style

Suitcase, $85, beaded pillow, $58, from Sunday State Style; bird pillow, $55, brass seagulls in flight sculpture, $55, from Nest of Delray; domino set, $221, gold burst sculpture, $153 (set of three), all from Excentricities; match box, $7.50, metal inlay box, $250, from Vintage Tess; Chenille by Command wallpaper; National Wallcoverings available at Robb & Stucky, Boca Raton

NEST OF DELRAY, 817 N.E. Sixth Ave., Delray Beach, 561/900-7181, nestdelray.com VINTAGE TESS, 154 N.E. Fifth Ave., Delray Beach, 646/498-8867 SUNDAY STATE STYLE: 157 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach, 561/455-2656, sundaystate.com EXCENTRICITIES, INC. DELRAY BEACH 117 N.E. Fifth Ave., Delray Beach, 561/278-0886, excentricities-inc.shoplightspeed.com

Crystal flower jar, $48, plates, $24 (set of 4) from Sunday State Style; black vintage ice bucket and bowls, $120 (for the set), alligator pillow, $495, crane pillow, $395, all from Vintage Tess; Rivet silver tray, $150, highball glasses, $85 (for two), small silver bowl with spoon, $95, oval pewter table, $257, round end table, $325, from Excentricities; Canyon Willow wallpaper by DeNovo Wall; National Wallcoverings available at Robb & Stucky, Boca Raton

Shirley Erazo

Shirley Erazo

The CEO of the Delray Beach Housing Authority provides more than shelter for the city’s most vulnerable

We know all about the tourist-brochure part of Delray. “We serve as a liaison for our residents in all services,” says Jakeleen The part with the boutique hotels and concept restau- Fernandez, DHG vice president of operations. “Shirley is very much rants. The part that wins awards, radiates fun in the involved in trying to bring services to all of our residents. She is sun, and takes up the most real estate in this magazine. instrumental in making a lot happen.”

Steps away from the lacquered shine of During the pandemic, this has meant ensuring their residents, especially downtown Atlantic Avenue, hiding in plain sight, the elderly Section 8 residents of the Courts of Village Square, had access to is the other side of Delray. Nearly 12 percent of the city’s population lives COVID tests, cleaning supplies, PPE and home-cooked meals. in poverty, according to the Census, and that’s a pre-COVID number. The “We provided them with $25 gift cards for groceries,” adds Erazo. “We pandemic has disproportionately affected the city’s most vulnerable, and advocate. We see the need, and we address it.” homelessness has only increased over a year of economic distress. And then, when their elderly tenants had trouble signing up for vaccine

That is where the Delray Beach appointments, the DBHA stepped in. Housing Authority (DBHA) comes in. The government entity, founded in 1978, “Families pay rent based “Through the collaboration of local officials, we were able to get [vaccinations] set up. receives funding through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide rental assistance on their incomes. We’re helping them with They brought in a health clinic team to the site, and we were able to successfully vaccinate more than 300 residents.” As of this to low-income families. Together with its in-house property management company, Delray Housing Group (DHG), the DBHA their rent, we’re paying attention, making sure writing, Erazo is aware of only two tenants in the city’s Section 8 program who have died from the coronavirus. provides accommodations to 1,111 Palm Beach County families in the form of rental- they’re kept in a safe Economically, however, the virus has put the need for public housing in stark relief. assistance vouchers. The vouchers provide the tenants apartments in 13 public housing environment.” “Approximately 200 of our families lost jobs as a result of the pandemic,” Erazo says. “So units in Delray, with other DBHA families we came into play and paid most or all of discreetly housed in units from Boca Raton to Lake Worth Beach. their rent. … The Housing Authority is a vital agency.”

“Families pay rent based on their incomes,” says Shirley Erazo, CEO of It is also, unfortunately, maxed out of space, and there is not enough the DBHA. “In all aspects, we’re helping them with their rent, we’re paying housing to meet the demand. The organization’s Housing Choice Voucher attention, making sure they’re kept in a safe environment. Drive to Lake program has been closed for some time, with 2,695 applicants on the Delray [the apartment complex where the DBHA maintains 404 units]. waiting list. The DBHA hopes to win approval for a 3-acre vacant lot on You’ll see how nice and clean, how pleasant it is to live there. … We operate Southwest 12th Avenue and Southwest 10th Street, which would allow for above standard. We take care of the properties as we would want to live in 54 additional rental units. them, or our parents would want to live in them. You can’t even tell that In the meantime, Erazo will continue to field calls from tenants in need. they’re public housing units.” “I will grab that phone anytime during the day,” she says. “This is a mission

Erazo, 56, has been CEO of the Housing Authority for fewer than two for us. I was put here to serve the families and the residents. It gives me years, but she’s a lifer to the cause. The native New Yorker moved to Palm satisfaction to be able to transition a family that is homeless to a home. Beach County 26 years ago as the DBHA’s Section 8 Housing director, then When they come here, they’ve gone through all local agencies, and they’ve worked up to chief operations officer and finally director of the organization. told them ‘no, we have nothing for you.’ And when we can help them, it’s A hands-on leader, she gives away her personal cell phone number to inspiring, just to see them say, ‘there’s hope for me. I have a home.’ And tenants, even if it means fielding queries unrelated to the DBHA purview. that’s what motivates us to continue our journey here.”

