etc. Contact Marie Speed (editor@bocamag.com).
[ story queries/web queries ]
Delray Beach magazine values the concerns and interests of our readers. Story queries for the print version of Delray Beach 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 Marie Speed (editor@bocamag.com). We try to respond to all queries; but due to the large volume that we receive, this may not be possible.
[ letters ]
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 Marie Speed (editor@bocamag. com).
[ calendar ]
Where to go, what to do and see in Delray Beach. Please submit information regarding fundraisers, art openings, plays, readings, concerts, dance or other performances to editor Marie Speed (editor@bocamag.com). Deadline for entries in an upcoming calendar 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 Delray Beach. A fine, reliable resource for residents and tourists. For more information, contact Marie Speed.
[ out & about ]
A photo collage of social gatherings and events in Delray Beach. 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: “Out & About” Delray Beach magazine 5455 N. Federal Highway, Suite M Boca Raton, FL 33487
december/january
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325 NE 5th Ave. • Delray Beach, FL 33483 (561)-278-9700 • woodlandfabrics.com Scan with your smartphone to join our mailing list! woodlandfabrics_dbm1013.indd 1
10/7/13 4:31 PM
delray beach magazine
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[ events ] Don’t-Miss EvEnts
December & January
The perfect place for your holiday gifts!
Home Decor | Lighting | Gifts & Collectibles Unique Jewelry | Coral Creations
HoliDay WinDoW DEcorating contEst
WHErE: Worth Avenue in Palm Beach WHEn: Through Dec. 15 WHat it is: Retailers deck out their halls, walls and windows with decorations to spread holiday cheer. Get ready to be enchanted.
lynn gingErbrEaD concErt
WHEn: Dec. 8, 3-5 p.m. WHErE: Boca Raton Resort & Club’s Great Hall WHat it is: Listen to seasonal classics performed by Lynn University’s Philharmonia Orchestra. The concert raises scholarship funds for students at the university’s Conservatory of Music.
HoliDay boat ParaDE
Debbie Brookes A 212 S. Federal Hwy., Boynton Beach 561.315.5717 A beachcomberart.com
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WHEn: Dec. 13, 6:30-10 p.m. WHErE: Starts at the Boynton Beach Marina until just south of Linton Bridge WHat it is: It may be holiday season, but it’s always great boating weather in South Florida. Enter your boat in the 36th annual Boynton Beach Holiday Boat Parade for free.
First nigHt
WHEn: Dec. 31, 4 p.m. to midnight WHErE: 21 venues in Downtown Delray WHat it is: Purchase a button to be admitted into all the First Night family-friendly activities New Year’s Eve. Think obstacle courses, face painting and magicians. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 day of. Call 561/279-1380 ext. 17.
DoWntoWn DElray FinE art FEstival
WHEn: Jan. 18-19, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. WHErE: East Atlantic Avenue, from U.S. 1 to A1A WHat it is: Now on its 25th year, this art festival closes down a one-mile stretch of the Avenue to bring you two days of arts and crafts and food. Visit artfestival.com to find out more.
tHE PolicEMEn’s ball
WHEn: Jan. 25, 7 p.m. to midnight WHErE: The Mar-a-Lago Club WHat it is: Honor the people who spend their days keeping us safe at this black-tie dinner and dance.
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delray beach magazine
10/9/12 10:23 AM 10/8/13 1:47 PM
december/january
[ letters ] Start with prices from the $200’s.
A few comments from Delray beach fAns …
Add ocean views.
from Lori richards, owner, the olive taste of Delray: Thank you for the great write-up in the October issue. It looks wonderful, and Rich [Pollack] did a great job of capturing my message. I’m very proud to be a member of the Delray Beach business community, and I’m very grateful for the support I receive from Delray Beach magazine.
Two beach clubs. And everything else you wanted.
from marie nofsinger, Delray Beach: A friend just dropped off her copy of Delray Beach magazine ... and the article about me is absolutely fabulous! John Thomason’s article is the complete and honest conversation that we had … no tomfoolery at all ... and he sure did his homework. I have never been so pleasantly surprised and so honestly explained. The photo by Aaron Bristol is really me ... in my yard. I can’t thank you enough for keeping this wild outlaw songwriter from becoming too reclusive. I can’t wait to show it off!!! Thank you a jillion times over. correction An incorrect photograph accompanied the dining review of Racks Fish House + Oyster Bar in Delray Beach’s October-November issue. The editors regret the error.
Make sure to sign up on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for the latest Delrayrelated news and events.
At Related Group’s Casa Costa, midway between Boca Raton and Palm Beach, you’ll find everything from classic resort amenities to an attended lobby, from your own beach club jitney to a pool deck overlooking yachts on the Intracoastal. And then there are the beautifully finished residences, with one, two and three bedrooms from the $200’s to the $500’s, ready to move in. No wonder it’s so easy to say yes. Penthouse sales center open daily. From I-95 take Boynton Beach Blvd. east to 450 N. Federal Highway. 561.364.4141. casacostacondos.com
Drop us a line!
Delray Beach wants to hear from you! Please direct all mail to editor@bocamag.com or send to Delray Beach magazine, 5455 N. Federal Highway, Suite M, Boca Raton, FL 33487.
december/january
exclusive sales by
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin. ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, REFERENCE SHOULD BE MADE TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES,TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. Obtain the property report by federal law and read it before signing anything. No federal agency has judged the merits or value, if any, of this property. This offering is made only by the prospectus for the condominium and no statement should be relied upon if not made in the prospectus. This is not an offer to sell, or solicitation of offer to buy, the condominium units in states where such offer or solicitation cannot be made. Prices, Plans and specifications are subject to change without notice.
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[ editor’s letter ]
By Marie Speed
the way we were
Then and now, a change in the weather and other seasonal notes
W
e wait all year for this. Blue skies, breezy days, highs in the low 70s. This is the holiday season, Delray style—and it still comes as a surprise after endless months of summer. We still count on it—that change in season that makes everyone here practically giddy with possibility. Windows fly open, bikes and kayaks appear, sweaters tumble out of drawers, crock-pots fire up. I wonder if it was always like this in Delray, back when Atlantic Avenue was a dirt road and people worked farms and air conditioning was still years away. Did they stand outside their houses, looking up at the sky, feeling the first cool air blow in from the northwest? That’s the Delray we revisit in this issue with a roundup of a few of our landmarks—places that help tell the story of Delray’s growth, from a safe place on the coast for stricken sailors to a tropical resort destination for well-heeled Michigan tourists. There were Japanese pineapple farmers in the mix, a whole colony of newspaper cartoonists, and traveling musicians on the Chitlin’ circuit who stayed at the La France Hotel. It is a colorful history, encompassing only around 100 years—a history that somehow ended up here, in a town known for its nightlife and restaurants and beaches and art and street fairs. The town every place else in South Florida wants to be. It’s a great time of year to celebrate where we have been—and perhaps take a look at where we are going. In addition to touring Delray landmarks, we’ll take you on a paddle down the south fork of the St. Lucie River, sip a cocktail at a few great hotel bars and meet a man who is redefining the moviegoing experience. And that’s just for starters. Enjoy this issue as we wish you a great holiday season and a happy new year.
5 (MORE) things i lOvE abOut DElRay bEach: 1. Green Cay Farm tomatoes from the Green Market 2. Quiche on Christmas morning from Ciao 3. When Rick Jankee’s band plays at Kevro’s 4. Watching the boats go by from Deck 84 5. Walking around the original Yamato-Kan at the Morikami
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december/january
glamour GIVE THE GIFT OF
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Avenue ~Save the Date~ Thursday, March 27, 2014 Mark your calendars for a memorable evening of dining under the stars—and down the double yellow line of famed Atlantic Avenue—at the food and wine event of the year. Join hundreds of guests—and an estimated 20 of Downtown Delray’s finest restaurants—at Florida’s longest dining table, one that runs more than five blocks. Savor the Avenue reservations are made with the restaurants directly beginning February 1, 2014. This is the event you won’t want to miss. For more information on this event, visit bocamag.com or downtowndelraybeach.com or call 561/243-1077.
Sponsored by:
inside: • hot list • cheers • great finds • calendar
[ 22 ] [ 26 ] [ 28 ] [ 30 ]
on the avenue News aNd Notes from delray beach
Season to Shine The holidays are here and we’ve got it all going in Delray Beach from
december/january
The Angelo Pizza from D’Angelo Pizza, Wine Bar and Tapas
delray beach magazine
aaron bristol
a great new Italian in town and the biggest Christmas tree in South Florida to pointers on tabletop elegance and why people still love a classic hotel bar. Great shows and music are everywhere this season, and Delray is hopping. It’s time to join the merrymaking and hit the Avenue; we’ll save you a seat.
21
on the avenue hot list
the holidays heat up Getting juiced (in a good way), two newbie boutiques open, trolley love and much more as Delray gears up for high-season fun. By s t e fa n i e c a i n to
light up the night
East Atlantic Avenue closes down for a night of music, art, food and festivities during Downtown Delray’s 100-foot Christmas tree lighting ceremony, Dec. 5 at Old School Square. The tree, which can be seen from I-95, is set up with a crane and takes nearly a month to build. It contains more than 15,000 LED lights, nearly 40,000 ornaments and will shine, for the 21st straight season, until the start of the new year. (561/2791380, 100ftchristmastree.com)
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delray beach magazine
december/january
One of D’Angelo’s meatball tapas offerings
buon appetito
West Delray has stolen the dining spotlight with the recent opening of D’Angelo Pizza, Wine Bar and Tapas. The third restaurant of this concept for chef Angelo Elia, who also runs the popular Casa D’Angelo in Boca, serves moderately priced Tuscaninspired dishes, hand-crafted gelato and sorbet and a variety of Italian wine. Mouthwatering dishes include poached egg crostini, pecorino meatballs and broccoli rabe risotto. (16950 Jog Road, 561/381-1234)
Florida by hand
Handcrafted and local is the Shoppe561 guarantee. This West Palm Beach store sells only the work of Florida artisans, with a portion of the proceeds going to organizations against human trafficking. The exceptions are colorful handbags made in Rwanda, with profits going to a scholarship program for a vocational school in that country. Expect items like repurposed furniture, handmade seasonal wreaths and clutches made from vintage fabric. Customers also have the opportunity to take courses offered by local artisan instructors. (319 Belvedere Plaza, West Palm Beach, 561/632-0128, shoppe561.com) Shoppe561’s Janelle Lang
something sweet
If you’re searching for unique holiday presents or hostess gifts with European flair, look no further than SÖTSAK, a new shop in Delray Beach that sells a range of Scandinavian housewares, toys and candy. The Swedish candy, which is free of trans fats, artificial colors and highfructose corn syrup, is sold by the pound and found in only two stores in the U.S. If you’re unfamiliar with Scandinavian sweets, we suggest Fazer, Finland’s most famous chocolate; Marabou, Swedish chocolate that used to be sold in IKEA and can’t be found anywhere else in the area; and salty licorice, a specialty candy you will either love or hate. (16950 Jog Road, Suite 115, 561/404-0244)
december/january
Jacqueline Sheridan
all the buzz
Juicing goes on all day at JuiceBuzz, the only freestanding juice bar in Delray. The establishment, started by two local yoga instructors, offers cold-pressed juices and 100-percent organic smoothies. Get refreshed with creations like Intuition, made with kale, mint, banana, honey, oat milk, nut butter and cinnamon. Jacqueline Sheridan, co-owner and founder, says JuiceBuzz employees believe in only the highest quality. That’s why they use a cold-press machine, which breaks down fruit with little to no heat. This ensures nutrients don’t get cooked off in the juicing process, and everything stays in its freshest form. All menu items are gluten- and lactosefree. (6 N.E. Fifth Ave., 561/278-6122) delray beach magazine
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on the avenue hot list
pampered and primed
With the holiday season approaching, you may find yourself with endless to-do lists and jam-packed days. Give yourself a break with Bella Reina Spa’s Bella Body Massage, the spa’s newest treatment. Created by Bella Reina’s lead massage therapists, the $137 pampering consists of a sugar back scrub, one-hour massage, aromatherapy infusion, rose-oil facial massage and pressure-point foot massage. The combination of sensory triggers and aromatherapy relaxes your mind and body—and renews the will for yet another party. (815 George Bush Blvd., 561/4047670, bellareinaspa.com)
red, blue and new
If the Delray Downtowner is MIA and it’s too far to walk, jump on one of the snappy red-and-blue trollies that now run from the Tri-Rail Station east to Atlantic Avenue and A1A from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. It’s never been easier to get around downtown. (downtowndelraybeach.com, 561/243-1077)
Paula Bloom
global conversation
This December, Delray Beach is joining a global conversation that spans as far as Seoul. TEDxDelrayBeach has teamed up with TEDWomen to bring 12 innovative community leaders to the first-ever TEDxDelrayBeachWomen on Dec. 5. Speakers include clinical psychologist Paula Bloom, who’s appeared on CNN and blogged for PBS and the Huffington Post, and Pascal Duphul, a Miami photographer who’s been listed as one of the country’s top 20 photographers. More than 150 TEDx events worldwide will hold conferences centered on the same theme: Invented Here. It commemorates innovators, thinkers, and local and global leaders. For the full list of speakers, visit the “Delray Beach” link at bocamag.com. (51 N. Swinton Ave., 561/251-7059)
Chef Kenny Weintraub
the perfect party
Throw a five-star dinner party without stepping foot in the kitchen. Kenny Weintraub, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, provides private-chef services and catering in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Martin counties. You can hire him for a day, a week or even a month. He conjures up everything from tapas and wine tastings to multicourse dinners, and he prides himself on his exceptional service staff. When you finally do pick up that spatula, he also offers private cooking classes. Chef Weintraub charges $75 per hour, plus the cost of groceries, but can tailor events and courses based on your budget. (303/931-8761, palmbeachprivatechef.com)
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“Thank You for Giving Me My Life Back”
ORTHOPAEDIC INSTITUTE
• Fellowship trained surgeons • Specialty trained nursing and rehabilitation staff • All private rooms • Dedicated patient rehabilitation gym • Private patient dining room • Pre-surgery information classes • Individualized care to help patients return to their active lifestyles as quickly as possible Call TODAY for a FREE Physician Referral, (561) 737-7733, ext. 84499. 2815 S. Seacrest Blvd., Boynton Beach www.BethesdaOrthopaedics.org
on the avenue cheers
the classic hotel bar Rediscover the uptown tradition of drinks at a great hotel lounge. By Bill citar a
T
here have always been great hotel bars. The Oak Room at the Plaza, Bemelmans at the Carlyle, The Pump Room at the Ambassador in Chicago. That tradition is alive and well in our neck of the woods—with area hotels from Miami to Palm Beach offering stylish watering holes replete with innovative cocktails, exciting bar bites and live entertainment. Here are a few we love.
