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02/10/2000 Archived Entry: "Florida Eating Diary, Part 2"

Coconut Grove is where the city of Miami started in the 19th century, and I understand that from the 1960s until fairly recently it was a sort of bohemian neighborhood, like New York’s Greenwich Village. Like the Village, it’s now less artsy and more family-oriented middle class and yuppie. I must say I was rather dismayed to see that the main event at the main commercial intersection is now a big shopping center. This is Florida, so it has more outdoor space than indoor, but the stores are the same as they are everywhere in America, anchored by a GAP.

If I had not asked at the Viscaya gift shop (see Florida Eating Diary 1) about a place to get a bite to eat in Coconut Grove (I just wanted to check out the nearby neighborhood – drive up and down some residential streets and walk up and down some shopping streets) I never would have found the adorable little place where I ate lunch, Le Bouchon du Grove. I mention this only because people ask me how I come up with these restaurants. My answer is, when in a strange place with no information, ask, ask, ask the locals. Eventually, two people will recommend the same place. The gift shop clerk was French. The way she relished telling us about Le Bouchon, I could tell it was worthwhile. But then her boss, an Italian, dismissed her choice with “Oh, you always want to eat French” and recommended something else, a pan-Mediterranean place in the shopping center. I supposed it had pasta. When we couldn’t find his recommendation immediately, we went into the GAP and asked a gaggle of young clerks for directions. Then we asked, “Which would you girls recommend, the French place or the one upstairs?” Unanimous decision; the French place.


Le Bouchon du Grove: 3430 Main Highway, Coconut Grove; (305) 448-6060

This is the kind of unpretentious, sweet little French restaurant that New York used to have in spades, but doesn’t anymore. The dinner attraction seems to be steak-frites (steak and fries). At lunch/brunch there are salads, omelets, sandwiches, and a platter of pate and brie. I really wanted the pate, but not especially the brie, so I ordered an omelet with cheese and mushrooms. It was fabulous; the best omelet I’ve had in a restaurant in years, cooked soft just as I like it and asked for it. It was not one of these humongous, puffy but firm numbers that are so popular these days. A real French omelet. And it came with freshly baked French bread – a baguette, real French bread, which is to say great crust and an airy but flavorful crumb. My friend, who always orders Caesar salad, had the Caesar salad with grilled chicken and immediately swooned. “Not only is the salad perfect but the chicken is freshly grilled and so moist.” I stabbed some of both and had to agree. We split a chocolate mousse for dessert and it was amazing, too. True mousse –meaning it was light and spongy, with mild, milky chocolate flavor. I really regretted not ordering the pate in the end, because not only had the French clerk at the gift shop recommended it, but the couple at the next table ordered it and remarked how good it was. But there’s only so much even I can eat in a day.

The wooden tables nearly spill onto the street through the open façade of the restaurant, which makes it even more appealing and all the better for people watching, and there’s a wooden service/wine bar along one wall that sports at least a dozen wines by the glass. The place is hung with all kinds of French wine and food advertising posters and signs. And the two owner-chefs themselves were eating at a table in the rear, near the kitchen. I love seeing a chef enjoy his own food, but at the same time these guys were carefully minding the store, popping up to great regulars and to check out the room. With a couple glasses of wine and cups of coffee, tax and tip, the grand total was $44.


Norman’s: 21 Almeria Ave. (off Douglas Rd., also known as 37th Ave. South), Coral Gables; (305) 446-6767

Norman Van Aiken is the most acclaimed chef of south Florida, and so a visit to his restaurant is a must for anyone interested in high-style American food. He calls his cooking New World Cuisine because it includes all the ingredients that are available to him in the tropics, native and long-ago brought there from other locales, but it also has references to European cooking. Well, more or less, that’s what he says. There’s a quote from the chef on the menu that explains New World Cuisine in a more flowery, more obtuse way; his stab at poetic prose.

I must confess that after having read Norman’s several cookbooks and precious writing I have made fun of his food on my radio program. For one thing, it has so much fruit in such odd places. Now that I have eaten it I am still not overwhelmed with admiration for his food, although I have to say it was, on the whole, a lovely restaurant experience. I wish they wouldn’t play such loud music. I wish that nearly all the tables for two were not stuck uncomfortably against walls. I wish that the room with the open kitchen was as convivial as the entry room, although the trade-off is that the first room is much noisier than the interior room (and even less in need of loud music). The service was perfection itself, however.