Joe Mullings

This medical tech CEO and docuseries host has beat the odds in more ways than one

To our knowledge, Joe Mullings has not exactly marketed Today, Mullings does business on six continents and is soon to outgrow himself as “the Anthony Bourdain of the medical device his 10,300-square-foot office. He credits part of his firm’s success to his world,” but the shoe fits. ability, three decades ago, to forecast game-changing trends in the growing

Mullings admits he took some inspiration from the late field of medtech. He recalls thinking, “People are going to want to live longer gastro-traveler’s “Parts Unknown” when he developed his and healthier lives. … And I’m fascinated with the human body. You’ve got own web series, “TrueFuture,” in 2019. In the series, which has so many disease states to manage, and so many different technologies to spanned four seasons so far, Mullings travels to locations as near as Wynwood manage them. Nobody will be able to keep up to us in regards to teaching it.” and as far-flung as Israel and Flagstaff, Arizona. In addition to running The Mullings Instead of sampling global cuisine, Mullings Group, Mullings produces his own seeks out entrepreneurs specializing in “Our goal was to tell and custom video content, including disruptive technologies in science and medicine. Like Bourdain, Mullings is a personality-driven amazing stories about the “TrueFuture” and similarly themed video podcasts and interview series. Yet every day narrator who looks the part of a tattooed bad boy, and he leaves time in each episode for the industry, and share them is something of a blessing for Mullings, who at one point was told he might not live to his local color behind the tech. with the 150,000 people current age, 59. A former competitive time “You could say Bourdain was a food show, but I don’t think anybody who followed throughout the industry. trial cyclist, he suffered an injury during a training session in Spain in 2014. He was Bourdain cared about what food was on the We shined a light on diagnosed with congestive heart failure soon table,” says Mullings, from his production studio in Delray Beach. “They cared about, things that people after, which has a 50 percent mortality rate within five years. For the lifelong athlete, the what was Anthony going to do next? … We took notes from that. weren’t even aware of.” diagnosis was a shocker. “Usually it’s caused by drugs, alcohol,

“It catapulted our business even further genetics,” he says. “But the idiopathic part was into the industry, because we did it for free. It was self-funded. Each of those likely caused by a virus I caught in Brazil. I had gotten deathly ill in Brazil a seasons cost me somewhere between $250,000 and $350,000 cash out of my year and a half beforehand, while training five days a week. ... Through a series own pocket. But our goal was to tell the amazing stories about the industry, of diet changes, pharmaceuticals and an energy healer, I have returned, much and share them with the 150,000 people throughout the U.S. who are in that to the surprise of all my cardiology docs, to normal heart function again. I still industry. We shined a light on things that people weren’t aware of.” have a piece of hardware in me, but that’s coming out, hopefully.”

Mullings can afford to produce his show on YouTube on the strength of If Mullings’ global profile continue to grow, the athletics is perhaps his lucrative day job as CEO of The Mullings Group, touted as the world’s the one element of his life that has had to take a backseat. “I’m a hyperlargest search firm in the medtech industry. He’s a headhunter, matching competitor,” he says. “I either go 100 miles an hour or nothing. I still exercise job seekers at major companies with their ideal personnel. He started the six days a week, but sitting at a heart rate of 170 for two and a half hours business in a two-desk office in Coral Gables in 1992, and has operated in every day probably is not the best subscription. ... I view myself as being in Delray Beach for the past 20 years. the bonus round, because I really ought to be dead.”

TROPICAL SMOKEHOUSE

3815 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, 561/323-2573

PARKING: Parking lot HOURS: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily; closed Mondays PRICES: Entrees $9.75-$25 WEBSITE: eattropical.com

Clockwise, pineapple carrot cake, brisket, sour orange wings and hushpuppies at Tropical Smokehouse; inset, Chef Rick Mace

Tropical Smokehouse

Chef Rick Mace puts a new spin on barbecue at his new West Palm outpost

Tropical Smokehouse is full of surprises.

It’s so casual that you order food and drinks at the bar, pay for them and get a number to put on your table (you can also order by phone from the table). It’s so casual that ashes from the smoker out back might land on your clothing in the outside dining area—but that just adds to the flavor of the experience.

There’s a well-known chef behind the smoky goodness: Rick Mace, who worked for years at Café Boulud and is now co-owner here because of his love of SoFla flavors and barbecue.

The food is top-notch, which shouldn’t be a surprise, and the other half here is Jason Lakow, who was co-owner of the spot’s previous incarnation, Mazie’s, as well as former general manager of Café Boulud.

Surprises at our table appeared all night, with almost each dish served. Mace’s efforts to meld tropical flavor with barbecue standards was evident and worked well. The hot and sweet hushpuppies ($7) were light, airy, crunchy balls of tangy goodness that went “poof!” in your mouth, with or without the delicious honey butter served alongside. The sour orange wings ($8) were moist and tender with a great flavor. The tender brisket ($16) landed with a Cuban espresso sauce that was both smoky and dark with coffee flavor. It melded with the brisket perfectly, turning it from just good to great in the “totally unexpected” slot. All dishes were served in a partial family style—all the meats were on one platter with the sides, for instance. It was a great setup for sharing.

Even the music was a perfect BBQ background: Post-WWII country with Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings. Take a homemade corn tortilla chip, scoop the homemade chorizo queso ($10) and sing along, on the way to the baby-back ribs (half-rack was the special, $25) with Carolina sweet sauce and mustard sauce.

Don’t overlook happy hour—when all “snacks” are half off. Try the BBQ meatloaf; the pulled pork, guac and crispy onions sandwich; or the hot dog “medianoche.” No reservations are taken here. Leave some room for the mango cheesecake ($5) and the pineapple carrot cake ($6), just some of the homemade desserts that hit all the right combos of sweet and tangy.

There isn’t another restaurant like this. That’s the point, and Rick Mace should be rewarded with a faithful following for his unique brand of Florida/ Caribbean/Cuban-influenced barbecue dishes. If this is a trend, we are hopping on the train with our ribs covered in both sweet and mustard sauces.