Polo lounge
The Colony, Palm BeaCh The focal point of the action at the 1947-vintage Colony is its clubby Polo Lounge. Sharing the British Colonial style, luxurious furnishings and soothing earth-toned colors of the hotel’s premier restaurant, Polo Steak & Seafood, the lounge doesn’t really get going until late Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, when dinner service in the restaurant is over and the entertainment that’s made the lounge a local hotspot begins. What’s hot: “Motown Friday Nights” with the R&B quartet Memory Lane, which has the crowd spilling out of the lounge and into the poolside bar. And singer-pianist Tommy Mitchell, former lead vocalist of Blood, Sweet & Tears, who tears it up with everything from rock-n-roll to show tunes on Thursdays and Saturdays. Signature Sip: The “apple-tini,” a riff on the classic martini with vodka, apple sour, apple schnapps and a slice. Slice of life: Everyone from Bill Clinton to Joan Rivers has stayed at the hotel, but if you’re lucky you might see Rod Stewart in the Polo Lounge, checking out the show of his friend, singersongwriter Steve Tyrell. “You never know who’s going to walk in,” says food and beverage director Vincent Burlaos. 26
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Jellies Bar @ atlantic grille
SeagaTe hoTel & SPa, Delray BeaCh There may be bars with a more dramatic centerpiece than Jellies, but you probably wouldn’t want to lay money on it. After all, it’s hard to top a 20-foot wide, 2,500-gallon shark tank teeming with several species of Jaws, or a second tank behind the bar, this one inhabited by ethereal-looking jellyfish. Then there’s the chic, contemporary bar-lounge itself and its newly refurbished outdoor patio, outfitted with comfy couches and firepots. What’s hot: “Doo-wop Tuesday” with Joey Dale and the Gigolos. Also Wednesday through Saturday shows by singer-pianist Orson Whitfield, whose repertoire encompasses “jazz standards to rock and everything in between.” Signature Sip: One of Jellies’ 50 or so scotches, which also can be sampled in flights. It’s also one of the few places in the area to carry hard-to-find Johnnie Walker Gold and Green. Slice of life: “Orson Whitfield is our main entertainer. He’s been with us since Day One. He was asked to go on tour with the Eagles and Elton Memory lane plays at the Polo lounge.
december/january
Mark Grainger from O’Grady’s
John. He’s worked with Mary J. Blige and Bad Company,” says restaurant manager Mark Aloisi.
O’Grady’s Bar & Grill
Delray Beach Marriott O’Grady’s has moved from a lounge-ish, live entertainment environment to a casual, gastropub/neighborhood bar orientation. Three giant high-definition TVs have been installed, the roster of craft beers has been ramped up, and a menu of upscale comfort food, from snacks to full entrées, is now being offered. Even more changes are in the works. What’s hot: Sporting events on the trio of 55inch televisions, also an expanded list of craft
beers on tap and a selection of contemporary, mixological-style cocktails using small-batch, boutique spirits. Signature Sip: The “Delray Martini,” a blend of Absolut Ruby Red vodka, Chambord, grapefruit juice and pomegranate liqueur. Slice of life: “We’re accommodating a few different types of people. The couple that’s stopping by for a drink on their way out to the Avenue, the single businessperson having a glass of wine at dinner and looking at his or her iPad. And the corporate groups that just want to unwind and have informal business meetings, watch sporting events,” says food and beverage director Mark Grainger.
The stylish Jellies bar at the seagate, and a nice single malt for sipping
december/january
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on the avenue great finds
all that glitters Serve up a helping of holiday cheer with shimmering pieces that make your table shine.
Sequined placemats, Z Gallerie, Boca Raton
Honeycomb cocktail shaker, Z Gallerie, Boca Raton Palladium silver charger, Anna’s Linens, Delray Beach
Tom Dixon Etch Candleholder, ABC Carpet, Delray Beach
Gabriel candleholder, Crate & Barrel, Boca Raton
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18-inch glass jar, silver glitter takeout containers, Michael’s Craft Store, Delray Beach (candy from It’Sugar, Delray Beach)
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Aura a new dawn of color
ne w yo r k
d e l r ay b e a c h
a b c h o m e .c o m
on the avenue calendar
Top 5
As fall descends and the season begins, here are five top A&E picks to get you started.
From left: Bob Margolin, The Capitol Steps, Chris Isaak and a Chuck Close photograph from the Norton’s “Polaroid Years” exhibition
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
Bob Margolin
The Capitol Steps
Chris Isaak Holiday Show
The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation
When: Jan. 18 Where: Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach About: The Arts Garage continues to be a wonderful outlet for prominent jazz and blues artists that otherwise wouldn’t have a venue in which to perform, and tonight’s evening with Bob Margolin is no exception. The 64-year-old electric blues axman, back by popular demand after a January show last year at Arts Garage, has enjoyed a storied career, plying his trade of rolling melodies and heartbreak with none other than Muddy Waters—a gig that landed him a part in Martin Scorsese’s documentary “The Last Waltz.” Nicknamed “Steady Rollin’,” Margolin also has performed with Pinetop Perkins, Etta James and Johnny Winter, and his concerts are filled with warmth, humor and spontaneity. Cost: $25 to $35 in advance, $5 more at the door Contact: 561/450-6357, artsgarage.org
When: Jan. 30 Where: Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach About: Before there was “The Daily Show”—and back when Bill Maher was playing Chuckle Huts for peanuts—the Capitol Steps had already established themselves as the country’s pioneering source for bipartisan political humor. The group was formed in 1981 by a group of actual Capitol Hill staffers; more than 30 years later, the humorists represent a collective 62 years of House and Senate staff experience: That’s a lot of time to control scandals in public and plot parodies in private. These days, the group’s lively, well-honed performances include satirical skits and impersonations of politicos, as well as song spoofs inspired by the news of the day. Its most recent album, “Fiscal Shades of Gray,” includes such tracks as “Sunni Side of Tikrit” and “The Pope’s First Tweet.” Cost: $40 Contact: 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org
When: Dec. 20 Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach About: There’s something a little disconcerting, perhaps, about the occasional actor and soul-rock bad boy who gave us “Wicked Game” and “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” performing a set of ostensibly innocent yuletide favorites. But Chris Isaak is nothing if not unpredictable— his last album, which went gold in Australia, was a collection of Sun Records covers from the 1950s and early ’60s. Perhaps he’ll bring some of his signature naughtiness to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and “Let it Snow.” Expect to hear his greatest hits thrown into the mix. Cost: Starting at $15 Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
When: Dec. 19–March 23 Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach About: Long before any shameless politician could text phone snapshots of his genitals to anyone across the globe in seconds, the Polaroid camera must have seemed like magic. You gazed into the lens, pressed a button and, like a cash register emitting a receipt, out popped the white-framed image, developing right before your eyes. As unimpressed as today’s generation may be of such a feat, artists worldwide have continued to embrace this early form of instant photography, preserving its accoutrements long after Polaroid itself stop making the film, in 2008. This exhibition traces the experimental approaches to photography that the boxy cameras have engendered over a 40-year-period, from early adopters like Ansel Adams and Walker Evans to emerging artists such as Anne Collier. Cost: $5–$12 Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
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On and Off The Avenue
Check out these other upcoming events in Delray Beach.
“Contemporary Japanese Street Fashion:” This exhibition will showcase the trends and styles popular in Japan today, including gyaru, yankee, lolita and rockabilly, now through Feb. 23 at Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens. 561/495-0233, morikami.org “Driving Miss Daisy:” The durable dramedy about racial harmony, charting the bond between a white, southern senior citizen and the African-American driver she learns to appreciate, at Delray Beach Playhouse (now through Dec. 15). 561/272-1281, delraybeachplayhouse.com “Defending the Caveman:” This relatable one-man comedy examines gender differences through prisms of anthropology, prehistory, mythology and more, at Delray Beach Center for the Arts (Dec. 6-7). 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org Free Friday Concerts: Each Friday through Jan. 24, Delray Beach Center for the Arts will host free concerts at 7:30 p.m. on its outdoor pavilion, including R&B group Ike & Val (Dec. 6), Beatles tribute band Across the Universe (Dec. 13) and holiday music from the Swing & Jazz Preservation Society (Dec. 20). 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org “Harlem on My Mind:” Musical revue celebrating the influence of Harlem on the Great White Way, through numbers like “Old Man River” and “I Loves You, Porgy,” at Delray Beach Playhouse (Dec. 9-18). 561/272-1281, delraybeachplayhouse.com
[1] First Night 2014
When: Dec. 31 Where: Downtown Delray Beach About: A kinder, gentler New Year’s Eve bash compared to the cramped, soused bonanzas along Clematis Street or Las Olas Boulevard, Delray Beach’s end-of-the-year staple caters to families, with an early fireworks display (at 9 p.m.) as well as the standard midnight sign-off. The festivities begin at 4 p.m., and there will be performances and activities at 21 indoor and outdoor venues throughout the heart of downtown. These include live music from top local bands, improv comedy from Take Heed Theatre Company, visual art from local artists, and film and dance programming, along with face painting, carousels, ice skating and magicians. Kinda like Mallory Square in Key West, without all the stumbling drunkenness. Cost: $10 in advance, $15 on New Year’s Eve; admittance buttons available for purchase at venues throughout downtown Contact: 561/279-1380 ext. 17, mydelraybeach.com
Annual Holiday Boat Parade: Delray Beach and the Boynton Beach CRA present this annual boat parade, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Boynton Beach Marina and proceeds south to the C15 Canal, just south of the Linton Bridge (Dec. 13). 561/243-7277 Sandra Balzo: The mystery writer will speak and sign copies of her new book Murder on the Orient Espresso at Murder on the Beach (Dec. 13, 7 p.m.). 561/279-7790, murderonthebeach.com Family Funday: There will be children’s activities in the Cornell Museum and Green Market Artists’ Booth, a holiday carousel, and visits with Santa at the 100-foot Christmas tree, all at Old School Square grounds and park (Dec. 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) Artists in the Park: Fine art will be sold and exhibited at this free seasonal fair series sponsored by the Delray Beach Art League (Dec. 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). delrayartleague.com Artists Alley Open Studios: The Pineapple Grove Arts District will open its warehouses on the third Thursday of each month (Dec. 19, 6 to 9 p.m.). 561/279-1380 ext. 17, artistsalleydelray.com “Home For the Holidays on Ice:” From dancing penguins to a tribute to American servicemen, this musical skating extravaganza celebrates the season with lavish costumes at Delray Beach Center for the Arts (Dec. 20-22). 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org Paula Poundstone: A standup set from the observant, sharply dressed comedian and public radio personality, at Delray Beach Center for the Arts (Jan. 11, 8 p.m.). 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org Fabulous Fashion Week: Expect fashionistas to flock to downtown Delray Beach for designer trunk shows, informal modeling events, receptions and the Fabulous Fashion Show (Jan. 11 to 19). 561/243-1077 “Flipside: The Patti Page Story:” This musical charts the rise of the famed singer, and includes 28 of her iconic hits, at Delray Beach Center for the Arts (Jan. 17-19). 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org Downtown Delray Fine Art Festival: The 25th anniversary of this free two-day festival, spanning from U.S. 1 east to A1A along the Atlantic Ocean (Jan. 18-19, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). 561/243-1077, artfestival.com 10th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival: Poetry contests, workshops and public readings highlight this venerable festival, which includes appearances by Nick Flynn, Campbell McGrath, Mary Ruefle and others at Delray Beach Center for the Arts (Jan. 20-25). 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org Brian D’Arcy James: Cabaret performance from this star of Broadway’s “Sweet Smell of Success” and TV’s “Smash,” at Delray Beach Center for the Arts (Jan. 27-28, 8 p.m.). 561/243-7922, delraycenterforthearts.org
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[style ]
sparkle season After-dark dressing is in the details this winter. PhotograPhy by aaron bristol
Diane Von Furstenberg clutch, $236, Joie high-heel sandal, $274, both from Periwinkle; red gloves, $110, teal choker, $425, both from Nina Raynor; Rockwell Tharp red boots, $539, from Ginjer; pink printed clutch, $192, from Love Shack
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Roxylulu, 119 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach, 561/779-5485, roxylulu.com PeRiwinkle, 339 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561/279-9699, periwinkleonline.com love Shack, 137 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561/276-7755, snappy-turtle.com/loveshack11.htm nina RaynoR, 1031 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561/276-5714, ninaraynor.com GinjeR, 133 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561/272-1033, ginjerdelraybeach.com
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Jenny Packham feather shrug, $950, black and white clutch, $650, Rodrigo Otazu rhinestone cuff, $475, all from Nina Raynor; gold Rachel Zoe necklace, $198, from Periwinkle; Rockwell Tharp white boots, $389; marigold and violet wrap bracelets $90 each, all from Ginjer
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[style ]
Ivory sequin jacket, $295, from Roxy Lulu; Rockwell Tharp tapestry boots, $359, from Ginjer; blue python clutch, $625, mineral rose-skin clutch, $550, wine and navy chain necklace, $190, all from Nina Raynor
Styled by: Jenna DeBrino, Hot Pink Style, HotPinkStyling.BlogSPot.com ASSiStAnt StyliSt: amanDa miller Art director: lori Pierino december/january
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[ dine ]
By Bill Citar a
the restaurant at the four seasons Y Darryl Moiles brings a new spin to a revered dining destination. Darryl moiles
Four SeaSonS palm BeaCh
2800 S. Ocean Blvd. Palm Beach 561/582-2800
ou know Darryl Moiles was born to be a chef when he admits that even as a teenage hamburger jockey at Burger King, “I felt I had a good time.” He was the foodie one out of four brothers—gardening, 4-H, cooking in the kitchen with his mother. At age 18, he partnered with one of his numbersoriented siblings to take over the running of a pub-style restaurant in Massachusetts and turn it into a steak house. After a few years Moiles put himself through the culinary program at Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., and an internship at a high-end local restaurant and began what is now a dozenplus-year career at Four Seasons, bouncing from Boston to San Diego to San Francisco to Palm Beach, where he’s been the resort’s executive chef for the past six years. He brings his love of the restaurant business with him, visiting the ranchers and growers that supply the resort’s restaurants, getting to know the details of their operations and building relationships. His guiding principles are as simple as they are timely. “Everybody says farm-to-table, fresh, and all that,” he says. “But without saying those words that’s what we do on a regular basis. That’s our foundation. It’s not something we preach. It’s just expected.”
