Linda Bean's Perfect Maine, Delray Beach

By Thom Smith, columnist

Thom Smith

You won’t find a commercial fishing boat within five miles. No barnacles cemented to pilings on the docks, alternately exposed and hidden by the daily tides. Nevertheless, a new aroma on Atlantic Avenue in Delray suggests a little bit of coastal New England.

In recent weeks, the air has become filled with the smell, quite appropriately, of lobster, dispensed from an airy hut reminiscent of the shacks in Kennebunk and Wicasset.

Welcome Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Roll, the second outside of Maine. Its creator, Linda Bean, hopes to do with lobster what her grandfather L.L. Bean did with the outfitting business – make it a national phenomenon. By the looks of business at the grand opening last Thursday (Oct. 22), the housewife-turned-lobsterwoman is on the right course.

Starring: the Lobster Roll!

Linda Bean's 1/4 pound lobster roll

The showcase dish is a lobster roll: a quarter pound of claw meat (no tails, no fillers) on a soft bun, with a secret herb topping, a little mayo, bread and butter pickles (no dills please!) and crunchy chips on the side. The price is $15.50, but Bean notes, none is fresher. She flies it in daily from her docks on the Maine coast. “You get what you pay for, all fresh claw, no celery or onion, just lobster.”

Also on the menu: shrimp, crab, stew and chowder, hot dogs, salads, smoked turkey club or chicken salad panini, grilled cheese, salads, Maine-made beer and sodas, wine and desserts, including Maine Wee Whoopie Pie.

For Ex-Patriated Downeasters

Why Delray? Well, she found a lot of New Englanders who made the area home, and she already knew something about the place since grandpa spent his golden years in Deerfield Beach.

“I’m really on a mission for lobster,” Bean said, explaining that she’s trying to develop new markets for lobstermen and new tastes for consumers. “Lobster is considered a luxury food. It doesn’t show up on weekly menus. I want to change that. It’s a great source of protein; it’s not fried.”

Amato’s bread the “real Italian” thing

John Amato and Linda Bean

And a special tip for die-hard Downeasters: The bread comes from Amato’s the oldest bakery in Maine. More than a century ago in Portland, the Amato family began making “real Italian” sandwiches. Now the business includes 12 company stores and a growing franchise operation. Don’t be surprised if Amato’s, too, gives the area a try.

“I’m impressed by the area,” said the bakery’s General Manager John Amato, who flew down for the grand opening. “I’m amazed at how many people came up and said they remembered us from up home.”

Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Roll

• 200 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
• 561-276-2502; www.lindabeansperfectmaine.com
• Open daily. Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p..m., Friday and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-midnight.

The mile-wide smile, the robust laugh, the outstretched hand, the twinkle in his eye. It didn’t matter to Wolfgang Baere if he was running one of the nation’s most prestigious resorts or his down-to-earth beachfront hotel and bar; the essence of hospitality was to treat everyone as if they were worth a million bucks - and moreso as a friend.

Baere, general manager of the Island Beach Resort in Jensen Beach and the first general manager at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach, died Aug. 12 after a brief battle with brain cancer. He was 67.

Asset to the Waldorf

Born in Hanover, Germany, Baere came to the United States in 1963 and took a job as a waiter at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. He arrived in Palm Beach in 1991, overseeing the opening of the Ritz-Carlton. With strong business acumen and his winning manner, he quickly built it into one of the top resorts in the nation. Major ratings organizations such as AAA and the Mobil Travel Guide consistently recognized the resort and restaurant with four and five diamonds and stars.

Then in 2001, he left the glitz and glamor of Palm Beach for a little bit of old Florida. Teaming with his son, Wolfgang, he bought the Island Beach Resort and the adjoining Shuckers Ocean Bar and Grill in Jensen Beach.

“What am I doing here?” Baere joked as he oversaw the conversion of his new venture from 120 rooms to 60 suites. Three years later, his good humor still intact, he again asked the question as he stood in the rubble left by Hurricane Frances. He wasn’t about to quit, and eventually rebuilt.

An inspiring boss

“He was the most extraordinary general manager I have ever worked for,” former Ritz public relations director Deb Hurd once told The Palm Beach Post. “He’s inspiring.”

