Cafe Sole scores a home run by touching all the bases in Juno

 

Café Sole

Grouper Livornese

4300 U.S. Highway 1, Space 202 (near Publix) Jupiter 33477 (Jupiter-Juno)
https://www.cafe-sole.com/
561-612-0575
Breakfast – 7-10:30 am
Lunch – 10:30 am-3:30 pm
Dinner – 4-10 pm
Takeout available

By Jane Feehan

It’s hard to miss Café Sole with its bright yellow umbrellas atop a small patio in front of the eatery. Its proximity to Publix, a door or two away, attracts customers; great food builds its reputation.

The patio seats a handful of patrons during the day. Inside a modest décor with tables covered with crisp, white linens and a square bar provides a cozy neighborhood ambiance.  A small criticism: a horizontal mirror behind the two-seat tables would accommodate the polite diners who opt for or had no choice about the wall-facing seat.

Few restaurants serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and do it well. Café Sole does. Menu offerings are extensive. Their house-made focaccia bread serves as delicious envelopes for sandwiches and the foundation for their popular pizza. The Rosemary Chicken Sandwich and Blackened Red Snapper – both on focaccia—with dressing and a crunchy topping of slaw and onion ranked as my blue-ribbon winners. Few finish Café Sole portions.

A return trip to sample dinner proved to be just as satisfying. Grouper Livornese—capers, tomatoes and olives—served with perfectly sauteed spinach and a large dollop of mashed potatoes was commendable for freshness and taste. A small house salad was marred by thick dressing that didn’t pour from a small take-out type plastic container, a small complaint for an otherwise outstanding meal.

 “We have one of the best happy hours,” claimed the waiter. Good wines at $6 verified the claim. A collection of wines and an array of cocktails draws a collection of friendly neighbors served by cheerful staff. In addition to the food, people gather here for fun.  

Takeout business is brisk at the café. Customers walking out with takeout orders is a common sight – even on Easter Sunday. I can taste why and highly recommend this Jupiter/Juno jewel.  

Lots of menu choices for every meal (see their online menus, you’ll be enticed), great taste and service…will prompt my next visit, which will be for breakfast. Parking is easy to find near the Café Sole entrance; the restaurant sits in a shopping center. The location is listed as Jupiter-Juno. The mailing address may be Jupiter but the location is Juno Beach.

Rosemary Chicken on focaccia

Tags: Jupiter restaurants, Juno restaurants, Jupiter seafood restaurants, Juno seafood restaurants, Jupiter breakfast, Juno breakfast, Jupiter patio dining, Juno patio restaurants 

Little Moir's Leftovers Cafe - among Jupiter's best, Florida's best

 

Little Moir’s Leftovers Café

451 University Blvd., Jupiter, FL 33458, 561-627-6030
Pet friendly; call to confirm appropriate seating is available.
No reservations. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; 

Friday and Saturday, 11 am until 9:30 pm.
Check their calendar on website for bands.
https://www.littlemoirsjupiter.com/leftovers-cafe

 By Jane Feehan

Making Yelp’s list (2023) of top 100 restaurants in Florida, Leftovers Café in Jupiter should be on everyone’s roster of must-dine at establishments when visiting Palm Beach County. It’s one of Little Moir’s collection of great seafood eateries in the area.

 A small, but elongated dining room in an unassuming corner of a shopping plaza welcomes patrons to a very casual atmosphere some might describe as funky. Walls painted in a Florida motif of oranges on green leaves and a wood (faux?) floor complete the theme. If visiting at the right time, a live band and singer will greet you with easy rock sounds. A small bar serves beer and wine and daily cocktail concoctions that staff eagerly participate in creating.

Menus are also daily creations offering the freshest fish around. I supped on an oversized filet of potato-crusted Pompano—a SOFLA fish getting harder to find each year and a bargain meal at $24. Served with a huge mound of sauteed vegetables (broccoli, pepper, onion, squash, cauliflower and more), the dish was destined to come home with me as leftovers…and so this reason for the name, right? 

Wrong.

Owner Mike “Little Moir” coined the name when he picked out the space for his new restaurant in 2008. It was filled with an assortment of things left there. It proved to be prescient choice.  

Back to my meal: it came plated with a tiny cup (a bit larger than dipping sauce size) of a tropical spiced fruit salad and another metal cup with a taste of fried plantains. Dessert was an oversized piece of oatmeal bread pudding. It was a very distant cousin of the bread pudding people are familiar with along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana, but still a taste bud tantalizer. 

Leftovers menu includes sushi, pasta, chicken and beef in an array of preparations. This café thought of everyone and cooks it in an open kitchen every which way. 

Check menu variations online. Great staff. Parking is free and it's fairly easy to get a spot. Busy weekday lunch hour traffic may present a few brief issues.

