A Tomahawk rib-eye steak is served at PGA National Resort’s iDeck terrace. (Contributed)
A golf fan can work up quite an appetite watching the action on the greens at Honda Classic, the challenging first stop on the PGA Tour’s Florida swing. And the PGA National Resort and Spa, home of the Classic, is not a bad place for a hungry fan. Not only does the resort offer a solid trio of dining and sipping options, it sits at the western edge of an entire boulevard of eating and drinking possibilities.
Here’s a west-to-east guide of PGA Boulevard area spots, from The Classic greens to U.S. Highway 1:
The Burger Bar in Palm Beach Gardens will make a Honda Classic Burger for the week of the eponymous tournament. (Contributed photo)
Any burger can give you love handles, but how many can get you tickets to the links?
Ordering a Honda Classic Burger from The Burger Bar in Palm Beach Gardens will do just that. Every order of the Burger Bar’s “burger of the week” earns a raffle ticket for a daily drawing for tickets to this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National Resort & Spa.
Ordering a Honda Classic Burger or a Tee Time cocktail at The Burger Bar in Palm Beach Gardens will earn a raffle tickets to win free passes to the Honda Classic. (Contributed photo)
The Honda Classic Burger ($15.50) has a patty made from barbecued meatloaf, plied high with onion rings, applewood-smoked bacon and barbecue “jus,” all between garlic Texas toast.
Maybe a cocktail is more to your liking? The same contest rules apply to ordering the Burger Bar’s Kettle One Tee Time cocktail. It’s basically a spiked Arnold Palmer, with Ketel One Citroen Vodka, ice tea and lemonade.
The burger and cocktail will be available through Saturday.
IndiaFEST enters its 13th year. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
The flavors, rhythms and hues of India will descend upon the West Palm Beach waterfront Saturday, as IndiaFEST celebrates Indian culture, from Bollywood to biryani.
The daylong fest, hosted by the Palm Beach India Association, kicks off at 10 a.m. and goes until 10 p.m. at downtown’s Meyer Amphitheatre.
Expect plenty of music, thanks to Bollywood playback singer Jonita Gandhi, singer Indian-American singer Vidya Vox, rocker Anirudh Bhola, and Bangladeshi-American DJ Sanjoy Deb.
Chef Michael Swamy. (Contributed photo)
To that lively soundtrack, yoga sessions will happen, vendors will showcase Indian fashion and jewelry, and aromas will rise from kiosks cooking and serving Indian dishes.
Chief among those cooking will be visiting Mumbai chef Michael Swamy, a Cordon Bleu-trained cook who counts several Michelin-starred chefs as his mentors. Swamy now works with an Indian private chef service called Hopping Chef.
On Thursday night, he offered a taste of his cuisine at a private, multicourse dinner of event organizers and guests, who gathered at Le Rendez-vous restaurant in downtown West Palm Beach. He whipped up two menus, one for vegetarians and one for meat eaters, with dishes that included spicy chili and vanilla-rubbed chicken wings, a light carrot-coriander soup scented with cumin and chili, a Central Indian-style smoked chicken in a herb-spice curry sauce and a spiced crème brulee.
“My food is very experimental,” he told the gathering. “I stay true to the flavors, but using the French culinary techniques I learned at the Cordon Bleu.”
The festival, which enters its 13th year on Saturday, is free to the public.
Chef Adam Brown and The Cooper Restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens is one of three restaurants featured on Monday’s episode of PBS’s “Check Please.” (Photo: Libby Volgyes)
Three local restaurants will be featured on celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein‘s PBS television show, “Check Please! South Florida” Monday night. The episode airs at 7:30 p.m. on WPBT2-Channel 2. The Cooper Restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens, Table 26 in West Palm Beach and the Pelican Restaurant in Lake Worth will be the focus of the episode.
The show, now in its 13th season, will highlight other county restaurants throughout the year, including Gluttonous Goat in Boca Raton in on March 21 and West Palm Beach’s Hullabaloo and Jupiter’s The Bistro on April 4.
The “Check Please!” crew spent on full day in early November filming at Table 26, and co-owner Eddie Schmidt said this kind of publicity shines a light on the county’s bursting food scene.
“We had a chance to show off a little of what we do,” Schmidt said. “Our community is changing. It’s more year-round than it’s ever been.”
ON THE TUBE
What: The second episode of WPBT’s “Check Please!” now in its 13th season, focuses on three Palm Beach County restaurants.