Baere had requested a small, family-only service.

 In a brief email to friends, son Wolfgang said, “He would also have wanted all of you to raise a glass, and say ‘Prost!’, to celebrate life.”

Prost! – to your life, Wolfgang.

In a his long career as a South Florida restauranteur, Dak Kerprich has done it fancy at such places as Max’s Grille in Boca, trendy at Kyoto in Delray and simple at Miss Marsha’s, a Singer Island pizza joint. Buoyed by the success of Miss Marsha’s, which he sold last year, he’s still big on simple.

On July 2, Kerprich hosted the grand opening of Pizzeria Oceano in Lantana. It couldn’t have been much simpler.

Wood-fired pizza not for some

Just half a block east of Federal Highway, it originally was a modest bungalow. Most interior walls are gone. All the better to draw the customer’s eye to the focal point – the oven. Imported from Italy, it resembles a small igloo, but it’s hardly icy. Inside a flickering Georgia oak fire kisses Kerprich’s personal pies to proper doneness.

Dak Kerprich tops a pizza ready for the wood-burning oven

“It’s great to be back; I think we’ve got a winner in this one,” said Kerprich, who also opened Suite 225, less than a block away a few years back. But he allows some customers may need some educating about wood-fired pies. “One woman complained about black marks on her pizza, so I explained that’s the way they come out. And they may not be perfectly round either.”

“I want to keep it simple,” Kerprich said. “You won’t see any drawings or designs zig-zagging on the plates. Just good, natural food. We’re trying to be as organic as possible.”

Everything about Pizzeria Oceano – the pizza, the antipasti, the stromboli — is basic, fulfilling the house motto: “No frills, great food, get it!”  The produce is fresh, supplied by local farmers in Lake Worth, Boynton Beach and Loxahatchee – including Swank Farms. Jody and Darryl Swank showed up to sample the spinach pie featuring the leafy greens. The sauce, a margharita base, is organic. Kerprich makes his own mozzarella and sausages.. All the cured meats are natural – no steroids, no antibiotics, no nitrates.

Keys Pinkies – but only if available

If Kerprich puts a special on the board, it’s because he was able to find an unusual product, not because of price. One recent offering was Key West “Pinkies.”

“They couldn’t have been fresher,” Kerprich said of the jumbo shrimp. “They were great on pizza or just tossed into the oven and roasted with a little olive oil and lemon.”

Wash it down with specially chosen wines or some unusual beers such as Narragansett, a small brewery revived in Rhode Island (My peer columnist, Dan the Beer Man, has written about it). If you want Coors Light or a Miller or Bud product, the corner convenience store is just a few steps away.

Small but cozy

The interior features a wood bar, half a dozen stools, pots and pans hanging from the ceiling and the centerpiece oven. A few tables on the front porch finish it off.

“I wanted to make it like a bar,” Kerprich said. “Good food, good times. It’s best to have it right out of the oven, still sizzling when it’s served.”

Pizzeria Oceano

• 201 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana
• Phone: 561-429-5550
• Open daily from 5 p.m.; take-out available

By Thom Smith, columnist

Palm Beachers are green — in so many ways. Money, of course, comes to mind first, but islanders like to do their part for the environment, too. And the arrival of da Francesco at 251 Sunrise gives them ample opportunity to practice la vita verde.

Food is sourced locally

Thom Smith

For several years, they’ve had to venture off the island to find new vistas. With this new bistro and club at the north end, they can stay closer to home. That means less gas, fewer fumes, a definite plus. Equally as important, Frank Cilione, Nick Oberhuber and chef Seth Kirschbaum have conjured up a green menu. Just about everything is a product of Palm Beach County from eggs to lettuce to the pizza sauce. At the bar, you can order the normal stock of high end beverages – from champagne, the ultimate natural product – to beers and teas.
After a couple of delays, da Francesco opened June 4 with a VIP party that had guests chowing down on pizza with three-grain dough and pesticide-free and preservative-free linguine topped with hormone-free meatballs.

