A nod to Russell's Blue Water Grill in Palm Beach Gardens - CLOSED

CLOSED
Russell’s Blue Water Grill

2450 PGA Blvd. (Prosperity Plaza next to TJ Maxx)

Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410

 561-318-6344

http://www.russellsbluewatergrill.com/

* Note - ownership may have changed

By Jane Feehan

Russell Beverstein and his band of chefs have put together an inventive, reasonably-priced menu at his new Palm Beach Gardens eatery.

With a display of eclectic cooking that’s been drawing a steady stream of locals and area visitors since it opened during the 2011 winter season, Russell’s Blue Water Grill should have no problems staying busy throughout the summer.

Seafood offerings such as Mango Lobster Tempura (about $23), Coconut Curry Snapper (about $21), join White Truffle Chicken Mac and Cheese (about $17) and a small selection of other land entrées. Prime USDA steaks, duck, and pasta all come with an interesting spin at comfortable prices.

Salads, loaded with fresh vegetables and served with a light but tasty house dressing are exceptional.  One caveat about their lobster bisque: full of flavor, made of lobster stock and the requisite cream, there's no lobster meat.

Russell’s Blue Water Grill offers live music Friday and Saturday nights. An attractive lounge area in an earthy wood and brick motif provides comfortable booths and a large bar with its own menu (as well as full menu).  It’s all here at the grill: good food, an attractive setting, light entertainment and great prices. It’s a welcome addition to the Palm Beach Gardens roster of restaurants.

 ________________

Tags: Palm Beach Gardens restaurants, Palm Beach Gardens seafood, Palm Beach Gardens night spots, Palm Beach Gardens good restaurants

Maxi's Lineup: Little Moir's brings live music, karaoke and tapas to Jupiter

Maxi’s Lineup (next to Foodshack)

103 South US Hwy 1

Jupiter, Florida

Open daily at 5 p.m., closed Sundays

www.littlemoirsfoodshack.com

561-741-3626

By Jane Feehan

Little Moir’s recently opened Maxi’s Lineup, next door to its popular Foodshack. Touted as a “tropical tapas bar,” Maxi’s is a welcome addition to Jupiter’s short list of places for live music and karaoke. It’s also a good place to have a drink and appetizer while waiting for a seat at Foodshack.

Maxi's interior mural

Smartly decked out in murals with an open kitchen, Maxi’s small room provides a stage for performers and an area for dancing. Seating is offered at two bars and in booths along one wall, with plenty of room to mix and mingle when the place fills up.

The tapas menu ($3-$10 average) changes daily and is as creative as that offered by Foodshack. The night I stopped by, BBQ Chicken Cigar Roll, Hot Tuna Poke with Macadamia nuts, and Panko Crusted Eggplant Fries joined an ample selection of other small plates on the menu. The eggplant ($5), served with a feta lemon honey aioli, proved to be a tasty start to the meal I had next store.

Maxi’s, reaching out to a younger crowd after 9, will also attract Foodshack fans of any age.

__________

Tags: Jupiter night spot, tapas bar in Jupiter, karaoke in Jupiter, live music in Jupiter

Café des Artistes in Jupiter - A breath of French air

Café des Artistes

318 South US Highway 1, Suite 101

Jupiter, FL

561-747-0998

http://www.cafedesartistesjupiter.com/

Open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and takeout

By Jane Feehan

If the only reason for visiting the Jupiter Yacht Club and Marina is dining at the Café des Artistes, it’s a good one. The food is quite palatable and the ambiance provides an interesting blend of France and Florida.

There’s ample seating both indoors and out. An umbrella-covered patio that provides sufficient refuge from sun and rain overlooks a waterway with docked boats, a perfect setting for any meal. A cozy bar inside draws those looking for some good conversation to go with a glass of wine. Patrons feel comfortable practicing their French with the French-speaking staff; all attempts - even bad ones - are welcome. 

The menu is filled with some traditionally French items – quiche, French onion soup, duck à L’orange, escargot, foie gras, and various patés. Dinner items (average $26) include a selection of seafood, lamb, steak, pork and chicken, replete with typically French sauces.

View from the patio

For lunch, I passed up the burgers and quiche and settled on a salad with large, pan-seared scallops ($18); these seafood treasures were as  fresh as they were delicious. A chicken sandwich (about $10) my companion ordered was dominated by the baguette it was served on. An open-faced sandwich of the same would have been better. Their featured tarte tatin  - apples caramelized in butter and sugar atop a light, flaky pastry - proved to be an appropriately sweet ending to the meal. This very French dessert could tempt me again.