jason myers
“the italian ConCept”
As we go to print, Moiles and his culinary team and Four Seasons’ management are working out the details of changing over the 36
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resort’s now-shuttered premier dining venue, The Restaurant, to what Moiles calls “a modernstyle Italian restaurant.” Not strictly Italian, though. “It will be very much an Italian style of cooking, but it won’t be like local Italian restaurants. It will be like an Italian came here and used American products to make dishes because that’s what we have. We’ll be a little more adventurous than what is out there in the Italian market now, pushing flavors and presentations and using some molecular gastronomy techniques. We’re the Four Seasons, so we can get away with some of that higher-end, more-adventurous stuff.”
AtlAntic BAr & Grill
The island’s only beachfront restaurant, Atlantic Bar & Grill, draws its inspiration from the simple, casual street food sold at beaches around the world. With a menu that ranges from allAmerican burgers to all-Latin American arepas, Moroccan lamb tagine, Indonesian fried rice, Mexican fish tacos and Italian amaretto ice cream, it attracts an equally diverse crowd. “We keep [the food] extremely authentic,” Moiles says. “We have people who travel here who say it’s just as good as what they have at home.”
Burrata mozzarella gnocchi with brandywine and basil tomato consommé
Although otherwise open only for lunch, the Atlantic is also the site of the wildly popular Friday Night Clam Bake, where an old-fashioned, family-style bake featuring a variety of fresh seafood, plus side dishes and desserts like toffee mocha or s’mores in jars, is served to diners just a few feet from the ocean.
GrAze
A European-style café with an American twist, Graze dishes up three meals a day, giving co-sous chefs Jason Van Bomel and Nick Troisen room to play. Classic preparations like duck confit show up in a salad with poached pear, watercress and coriander vinaigrette, while thick, meaty lamb chops come crusted with Spanish marcona almonds, paired with roasted mushrooms, fennel mustard and red wine sauce. Old World wines are well represented too, by the glass, bottle and in three-wine flights. Another nod to European preferences is a selection of artisan cheeses, served with accompaniments from California honeycomb to tangy tomato-onion jam. It’s food that’s “very, very clean, simply done,” Moiles says. “We have fun with it.” The chefs must not be the only ones enjoying it, he notes. “We’re doing much better than we’ve ever done.”
Friday night clam Bake at Atlantic Bar & Grill
smAll Bites The Good old days are Now: “I have to give credit to the Food Network and Bravo; they’ve really brought food out into the open. It’s much easier to deal with some of the traditionalists who are watching things with their kids and grandkids. They are a little more adventurous. In the last two or three years [our diners are] younger and more attuned to what they want. But the old crowd, too, is more receptive to us trying new things and breaking old patterns. Everybody wants to know what’s new, what’s fresh, what’s trendy.” Palm Beach Food & wiNe FesTival: “Last year took off for us because we really got the celebrity profile we wanted, with Robert Irvine and others. This year it’s bigger and better, with more celebrities coming. We’re the host hotel, and we’re involved in so much more. It just keeps getting bigger and better for us. And it will just keep growing. It’s going to be tremendous for the hotel.” (The festival runs Dec. 13-17; visit pbfoodwinefest.com).
Libby VoLgyes
Palm Beach as a diNiNG desTiNaTioN: ”Absolutely [it is]. It’s not being talked about right now because it’s in the very early stages. There are only a couple of places that are filling that destination profile, but a lot of the older restaurants are starting to see less draw. I’d say that over the next five years, the combination of the food and wine experience and everything else—other big charity events—people are going to take more notice of what’s going on here. Palm Beach is going to be a great place to go.”
october/november
[ play ]
By marie speed
kayaking alligator water A day trip to the south fork of the St. Lucie River is one more nearby adventure.
L
oxahatchee Preserve, check. Loxahatchee River, check. MacArthur Park, check. Atlantic Ocean, check. So we know there’s no shortage of nearby places to go canoeing or kayaking, but sometimes a change of scenery is in order. If you don’t feel like hitting Key Largo or the Everglades, you might just want to zip north up to Stuart to the south fork of the St. Lucie River for a day away from it all. The trip I’m thinking of starts in the woods at South River Outfitters just off State Road 76 at the north end of sprawling Halpatiokee Park, which covers a 513-acre preserve and has hiking and biking trails in addition to the largest sports complex in Martin County (with an open-air, regulationsize hockey rink, tennis courts, soccer/football fields and softball/baseball fields). But the attraction for kayakers is a seven-mile paddle through dry prairies, pines, hardwood forest and scrub, much of it high ground, with steep banks and wide expanses of water. The day I went, I happened to be with a bunch of geologists, which presented a whole new dynamic to a paddling trip. There was lots of shop talk about well digging and soil samples, and genuine awe at rounding a corner and seeing an exposed riverbank with an impressive outcropping of soil strata. (This, in fact, elicited far more comment than the 12-foot alligator we would pass five minutes later.) Regardless of what floats your boat (sorry), everyone who does this trip will be rewarded with a slow 38
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The ”dinosaur tree” on the river
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if you go How to get tHere: Take I-95 north to S.R. 76/Kanner Highway east to Lost River Road (first light) and turn right. The Outfitters will be ahead of you, snuggled in a tree hammock. Ed Stout started the outpost in 2001 and is the go-to guy for your kayaking needs, with rental equipment, boats for sale and a great selection of bells and whistles. renting kayaks and canoes: Half day—$26 for a single; $36 for a double guided tours: These can be arranged if you call ahead. wHere to Have luncH: It’s always best to pack a small moveable feast (in addition to a good amount of water). You can stop halfway at the picnic area at Treasure Island or further down at the camping area of Halpatiokee Park, or wait until you get back to the Outfitters where you can recount your trip under the trees at their picnic tables. otHer tHings to do: Mountain biking on trails, hiking, geocaching. South River Outfitters can rig your boat for fishing, or install camera mounts. It even offers a Torque Motorizer kayak (a kayak with a motor) for $999.
River boat, South Florida-style
drift into natural Florida that is as calming as it is pristine and romantic. It starts at the canoe launch at South River Outfitters and proceeds past a rattletrap string of trailers and small houses, then larger riverfront homes along the banks, gradually giving way to wild country and soaring hardwood forests. There are turtles poised on logs, the occasional alligator, fish jumping, ospreys wheeling overhead. The river does not have the hairpin turns of the upper Loxahatchee, or the straight, canal-like monotony of the Loxahatchee Preserve; it is an easy four-hour paddle with large curves and a picnic december/january
contact: South River Outfitters, 7647 Lost River Road, Stuart, 772/223-1500
area in the woods at the turnaround point. Halpatiokee is Seminole for “Alligator Water,” and it goes without saying that you will see alligators now and then. But this regional preserve is also part of the Great Florida Birding Trail, so you can expect to see a wide variety of species from bald eagles to roseate spoonbills if you’re lucky. Still, the best score for a trip like this is time out on the water, in the woods, one on one with the dazzling natural world that is unspoiled South Florida. And it’s only about an hour and change away from Delray Beach. delray beach magazine
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aaron bristol
Frank’s latest property, revolutions at Cityplace in West Palm Beach, opened in the fall. It’s a boutique, 20-lane bowling center with private VIP lanes, an upscale game room and a sports grille with a full bar, outdoor lounge and stage for live music nightly. Visit facebook.com/ revolutionsatcityplace.
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[ up close ]
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by John Thomason
bruce frank A CEO with a rich tradition in cinema innovation takes a gamble on west Delray
W
henever there was a state-of-the-art innovation in the movie business, it seemed that Bruce Frank’s family had had a hand in it, going all the way back to the moment Al Jolson ad-libbed a line in 1927’s “The Jazz Singer” and changed cinema forever. Samuel Frank, Bruce’s grandfather, took a loan from Jack Warner to build the first talkie movie theater in Philadelphia. In 1966, Bruce’s father, Al, built one of the country’s first twin theaters, the Towne Twin in Atlantic City, which was the precursor, more than a decade later, to the multiplex. Following in the family tradition, Bruce turned the Towne into the country’s first all-stadium-seating theater in 1986. “[My staff talks] about me as being more of an innovator and creating new concepts and new forms of entertainment, and creating environments that are warm and inviting and fun,” says Frank, CEO and president of Frank Theaters, who retired to Jupiter in 1996 only to un-retire a few years later. “That’s what entertainment’s about–we’re in that business. The minute you walk through the door, you have to be entertained.” Frank, who graduated from the University of Miami in 1979 with a degree in business administration, slid right into his family’s legacy. Since its inception, Frank Theaters has owned, operated, developed and managed more than 150 properties—not just cinemas and nickelodeons but restaurants, arcades, bowling alleys and more. Bruce was involved in many of them, in Pennsylvania and along the Jersey shore, as long as he can remember. He recalls popping corn, filling sodas, cleaning auditoriums and re-attaching fallen speakers at his dad’s drive-ins. “I don’t think I ever had anything else I was going to do,” Frank says. “I just wanted to do it bigger and better and different, so I had always been an innovator.” In 2011, Frank Theatres bought the struggling, South Florida-based Sunrise Cinemas chain, which marked his company’s entry into our region’s cinemas. december/january
And two years after adopting and refurbishing theaters in Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise and North Miami Beach, Frank unveiled his company’s latest game-changer this past February: The CineBowl and Grille here in Delray Beach. The first boutique bowling alley-restaurant-cinema hybrid, the state-of-the-art theater debuted FDX, the company’s proprietary answer to the IMAX brand, promising unparalleled large-screen image and sound. The CineBowl & Grille opened in Delray Marketplace, in a once-tumbleweedy region so far west of downtown Delray Beach it’s almost California. But, five months after opening, the company says it’s ahead in market share and has experienced “considerable growth.” “I think that great properties are located way before the development happens,” Frank says. “I didn’t look at [west Delray] as an untested market. I viewed it as an underserved market. “The only theater in the area was a dilapidated, flat-floor, older theater,” he added, referring to the Regal Shadowood 16. Never one to rest on his laurels, Frank hopes to anticipate the next big change in movie exhibition. He has converted all of his 35mm film theaters to Digital Cinema Projection, or DCP, and the Delray CineBowl is a test site for theater chairs that rumble with the action of the film. “For 150 years, we showed celluloid, so it’s hard to say that we’ve changed quickly,” Frank says. “I think this is an industry that is very traditional, very mature, very stable. Yes, it took only four or five years to fully convert an industry to digital from film. But when you look today that your laptop is basically obsolete when you walk out the door, we move at a slow pace. I don’t see another significant technological change— what I see are better facilities and concepts dealing with additional entertainment and dining.” That said, in the next three to five years, he expects the next breakthrough to be 3D movies without glasses. If history serves, his company already sees it coming.
