BY LISA CERICOLA
"WHERE DO you want to have dinner?” Normally, I can answer that question in seconds. I love eating out, especially when I’m traveling. But there I was, on vacation in West Palm Beach, Florida, completely dumbfounded. We could have sourdough pizza, barbecue (Floribbean style or TexMex inspired), fried chicken, Jamaican fish, and the list went on. This smorgasbord of options wasn’t the cause of my confusion. See, I grew up in West Palm Beach, and at some point an actual dining scene had taken root while I wasn’t looking. When it comes to food, the city has historically been overshadowed by Palm Beach, its tony neighbor across Lake Worth Lagoon, and by glittering Miami, about two hours south.
During my childhood in the 1980s, there were plenty of places for my family to dine out but not the type that would attract tourists or national awards. Proctor’s, famous for its all-you-could-eat fried grouper, was one of the few seafood restaurants my dad, an avid fisherman, approved of. For breakfast, we went to John G.’s, a nautical diner across from Lake Worth Beach, where customers waited down the block for Cinnamon Nut French Toast. The Ark had a Biblical-themed buffet shaped like—you guessed it—Noah’s ark, with an endless salad “deck.” A real treat was a box of crispy, craggy fried chicken and hush puppies from Bud’s Chicken & Seafood.
Some of those are still local favorites, but much has changed. During the pandemic, Florida had an influx of new residents who wanted a sunny place to work remotely or start anew. Between 2021 and 2022, it was the fastest-growing state, with a 1.9% increase in population, according to the United States Census Bureau. By 2022, Palm Beach County was Florida’s third most populous.
As more people headed south, so did restaurants. New York City establishments like Harry’s and Felice opened locations in The Square, an outdoor shopping-and-entertainment district in the heart of West Palm Beach. However, the real catalysts for this culinary boom were the homegrown spots showcasing native talent, says Liz Balmaseda, who has covered food and dining for The Palm Beach Post since 2009. “There’s a community of indie, local, chef-led restaurants on the rise, and it has come together organically. There’s tremendous collaboration with joint pop-ups, street parties, and other events.”
The rest of the country is starting to take notice too. Last year, five chefs in Palm Beach County earned James Beard Award nominations, a new record for the area. Clearly, I had a lot of eating to do. So I set out to get reacquainted with my hometown.
Formerly a collection of storage facilities and machine shops built in the 1920s, this once-industrial area is now a three-block home to some of the city’s coolest businesses. Grandview Public Market, a popular food hall with colorful murals and a breezy patio, put the area on the radar in 2018. It’s still great for getting lunch—Caribbean Fire Side Bistro serves up Jamaican beef patties and escovitch, a whole fried fish topped with sautéed onions and peppers. Ramen Lab Eatery offers hot bowls of the Japanese soup as well as dumplings and steamed buns, Clare Ave. Grille makes smashburgers and sandwiches, and The District Bar mixes spirited cocktails. The neighborhood is also where to find Steam Horse Brewing Co., Steel Tie Spirits Co. (a family-owned rum-and-vodka distillery and tasting room), and Isla & Co. (an all-day cafe that has an Australian-influenced menu with distinctive dishes like kangaroo kebabs served over herbed tahini).
Grab a Bite at Grandview
(From left) Isla & Co. is a casual all-day cafe with a menu inspired by Australia. Inside the market, Joï Poke & Sushi offers creative poke bowls and build-your-own rolls.
Stylish Surroundings
(From left) Hive Bakery & Cafe on Dixie Highway is popular for pastries and leisurely lunches. Enjoy colorful salmon crudo at the Norton Museum of Art’s elegant in-house restaurant.
I still remember the excitement when Starbucks opened its first shop downtown decades ago. As I walked into The Pumphouse Pouratorium, just down the street from Grandview, I marveled at how far the city had come. The sleek 8,000- square-foot cafe and roastery, founded by brothers Christian and Alex Le Clainche, shows no signs of its former life as a mattress factory. The airy space, which is anchored by a large bar, was packed with people working on laptops or catching up over iced lattes and kombucha. The scent of freshly roasted and ground beans was tantalizing.
A longtime destination for antiquing, Dixie Highway is now also dotted with design-focused places to eat. Opened in 2022, Hive Bakery & Cafe is part of the Hive Collective, which includes a home-goods store, two clothing boutiques, an interior design firm, and a trade showroom. Created by Sara McCann, each business has a fanciful Old Florida look. In a bright, orchid-filled dining room (called the gazebo), I saw families tucking into plates of blueberry pancakes and two women (one in head-to-toe Lilly Pulitzer, the unofficial uniform of South Florida’s ladies who lunch) chatting over croissants. Outside, on a patio that’s bordered by hedges, a woman in workout wear sipped an iced coffee while relaxing in the shade of a green-and-white striped umbrella.