Breakfast at Café des Artistes is a Continental affair with pastries, fruit tarts and croissants.

Café des Artistes closes in late June for about two months. I plan to stop in again before they say au revoir for the summer; the staff, setting and menu are worthy of a repeat performance.

Tags: Dining in Jupiter, waterfront dining in Jupiter, French café in Jupiter.

Catfish Dewey's in Fort Lauderdale: a little bit country, a whole lot of food

Catfish Dewey’s

4003 N. Andrews Ave.

Oakland Park, FL

954-566-5333

http://www.catfishdeweys.com

Open daily 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.

(Use search box at right to find restaurants by city)

By Jane Feehan

Sources tell me a few celebrities including Lee Majors (when he lived in Fort Lauderdale) and Whitney Houston (when in town) have been spotted dining at Catfish Dewey’s over the years. This restaurant is not on a trendy to-be-seen list; it’s more a fried-fish-fantasy hole-in-the-wall decked out in checkered tablecloths.

Whatever it is, their formula to keep tables filled with the famous and not-so-famous since 1984 works: reasonable prices, all-you-can-eat days with endless fried catfish, and a touch of country replete with baskets of hushpuppies and monthly music Hoe-Downs.

Dewey’s also serves Alaskan Snow Crab legs, and Florida Stone Crabs (when in season), fish cooked a few ways, and oysters, scallops, and lobster. Their baby back ribs, New York Strip, and chicken dishes also draw repeat customers.

Fried shrimp here are probably the best in town; they’re delivered piping hot with a light batter and plenty of cocktail sauce. A baked (not micro-waved) sweet potato, an ample side of Cole slaw and fresh hushpuppies completed my recent meal there.

Service: Very good. Full bar. Very casual.

_________________________________

Have a favorite restaurant recipe? See if its here at http://www.copykat.com

Tags: all you can eat, Fort Lauderdale dining, catfish, stone crabs, Alaskan snow crab, Fort Lauderdale restaurants

Dive Bar Restaurant in Jupiter: Tweak or thwack?

Dive Bar Restaurant

318 South U.S. Highway 1

Jupiter, Florida 33457

561-747-4767

www.divebarrestaurant.com

Open daily 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

(Use search box at right to find restaurants by city)

By Jane Feehan

It’s a mixed bag of offerings at Dive Bar Restaurant in Jupiter, the suddenly chic spot in town for those in their 30s and 40s.

Let’s start with the good.

With a large jellyfish tank taking center stage in the bar area and a gallery of televisions running sea-themed videos, Dive Bar’s visual concept smartly complements its seafood menu.  Doors on one side open to a great view of the Jupiter Yacht Club and Marina. Totally Florida.

But ... most tables are outdoors on a patio; there are only two or three tables inside. The interior is otherwise limited to bar or sushi bar seating. With an  ambitious, over-priced menu, Dive Bar’s outdoor dining won’t be popular when the weather turns ugly humid in late May and the tropical downpours begin in June. What were the owners (affiliated with the Quarter Deck, Flannigan enterprises) thinking?

 

The menu is large, dominated by sushi, which, what I sampled was good – not stellar. I know I have to cut a place some slack when it’s new, but the menu itself needs tweaking. Non-sushi dinner entrees run $18-29, a little pricey for a meal when seated at a bar or on a patio crowded with  drinkers. They need to take po boys off the list; with skinny hot dog-like buns and meager filling they were laughable. A hog snapper sandwich ($14), also lackluster, was drizzled with a candy-sweet citrus aioli. Thumbs down also goes to their lobster roll ($17), swimming in mayo or some kind of sauce and unattractively plated.

View from the patio

Retool the menu, pare it down (do we need five soups?), skip the upscale dinners, improve the sandwiches and they’ll have something. 

The crowd is older, more diverse, during lunch hours. Service is spotty but that’s to be expected until the dust settles – and right now there’s plenty of it, figuratively speaking. Parking is free and plentiful with valet service also available.

Tag

Jupiter on Dwellable

s: Jupiter night spot, Jupiter dining, Jupiter waterfront dining, Jupiter seafood, Jupiter restaurants,

Emeril Lagasse knows oyster po' boys; here's his recipe  

Wylder's Waterfront Bar and Grill - Looking for their groove in Tequesta CLOSED

CLOSED - AND NOT SURPRISED
Wylder’s Waterfront Bar and Grill

18701 SE Federal Highway

Tequesta, Florida 33469

Open 11 a.m. daily for lunch and dinner

561-744-7400                      

By Jane Feehan   (Use search box at right to find restaurants by city or zip)

(Other waterfront spots in Jupiter area)

Open about six months, Wylder’s Waterfront Bar and Grill is still trying to find its groove. It’s an outdoor place, configured around a pool with a great view of Hobe Sound.