Entrees easy on the wallet

Very un-Palm Beachy, however, is the tab. All entrees are priced below $20.
“We’ve learned a few things over the years,” said Cilione, a New Yorker whose first local projects were the nightclub Liquid and the “Asian-moderne” Tsunami, both in West Palm’s CityPlace. “Most importantly, good, natural food doesn’t have to be expensive. We use the best ingredients, but we keep it simple and well-prepared. We believe the situation is ripe for this kind of place in Palm Beach.”

Chef from Lauderdale’s Sublime restaurant

Kirschbaum is no stranger to natural foods. A product of New York’s French Culintary Institute, he was lured to da Francesco from Sublime, the top organic restaurant in Fort Lauderdale.
Nestled at the west end of the ageless, colonnaded Palm Beach Hotel on Sunrise Avenue, the space has gone through so many configurations that only a historian could keep count.
Two decades ago it was La Trattoria di Capri, a moderately-priced Italian bistro with the occasional added attraction of owner Rosaria Pallavicino occasionally singing with the house band. At the turn of the century (21st), it was 251 Sunrise, essentially a nightclub where entertainers such as Clarence Clemons attracted guests such as Donald Trump. Until Cilione and company took over, it housed Capri Blu, which had relocated from West Palm Beach. Now it’s 251 Sunrise again.
However, the previous incarnations were either restaurants or night clubs; Cilione has set up for both, with one room for bar patrons and another – with separate entrance – for da Francesca. He’ll use the usually slow summer to work out the kinks and prepare the back patio for outdoor fun.

Da Francesca at 251 Sunrise

• 251 Sunrise Ave., Palm Beach
• 561-659-8320; www.organicitaliano.com
• Open daily, 5-10 p.m.
• Delivery available

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Thom Smith keeps up with the boldfaced names around South Florida in his Society Bites column here. Contact Thom at thomsmith@ymail.com.

By Thom Smith, Columnist

     Fins to the left, ‘phins to the right. You can bet there’s a new game in town.

     With a news conference heavy on the entertainment value and light on information, the Miami Dolphins on Friday morning confirmed what many knew:

       Next season Dolphin Stadium will be known as LandShark Stadium.

      The name is rooted in a Saturday Night Live skit that begat a Jimmy Buffett song that inspired a somewhat palatable beer. Flipper is gone; say hello to a logo featuring the stadium topped by a menacing teal and orange dorsal fin. 

            Buffett is in on the deal and not just for beer money. The Dolphins withheld specifics. The singer-author will have some stake in the team. His investment, according to reports, will be two concerts, money from which could reach eight figures. Ross did say the Buffett arrangement is just the start of  several projects that the Dolphins will announce in the coming months.

  Beer is in Bud’s Family

          LandShark Beer is one of several Buffett brands. After years of identification with Mexican brand Corona, he ended the relationship and joined with Anheuser-Busch to produce his own lager.

      This mating is not as strange as it may seem. Parrotheads, like Dolfans, love to tailgate. Buffett owned shares of two minor-league baseball teams. He’s a beach boy (from Mobile, Ala.) turned millionaire; Dolphins’ majority owner Steve Ross spent his high school years in Miami Beach. Both live in Palm Beach.

            “It’s a natural fit,” Ross told the crowd, “LandShark becomes a Land…mark.”

Steve Ross

            Asked wehther he had been to Reef Road, Palm Beach’s legendary surfing spot and a Buffett favorite, Ross said he didn’t know, “but I’ll surf, I’ll fish, whatever, to keep him around.”

          Just before the event began at 10:30 Friday morning in an upstairs lobby at the stadium, the media, sardined onto two tiny elevated platforms, watched dumbfounded as a flock of several hundred appropriately garbed Parrotheads and Dolfans strolled into the area in front of the stage.

             Guess they didn’t get the notice that the Big Parrot himself would perform.

            “We got the word about four days ago,” said Don DeRyke, a member of the Fort Lauderdale Parrothead flock. “Couldn’t miss it.”

          The Big Parrot Warbled

  Buffett performed, backed by his long serving Coral Reefer Band, and opened with Margaritaville, then followed with Volcano.  ”We gave half the tickets to the Parrotheads and half to Dolfans, and you can’t tell the difference!” Buffett said and then confessing to being in a party mood after spending a week in the Bahamas, launched into a Dolphin-ized version of Fins.