“That’s what entertainment’s about–we’re in that business. The minute you walk through the door, you have to be entertained.”
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[ up close ]
j
by John Thomason
james gardner This adventurous stockbroker-turned-writer has no intention to get out of Africa.
J
ames S. Gardner is sitting in what might be called his Africa Room, an exotic office in his luxurious Ocean Ridge home. On three of its four walls hang the conquests of his many safaris on the troubled continent: a sable antelope, a kudu, an impala and, most imposingly, the enormous head of a cape buffalo. “That fed an awful lot of people,” he says. “They walked 25 miles with pots on their heads for that meat. Somehow the word travels that you shot something.” Gardner doesn’t hunt much anymore, but he’s had decades to accrue these stuffed souvenirs. A former stockbroker, he’s visited African countries 26 times, dating back to a 1968 trip to Tanzania as a recent anthropology graduate from Florida Atlantic University. When he retired from the finance world 10 years ago, he decided to funnel his passion for Africa into fiction. In 2010 he self-published his first book, The Lion Killer, a politically driven missing-person thriller set in Zimbabwe and the Sudan; it was followed by two sequels, The Zambezi Vendetta and The Honey Guide. Publishing on his own imprint suited him; his Amazon numbers have steadily risen, and he’s received favorable blurbs from Nelson DeMille and James Patterson. He’s now invested in the next step: turning his trilogy into a movie franchise. His screenplay adaptation for The Lion Killer, cowritten with R.C. Knutsen, recently charted highly in two major script competitions. What propels Gardner’s writing is the richness of its African detail, culled from extensive firsthand research. His nickname among many of the locals is “The Echo,” because he always asks them to repeat their thoughts while he scribbles them on index cards. Some people assume he’s hard of hearing. These days, Gardner has a spryness of body and mind that belies his 70 years. Once you get him talking about Africa, he doesn’t stop; one benign question sends him spinning into various and sundry African topics, buttressed by facts and figures. At one point, he remarked, “We can make your article as interesting and controversial as you want, or we can make it noncontroversial.” Which route do you think we chose? Here are a few of Gardner’s insights.
■ Of all the wars the United States has fought in its 200-year history, we’ve
lost about a million people. The Great African War started in the Congo
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in 1998, and five and a half million people were killed between 1998 and 2004. Americans know nothing about it. We did nothing to try and stop it. ■ We’re going to become more involved in Africa, because it’s the center of
terrorism. It’s going to become more so, because there’s a vacuum there, a lack of security. And there’s a large, growing Muslim population, and there’s a lot of money involved. Africa is China’s economic surrogate. They cannot succeed as an economic juggernaut without Africa.
■ Ten percent of the people in Africa are slaves. You can buy a great house
servant for 500 bucks, and you hold that person just like you held them on a plantation in Mississippi in 1800. It’s no different.
■ The white population in Africa is down to about 6 and a half million.
The overall population is more than a billion people. There’s tremendous racism in Africa, and you’ve got to forget about this white-black stuff … the whites are a nonfactor. It’s black racism against blacks.
■ You’ve got 54 countries in Africa, and you’re going to end up, in 50 years,
with 100 countries in Africa. There are 2,500 dialects spoken in subSaharan Africa. What’s that mean? It means that it’s ripe for terrorism. The people are poor. The average African is where he was in 1994. Yet we’ve sent trillions of dollars in aid; some people have gotten very wealthy. This guy Mobutu, who ran the Congo, built an airship to come get his wife to Paris for shopping. To fly his wife to Paris, for Christ’s sake, while people are starving in his country!
■ The problems are almost unsolvable. It’s hard to treat people when they
believe the diseases are caused by witches’ spells. In South Africa, they believe if you had sex with a virgin, you could rid yourself of AIDS. This is the kind of thing you’re dealing with.
■ When you introduce things like the Gates Initiative to conquer malaria, or
the George W. Bush initiative to give people AIDS drugs, all of a sudden you have the biggest problem Africa faces right now: overpopulation. You need to [vaccinate], but you also need a real effort on birth control, on trying to control the population, on education. The culture is not changing. december/january
aaron bristol
James Gardner
december/january
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n i s t n e m o m y r o
t s i H
the in t s o p t u mall o s a f o t s ck a p e h t ich Polla r r o y n b o . USA arks h y it m C d n n u la F l a o Loc d int e lv o v e t a tropics th
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that today The marker es the at commemor House of ve ro G ge Oran t. Refuge, righ
O
ver the past century, the small town of Delray Beach has grown up, becoming synonymous with the new South Florida, replete with trendy restaurants, Segway tours, street festivals and boutique hotels. Look closely, however, and you’ll see remnants of its historic past. Some, like the Colony Hotel and the Sundy House, are easily found. Only a plaque notes others, such as the Orange Grove House of Refuge. Others are tucked away, surrounded by decades of growth and change. But all are landmarks in their own right, reminders of Delray Beach’s colorful past.
Orange grOve HOuse Of refuge nO. 3
At a time when there was little else but sea turtles along the South Florida coastline, the Orange Grove House of Refuge was one of a few remote places offering shelter from a storm. During the Ulysses S. Grant administration, the federal government saw a need to build five “houses of refuge” along Florida’s east coast, designed to help shipwreck victims, casualties of the offshore reefs, hurricanes, or the temperamental Gulf Stream. “Back then the beach area along Florida’s coast was deserted wilderness,” says Dottie Patterson, archivist for the Delray Beach Historical Society. “If there was a shipwreck, survivors might be able to make it to the beach, but even then, they would still be in trouble.” One of the five that dotted the coast from the Indian River Inlet to Key Biscayne, the Orange Grove House of Refuge was built in 1876 on Delray’s barrier island, a short distance north of what is now Atlantic Avenue. “It was the first building in this area,” Patterson says. Under a contract awarded to Albert Blaisdall, construction began in 1875. The name, Orange Grove House of Refuge, is december/january
believed to have been a reference to a sour-orange grove that was once south of the location. Today, only a marker remains of the Orange Grove House of Refuge No. 3, which was staffed for two decades—first by the family of Hannibal Pierce and later by Capt. Stephen Andrews. Officially shut down in 1896, it remained a landmark on the still sparsely populated coast until it burned down in 1927. While it’s unknown if shipwreck survivors ever stayed in the House of Refuge here, the building did serve as a place of respite for the few travelers in the area, including the barefoot mailmen who walked a route along the beach and the sheriff of what was then Dade County, who on occasion would travel the length of the county from the Jupiter Inlet to Indian Key. It also served as a welcome station of sorts for travelers navigating the Atlantic Ocean or inland waterway by sailboat who could find a comfortable bed and a meal, often provided by the assigned superintendent or his wife. In a book published in 1884, one of the visitors to the Orange Grove House of Refuge, Dr. James Henshall, described the building as a two-story wood structure with a broad veranda surrounding it. “There were provisions such as salt pork and beef, harddelray beach magazine
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—Daisy sunDy Earls
aaron bristol
Daisy Sundy Earls at Sundy House
“We always loved to come here for Christmas.”
ouse The Sundy H , ys da d ol e in th a when it was and family home ing er th ga y Delra spot.
tack, coffee, sugar, etc., all in sealed packages and only to be used in cases of the direst necessity for the relief of shipwrecked mariners,” he wrote. “Each station is provided with two lifeboats, a large one and a small one, and other appliances for rendering assistance to wrecked vessels.” Reachable only by barge until 1911 when a wooden bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway was built, Delray’s coast continued to develop, and eventually the need for a house of refuge disappeared. Still, during its short time as an active lifesaving station, the Orange Grove House served as the area’s first post office, a place where Seminole Indians would come to trade meat and as a stopping point for Congressman William Seelye Linton and a group from Michigan who would later establish the town.
The Sundy houSe
Christmas dinner at the Sundy House was always special for Daisy Sundy Earls. The granddaughter of John Shaw and Elizabeth Sundy and the daughter of one of the couple’s eight children, she remembers sitting at the children’s table in the first-floor dining room of the large two-story home. “We always loved to come here for Christmas,” she says. The site of Daisy’s wedding reception in the 1950s and a place where she and her brother Burk stayed when her parents were on vacation, the Sundy House today remains the oldest home in Delray Beach. Built in 1902 by John Sundy, who came to the area as a superintendent of construction for Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway, the six-bedroom home, built with South Carolina and Dade County Pine, is today home of the Sundy House restaurant and Taru Gardens. During its early years, the Sundy house served as a central gathering place for Delray residents, as did the feed store that John Sundy opened just a few blocks north of the Swinton Avenue home. Meetings in the Queen Anne-style home’s living room, with its ornate gold mirror given to John Sundy by survivors of a salvaged shipwreck, led to the formation of the town’s first bank and Baptist Church. With Elizabeth Sundy leading the way, women gathered there to form the Ladies Improvement Society, with an early goal of raising money to pave dirt roads. The society would later found the Delray Beach Public Library. december/january
The Sundy house is also believed to be where meetings took place to plan the incorporation of Delray Beach in 1911, with John Sundy serving as the town’s first mayor and remaining in the job for seven terms. Daisy Sundy Earls recalls playing in the home with her two young aunts and her cousins and sitting at the lengthy dining room table with her grandmother teaching her Latin. “It was a long table, and grandpa would say that if there weren’t anyone sitting at it, grandma would want to call in some people just to fill it up,” she says. The home remained in the family long after John and Elizabeth Sundy died, with daughters Sadie and Addie living in the home until their deaths in 1987 and 1988 respectively. In the early 1990s, the house was purchased for just $125,000 by Lou and Carmen Jensen, who spent thousands of dollars landscaping the property and renovating the house before opening it to the public as a short-lived antique shop and café. New life was breathed into the historic home in 1997 when businessman and environmentalist Tom Worrell purchased it and surrounding parcels with the vision of preserving the historic properties. Through restoration and the creation of the meticulously cared-for Taru Gardens and its more than 5,000 plants, the home—in its current incarnation as a restaurant—is once again a gathering place for the community. As she walked through the house recently, Daisy Sundy Earls smiled, recalling that her grandmother was quite religious and a committed teetotaler. “Her bed was where the bar is now,” she says. delray beach magazine
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Five Other Historic Landmarks Cason Cottage
The Colony hoTel and Cabana Club
1
Cason Cottage HistoriC House MuseuM
Once home to one of Delray Beach’s earliest and most influential residents, the Cason Cottage is now a museum open to the public. Built around 1924, it reflects daily life between 1915 and 1935 and the early architecture once commonplace in Delray Beach. It is operated by the Delray Beach Historical Society and is open for tours. Visit db-hs.org
2
sandoway House nature Center
Built in 1936, the Sandoway House was designed by local architect Samuel Ogren and built for retired produce broker J.B. Evans. Restored by Friends of the Sandoway House Nature Center, it opened to the public in 1998, educating children and adults about marine and coastal life and the natural local vegetation. Visit sandowayhouse.org
3
spady Cultural Heritage MuseuM
The former home of Solomon D. Spady, sandoway House nature Center one of Delray Beach’s most prominent black educators, the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum is the only AfricanAmerican museum of its kind in Palm Beach County. It is dedicated to discovering, collecting and sharing the African-American history and heritage of Florida. Visit spadymuseum.com
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delray BeaCH Center for tHe arts at old sCHool square
outdoor pavilion at delray Beach Center for the arts
A centerpiece of downtown Delray Beach, the Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square is comprised of three restored historic buildings. The 1925 Delray High School building now houses the Crest Theatre, and the 1913 Delray Elementary School is now home to the Cornell Museum. The center also includes a 1926 vintage gymnasium used for events. Visit delraycenterforthearts.org
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arCade tap rooM
A favorite gathering spot of artists and writers, the Arcade Tap Room opened its doors in 1933 and was a beloved dining spot for winter visitors as well as locals. A well-known watering hole once visited by the likes of Winston Churchill, the Arcade closed its doors in 1989. The building, on Atlantic Avenue, has served as home to several restaurants (most recently Gol!) and is currently vacant.