A view before the rush: The bar at Brule Bistro, in Delray Beach’s Pineapple Grove district, is an intimate spot that’s popular with locals. (Bill Ingram / The Palm Beach Post)
An excerpt from our Food Editor’s 2015 Critic’s Choice Awards:
Best bar in Palm Beach County: Brule Bistro in Delray Beach:
View of Braised Beef short Rib, creamy mascarpone polenta, sauteed spinach, natural red wine reduction at Brule Bistro in Delray Beach. (Bill Ingram / The Palm Beach Post)
Belly up to the intimate bar at this Delray Beach bistro, or grab a seat at the adjacent long high-top table and enjoy the charms – and delicious bar bites – of Brule. You won’t find a staggeringly long cocktail list, but some notable, locally inspired updates on classics, a respectable menu of
wines and a small but well-curated list of craft beers.
But you will find it quite easy to segue from happy hour (3 to 6:30 p.m.) to dinner service here, as regulars populate the indoor and outdoor tables and raise the volume to lively levels. Blocks removed from Atlantic Avenue and its traffic, this Pineapple Grove bar/bistro has established itself as a local favorite.
Brule Bistro: 200 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach; 561-274-2046;BruleBistro.com
Readers of The Palm Beach Post were asked which restaurant had the best fried chicken and, by a narrow margin, the favorite was Bay Bay’s Chicken & Waffles in West Palm Beach.
The red-and-yellow shack on Okeechobee Road may look like there’s an old, Southern grandma hard at work in the kitchen. But there’s actually a well-thought-out secret to the restaurant’s success.
Cravy delivery service owner Manny Bornia delivered Havana restaurant cuisine to Grammy winner James Taylor (right) on Feb. 13 and 14. (Contributed photo)
Celebrities can’t seem to get enough of West Palm Beach’s favorite Cuban restaurant.
This time, it was five-time Grammy winner James Taylor who had a hankering for Havana restaurant while he was in town. Taylor was staying at Mar-a-Lago when he ordered a Cuban steak platter through Cravy on Saturday, and liked it so much he ordered out again on Valentine’s Day.
Five-time Grammy winner James Taylor signed the Havana restaurant menu after he ordered take out Saturday and Sunday. (Contributed photo)
Cravy’s owner Manny Bornia delivered the meal himself, posed for a photo with the “Fire and Rain” singer, and had him sign the Havana menu for posterity. The restaurant, at the corner of South Dixie Highway and Forest Hill Boulevard, has dozens of signed menus from celebrities who have stopped in over its 23 years, including, recently, Martha Stewart, Robert Duvall and Sofia Vergara.
What kind of Cuban food tantalized Taylor for Valentine’s Day? Roast pork with yellow rice and black beans, and tres leches and flan for dessert.
Food Network’s Guy Fieri revs up the crowd at the 2015 South Beach Wine & Food Fest. (Photo: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for SBWFF)
When this year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival kicks off next week, it will count more than a dozen chefs from Palm Beach County.
Traveling to this year’s SoBe fest from the 561 are:
Chefs Lindsay Autry (The Regional), Clay Conley (Buccan, Grato), Eric Baker (Max’s Harvest), Sean Brasel (Meat Market), Angelo Elia (Casa D’Angelo, D’Angelo Pizza), Joey Giannuzzi (Farmer’s Table), Chuck Gittleman (Kapow! Noodle Bar), Rocco Mangel (Rocco’s Tacos), Daniel Naumko (Sybarite Pig), Sherry Yard (Tanzy), George Patti (MEAT Eatery), Miguel Santiago (Hilton West Palm Beach), and from Stuart, chef Eric Grutka (Ian’s Tropical Grill). Culinary captain for the Palm Beach contingent at the Grand Tasting events during the weekend is chef Michael Saperstein (Rebel House, Charm City Burgers).
Sobe’s Grand Tasting Village-rs. ( J. Gwendolynne Berry/ Palm Beach Post)
The festival, which runs Feb. 24-28, celebrates its 15th year as it expands northward into Broward County. The fest’s Broward events, dubbed “Taste Fort Lauderdale Series,” include five culinary celeb dinners, one brunch, one late-night party and an outdoor tasting event hosted by Food Network Chef Robert Irvine.
“Although we bring chefs in from all over the globe each year, we made a mistake of not looking next door and discovering and promoting such great talent 20 minutes north of us,” says Lee Brian Schrager, festival founder and director.
He says the festival has found “a whole new audience” in Broward.
The view of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse is splendid from the Rustic Inn Crabhouse. (Photo by Liz Balmaseda)
An excerpt from our Food Editor’s 2015 Critic’s Choice Awards:
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, which restaurant has the most stunning view in the county?
Rustic Inn Crabhouse in Jupiter:
If your idea of a captivating view is a panorama of shimmering water and bobbing boats, punctuated by a stunning-red lighthouse, you will find your sweet spot here.
Whether you’re cracking crustaceans or simply having a batch of conch fritters and a glass of wine, you can always count on a side of soothing visuals here, at the Jupiter Inlet.
And according to Havana Restaurant’s facebook page, Stewart stopped into the popular Cuban eatery to get her Cuban food fix. Her order? Cuban sandwiches, empanadas and Cuban coffees to go.