Hive is down the street from the Norton Museum of Art, which offers an impressive collection of paintings and sculptures as well as a scenic space for a bite. The Restaurant at the Norton is a sleek indoor-outdoor eatery that opens onto the museum’s sculpture garden, an area surrounded by tropical foliage. Plates are artfully composed here too. The fresh salmon crudo pairs citrus-cured fish with a passion fruit-and-yuzu vinaigrette, pistachios, crème fraîche, and basil oil.
For more than a decade, Clay Conley has been one of Palm Beach’s most celebrated chefs, known first for his upscale restaurants Buccan and Imoto and then later for Buccan Sandwich Shop. In 2016, he repeated the formula in West Palm Beach, opening Grato, a popular Italian eatery on South Dixie Highway. In 2023, he started a second Buccan Sandwich Shop, which operates from a take-out window that’s on the side of Grato. Now, West Palm Beachers don’t even have to cross the bridge for beef carpaccio on a baguette with arugula, both balsamic and crispy onions, mayonnaise, and lemon vinaigrette. While we were waiting for our food, two men in a tricked-out baby blue golf cart pulled up to grab their to-go meal. Just another day in South Florida.
Smoking Section
(From top) You’ll find Floridian and Caribbean influences, like black beans and golden rice, at Tropical Smokehouse. Chef Rick Mace is building the area’s barbecue culture.
If you plan ahead—which I encourage—you can pre-order a pizza or two from Pizzaioli, an offshoot of Aioli, a cafe and bakery run by husband-and-wife team Michael and Melanie Hackman. Sourdough-crust pies are the thing here, and toppings like roasted-garlic fondue and herbed whipped ricotta make each one memorable. My family (including a picky child) devoured ours, which had crispy pepperoni, crushed tomatoes, roasted garlic, and aged mozzarella. A limited number of pizzas are made each night, and the restaurant is takeout only. Phone orders are accepted Thursday through Saturday.
Cholo Soy Cocina opened in 2016, so it’s not a new addition, but it was an early indicator that the food scene in West Palm Beach might be evolving. The creative menu of Latin American-inspired dishes includes a little bit of everything—octopus-and-chorizo tacos, shrimp ceviche with plantain chips, and empanadas—and they all taste good.
Florida has never been known for its ’cue culture, but a few chef-run spots, also on Dixie Highway, are changing that. My favorite one is Tropical Smokehouse, which opened in 2021 and earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nod in 2023, as well as recognition as Florida’s best locally owned restaurant in our own South’s Best awards. Chef Rick Mace combines expertly smoked meats and seafood with Floribbean sides like crispy yuca, plantains, and Caribbean Slaw, as well as traditional ones like white Cheddar mac and cheese. Don’t miss the gooey Cowboy Cookies, which arrive warm and are big enough to share. Mace’s newest offering, Tropical BBQ Market, is located downtown and has many of the same menu items plus special sandwiches and more takeaway options such as a smoked-chicken dinner with sides.
At Austin Republic, chef Jimmy Strine has a Tex-Mex twist on barbecue standbys like brisket and pulled pork, which can be ordered by the pound with sides like German potato salad and rancho beans or as tacos with a variety of toppings. The outdoor restaurant has a relaxed ambience: The kitchen is in a repurposed shipping container, and diners eat at long picnic tables in the shade of banyan trees strung with lights.
Pig Beach BBQ was founded in 2015 by restaurateur Rob Shawger and pit-masters Shane McBride and Matt Abdoo, who met on the barbecue circuit. After successful pop-ups, they opened restaurants in New York and a West Palm Beach location in 2022. Housed in a former garage, it has a sports bar vibe and a far-reaching menu Smoking Section (From top) You’ll find Floridian and Caribbean influences, like black beans and golden rice, at Tropical Smokehouse. Chef Rick Mace is building the area’s barbecue culture. 27551_West Palm Beach.indd 70 3/15/24 12:12 PM SOUTHERN LIVING 71 that includes Smoked Cheddar & Jalapeño Sausage, a barbecue jackfruit sandwich, and pulled pork with a vinegar-based sauce.
Palm Beach Gardens, a booming area in northern Palm Beach County, has long been synonymous with golf (it’s home to The PGA of America), but now it’s a draw for food lovers too. You don’t even need to know how to hold a club to dine at Honeybelle, which opened at the PGA National Resort in 2021. With cane furniture; pastel florals reminiscent of The Golden Girls; and a spacious, plant-filled patio, it has already made its mark on Instagram.