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Walk into the Colony Hotel and you’re likely to run smack into reminders of its storied past—days when guests packed the dining room for Sunday night buffets or slept with the windows open every night because there was no air conditioning. The hotel, which opened its doors in 1926, is still dotted with tokens of the old days, but at the same time, the future is easing its way in. The old elevator, one that has to be staffed, is still in use. On your way up to the next floor, however, you can check e-mail on your cell phone, thanks to the hotel’s wireless Internet service. The old switchboard still sits right next to the elevator, but now there’s a modern phone system with voicemail and dual-speaker receivers. Inside the rooms, guests will still find tables and headboards from decades gone by, but they’ll also find flat-screen televisions and—oh yes—air conditioning. “We hold on to the past, but we’re also looking to the future,” says Hilary Roche, the hotel’s managing director and the cousin of owner Jestena Boughton. The Colony’s past began in the 1920s when it opened its doors as the Alterep Hotel. Designed by Martin Luther Hampton, an architect who had worked under Addison Mizner, it featured Mediterranean revival architecture and included twin towers that are still the Colony’s signature today. “It was built in a classic design style of the times,” Boughton says. With the stock market crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression, the Alterep Hotel struggled and eventually fell into receivership. On his way to Cuba with his new bride, Jestena Boughton’s father George saw the hotel as he drove down U.S. Highway 1 from his home in Atlantic City. After the honeymoon was cut short by gunfire on the streets of Havana, George and wife Agnes came back to Delray and made an offer on the hotel, which was purchased for $50,000 plus back taxes. In 1935, the long-vacant Alterep reopened—this time as the Colony Hotel—with George Boughton and his father Charles as partners. “My whole family came down, and they all had a job to do,” Jestena Boughton says. “They hustled to open the hotel.” For much of its early years, the Colony was december/january
Hotel, circa The Alterep known as r te 1920s, la otel and The Colony H , was one Cabana Club e resort fin s of Delray’ . hotels
open only from Jan. 10 to April 5, catering to upper-middle-class winter visitors. In its first two decades, the Colony’s main entrance was on Federal Highway—the main north and south thoroughfare, long before I-95 opened in the mid-1970s. Even in those days, however, the south porch facing Atlantic Avenue was a popular spot, where you would find guests reading the paper with their morning cup of coffee. It wasn’t until after Agnes Boughton died in 1994 and Jestena Boughton came home to take over the hotel that the popular Colony Hotel porch bar opened. At about the same time, air conditioning was added to the Colony, and the seasonal hotel, along with a sister Colony Hotel in Kennebunkport, Maine, began staying open all year long. While much has changed at the Colony, the hotel still upholds its original mission. “It started out as a hotel and it remains a hotel today,” Roche says. “It’s always been what it was meant to be.”
Ocean apple estate— the FOntaine FOx hOuse
Jestena Boughton with friend in the lobby of the Colony
december/january
Tucked away behind 100-year-old trees and shrubs that have protected it from hurricanes and nor’easters, the Fontaine Fox house is one of the last standing reminders of a time when Delray Beach was a popular winter gathering spot of the well-to-do, and well-known writers and artists. By the late 1920s and early ’30s, the town had begun to attract Northeasterners searching for a setting that wasn’t quite as formal as Palm Beach. Before long, Delray Beach became home delray beach magazine
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Architec tJ said to h ohn Volk is ave repli cated the Toon erville T rolley roofline (right) in house h the e design ed for cartoon ist Fonta ine Fox.
to a small colony of nationally known syndicated cartoonists, the most successful among them Fontaine Fox, creator of “Toonerville Folks.” Famous for its Toonerville Trolley, the strip appeared in more than 300 daily newspapers from 1913 to 1955. In the mid-1930s, Fox purchased beachside property just west of Ocean Boulevard and commissioned well-respected architect John Volk to design a unique home for him. “What he asked Volk to do was design a house that replicated the trolley in his cartoon,” says builder Frank McKinney, who along with his wife, Nilsa, purchased the house in 1997. “If you look closely, you’ll see that the pitch of the roof of the house is the same as the pitch of the roof of the trolley.” Volk, who had designed homes for well-known families,
“This house is unique in its architectural design.”
aaron bristol
—Frank Mckinney
Frank, Nilsa and Laura McKinney
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including the Vanderbilts and DuPonts, created the house using the light and airy style he was known for. “This house is unique in its architectural design,” McKinney says. Constructed completely out of wood—mostly Dade County pine and cypress—it is one of just two remaining homes from the 1930s in Delray Beach with an ocean view, according to McKinney. Longtime local residents who knew Fox as a local celebrity said the cartoonist could often be seen driving his Ford convertible from the beachfront home to his rented office above the Arcade Tap Room, where he would create the next installment of his comic strip. By the 1950s, as Delray continued to grow, the winter cartoonist colony withered, with many of its members remaining up north throughout the year. Fox eventually sold the house to the Mott family, of Mott’s Apple Sauce fame, who renamed it Ocean Apple Estate. The family lived there for a generation before selling it to Rod Wilson, a former Arvida executive. Throughout its history, the house and property have continued to evolve. A guesthouse built along with the original house remains, and the property now features a 220-squarefoot tree house office that McKinney built in front of the home. In keeping with its original concept, McKinney made it a point to keep the pitch of the roof of the tree house consistent with the pitch of the main house’s roof and that of Fox’s trolley. McKinney also recently received approval from the city to build a small addition to the home, which has been on the Local Register of Historic Places since 1989. “I enjoy living in a house like the Fontaine Fox house,” he says. “There’s no better lifestyle.”
The La France hoTeL
During the 1950s and ’60s, when Swinton Avenue was a clear dividing line between Delray Beach’s black community and its white residents, the La France Hotel served as an oasis for African-Americans, providing waiters, chauffeurs and maids who had come south to work for the winter with a place to stay and to socialize. The only hotel for African-Americans between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale during the ’50s and ’60s, the La France also served as a neighborhood social center where residents like Tommy Kemp could spend time with the seasonal workers. Kemp, whose Kemp’s Paradise Restaurant was just a stone’s throw from the La France, was a regular at the hotel and is one of the few remaining members of the community who remember it well. “Most nights after I closed the restaurant I would go over to the La France to be with the waiters and the chauffeurs,” he said. On occasion, Kemp says, he would get a drink or two, although there was no formal bar at the La France. december/january
Tommy Kemp
Opened in 1949 by entrepreneur Charlie Patrick, the 16room hotel was named after Patrick’s wife, Francenia, known as Frankie, who according to Kemp was a fixture at the hotel, there more regularly than her husband. While advertised as “Your Home Away From Home” for those working at the town’s two main fine-dining restaurants of the time—the Patio Delray and the Arcade Tap Room—the La France was also known to house some overnight guests. Among them were traveling musicians who played on the old “Chitlin’ Circuit” in Delray Beach, West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale and who, before the La France, might have been relegated to sleeping on their buses or at private homes. A book about the La France Hotel and the Patrick family, produced for the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency by Dottie Patterson, Vera Farrington and Richard Robinson, lists several well-known musicians reported to have stopped there, including Count Basie, Clarence Carter, Lionel Hampton, Earl “Fatha” Hines and Freddie Scott. “The La France Hotel was a respectable hotel and meeting place,” Patterson says. In the early 1970s, integration took its toll on the La France, and the building was transformed from a hotel into a boarding house. After Patrick died in the mid-1980s, the La France was sold to local businessman Preston Wright, who kept the property for about 20 years, eventually selling the deteriorating building to the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency in 2004. e legendToday, the La France has Today, th l ance Hote been restored and refurary La Fr n e e b s a bished by the CRA and is (below) h ed into now an apartment complex transform for lowts apartmen serving low-income seniors. niors. e s e m o inc
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Yamato-kan, the original Morikami building
“The Morikami was an outpost of Japanese culture in a part of the country where there wasn’t anything else.” —Larry rosensweig
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The MorikaMi MuseuM and Japanese Gardens
Below, G eo harvesti rge Morikami ng pine apples; right, a you Morikam ng George i at the s tart of the Yam ato Colo ny.
It is a question Larry Rosensweig and Tom Gregersen heard frequently. As retired curators of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Rosensweig and Gregersen encountered visitors who couldn’t understand what a Japanese museum was doing in Florida, surrounded by golf courses and condominiums. “The Morikami Museum was an outpost of Japanese culture and Japanese history in a part of the country where there wasn’t anything else,” says Rosensweig, the museum’s first curator. “The original idea was to commemorate the Japanese influence on the community and the Yamato Colony.” Although it is built on land in Delray Beach a few miles from the Boca Raton colony of Japanese farmers who lived there between 1903 and the 1940s, the Morikami Museum is a reminder of the colony’s influence. It is also the legacy of George Morikami, a colony member who donated 200 acres of land to Palm Beach County with the stipulation that it be used for the public good. Today, visitors to the Yamato-kan, the original museum building, can see a monument under which Morikami’s ashes are reportedly buried and can visit a permanent exhibit about the colony. Created in 1903 by an agreement between Jo Sakai— a Japanese immigrant—and the Florida East Coast Railroad, the Yamato Colony started out as a group of Larry Rosensweig Japanese farmers and Tom Gregersen recruited to come to the United States to grow pineapples. Many, like George Morikami, came from the port city of Miyazu, Sakai’s hometown. Faced with competition from Cuba, however, the colony was forced to switch to growing winter vegetables and struggled. During the hard times, some december/january
members of the colony left to go back to Japan while others started families of their own and, lured by cheap land availability, moved away. In the 1940s, the farmland that had belonged to the Yamato Colony was cleared to make way for an Army Air Corps base, now the Boca Raton Airport. Morikami was one of the few to remain in the area, and he continued to farm pineapples on land he purchased in the 1940s well into the early 1970s. “George grew pineapples up until the time he died,” Rosensweig says. During his later years, Morkami lived in trailers he set up where there is now a lakeside picnic pavilion, near Jog Road and Morikami Park Road, the east side of his property. Since it first opened in 1977, the Morikami Museum has continued to expand and grow. The original Yamato-kan still remains and houses two permanent exhibits: “The Yamato Colony: Pioneering Japanese in Florida” and “Japan Through the Eyes of a Child.” The main museum, opened in 1993, features a variety of exhibits and collections, which highlight the Japanese culture. In addition, the Japanese Gardens continue to attract visitors to the museum, which today is a spotlight on another culture and its influence on the local community. “The museum really does commemorate the early Japanese settlement here,” Rosensweig says. delray beach magazine
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Bruce Gimmy on the issues On closing Atlantic Avenue for special events: “Closing Atlantic Avenue is counterproductive to businesses. I’m not against special events, just don’t close the avenue.” On parking meters downtown: “We need meters downtown. If done properly, meters will help local businesses.” On not always being informed about development plans in the downtown area: “People who are going to be impacted should be notified.”
Bruce Gimmy
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[ business roundup ]
By Rich Pollack
the trouser shop This Atlantic Avenue classic has been outfitting Delray men for decades—one leg at a time.