There were several fine dishes among the few I was able to taste (we were only two), but the rest were not merely disappointing; they were seriously flawed.

“Creamy Cracked Conch Chowder with Saffron, Toasted Coconut, Star Anise & a ‘Cloud’” ($12) was a delicious, rich, mainly coconut-tasting affair with a hint of chili heat and citrus tang – from orange juice , said our very well-informed waiter. Strange, I couldn’t taste the named seasonings (why do American chefs feel compelled to practically give a recipe on their menus), but the unmentioned orange came through. It reminded me of Thai coconut soups. The other appetizer I tried was a total failure: “Stone Crab Two Ways: Smoky Gazpacho ‘Cocktail’ and a Corn-Garlic Flan” ($15.75). The gazpacho cocktail was an acrid tasting clear liquid served in a Martini glass, a cute conceit if we could have eaten it. A few tiny pieces of Stone Crab sank into the vortex of the glass. We tried to fish them out, but it wasn’t worth the trouble. The flan was merely okay, served with a few green leaves and the tiniest Stone Crab claw I saw on my entire trip.

The entrees were both quite nice: “Pan-Cooked Fillet of Key West Yellowtail with Asparagus Spears, Citrus Butter and a ‘Belly’ of Mashed Potatoes” ($28.50) was beautifully cooked, impeccably fresh fish in a classic French beurre blanc on top of creamy mashed potatoes. And I was amused that Norman warns his diners that the potatoes are going to come under the fish as a “belly,” as arch as that expression is. The chef goes in for “poetic” devices that make me giggle. I wonder if that is his intention.

“Plantain Crusted, Mofongo Stuffed Dolphin Paella with Shrimp, Platanos Maduros and Chorizo Mojo” ($33.50) is as much of a mouthful to say as it is to eat. Granted, the rice of the paella pad under the crisply crusted, starch-stuffed fish was mushy, and the dolphin itself was also overcooked, the flavors were spectacularly bright. Even the tiny shrimp in the rice showed their sweetness through all the fuss.

Of two desserts, one was good: Disgraceful is the only word I can think of now for the “’New World’ Banana Split with Macadamia Nut Brittle Ice Cream and Rhumm Flamed Nino Bananas” ($8). The ice cream might as well have been vanilla it had so little Macadamia presence. The bananas may well have been flamed, but we didn’t get to see the fireworks we expected and wanted, and the caramel sauce was cold and crystallized. “Strawberries a Trois” ($8) was, however, a pleasant strawberry flan surrounded by tiny piles of diced berries with basil strips and balsamic vinegar, and a refreshing and clear-flavored strawberry-Moscato sorbet.


We arrived at the new retirement home of Ed and Bea Lewis in Aberdeen Lakes, Boynton Beach, in time for lunch. After a quick look-see at their spacious house, the birds in the lake behind their house, Ed’s book collection, and Bea’s new decorations, we headed to West Palm Beach to begin Bea’s “Kitsch and Klass Tour” of retirement Florida. This included a look at the Breakers hotel in Palm Beach proper, a drive down the ocean road where all the big houses are, and a drive around downtown West Palm Beach, now gleaming with new high-rise office buildings, and a new cultural center, all beautifully landscaped (the “Klass” part of the tour) … but I get ahead of myself. First lunch.


Big City Tavern: 224 Clematis St., West Palm Beach; (561) 659-1853

Clematis St. is apparently the main shopping street of West Palm. I am happy to stand corrected on this if I am wrong. It is, in any case, the street with a few stylish restaurants. The Big City Tavern looked very hospitable, with an open façade and enough customers at the late lunch hour to seem like the place to be. Ed and Bea had eaten there before and thought it was fine. So that’s how we decided where to eat.

As soon as I walked in, I noticed that a majority of people were eating chopped salad, most of which seemed to be made with crisp, opaque, fried Chinese rice noodles. I always consider ordering the most popular dish in any restaurant, and that seemed like it. Little did I know that chopped salad was to be a theme of my visit to West Palm Beach. This example was excellent, filled with strips of moist chicken, slightly hot with chili, tart with lime juice, and somewhat sweet, like a Thai dish. It was a little sweet for me, but the waiter was very obliging in bringing extra lime wedges to squeeze over it and balance it more to my taste.

Not much to say about this place, except that it is a very attractive café with eager service from young servers, fresh food, and that if I lived in these parts I’d probably find myself falling in whenever the need for such a place came up.