 From Lauderdale and Boca,

Palm Beaches and Florida Keys,

It’s a game day mass migration

High fives fill the breeze

Kick-off time’s approaching

We gotta shut off our cell phones (great idea)

And get our arms up in the air

We are entering the “FinZone”

Can’t you feel us circling Dolfans

Can’t you feel us swimmin’ around?

We got fins to the left, fins to the right,

We’re at the only game in town.

           It certainly has more oomph than the old “Miami Dolphins, Miami Dolphins, Miami Dolphins No. 1.”

 Don’t Engrave the Name Yet

   A couple of closing remarks from Ross, who built West Palm Beach’s CityPlace and many other monster projects, and it was all over. Ross lingered for a few questions, but Buffett was out of the stadium in a flash. Next concert: May 14 in Phoenix.

            But here’s the catch. Unless something drastic happens between now and mid-December, LandShark Stadium will disappear. Dolphins publicist Harvey Greene said the arrangement is only for the Dolphins’ season. The Super Bowl will be played in Miami, but should the ‘Fins make it that far, they won’t play in LandShark Stadium. Greene would not say what the next name would be.

Jorge Perez

Former Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga did not attend, nor did that other big fish, VP of Football Operations Bill “the Big Tuna” Parcells. But Ross’ longtime partner Jorge Perez hovered nearby, as did Bernie Yuman, a Ross schoolmate at Miami Beach High, and former U.S. Tennis Association boss Arlen Kantarian, another Ross confidant. Also in the crowd, Best Buddies founder and Kennedy offspring Anthony Shriver, Miami Heat hero Alonzo Mourning, ex-Dolphins Nat Moore, Bob Brudzinski, Kim Bokamper, Joe Rose and Shawn Wooden and second-year coach Tony Sparano, with wife Jeanette.

            “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sparano said.

(All photos by Thom Smith.)

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    Thom Smith keeps up with the boldfaced names in his Society Bites column here. Contact Thom at thomsmith@ymail.com.

New Delray Night Spot, Il Bacio, Opens Off-Avenue

By Thom Smith, columnist

Thom Smith's Society Bites

     Interesting gambit. Season’s over. Summer’s almost here. Business is slow. In fact, “Who will bite the dust?” may be the $64,000 question this summer. But no matter the economy, Steve Pellegrino and his family are forging full speed ahead. Call ‘em crazy — maybe crazy like a fox — but they have opened a new night spot. In Delray.
     

Gracy Attfield and Elaine Meier

    Wednesday night the Pellegrinos welcomed some 500 of their best friends, and more than a few gate crashers, to a media-VIP opening party for il Bacio, their restaurant, bar and nightclub. With the off-season launch, Pellegrino can get up to speed gradually, working out any kinks in the food, the bar and the entertainment before the big push next winter.

      The restaurant offers a tapas menu, served up by Peter Masiello, formerly at Ristorante Bova in Boca.
     

Karla Veroned, Ed Sordo, Barbara Marsh

The big plus for il Bacio (“the kiss” in Italian) – it has both indoor and outdoor settings. It’s the space occupied several years back by the original City Limits, and its courtyard – with stage – is ideal for open-air dancing to a DJ and to live performances.
      

‘First Kiss’ Night

The live decor

   Billed as a “First Kiss” night, the party had a Sin City theme, although patrons so inclined left their transgressions outside. Inside nevertheless, they were greeted with ice sculptures of “Il Bacio” above the stage and Martini-pouring vodka bottles in one corner. The scene was spicy, with a hot band, stiltwalkers, op-arty mannequins, and bustier-clad models in giant champagne saucers.
        

Young and young at heart party

  All for charity

Stiltwalker entertains

   The Rhode Island-based Pellegrinos (no direct connection to the bubbly water) also offered guests chances on a raffle tickets for a Vegas trip. Proceeds went to the Connie J. Goodale Breast Cancer Foundation which provides direct financial assistance to needy breast cancer patients.

•      Il Bacio is located at 29 SE 2 Ave. in Delray. Closed
  Mondays and Tuesdays. Phone 561-865-7785.

All photos by Thom Smith.

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    Thom Smith keeps up with the boldfaced names in his Society Bites column here. Contact Thom at thomsmith@ymail.com.