S
teve Miskew is one of those people who stands out in a crowd. Oh sure, the fact that he’s a big guy doesn’t hurt, but whether he’s on the golf course or at a society gala, what makes Miskew hard to miss are his pants. “I like to wear crazy slacks,” he says. His collection includes a pair of midnightblue trousers with teal palm trees and some orange pants with a smattering of pineapples throughout. For Miskew there’s only one place in Delray—and probably all of South Florida, for that matter—where he can find those off-the-wall slacks: The Trouser Shop, an Atlantic Avenue landmark with roots going back to the 1960s. The Trouser Shop, which opens up to the sidewalk next to Delray’s venerable newsstand at the corner of Federal and Atlantic, is part time warp, part old-time haberdasher with wall-to-wall racks of pants and accessories, from seersucker to Sansabelt, poplin to permanent press. Its tiny fitting rooms still have the shelves that used to hold bottles of liquor back in the day—a small amenity for the faithful customer. “I appreciate the shop because it reminds you of old Delray,” Miskew says. “What you’ll find there is a combination of old-school prep and old-man polyester.” The man responsible for making sure that Miskew can find his pants (and that they fit perfectly) is Bruce “The Trouser Man” Gimmy, a 70-year-old outspoken small-business owner who can frequently be found in the middle of any
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controversial downtown issue. (See sidebar.) A one-time leader of the long-gone Atlantic Avenue Association and an early chairman of the Delray Beach Joint Venture (created a couple of decades ago to market downtown), Gimmy is a living and breathing reminder of the Old Delray. But, just like his shop, he’s always evolving; he’s now open until 10 p.m. on Friday nights. While most of his clientele is of the older generation, Gimmy says, he’s also been getting younger folks like Miskew, 52, who are looking for a pair of slacks they can’t find anywhere else. To serve these younger customers, Gimmy has begun carrying the popular Loudmouth Golf slacks with bright patterns and colors like “bubblegum.” “It’s amazing how many people I sell pink pants to,” he says. There are, of course, customers who come to the store in hopes of finding pants styles that were popular back in 1985 when Gimmy bought The Trouser Shop from its original owner, Nick Vitale. Gimmy came to Delray Beach in 1979, working as a bartender at the Arcade Tap Room, and had gotten to know Vitale, who had opened the Trouser Shop back in 1962. “A friend of mine told me Nick had to leave to help his wife’s family up North,” Gimmy says. “I called him up and said, ‘What are you going to do with the store?’ My dream was always to have my own business.” Although he knew how to sew, Gimmy didn’t know much about being a tailor and had to learn as he went along. Today, along with seamstress
Jana Roza, Gimmy does alterations and prides himself on offering customers “the perfect fit.” Over the years, Gimmy has added merchandise to keep up with changing demand. In the early years, for example, you couldn’t find shorts in The Trouser Shop, in large part because golf courses required guests to wear long pants. When the clubs changed the rules, Gimmy did too. “Now I probably sell as many shorts as I do trousers,” he says. The store also has belts, suspenders and ties, and Gimmy and Roza also do alterations on men’s and women’s clothes purchased at other stores. The shop even allows customers to design their own dress shirts. Slacks, of course, remain the main attraction with customers. “I have guys who come to me and say, ‘I couldn’t wait to get back to your shop because I can get a pair of pants or shirt that fits perfectly,’” he says. At the same time, it gets tougher each year to find the pants some of his older customers still count on. “I’m constantly searching for people who make what I need,” he says. Gimmy says he has no plans to retire, but when he does, he hopes he’ll be able to sell the landmark store to someone who understands its unique role in Delray Beach. That’s good news for customers like Miskew, who is now a regular at The Trouser Shop. “I stop in every now and then just to see what’s new,” he says. delray beach magazine
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[ out & about ] 2
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Boca’s Ballroom Battle About the event: Eight community leaders twirled their way through Boca’s Ballroom Battle, a “Dancing With the Stars”type competition that benefited the George Snow Scholarship Fund. The event raised more than $240,000 to help local college-bound students with their financial obligations. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Dorothy MacDiarmid and Eric Dehant AJ Molter and Marie Occhigrossi Ivan Rivera and Robyn Nassetta Mark Brockelman and Pam Casanave James Brann and Marie Speed
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[ 6 ] Pam Casanave and Gary Collins [ 7 ] S. Chris Palermo and Sayra Vazquez [ 8 ] Dr. Anthony N. Dardano and Mariya-Khristina Shurupova [ 9 ] Ralph and Annette Mesa, Cindy Sprot and Tim Snow [10] Gene and Lauren Esnes with Tony Dovolani
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Wick Theatre & Costume Museum Grand Opening About the event: The building that formerly housed the Caldwell Theatre Company reopened its doors as The Wick Theatre. Owner Marilynn Wick and daughters Kimberly and Kelly welcomed about 300 guests, including Countess Henrietta de Hoernle and M*A*S*H* actress Loretta Swit, for a cocktail party and the opening night of “The Sound of Music.� [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Marlene Forkas and Kari Oeltsen Marilynn Wick, Jorge Pesquera and Yvonne Boice Krista Severeid and Loretta Swit Peter and Wendi Librach Kimberly, Kelly and Marilynn Wick with the Countess Henrietta de Hoernle
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eMiLiANo BRooKs PRoduCTioNs, iNC.
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SÖTSAK Ribbon Cutting About the event: The community stocked up on Swedish candy during the grand opening of SÖTSAK Aug. 28. This Delray Beach store, at 16950 Jog Road, is filled with Scandinavian items, including home accessories and candy that’s free of artificial colors, high-fructose corn syrup, trans fat and GMOs. [ 1 ] Charlie Cannone, Karen Granger, Hana Larsson, Nils Larsson, Lucie Larsson, Larry Weisman, Patty Reed and Bill Morse [ 2 ] Noreen Payne and Kim Bentkover [ 3 ] Allison Turner and Bill Morse [ 4 ] Karen Granger and Patty Reed [ 5 ] Jennifer Aracri and Kim Bentkover
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[ out & about ] Luminary Gala
About the event: Local business leaders wined and dined during the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s annual Luminary Gala at the Delray Beach Marriott. The chamber honored outstanding businesses and individuals for their achievements and commitment to excellence.
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[ 1 ] Francisco Perez-Azua, David Henninger and Karen Granger [ 2 ] Stacy Beaulieu, winner of Business Person of the Year (center, in purple), and friends
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Contacts and Cocktails
About the event: Frank Theatres CineBowl & Grille hosted a night of mixing and mingling for one of the chamber’s monthly networking events. More than 100 people chatted over cocktails and delicious dishes, while exchanging business cards and meeting other members of the community. [ 3 ] Lynn Van Lenten and Noreen Payne [ 4 ] Lois Croft [ 5 ] Lui Jimenez, Patty Reed and Darren Forzese
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dining guide Your resource for Greater DelraY beach’s finest restaurants
review 3rd & 3rd
301 N.E. Third Ave., Delray Beach, 561/303-1939
T
here are bigger restaurants than John Paul Kline’s quirky, artsy little place. There are fancier restaurants and better-known restaurants and restaurants with more bling and buzz. But there are no more important restaurants. The reason is simple. What makes a great dining destination is not the bling, buzz and backing. It’s a place driven not by an accountant’s calculations but a chef ’s passion, vision and the best ingredients he can lay his hands on. After all, no accountant would greenlight an obscure location that’s killed more restaurants than E. coli or a building that looks like a concrete bunker and doesn’t even have a sign. No green-eyeshade type would fill the space with an eclectic mix of overstuffed chairs and sofas, high- and low-top tables, an old piano and artworks as sketchy as the decor. And he certainly wouldn’t craft a menu that rotates more often than Cher changes outfits, one that doesn’t even hint at those wildly popular, mass-appeal dishes that infest restaurant menus like head lice. Instead, at 3rd & 3rd, you get a pair of plump, succulent scallops with a spicy caramelized mango sauce and Thai-style green mango “noodles.” Or a fat, meaty short rib that melts in your mouth like hot meat ice cream, wisely tempered by sweet-tart tomato “jam” with (sadly) bland tomato-herb spaetzle. Or you get skewers of tender shrimp embracing rounds of chorizo with a sweet chili glaze and corn puree, or a preparation of roasted cauliflower with dreamy Parmesan mousse, smoky bacon and chunky caramelized onions so stupidly,
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Grilled shrimp and calamari and pimenton torchon
if You Go Price ranGe: Entrèes $12–$16 hours: Mon.–Thurs. 4:30–11 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 4:30–midnight website: 3rdand3rd.com
Braised short ribs with goat cheese polenta and smoked tomato jam
stupendously delicious that even the most unrepentant carnivore would become a hopeless vegetable junkie. So satay-esque fried chicken with coconut-peanut sauce and sesame slaw reads a lot more interesting than it tastes, and truffled Parmesan fries come with too much of the latter and hardly any of the former. Espresso panna cotta is cream, gelatin and coffee as wicked as original sin and even more lustful. If 3rd & 3rd isn’t No. 1 on your restaurant list, you’ll just have to settle for one of those bigger, fancier, bling-filled restaurants. —Bill Citara
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[ dining guide ] Dining Key
Dessert from City Oyster
$ Inexpensive: under $17 $$ Moderate: $18 to $35 $$$ Expensive: $36 to $50 $$$$ Very expensive: $50+ delray beach 32 east—32 E. Atlantic Ave. contemporary american. At a time when chefs and restaurants seem to be constantly shouting their own praises, Nick Morfogen and 32 East go quietly about their way of serving thoughtfully conceived, finely crafted dishes with a minimum of fuss and artifice. The menu changes daily, but recent examples of Morfogen’s culinary expertise include plump scallops given an elegant bouillabaisse treatment and fork-tender venison with a terrific Asiago-fig risotto. When the food is this good, you don’t need to shout. • Dinner daily. 561/276-7868. $$$ Upper Deck at Boston’s on the Beach is now the more upscale, seafood-oriented spot. The menu ranges from familiar to slightly more inventive, from a classic lobster bisque and crisp-tender fried clam bellies to duck confit egg rolls and well-executed potato-crusted grouper. The cinnamon-dusted beignets are puffs of amazingly delicate deep-fried air and should not under any circumstances be missed. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner daily. Brunch Sun. 561/278-3364. $$
atlantic grille—1000 E. Atlantic Ave. Seafood/ contemporary american. This posh restaurant in the luxurious Seagate Hotel & Spa is home to a 450-gallon aquarium of tranquil moon jellyfish and a 2,500-gallon shark tank. Savor deliciously inventive cuisine that takes the contemporary to the extraordinary. Bold flavors, inspired techniques and the freshest ingredients make every meal a culinary adventure. • Lunch and dinner daily. Brunch Sat.–Sun. 561/665-4900. $$
brulé bistro—200 N.E. Second Ave., Suite 109. american. This chic and casual bistro tucked away in the Pineapple Grove district of Delray Beach serves modern American cuisine, artisan wines, craft beers and hand crafted cocktails. This intimate neighborhood bistro has the culinary IQ of a very fine restaurant. It is local Delray at its best, with entrées like Snake River Kobe flank au poivre to Maine lobster bisque with fennel pollen. • Lunch and dinner Mon - Sun. 561/2742046. $$
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aaron bristol
50 ocean—50 S. Ocean Blvd. Seafood. The former
buddah sky bar—217 E. Atlantic Ave. Pan asian. Don’t miss a meal at this stylish Asia-meets-industrial chic spot with a view of the Delray skyline. Chineseinfluenced dim sum is inspired, while rock shrimp tempura and Wagyu tenderloin skewers with twin chimichurri sauces touch the heart and the taste buds. • Dinner Wed.–Sun. 561/450-7557. $$ burgerfi—6 S. Ocean Blvd. american. The burger at this snappy oceanfront bistro—all-natural Black Angus beef—is A big hit, whether a single “All the Way” burger or the $10 Ultimate Cheeseburger, which is a pair of ground brisket burgers, plus Swiss and blue cheeses. You can customize your burger too, choosing from a roster of free add-ons like mayo, relish and grilled onions, and from a list of “premium” toppings. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/278-9590. $
burt & max’s—9089 W. Atlantic Ave. contemporary american. Burt Rapoport and Dennis Max have struck gold with their first collaboration in years, bringing an accessible and affordable brand of contemporary comfort food to the underserved denizens of west Delray. A few dishes from Max’s other eatery, Max’s Grille, have made the trek, like the hearty
chopped salad and bacon-wrapped meatloaf. Other dishes are variations on the comfort food theme, from crispy potato and taro chips with ranch dipping sauce to a stellar truffle-scented wild mushroom pizza. Dinner daily. Sunday brunch. 561/638-6380. $$$
cabana el rey—105 E. Atlantic Ave. cuban tropical. Little Havana is alive and well in Delray Beach. The menu is a palette-pleasing travelogue. Mariquitas (fried banana chips) are a tasty way to start your meal. For dinner, seafood paella is a winner, with mussels, shrimp, conch, octopus, scallops and clams. And the churrasco is terrific. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/274-9090. $$
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. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/274-9404. $$
casa di pepe—189 N.E. Second Ave. Italian. A welcoming staff, familiar Italian dishes done right and december/january
The names will bring you in… but the food will bring you back!
Vic & Angelo’s serves up delectable, rustic Italian cuisine, including soul-satisfying house-made pastas, crispy, thin-crust pizzas, refreshing salads, fresh fish and seafood, and enticing veal and chicken dishes, in a warm and welcoming setting.
The Office is a modern American gastropub that serves delicious, gourmet comfort food, in a setting reminiscent of a luxurious home office. Menu favorites include an array of juicy burgers, inventive salads, swell sandwiches, wonderful appetizers and mouthwatering seafood, chicken and beef entrees.
• Lunch & Dinner Served Daily • • Early & Late Happy Hour at Indoor & Outdoor Bars • • Brunch Served Saturday & Sunday • • Indoor and Outdoor Dining •
• Lunch & Dinner Served Daily • • Early & Late Happy Hour at Indoor & Outdoor Bars • • Dine Indoors or on the Patio •
290 E. Atlantic Ave. • Delray Beach • 561-278-9570 4520 PGA Blvd. • Palm Beach Gardens • 561-630-9899 vicandangelos.com
201 E. Atlantic Ave. • Delray Beach • 561-276-3600 theofficedelray.com
[ dining guide ] numerous cuts and preparations—and add a lobster tail for good measure. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/2650122. $$
greek bistro—1832 S. Federal Highway. Greek. 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. $
aaron bristol
the grove—187 N.E. Second Ave. American.