Adjacent to the Jupiter Pointe Club and Marina, Wylder’s doesn’t have the food thing quite figured out. Twice in two days they ran out of items off a small menu. It’s hard to describe what’s served here but I’ll call it bar food: wings, burgers, nachos, fish sandwiches (about $10). Simple choices, which is OK, but it’s not good.

There’s live music but they need to crank up the tempo a bit. I heard 60s and 70s tunes played at half speed.  Wylder’s seems as tentative about the music as they are the menu. It may be because they don’t appear to know the kind of crowd they want to attract. Patrons include all ages, but families with kids dominate the day scene - an odd mix for a place with bar in its name.

All this said, Wylder’s view overlooking the beautiful aqua waterway is worth a visit. It’s almost good enough to make one forget about the mediocre food and foot-dragging music. Something tells me they’ll work it out; it’s still a new place.  They just need to hone the concept.

Other waterfront spots in Jupiter area

Tags: Jupiter area waterfront restaurants, Tequesta bars, Palm Beach County waterfront dining, dining on Hobe Sound

Corner Café and Brewery - A Review in rhyme to soften the blow, save time

Corner Café and Brewery

289 S. U.S. Highway 1

Tequesta, FL 33469

561-743-7619
http://www.cornercafeandbrewery.com

Sunday, Monday 7:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m.

Tuesday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.

By Jane Feehan

At a place known as the Corner Café and Brewery,

locals gather for breakfast, lunch or to meet with the auxiliary.

The menu holds interest, and the food is not bad

but the way they keep the place is oh-so-sad.

Dishes piled high instead of carting them away,

empty wrappers, packets, dirty napkins left on the floor in display.

Tables outside on the patio are not much better,

only birds diving for morsels find glee in the litter.

How spiffy can the kitchen be if the dining area is not?

The owners and their help seem not to care about their spot.

My friends and I prefer to dine and drink

at a place that’s clean, clean, clean, including the sink.

Lest one think this was an off day or night,

Think again because this - the second visit to behold such a sight.

I’ll not make a three-peat because two chances are enough

To recognize this is NOT a diamond in the rough.

-------------------

Tags: Tequesta dining, Tequesta lunch, Tequesta bar, brewery

Uncle Tai's: Boca's best for classy Asian dining

Uncle Tai’s CLOSED

5250 Town Center Circle

Boca Raton, Florida

Lunch, Monday-Saturday: 11:30-2:30 p.m.

Dinner:  Weekdays 5-10 p.m., Weekends, 5- 10:30 p.m.

Take out and delivery available

561-368-8806

uncle-tais.com

By Jane Feehan

I’ve been to Uncle Tai’s in Houston (now closed) and was happy to see the same people open one in Boca Raton. It’s elegant dining, with a broad array of Hunan, Szechuan and other familiar styles of Chinese cuisine.

Operator Howard Tai (Chi Hwa), the consummate host, works hard to please patrons. He’s also good at remembering people. My sister hadn’t seen him for more than five years back in Houston when he called out her name at a Chinese New Year’s event at the Boca Town Center.

Since that fortuitous encounter, we’ve dined at Uncle Tai’s for special occasions. We usually begin our visits with a glass of wine in their cozy, wood-paneled bar. The columned dining room dominated by an expansive Chinese mural, and tables draped in white and red set the mood for what’s to follow.

The menu provides an impressive choice of typical and not-so-typical fare for a Chinese eatery. Venison and lamb join fresh fish and lobster, beef and poultry as meal possibilities.  Dishes are prepared beautifully with the spices that make Chinese cuisine one of the world’s most acclaimed. Sesame fried bananas with ice cream is my choice to top off a meal and clear the palate. Servers deliver all with the cool precision of professionals.

Uncle Tai’s draws corporate types as well as shoppers at lunch, where the patio is a popular spot. The patio is also available at dinner and just as welcoming as the indoor dining room.

Service: excellent. Reservations suggested on weekends.

  

Tags; Chinese restaurant in Boca Raton, fine dining in Boca Raton, upscale Chinese restaurant in Boca, South Florida dining, Asian dining, lunch in Boca