We have a particularly meaty restaurant column today. We’ll travel from Florida’s oldest steakhouse to a smoked Wagyu beef brisket feast.
But there’s also love for non-carnivores. There is a vegan Diwali brunch to know. And there’s one of my new favorite sweet bites, one that’s not meat related at all!
Catering news:Upcoming restaurant inspired by Japanese Wagyu beef
New:Opening a “sexy” Chinese-inspired restaurant with a modern menu
Goodbye Grub:Iconic pizzeria closes in Palm Beach County
Let’s start on Okeechobee Boulevard with Okeechobee Steakhouse
The steakhouse that gives you a free steak on your birthday is celebrating its own birthday. Okeechobee Steakhouse turns 75 this month. Here are three reasons to plan a visit to Florida’s oldest steakhouse.
There’s a fancy whiskey dinner. Okeechobee Steakhouse will host a paired Macallan single malt Scotch dinner next Thursday night (October 27) in its intimate Bourbon Room. Highlights of the five-course menu include smoked duck breast with Macallan duck jus and Macallan-soaked dry-aged New York strip with black truffle demi-glace. Dinner, which begins at 6:30 p.m., is $300 per person, plus tax and tip, and reservations are required. (Call the steakhouse at 561-693-5151.)
It’s your birthday. If so, not only do you get a free steak (with the purchase of another), but you also get Okeechobee’s legendary service. Sure, you’ll get it any time of the year, but isn’t it special on your birthday?
You can meet celebrity chef Robert Irvine. The Food Network star will headline the “Beef N Bourbon Experience” dinner during the Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival on December 8 at 7 p.m. . Tickets are still available on the festival website.
- Okeechobee Steakhouse: 2854 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach, 561-683-5151
Smoky, new chef collaboration
When so many creative heads work within blocks of each other, ideas drift like smoke and sometimes spark collaborations. This is the case of South Dixie Highway, which is experiencing a wave of culinary collaborations.
Earlier this month, chef Matthew Byrne hosted the inventive minds of Celis Produce at a tasting dinner at his Kitchen restaurant on Dixie. In August, chefs Clay Carnes (Cholo Soy) and Rick Mace (Tropical Smokehouse) teamed up for a whole hog barbecue at Mace’s Restaurant on Dixie. That same month, independent pastry chefs Anna Ross (Anna Bakes) and Caroline McGinley (La Gringuita cookies) teamed up to create a multi-course, all-dessert dinner on Dixie.
Now comes another joint effort, one that brings together Tropical Smokehouse chef Mace and Palm Beach Meats chef Emerson Frisbie next Wednesday night (October 26). Their objective: the Japanese A5 Wagyu “Brisket n’ Fixins”.
Frisbie will host neighbor Tropical Smokehouse chef Mace half a mile down the road in the pop-up space at the Meat Market. Mace will bring the finest smoked Japanese Wagyu beef brisket (A5) to the party.
The rest of the plate, signed Frisbie and friends: Japanese potato salad, apple-jicama salad, Palm Beach Creamed Honey and buttermilk vinaigrette, corn on the cob with Espelette pepper and sumac butter, biscuits and Red Splendor pickles Farm by chef Daniel Ramos and for dessert tarte à la crème banoffee (banana and caramel) by Anna Ross by Anna Bakes.
The details: The “Brisket n’ Fixins” dinner is Wednesday, October 26 from 5-8 p.m. at Palm Beach Meats, 4812 S. Dixie Hwy. Tickets are $129 (including tip) and can be purchased at this link.
Brunch “Festival of Lights”
Palm Beach County’s newest Indian restaurant is celebrating an ancient holiday this Sunday. Marathi chef Pushkar’s new ‘curry kitchen’, Ela, will host a festive Diwali brunch with an a la carte menu, traditional music and other treats.
Learn more about this brunch and other unique new weekend brunches in Palm Beach County in this story.
Diwali Brunch runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on October 23. Reservations can be made at ElaCurryKitchen.com.
- Ela Curry Kitchen: 4650 Donald Ross Rd., Suite 110 at Donald Ross Village Shops, Palm Beach Gardens, 561-345-2196
My new favorite sweet bite
I wasn’t ready to fall in love with a gluten-free donut, but that’s exactly what happened on a recent Saturday at the new Salty Donut shop in downtown West Palm Beach.
I’ve done my best to avoid gluten (due to non-celiac gluten sensitivity), and I’m happy to say it’s doable and often delicious. But I didn’t think I could order a gluten-free menu item from the hottest donut shop in town without experiencing some degree of gluten FOMO.
The gluten-free specialty of the day, a chocolate chip sea salt donut, proved me wrong. The baked chocolate chip cake donut wore chocolate icing, puffs of buttercream, chocolate chip cookie crumbs and a pinch of flaky salt. What made this bite so memorable was the cake donut itself – it was moist and moist, not dry or sticky like other gluten free bites I’ve tried.
It’s a donut I could order any day. Unfortunately, this is not possible. The Salty removed the specialty donut because it rotates its menu items often. In its place is a gluten-free sticky caramel cake donut with caramel frosting, vanilla buttercream and candied pecans ($4.50). Is it as life changing as the sea salt chocolate chip donut of my dreams? I hope. If you happen to try it before me, email me ([email protected]) and let me know how you liked it.
Slice and dice
I recently joined my friends and colleagues Kati Kokal and Hannah Morse in a knife class at Sur La Table at The Square in West Palm Beach. It was the most fun I’ve had chopping vegetables! And there were more than a few a-ha moments to be had, like the realization that we’ve been holding our knives askew all along.
Kati wrote a wonderful story about the class and the tips we learned. You can read it here!
More from Liz Balmaseda:
Farmhouse Dining: Best Outdoor Dining in Palm Beach County
Chinese Takeout: What’s Driving the Wave of New Chinese-Inspired Restaurants?
Neighborhood gem closing but there’s “joy” in its closure
Hold the celery, bring the buffet! Meet the $100 Bloody Mary.
Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She oversees the Post’s daily food coverage. Follow her on Twitter, instagram and post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at [email protected]. Support local journalism by subscribing to The Palm Beach Post.