Pan-seared Delray grouper with olive and basil ratatouille from Jimmy’s Bistro
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. $$
city oyster—213 E. Atlantic Ave. Seafood. This stylish mainstay of Big Time Restaurant Group serves up reasonably priced seafood that never disappoints, such as crab-stuffed shrimp with jalapeño cheddar grits, bacon, shiitake mushrooms and warm vinaigrette. • Lunch Mon.–Sun. Dinner nightly. Outdoor dining. 561/272-0220. $$
crepes by the sea—145 N.E. Fourth Ave. Casual French/American. This casual and comfy spot off the Avenue offers breakfast and lunch salads, crepes and sandwiches, and morphs into to a tapas and wine bar for dinner in the evenings. This is when things get really interesting as the café ups its game to include a cheese-and-salumi board, and small plates ranging from $4 to $17. Menu selections here can be as humble as real pommes frites (french fries to you) and bruschetta to a bresaola carpaccio or a chicken Francese. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/243-2004. $
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. $$$
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d’angelo trattoria—9 S.E. Seventh Ave. Italian. Don’t go here expecting all the tired old “Italian” culinary clichés; open your palate to more authentic and exciting Roman-style cuisine, like roasted veal bone marrow with brisk caper-parsley pesto, creamy-dreamy burrata with roasted fava beans and watercress salad, the classic tonnarelli cacio e pepe (“cheese and pepper”) and the best gelato this side of a real Roman trattoria. • Dinner daily. 561/330-1237. $$ deck 84—840 E. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary
The Grove offers excellent food, the kind that gives hope that our part of South Florida can be a culinary destination on par with the best in the country. There’s excellent service too, and an equally commendable wine list, one that boasts by-the-glass selections actually worth drinking. The menu changes biweekly and, like the restaurant, lacks even a crumb of pretension— and is uniformly excellent. • Dinner Tues.- Thurs. 561/266-3750. $$$
henry’s—16850 Jog Road. American. This casual, unpretentious restaurant from Burt Rapoport in the west part of town never fails to delight diners. Expect attentive service and crisp execution of everything—from meat loaf, burgers and fried chicken to flatbreads and hefty composed salads. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/638-1949. $$
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 can’t be beat. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Brunch Sat.–Sun. Dinner daily. 561/665-8484. $
house of siam—25 N.E. Second Ave. Thai. The
dig—777 E. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American.
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. 561/2723566. $$
Proprietor Robert Greenfield has turned the former Greenfield’s restaurant into organic-healthy-sustainable DIG (“Doing It Green”). Luckily, diners don’t have to suffer in pursuit of gastronomic rectitude with dishes like plump pan-seared diver scallops with pineapplemango salsa, and luscious chocolate mousse cake. The four different greens mixes at the salad bar are crisp and pristinely fresh. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner daily. 561/279-1002. $$
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
normally riotous flavors of Thai cuisine are muted at this charming, family-friendly spot, but that seems to suit diners just fine. Dishes, 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. $$
j&j seafood bar & grill—634 E. Atlantic Ave. Seafood. This local favorite on the Avenue—owned by John Hutchinson (also the chef) and wife Tina—serves up everything from burgers and wraps to a menu brimming with seafood options. Don’t forget to inquire about the stunning array of 10 specials—every night. • Lunch and dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/272-3390. $$ december/january
Coming Early 2014 From the Farm toYour Fork www.flavors2014.com
The Junior League of Boca Raton qualifies as a charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. A portion of the proceeds from Flavors will go to support C.H.O.W.’s (Conquering Hunger Our Way) community initiatives such as weekend backpacks for children who are food insecure, The Boca Raton Community Garden, food drives, food recovery, cooking and nutrition education and community awareness. C.H.O.W. is the Junior League of Boca Raton’s committee that addresses issues of hunger plaguing our community. A copy of the official registration, no. CH2459, and financial information may be obtained from the division of consumer services by calling toll free 1-800-435-7352 within the state. Registration does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation by the state.
[ dining guide ] scuola vecchia—522 E. Atlantic Ave. Neopolitan pizza. This bright pizza and wine place makes a certified and serious Neopolitan pizza—according to standards set forth by The Associazone Pizzaliola Napolentani (APN). That means light flavorful dough, spanking fresh imported ingredients—and about as far away as you can get from the American smeary cheesy greasy version. • Lunch and dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/865-5923. $
cristina Morgado
sundy house—106 S. Swinton Ave. Contemporary American/Mediterranean. “Top Chef” Lindsay Autry and pastry chef Sarah Sype have transformed the Sundy House menu into a “soulful” blend of Mediterranean flavors and southern comfort food—served in arguably the most beautiful restaurant and gardens in Delray. Menus are seasonal and imaginative. • Lunch Tues.–Sat. Brunch Sun. Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/272-5678. $$$ tramonti—119 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian. With its roots in New York’s Angelo’s of Mulberry Street, this venue is always packed. Homemade stuffed manicotti is aromatic and glorious. Tramonti’s platter for two, containing fillet marsala, veal cutlet with prosciutto, fried zucchini and potato croquettes, is terrific. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. Outdoor dining. 561/272-1944. $$
Seafood fare from Sundy House
jimmy’s bistro—9 S. Swinton Ave. Eclectic. 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. $$
la cigale—253 S.E. Fifth Ave. Mediterranean. This kitchen turns out gently updated and classically oriented dishes notable for the quality of their ingredients and careful preparation. Sweetbreads in chanterelle cream sauce are simply glorious; a barely grilled artichoke with mustardy remoulade is gloriously simple. • Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/265-0600. $$
latitudes ocean grill—2809 S.Ocean Blvd., Highland Beach. Contemporary American. This seaside restaurant at the Holiday Inn has long been an unfussy local favorite—with a jaw-dropping view. Think gold standard faves like calamari, mom’s chicken soup, stuffed portabello, steaks, chops, the always-great yellowtail snapper. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon.–Sat. Brunch Sun. 561/278-6241. $$
lemongrass bistro—420 E. Atlantic Ave. Pan-Asian. Casually hip ambience, friendly service, moderate prices and a blend of sushi and nouveau pan-Asian fare make this original Lemongrass and its three younger siblings some of the most popular
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restaurants around. The quality of its seafood and care in its preparation are what gives Lemongrass its edge. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/278-5050. $
max’s harvest—169 N.E. Second Ave. Contemporary American. Restaurateur Dennis Max, instrumental in bringing the chef- and ingredient-driven ethos of California cuisine to South Florida in the 1980s, is again at the forefront of the fresh, local, seasonal culinary movement. Max’s Harvest soars with dishes like plump Cedar Key clams with house-made tasso, savory bourbon-maple glazed pork belly, and crispy-skinned wild sockeye salmon with yuzu-truffle vinaigrette. • Dinner daily. 561/381-9970. $$
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. $$
prime—110 E. Atlantic Ave. Steak/Seafood. Prime has a neo-supper club decor, extensive wine list and roster of designer steaks. Starters and desserts fare better than entrées, especially plump, crabby Maryland-style crab cakes and indecently luscious chocolate bread pudding. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/865-5845. $$$
tryst—4 E. Atlantic Ave. Eclectic. It’s tough to beat this hotspot with the lovely outdoor patio, well-chosen selection of artisan beers and not-the-usual-suspect 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. $$ union—8 E. Atlantic Ave. Pan-Asian. This downtown purveyor of “Asian comfort food” has brought in wacky-maki expert Candyfish Gourmet Sushi as a sort of restaurant-within-a-restaurant. Union dishes like salt-and-pepper calamari and pot stickers with panang curry sauce are well-prepared, and Candyfish’s sushi rolls blend all manner of fish and shellfish in different combinations. Dinner Tues.–Sat. 561/330-4236. $$ vic & angelo’s—290 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian. Vic’s 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. $$$
boyNtoN bEACh bäd ragaz—1417 S. Federal Highway. bavarian. The Swiss municipality of Bad Ragaz is known for the healing powers of its thermal waters. This Bäd Ragaz is known for the healing powers of a different liquid: beer, some two december/january
dozen on tap and another 50 or so by the bottle. The sudscentric food has its hits and misses, but is generally on target more than not. Good choices are the Black Forest ham-stuffed mushrooms, generously portioned smoked trout salad, and crispy and golden Vienna veal schnitzel. Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/336-3297. $$
bar louie—1500 Gateway Blvd. Eclectic. 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 must-try. 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. $ little house—480 E. Ocean Ave. Contemporary American. There are lots of big flavors coming out of Chrissie Benoit’s Little House. But size as well as culinary boundaries haven’t really mattered to Wolfgang Puck
alum Benoit. She cheerfully casts them aside to turn out such disparate dishes as a rich, cheesy savory bread pudding, plush India butter chicken that would be a hit in New Delhi, slow-roasted pulled pork sandwich with smoky chipotle cole slaw, and pineapple upside-down cake that may be the best you’ve ever tasted. • Lunch and dinner Tues.–Sat. Sun. brunch. 561/420-0573 $
prime catch—700 E. Woolbright Road. Seafood. 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. $$ sushi simon—1614 S. Federal Highway. Japanese/ sushi. Local sushi-philes jam the long, narrow dining room for a taste of such impeccable nigirizushi as hamachi and uni (only on Thursdays), as well as more elaborate dishes like the sublime snowy snapper Morimoto and opulent tuna tartare. Creative and more elaborate rolls are a specialty. This is arguably some of the best sushi in Palm Beach County. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/731-1819. $$
LAkE worth couco pazzo—915-917 Lake Ave. Italian. Despite the name, there’s nothing crazy about the cooking at this homey eatery. It’s the hearty, soul-satisfying 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. $$
paradiso ristorante—625 Lucerne Ave. Italian. A Tomasz Rut mural dominates the main dining room, and there is also a pasticceria and bar for gelato and espresso. Chef Angelo Romano offers a modern Italian menu. The Mediterranean sea bass branzino is definitely a must-try. Plus, the wine list is a veritable tome. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/547-2500. $$$ 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
Come experience a new season at Sundy House! We can’t wait to show you around. Our new menus are seasonally driven and are always fresh from sea, farm and garden. Each of our guest rooms and cottages are uniquely themed and impeccably appointed. There’s always something new to explore along our one-acre Taru Garden path and our Happy Hour in the Atrium and Star Bar is fast becoming Delray’s treasured gathering place. Lunch, Dinner, Sunday Brunch, Happy Hour/Live Music & Special Events 106 S. Swinton Ave. Delray Beach 561.272.5678 sundyhouse.com sundyhouse_dbm1213.indd 1
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[ dining guide ] 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. $$$
Salmon yakitori from HMF at The Breakers
buccan—350 S. County Road. Contemporary American. Casual elegance of Palm Beach meets modern culinary sensibilities of Miami at the first independent restaurant by chef Clay Conley. The design offers both intimate and energetic dining areas, while the menu is by turn familiar (wood-grilled burgers) and more adventurous (truffled steak tartare with crispy egg yolk, squid ink orrechiette). But they’re all good. Dinner daily. 561/833-3450. $$ café boulud—The Brazilian Court, 301 Australian 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. $$$
café l’europe—331 S. County Road. Current international. A Palm Beach standard, the café has long been known for its peerless beauty, the piano player, the chilled martinis and the delicious Champagne and caviar bar. Try one of its sophisticated classics like Wiener schnitzel with herbed spaetzle, grilled veal chop and flavorful pastas. • Lunch Tues.–Fri. Dinner nightly (closed Mon. during summer). 561/655-4020. $$$ chez jean-pierre—132 N. County Road. French.