The menu is appealing, too, with vibrant cocktails and crowd-pleasing dishes from chef Lindsay Autry, like the Mediterranean Bowl (black-eyed pea hummus, lemon chicken, tomato-and-cucumber salad, stuffed grape leaves, and fresh pita) that nods to her Greek and Southern heritage. Also on the menu is the sweet tea-brined, impeccably breaded fried chicken that put her on the map at The Regional, her elegant flagship restaurant, which opened in The Square in 2016 and closed last year.
Autry, who has been working in kitchens throughout South Florida for more than a decade, says there is a real sense of community here. Unlike Palm Beach, where the high season is from October through April, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens have mostly year-round residents, and they appreciate high-level cooking too. “There’s a genuine interest in more creative, unique dining. That used to be only on the island and was very expensive,” she says. “All of us are creating places where we would want to go—and not just for a special occasion.”
Ask a food-industry veteran in Palm Beach County where they like to eat, and you’ll probably hear about Coolinary. Since this cafe opened 12 years ago, Tim Lipman’s eclectic food has earned a devoted following, especially among other chefs. Where else can you find options like crispy eggplant flavored with chile and ginger, grilled swordfish with carrot romesco, and a brisket-and-chuck burger–all on the same menu? David Sabin, the force behind the annual Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival, says Lipman’s fried chicken with a jalapeño-Cheddar waffle is his favorite dish in town. “It’s so good I ordered it twice in one day,” he admits, “and my wife [Lindsay Autry] is famous for her fried chicken.” In 2021, Lipman and his wife and general manager, Jenny, expanded Coolinary by moving it into a larger space that’s shared with their bar, The Parched Pig. Thankfully, their chicken and waffles still remain.
Don’t Forget Dessert
(From left) Sloan’s Ice Cream sells unique flavors. Chef Lindsay Autry’s Honeybelle Pie shines.
Also in Palm Beach Gardens is chef Pushkar Marathe’s Stage Kitchen & Bar, which Balmaseda says “transformed the local dining world” after opening in 2020. Situated in an unassuming shopping center, the James Beard Award-semifinalist Stage (pronounced “STAH-zh”) merges Marathe’s Indian heritage with Florida, the Caribbean, and beyond. “My partner, Andy Dugard, and I saw there was nothing like it in Palm Beach County, and it didn’t take long for us to find the ideal location,” says Marathe. The original concept for the place was globally inspired small plates, but the pandemic changed that plan. “Survival meant takeout, so we adapted our menu to include curries. They became so popular that we recognized this was an opportunity,” he says, referring to his second restaurant, Ela Curry & Cocktails, which he started in 2022. “When Stage reopened, the community we had nurtured during the lockdown became a loyal and supportive following that has grown year after year.”
Today, the dining room at Stage is as Marathe originally dreamed it would be—loud, lively, and full of people sharing plates of vibrant, aromatic food, like Plantain Chaat. His spin on this Indian snack blankets the starchy fruit with yogurt, pomegranate arils, tamarind, mint, and crispy potatoes. It’s a bold dish that hits all of the senses, especially when paired with a Go Man-Go cocktail (gin with local mangoes, lemongrass, ginger, and turmeric). As I sipped my drink and snagged another bite of yellowfin tuna ceviche with coconut milk, puffed rice, and peanuts, I started thinking about my next trip home, and a strange new feeling came over me. I realized I was already planning where I was going to eat.
Now that you know where to eat, here’s how to spend the rest of your Florida trip
Shop Around
The Square features big retailers such as Lululemon and H&M as well as local options like the children’s bookstore Rohi’s Readery. Antique Row offers about 40 vintage shops. City Girl Consignment has good deals on quality brands of women’s clothing.
Get Outside
Golfers of all skill levels are welcome at The Park, an impressive new 190-acre course. Bird-watchers will love exploring the wetlands of Grassy Waters Preserve. Catch a shuttle boat to Peanut Island, and snorkel in turquoise waters. Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County is filled with lush foliage.
Experience Art
The Norton Museum of Art, one of the city’s jewels, is home to more than 8,200 works. Nearby at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, you’ll find a tropical hideaway filled with palms and orchids.
Stay In Style
The Ben West Palm is an upscale downtown option with a bar and saltwater pool on the roof. Opened in 2022, AKA West Palm is within walking distance of The Square. Canopy By Hilton West Palm Beach Downtown also has rooftop views from its breezy lounge.
Hover your phone’s camera over the smart code to get more recommendations for fun things to do in West Palm Beach.
photographs by GABRIELA HERMAN