John (left) and Luke Therien photographed at Prime Catch.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Scott Simmons
For years, it was the great South County lament.
Why isn’t there a place for fine dining on the water?
All that changed in 2004 with the Therien family opened Prime Catch in Boynton Beach.
The family had owned the über-casual Banana Boat since 1971, first in Fort Lauderdale; the Theriens moved the restaurant to Boynton Beach in 1978.
The family had owned the land on which Prime Catch sits since 1982. So why wait so long to open a higher-end place?
“We didn’t feel that Boynton Beach was ready for a fine-dining restaurant,” says Luke Therien, son of the restaurant’s founder, John Therien. “It’s a little more working-class. Boca, Delray, Palm Beach Gardens have the higher end.”
The family waited a quarter-century.
“We thought, ‘Now maybe Boynton Beach is ready for a nice restaurant,’ ” Therien says.
That vision proved to be correct.
“The tourists and the seasonal people feel they want to go to a restaurant that’s not another chain. They want something that connects them to the environment,” he says.
It’s no surprise, then, that Prime Catch is a place frequented by locals and tourists alike, who have their jaws set for fresh snapper or grouper, or even just a cocktail.
“That’s the epitome of Florida. You want to sip a cocktail and have a nice Florida fish and you want to do it on the water, if you can,” Therien says.
Customers love familiar faces, too.
Executive Chef John Bonk opened the Prime Catch in 2004, and General Manager Sandra Turner joined the company in 2005.
“We’ve got servers and kitchen people who’ve been there since we’ve opened. You don’t hear about 10-year cooks, managers, servers and bartenders, but we have them,” Therien says, adding, “Retention is so important in the restaurant business, so that helps us a lot.”
Prime Catch employs 75 to 100 depending on the season or off-season. The restaurant seats about 275.
Through it all, running the restaurant has remained a family affair.
“My brother Gilles is the chef at Banana Boat, and I have another brother who works in the office, then I kind of bounce around between the two places and the office,” Therien says. “And my father still comes into the places as well.”
The family doesn’t just come in to work.
Therien enjoys relaxing over a meal at his family’s restaurant, and he sits outside, regardless of the temperature.
“We’re gonna sit outside right on the water, as close to the rail as possible. You smell the air and you see the boats go by. Even on a 90-degree day, most people want to sit outside,” he says, adding, “Even in the summer, there’s always a little bit of a tradewind coming off the ocean, so you can always be comfortable.”
Prime Catch, 700 E. Woolbright Road, Boynton Beach. 737-8822.
Comments