aaron bristol
Sumptuous cuisine, attentive servers and a see-and-beseen 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. $$$
and reasonable prices. • Lunch Tues.–Fri. Dinner Tues.– Sun. 561/588-7768. $
LANTANA
(up to 8 pounds) and are so reasonably priced that getting a taste of one without reservations is highly unlikely. • Dinner nightly. 561/547-9487. (Other location: 1544 S.E. Third Court, Deerfield Beach, 954/420-9314) $$$
the station house—233 Lantana Road. Seafood. If
PALM BEACH
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
bice—313 Worth Ave. Italian. Bice continues to hold the
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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. $$ echo—230A Sunrise Ave. Asian. The cuisine reverberates with the tastes of China, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam and is spec-ta-cu-lar. Crispy jumbo shrimp with soybean plum sauce is delectable, the Chinese hot and sour soup is unlike any other, and the Mongolian beef tenderloin is perfection. Sake list is also tops. This december/january
offsite property of The Breakers is managed with the same flawlessness as the resort. • Dinner nightly (during season). 561/802-4222. $$$
hmf—1 S. County Road, Palm Beach, American. This posh Adam Tihany-designed space in the historic Breakers resort, an icon of Old Palm Beach, offers imginative small plates and hand-crafted cocktails in an atmosphere reminiscent of the 1950s. Wild boar empanaditas, Korean-style short rib, lamb meatballs with Spanish molé and wild salmon yakitori are just a few of the options. If you have any appetite left, reserve it for the luscious pumpkin praline bread pudding, which comes with crunchy pecans and a ramekin of silken creme anglaise, or for the irresistible butterscotch panna. Open daily from 5 p.m. 561/290-0104, $$
9. The menu is equally decadent. • Breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner daily. 561/659-5800. $$
nick & johnnie’s—207 Royal Poinciana Way. Contemporary American. Expect flavorful, moderately priced California-esque cuisine in a casual setting with affordable wines and young, energetic servers. Try the shortrib 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. $$ renato’s—87 Via Mizner. Italian with continental
leopard lounge and restaurant—The Ches-
flair. This most romantic hideaway is comfortably buzzing in season and quietly charming all year long with Italian classics and a Floridian twist—like the sautéed black grouper in a fresh tomato and pernod broth with fennel and black olives and the wildflower-honeyglazed salmon fillet with crab and corn flan. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/655-9752. $$$
terfield 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
ta-boó—2221 Worth Ave. American. This selfdescribed “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. $$
trevini ristorante—290 Sunset Ave. Italian. Maître d’ Carla Minervini is your entrée to a warm experience, complemented by a stately but comfortable room and excellent food. We love the crispy fillet of herb-crusted sole in a rich, buttery sauce and the veal scallopini in a lemon caper Chardonnay sauce. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/833-3883. $$$ pAlm beACh gArdens 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. $ café chardonnay—4533 PGA Blvd. Contemporary American. This longtime stalwart never rests on its laurels. Instead, it continues to dish finely crafted
Design • Home Furnishings • Accessories Delray Beach 117 NE 5th Ave. • 561.278.0886 North Palm Beach 1400 Old Dixie Hwy. • 561.845.3250 West Palm Beach 1810 S. Dixie Hwy. • 561.249.6000 Westhampton Beach 83 Main Street • 631.288.0258 www.excentricities.com
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[ dining guide ] Sushi roll from Umi FIshbar + Grill
lamb kefta. Take your Turkish coffee to the patio for an arguileh (water pipe) experience. • Lunch Mon.– Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sun. 561/659-7373. $$
marcello’s la sirena—6316 S. Dixie Highway. Italian. You’re in for a true Italian treat if the pasta of the day is prepared with what might be the best Bolognese sauce ever. There are countless other top choices at this cozy mainstay, which opened in 1986, including the chicken breast, pounded thin and filled with fontina and prosciutto. • Dinner Mon.–Sat. (closed Memorial Day–Labor Day). 561/585-3128. $$
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. 561/833-5090. $$ rhythm café—3800 S. Dixie Highway. casual american. Once a diner, the interior is eclectic with plenty of kitsch. The crab cakes are famous here, and the tapas are equally delightful. Homemade ice cream and the chocolate chip cookies defy comparison. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/833-3406. $$
cristina Morgado
rocco’s tacos—224 Clematis St. mexican. Big
American/Continental fare with enough inventiveness to keep things interesting. The popular herb-andDijon-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. $$
ette and palate. Must-orders include mariquitas, thin, crispy plantain slices that are the irresistible Cuban answer to potato chips; cookbook-perfect ceviche of shrimp, octopus and calamari that shows how chili heat can be both fiery and subtle. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/833-4773. $$
west palm beach
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. $$
b.b. king’s blues club—550 S. Rosemary Ave. american. The restaurant at this club-dining spot won’t leave you singing the blues, but it will leave you wishing for more than a spoonful of the lusty flavors of its Southern/New Orleans cuisine. Punch up the flavors of pan-fried catfish and shrimp with jambalaya sauce and chicken-fried chicken on a bed of mac ’n’ cheese, and you could let the good times roll. Buffalo wings, fried pickle chips and luscious banana bread pudding are good bets. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/420-8600. $ cabana las palmas—533 Clematis St. Nuevo latino. This colorful restaurant is a treat for the pal74
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café centro —2409 N. Dixie Highway. Italian.
leila—120 S. Dixie Highway. mediterranean. Flowing drapes and industrial lighting complete the exotic decor in this Middle Eastern hit. Sensational hummus is a must-try. Lamb kebab with parsley, onion and spices makes up the delicious Lebanese
Time Restaurant Group has crafted a handsome spot that dishes Mexican favorites, as well as upscale variations on the theme and some 150 tequilas. Tacos feature house-made tortillas and a variety of proteins. Made-to-order guacamole is a good place to start, perhaps followed by a grilled yellowtail (an occasional special) with mango-pineapple salsa. The happy hours draw great crowds. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/650-1001. (Other Palm Beach County location: 5250 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, 561/416-2133; 5090 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, 561/623-0127) $
top of the point—777 S. Flagler Drive. contemporary american. The food is not only good but surprisingly adventurous, and the service is exceptional at this spot along the Intracoastal Waterway. Though there are plenty of steaks for the more conservative of palate, the edgier offerings, like smoky grilled octopus with “Catalan salad,” are definitely worth going out on a limb for. • Dinner Tues.–Sat. 561/832-2424. $$$
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 Mexicanstyle corn cooked on the robata grill and Nobu-esque sake-miso-marinated sea bass that’s a symphony of lusty flavors. • Dinner daily. 561/472-7900. $$ december/january
swank specialty produce
invites you presented
For the past 10 years, we have delighted customers at our market stands and chefs in their restaurants who use our produce in their most enticing farm-to-table dishes. Now, join us “down on the farm” as we introduce SWANK TABLE! Come to Loxahatchee Groves, tour our hydroponic growing houses, then plant yourself at our “TABLE.” This season, SWANK TABLE will host five al fresco luncheons in our own fields of green, with local and nationally known chefs who will create feasts right before your eyes.
PALM BEACH FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL SOUTHERN COMFORT "A HAIR OF THE DOG EXPERIENCE" DECEMBER 15, 2013 • 12-3 PM
ONCE UPON A FARM...
benefiting Historical Society of Palm Beach County
januaRy 12, 2014 • 12-4 PM
HOT PINk LUNCH
benefiting The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
fEBRuaRy 9, 2014 • 12-4 PM
yOU CAN BANk ON IT!
benefiting Palm Beach County Food Bank
MaRCh 9, 2014 • 12-4 PM
A MIDSPRING NIGHT’S DREAM
benefiting The Armory Art Center’s Outreach Program
aPRil 6, 2014 • 4-8 PM
Thank you
our sponsors:
Reserve your seats today at SWANKSPECIALTYPRODUCE.COM
Delray Beach's
insider advertising • promotions • events
delray beach open
The 2014 Delray Beach Open by The Venetian® Las Vegas is known for the full-fan entertainment experience. The tournament will kick off on Valentine’s Day and Presidents' weekend and run through Feb. 23. This year, competing celebrity Andy Roddick will make his ATP Champions Tour debut, and the tournament will feature the all-time No. 1 doubles team, the Bryan Brothers. Delray Beach Stadium & Tennis Center 201 W. Atlantic Ave. • Delray Beach yellowtennisball.com
nomad surF shop: since 1968
Take a cruise down scenic A1A and stop in the oldest surf shop in South Florida to experience the authentic surf culture. We have a wide variety of goods for every enthusiast—from the beach goer to the dedicated surfer. We have been family owned and operated from the beginning. 4655 N. Ocean Blvd. • Boynton Beach 561/272-2882 • nomadsurf1968.com
Great Florida insurance
From Dec. 1, 2013 through March 31, 2014, Great Florida Insurance of Delray will be partnering with Plumosa School of the Arts. For every client that calls in for an insurance quote and mentions Plumosa, we will donate $10 to the school. Offer only applicable to Great Florida of Delray; each agency is independently owned and operated. 142 S.E. Sixth Ave., Suite B • Delray Beach 561/665-6577 • delraybeach.greatflorida.com
viC & ANgElO'S HAPPY HOUR in delray beach
Vic & Angelo's features delicious, rustic Italian cuisine and a superb happy hour with half-price appetizers and libations, between 3 and 7 p.m. daily at the indoor and outdoor bars. Enticing antipasti include baked clams, hand-made mozzarella with sliced tomatoes, beef carpaccio, ahi tuna with avocado, calamari fritti and grilled octopus. 290 E. Atlantic Ave. • Delray Beach 561/278-9570 • vicandangelos.com
Visit bocamag.com/events for more information.
SWING INTO THE HOLIDAYS
The AlliAnz ChAmpionship The Old Course at Broken Sound | February 3-9, 2014 | Boca Raton, Florida
The SeaSOn’S hOTTeST TiCkeT
40% OFF TiCkeTS* For more information call 561.241.GOLF (4653) *Offer expires 12/21/13 Benefiting
or visit www.allianzChampionship.com
Music as Beautiful as Palm Beach County Coming ... Palm Beach County’s newest radio station. Enjoy the music of the Great American Songbook — every day! Timeless classics from Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to Michael Bublé and Diana Krall.
A DICK ROBINSON ENTERTAINMENT STATION
B
The Delray Beach Public Library
THANKS
Laugh with the Library, Chapter 8 Sponsors for Their Support
for a Cause
Joseph & Tandy Robinson
Featuring Comedian
DENNIS REGAN
Favorite of the “The Tonight Show” and “Late Show with David Letterman”
John & Amy Crompton
Friday, January 31, 2014 at Delray Beach Marriott Proceeds to benefit the Delray Beach Public Library Children & Teen Programs
Ticket Price: $175 To purchase tickets visit our website at www.delraylibrary.org or call 561.266.0799. like us on facebook (must be 21 to attend)
Domain Holdings Group Doors op
en
7:30 PM Show tim
e
9:00 PM
[ my turn]
By John Shuff
Giving Thanks Being grateful for life’s little lessons. “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” —G.K. Chesterton
I
was a moody kid, a contrarian, prone to venting my frustrations never complained about his discomfort as he methodically placed his on my dad. He didn’t let me get away with all that complaining, swollen stump into his prosthesis, his lifeline to walking. fixing his steely blue eyes on me and saying time and time again, I’ll never forget that day. Parents hugged their kids as they came into “I cried because I had no shoes the room from the slopes. Everyone until I met a man who had no feet.” acted if they had just climbed The It is a sentiment that has resonated Matterhorn, their sense of accomwith me for a lifetime, especially this plishment radiating from their windtime of year—16 words that always blown faces. manage to remind me what I am grateThat day was my epiphany, when I ful for. They put my life into perspecreally understood what my dad was tive and have helped define who I am. telling me with his 16-word admoniIn winter of 1988, I made up my tion. It was the day I realized that I had made it down that mountain— mind to learn how to ski. Unable to made it down the slope of adversity— walk, I joined a program at Park City with children and young adults who Handicapped Sports (known today as The National Ability Center). My inwould never enjoy the experiences I structor was a Vietnam vet whose right had had before being diagnosed with leg had been blown off by a land mine. multiple sclerosis. After strapping me into my “sit ski,” It was the day I saw how each of us he tethered himself to the rear of it and coped with our handicaps, scuttling off we went. The run down the mounfeelings of self-pity and concentrating The author (right), with help from instructor Peter Badewitz, participates in the ski program at since-renamed Park City handicapped Sports. tain’s trails was thrilling and exhilaraton self-esteem. ing. It was an experience, at age 48, that This holiday season and every day I would never trade for anything. you live, thank God you can see the sunlight when you awake, as there However, what defined this experience was not the run down the are many who are blind. Give thanks for your family and your friends, mountain; it’s what happened in the locker room afterward. This crowdfor many are alone. Give thanks for your job and co-workers, for there ed space was not filled with your typical après-ski crowd. There was a are many with no job. And when you sit down to a meal give thanks, for young woman with slurred speech and jerky movements, the result of a there are many who are hungry. Thank God for his most precious gift, your life. Treasure it each day, head injury; a youngster with cerebral palsy; a smiling, teenaged blind girl and take nothing for granted. Find your way down the mountain no who was being assisted by one of the volunteers. I remember how my instructor exchanged his heavy ski prosthesis for matter how difficult. And cherish the journey. his regular one. The stump left by the surgeons was red and irritated, but he
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A ut YE o a b EW
S R’
EV
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k N A s CK
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T
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B L U E WAV E S & P I N K I C E . I T ’ S N OT YO U R I M A G I N AT I O N . It’s true – the entire family can now ride the waves and glide across the ice this winter at Boca Raton Resort & Club, A Waldorf Astoria Resort. Dive into the Boca Surf School and, from November through the New Year, hit the new pink ice at the resort’s debut outdoor skating rink.
Winter rates starting from $149 per night **. Escape to your family winter wonderland by calling 888.495.BOCA or visit BocaResort.com.
N E W YO R K | C H I C AG O | R O M E C AVA L I E R | T H E B O U L D E R S | A R I ZO N A B I LT M O R E | S H A N G H A I L A Q U I N TA R E S O RT & C LU B | J E R U S A L E M * | T H E R O O S E V E LT N E W O R L E A N S | P U E RTO R I CO | B E R L I N B EI J I N G* | O R L AN D O | G R AN D WAI L E A | QA S R AL S H ARQ | K E Y W E S T | N AP L E S | PAR K C I T Y T H E C A L E D O N I A N | R A S A L K H A I M A H | B O C A R ATO N | PA N A M A | T R I A N O N PA L AC E V E R S A I L L E S *COMING SOON
#PinkRink
**Visit BocaResort.com for terms and conditions. ©2013 Hilton Worldwide
CRANE'S BEACHHOUSE HOTEL & TIKI BAR INVITES YOU TO...
ESCAPE FROM THE ORDINARY Discover our magical hideaway... right in the heart of it all.
Soak Up the Sun At Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel Offering an incredible Key West-like experience just one block away from the Atlantic Ocean, Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel & Tiki Bar is a fun and festive boutique hotel with 27 distinctive and luxurious guest suites, all nestled within a lush, tropical setting. This creates a real tranquil environment, even though the hotel is just steps away from the shops and restaurants along Delray Beach’s hot and happening Atlantic Avenue. The two poolside Tiki Bars are stocked with an array of tropical drinks, wines and both domestic and imported beer, with a music-filled happy hour from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. www.cranesbeachhouse.com.
HOTEL & TIKI BAR w w w. c r a n e s b e a c h h o u s e . c o m
561-278-1700 866-372-7263 82 Gleason Street Delray Beach, Florida 33483