Tags: Little Moir's Leftovers Cafe, Leftovers Cafe, Jupiter restaurants, Jupiter seafood restaurants

Another restaurant win for Jupiter, FL - 1000 North

1000 North 

Jupiter, FL 33477

https://www.1000north.com
561-570-1000 - 

Reservations suggested. Call for hours

By Jane Feehan

I love Jupiter. Beautiful beaches, plenty of New Jersey accents and some outstanding restaurants. Retired hooper Michael Jordan and partners added to its list of must-try eateries when he opened 1000 North in 2018.

Name and address the same, 1000 North sits off US 1 along the Intracoastal. Most seating—inside and out on the patio—provides a terrific view of the waterway and a peak at the historic Jupiter Lighthouse. A private club on the second floor draws a young crowd at night during the winter season.

I recently stopped by for a Saturday brunch. COVID-careful, the place was busy with ample room between tables and wait staff with gloves and masks. The menu offered enough choices to please most palates.

We ordered Lobster Benedict, Chicken Street Corn Chicken and Crispy Brussel Sprouts. The lobster dish came with two medium-poached eggs astride an English muffin in Hollandaise sauce, a generous serving of watercress with a simple but tangy light dressing and, of course, a lobster tail. Street Corn Caesar, a variation of that traditional salad, is touted as one of their more popular dishes. With thick pieces of sliced chicken and crunchy seasoned corn atop crispy Romaine lettuce, it earned its place on the list of “populars.” Both plates pleased but the Crispy Brussel Sprouts, a side dish, took the taste prize. Caramelized in an air fryer along with huge fresh mushrooms, onions and with a drizzle of lemon aioli, this large side served as a conversation piece; it provided the perfect counterpoint to the other dishes we sampled.

Perhaps most of the conversation will center on the clientele, many who probably don’t know who Michael Jordan is nor his place in basketball history. This youngish well-heeled crowd, mostly under 40, dressed in haute couture casual, some with Jimmy Choo shoes, many in long resort-style dresses. This is not a place for cutoffs, jeans and flipflop shoes. Some men wore stylish shorts but I didn’t see any women in them. The beautiful people gather at this exceptional restaurant. I’ll be back but after I try Tiger Woods’ place—Woods Jupiter—a couple of miles away.

Reservations suggested. Call for hours of operation; COVID concerns prevail at this writing. Valet parking.

Tags: Jupiter, FL restaurants

Crispy Brussel Sprouts

Fort Lauderdale, Miami history posts moving to ...

Please note: History posts on this blog are moving to: JanesHistoryNook.blogspot.com

Fort Lauderdale Beach quarantine days

Spell mouthwatering: Tarpon River Cafe Absolute Catering

Tarpon River Café Absolute Catering

14 SW 11 Street

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315

954-767-8306

Lunch, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Monday through Friday

Lunch first Saturday of each month

Catering for organizations, weddings and other special occasions

For my history posts, please see index here AND visit: JanesHistoryNook.blogspot.com

By Jane Feehan

Just out of the shadows of downtown Fort Lauderdale sits an unpretentious, terrazzo-floored tiny café shrouded in trees and other flora. It would be easy to miss except for a small sign indicating its business or if someone invites you as I was.  

Catering is chef/owner Chris Stachowski’s primary occupation here, but what a find for lunch. He whips up a new menu of five entrees and a soup each day; all entrees are priced at $11. With 24-hour-notice, he’ll fill a special meal request as well as requests for the next month’s Saturday lunch.

A large group of us—about 15—ordered across the menu. I sampled a delicious, slightly spiced clam

Turkey, brie and cranberry ciabatta

chowder and off-the-frame turkey, brie and cranberry creation on a ciabatta roll. It was served with a choice of a green salad or pasta salad; the large-portioned pasta salad of perfectly-cooked macaroni ranks as one of the best I’ve had. One of us ordered a ham plate, a few others ordered pork loin—all with eye-popping thick cuts of meat. Turkey slices in my sandwich were nearly a half-inch thick as well as they were for a large off-the- menu salad entrée one diner requested. Extremely accommodating, Chef Chris also served an off-the-menu burger with several slices of bacon draped over the meat. Desserts are house made by Chris’s sister, Beth, who serves as baker extraordinaire of an array of mouthwatering pies and cakes.

With deep, life-long roots in Fort Lauderdale, Chris comes with an impressive resume and thick portfolio of wedding, special occasion and business clients as well as repeat catering customers, including Saint Anthony Church Women’s Guild. Also, for about a decade, he served as a yacht chef—one of the most demanding roles in the culinary field. He’s also been an award-winning participant in local seafood festivals…and in fishing tournaments. Chris’s interests extend to horticulture, evidenced by his collection on 11th Street of fruit-bearing trees, a cinnamon tree, three varieties of pineapple, and herbs and vegetables and a project dear to his heart: an orchid farm, which is under development.

