AARON BRISTOL
Provisions Visions
THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC may have forced the closure of restaurants beginning in March 2020, but chefs Clay Conley and Zach Bell of the Ember Group did everything but stop cooking. Instead, they decided to turn up the heat in one of their most vibrant kitchens. Conley, the chef behind Palm Beach’s Buccan, quickly launched a nonprofit corporation, Buccan Provisions, to fund the production of nutritious and delicious food for locals suffering the economic fallout of the COVID-19 lockdown. The 6,000-square-foot Grato, Conley’s nouveau Italian spot over the bridge in West Palm Beach, became home base for Buccan Provisions. Conley and Bell outfitted the restaurant with tilt skillets, and added refrigeration and automated food-packing machinery—everything the partners needed to turn out cost-effective meals at high volumes. Buccan Provisions has raised more than a million dollars in funding, allowing the Ember Group to serve 178,000 meals—that’s 10,000 per week—to 20 nonprofit partners in Palm Beach County, which distribute them to those directly in need of hunger relief. Grato is now back open, but the need is still there. Consider a tax-deductible donation at buccanprovisions.org.
Risotto All’ Argosta at Renato’s
GET OUT
OTHER PALM BEACH RESTAURANTS WITH OUTDOOR DINING
TA-BOO, 221 Worth Ave., 561/835-3500 SIGNATURE DISH: It’s all good but we especially love the lemon sole and the rotisserie duck COCKTAIL: Dry martini, straight up
BICE, 313 Worth Avenue, 561/835-1600 SIGNATURE DISH: Veal scaloppini with lemon COCKTAIL: Blue lychee martini
CAFÉ BOULUD,
CAFÉ FLORA,
ACQUA CAFE,
301 Australian Ave., 561/655-6060 SIGNATURE DISH: Dover sole with sauce meuniere and market vegetables COCKTAIL: DB Signature white cosmopolitan
240 Worth Avenue, 561/514-4959 SIGNATURE DISH: Berkshire Tomahawk pork bone-in center cut with potatoes and vegetables COCKTAIL: A big Italian red
2875 S. Ocean, 561/547-0005 SIGNATURE DISH: We love this coastal Italian menu, but have a soft spot for the cioppino. COCKTAIL: Mediterranean negroni
WORTH AVENUE
eat and drink 2021.indd 23
23 12/15/20 4:25 PM