The Gourmet Deli: Lake Worth

I insisted on getting a taste of the Early Bird Special scene; not so much the food as the flavor of the event. (This was on the “Kitsch” part of the tour.) You know … waiting on line, talking on line, playing Jewish geography. “No final answers needed,” said Bea. It goes something like this: “Oh, so you’re from Marine Park, in Brooklyn, and graduated from Madison, then you must know my cousin Susan Weinberger, or her brother, Richard … you get the picture.) In a zillion years, you would never guess that the Gourmet Deli is one the hot spots of Palm Beach County. It’s in a strip mall, just a neighborhood shopping center, and looks like a million other delis that are not “gourmet,” but people come from all over for it, many of them not even Jewish.

Well, it pleased this gourmet. I had a sensationally succulent, piled-high brisket sandwich, called the Brisket Melt, which comes on rye bread with sauteed onions, melted Swiss cheese and horseradish-mayonnaise sauce. “I brought you some extra on the side because I always want some myself,” said our young and very accommodating waitress. I heard the man at the next table rave about the sandwich and I couldn’t resist. Ed Lewis had the roasted chicken dinner, which was delicious. Bea had a bowl of chicken soup with matzoh balls. I never got around to tasting the matzoh balls, but the soup was not good. I am certain it is made, at least in part, with a commercial chicken base – bouillon. My friend, Bob Harned, had a marginally acceptable pastrami sandwich.

Bea was very happy because, as she predicted, I was recognized by several other patrons WOR listeners, one of whom just couldn’t get over that I was waiting on line for the early-bird special at the Gourmet Deli, which he drives for an hour to get to. By the way, there’s nothing that special about the early bird price. They simply deduct $1 from the already pretty low price of dinner – from $8.95.


We also had a lunch at Bea and Ed’s Aberdeen club dining room. I felt like I was in the Catskills in the old days. The buffet tables offer a carving station, omelets to order, and what seemed like the most popular station, the salad bar. Back to chopped salad: You take a big glass bowl and fill it with whatever. Besides all kinds of greens and vegetables, there are strips of cold meats and various kinds of cheese. You take all these things to a chef who turns out your bowlful of salad onto a chopping board and chops it to smithereens with a three-bladed mezzaluna – you know, the curved knife that your grandmother used to chop liver and gefilte fish, and that are popular in Italy. You dress the salad yourself from the big stainless tubs of dressing. The blue cheese dressing was actually very good.

We laughed how chopped salad is so popular in retirement Florida. Could bad teeth be the reason? Nah, I said. I think it is really a wonderful way to eat salad. You can get so many ingredients onto each forkful.

Maybe it’ll be the next national trend, Bea speculated. Imagine, a food trend coming out of the retirement communities of south Florida.


Testa’s: 221 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach; 832-0992

The next morning I wanted to get to this store on Worth Ave. as soon as it opened at 10 a.m., so I thought it might be fun to eat breakfast in downtown West Palm Beach, near where I was staying and on the way to Palm Beach proper. Strange. There is hardly a soul on the streets of West Palm Beach at 9 a.m. on a workday. There are plenty of high-rise office buildings, but they might as well be empty. There was nowhere to eat, either. So I went over to Palm Beach and found this perfectly pleasant place where I could have a good Southern breakfast – by which I mean eggs and sausage with those all-important grits – and sit outside under an awning watching the town wake-up. Very pleasant, and as is typical everywhere in the South, they pour the coffee before your tush even hits the chair. My kind of place. I wonder what it is like for dinner. There’s a very attractive courtyard behind the restaurant.


Flora and Ella’s Route 80, LaBelle, Florida

My friend Marie in Fort Myers recommended I stop at this place for “down-home Southern cooking,” but it was only noon when I drove by on my way from Palm Beach to her neck of the woods., I had eaten a late breakfast, and I could not face a big meal. There was some fine-looking mixed fish fries on the tables around me, but I went for the house specialty only – pie. There was coconut “cream” pie, chocolate “cream” pie, peanut butter “cream” pie, etc. I put the word cream in quotes because I would have called them custard or pudding pies. All are topped with meringue. The coconut pie was delicious, if very, very sweet to my New York palate. I think it is even made with fresh coconut. Tasted that way. On the recommendation of the waitress, I tried the peanut cream pie, too. It was surprisingly subtle. I’d order it again, if ever I pass through LaBelle again.