The Florida East Coast dining scene is welcoming a slew of new eateries as well as changes to established places from locations to ownership to menus. The abundance of choices is making meal prep a lot easier to handle during the pandemic—couldn’t we all use a night off from cooking about now? Read on for suggestions on where to pick up or dine in for fresh and bright summer suppers.
Mamey
Ghee Indian Kitchen chef owner Niven Patel has garnered another glowing feature in The New York Times. Food critic Brett Anderson dives into his new Caribbean-inspired Mamey in Coral Gables. Patel grows much of its tropical ingredients such as callaloo greens for roti and empanadas at his personal farm in Homestead. Other elevated Caribbean classics are jerk plantains and ceviche.
https://www.thesishotelmiami.com/taste/mamey/
PGA Commons Savor September
The last day of summer is September 21, perfect timing for PGA Commons’ Savor September dining initiative. Throughout the entire month, diners can dig into $40 three-course dinners at six of the center’s restaurants. Several like Spoto’s Oyster Bar, Prosecco Café and Scusi Trattoria, whose chicken Milanese in pictured, are also throwing in half-off deals on bottles of vino.
https://pgacommons.com/dining/
Café Boulud
Palm Beach’s Café Boulud introduced fragrant cocktails to complement chef Rick Mace’s seasonal dishes like shrimp and artichoke risotto and saffron-scented heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad. Its Brazilian-bent Jardin Vert, pictured, blends cachaça, Midori, bergamot liqueur and other botanicals including lime, dill and rhubarb. The garden in a glass gives new meaning to “salad bar.”
https://www.cafeboulud.com/palmbeach/
Old Greg’s Pizza
A serious contender has entered Miami’s competitive pizza ring. Greg Tetzner, whose namesake Old Greg’s Pizza specializes in square-pan sourdough pies, partnered in a pop-up pizzeria with James Beard-recognized chef restaurateur Brad Kilgore. Tetzner took up his dough fascination while cooking at nearby establishments Michael’s Genuine and Ghee Indian Kitchen. Like them, he uses local and natural ingredients.
https://www.oldgregspizza.com/
Southern Social Kitchen & Bar
Elli Courtney, whose great-grandmother baked cookies for JFK as the Kennedy family compound’s personal chef, is the proud new owner of Southern Social Kitchen & Bar in Vero Beach. The twentysomething restaurateur installed a Jamaican chef at the beloved gastro-pub for fun items like bacon-topped deviled eggs, wedge salads, seared hog fish with collard greens, and brisket and okra fried rice. Photo courtesy of veronews.com
https://www.eatsouthernsocial.com/
Perricone’s Marketplace & Café
A gathering spot in Brickell for 20 years, Perricone’s Marketplace & Café closed its doors in 2019 after founder Steven Perricone sold the property for a tidy sum and ran a takeout operation from a temporary kitchen. He’s back with a proper new space a few blocks away on SW Third Avenue. Patrons can once again dine inside or outside with social distancing.
https://www.perricones.com/