Stop by with a big appetite or to preview a catering menu. Easy parking at Tarpon River Café, which lies across the street from historic Trinity Lutheran Church. The café is an inexpensive and peaceful alternative to the hub bub of downtown. Patio or indoor dining.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale caterers, Fort Lauderdale catering, Fort Lauderdale restaurants, downtown Fort Lauderdale lunch

Mastro's Ocean Club Fort Lauderdale - Skip it

Mastro's Ocean Club

3000 NE 32 Ave.         

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308

954-561-4800

Though open nearly three months, Mastro’s Ocean Club has nothing together. Formerly the Chart House (and at one time the very good Harrison’s on the Water), this Landry’s-owned eatery should be an embarrassment to its executives. Tilman Fertitta, where are you?

We stopped in on a Thursday in early October to find the interior layout to be the same as before except new, darker colors. At 6:30 p.m. its large dining room with a view of the Intracoastal Waterway was empty. Only the bar area with a few of its high-top tables stood occupied.

Yet, we had to wait 20 minutes for two glasses of wine. It was downhill from there. I usually can anticipate a fairly good meal if it’s launched with good bread and a decent salad. If that were a cue, we should have left immediately. The bread was dry, stale and tasteless. The $15 salads— Caesars and a chopped salad—were just as bad. The Caesars was drenched in what tasted like bottled dressing. 

Next up: Alaskan Halibut and Chilean Sea Bass, about $48 each served with huge carving knives fit for a cow’s slaughter. Overly thick filets did not make up for the bland unimaginative preparation. Not a lemon wedge nor other garnish.  A la carte servings of gummy, tasteless creamed spinach and watery (instant?) garlic, void of garlic, mashed potatoes were just as uninspired. 

We left a little after 8 p.m. and still no one in the dining room. The bar was busy with drinkers and appetizer enthusiasts—not enough to keep this place open. Mastro’s boasts a very strict dress code on their website but it seems casual prevails, including shorts and sandals. Some business types came in business suits but that was the exception.

Disappointing can't describe the experience and we told the manager, who was very apologetic.  They need a major overhaul to remain open. There’s a reason no one was in the dining room. Too bad because it offers a fine view and waterside tables. 

Fort Lauderdale waterside restaurants, seafood, Fort Lauderdale restaurants, Landry's, Tilman Fertitta, Fort Lauderdale dining

Watermark Hotel: Baton Rouge Boost

Entrance

Watermark Hotel

150 3^rd Avenue

Baton Rouge, LA 70801

225-408-3200

www.watermarkbr.com

By Jane Feehan

The Watermark Hotel joined Marriott’s Autograph Collection of boutique hotels in early 2017, a few months after historic flooding hit South Louisiana. Located in downtown Baton Rouge at the site of the old Louisiana Trust and Savings Bank (1927) the Watermark’s distinction lies in its stunning décor.  The touch of a master decorator can be seen everywhere, down to the table settings in The Gregory, its dining room named for New Orleans artist Angela Gregory. The magnificent entranceway or foyer pays homage to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 with face-to-face murals of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte, parties to that historic land transaction.

Elevator decor 

In its short history, the Watermark has attracted a loyal following that fills up the lobby bar (most uncomfortable bar stools, the only flawed decorative appointment) and its more comfortable sofa and chair seating areas. A choice of appetizers, small plates and burgers top visitor choices for casual get togethers. Special occasions and holidays draw local visitors to the more formal Gregory—an open room that flows into the bar. The chef works hard to please customers and will take suggestions. Staff will change up dishes at request. For a coffee shop setting with counter service, visit Milford’s on Third off the lobby. Over-sized sandwiches for about $10 command ooohs and ahhhs.

The rooms, as everything else, are beautiful, if not disparate in size and comfort, depending on the floor and location. I stayed in three different ones, different floors. A caveat: depending on festivities at a nearby park and the time of the year for mirth at the bars on Third Street, noise can be a problem into the wee hours. Get a room above the fourth floor (at least). Unfortunately, the best views of the Mississippi River are from rooms facing Third. Also, rooms vary widely in size. A corner room is ideal of course … and grand. My last room was a small one, which I have no problem with, but the window was covered to block sight of adjacent roofs, which I would have gladly taken over the block out pane.

Room with a pane (!) instead of a view

Parking runs about $20 a day but oftentimes street or lot parking is available for much less—something to keep in mind if planning a wedding or other occasion in one of the meeting rooms or for a long stay. There are plenty of places to walk to, including the river with its pleasant seating, the old Louisiana capitol building and one of the best restaurants in town, Strube’s. The Watermark Hotel does much for historic downtown Baton Rouge; it also gives the entire city some much-needed flair.

View of the Mississippi River from a room

Old Louisiana Capitol, now a museum

Tags: Marriott hotels, Marriott Autograph Collection, Baton Rouge hotels, Watermark Hotel, Louisiana travel, best hotel in Baton Rouge