butcher - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T16:45:21Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/butcherDining: New Boynton eatery looking forward to offering bar servicehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/dining-new-boynton-eatery-looking-forward-to-offering-bar-service2020-09-01T18:24:48.000Z2020-09-01T18:24:48.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960957661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960957661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960957661?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>The Butcher and The Bar opened in August and offers takeout and dining inside and out. Table service wasn’t available at first, but customers could place orders at the sandwich bar. The establishment includes a retail butcher shop. <strong>Photos provided by Jupiter Compass Digital Marketing Agency</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Jan Norris</strong></p>
<p>Partners in The Butcher and The Bar worked through the COVID-19 shutdown and have managed to open — at least partially — their new eat-in butcher shop in Boynton Beach.</p>
<p>Eric Anderson, business partner, says the old-school, retail butcher shop and sandwich counter are open for takeout, and diners can sit inside or out and eat, but as of late August there was no table service.</p>
<p>“We were kind of supposed to open in April, but then contractors couldn’t send as many people at once to a job so there was a delay. We opened early August,” he said.</p>
<p>“Once Phase 2 is in place... we’ll be able to open the bar. We’ll start serving small plates there.”</p>
<p>In late August, the partners were still waiting for their liquor license to be approved.</p>
<p>From the counter, they serve breakfast biscuits from 9 a.m. until they’re sold out, and offer a variety of sandwiches and other prepared foods at lunch. The retail butcher case is open all day.</p>
<p>First and foremost, TBTB is a whole-animal butcher shop, Anderson said. “We bring in whole cows, pigs, chickens, and butcher them on site.” Fresh meats and poultry, most sourced in Florida, are cut to order in the retail side.</p>
<p>Jason Brown, a junior partner, is the butcher. He is largely self-taught but has taken classes in butchering from noted chefs. He and others from the shop visited several farms in Florida to see animal operations before choosing their meats.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960958055,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960958055,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960958055?profile=original" /></a><em>Pork and chicken sausages and slaw are among the menu items. Everything is made from scratch. <strong>Photos provided by Jupiter Compass Digital Marketing Agency</strong></em></p>
<p>“We get our hogs from HertaBerkSchwein Farms in Groveland, and cows from Watkins High Pasture Ranch, and Fort McCoy near Zolfo Springs,” Anderson said. For now, Bell and Evans chickens from Pennsylvania are on the menu until they find a quality poultry producer in Florida, he said.</p>
<p>All ground and smoked meats from the kitchen are house-made, including pork and chicken sausages, smoked bacon, tasso ham, porchetta, chicken meatballs and kielbasa.</p>
<p>“Everything is from scratch,” Anderson said. “All our condiments — our mayonnaise, ketchup, bone broth — we make everything here.” They have a “pickle program” as well.</p>
<p>Daniel Ramos, of the critically acclaimed Red Splendor Bone Broth, is a chef/partner, overseeing the menu, which changes daily. <br /> Anderson said despite the name and concept, the shop has vegetarian and even vegan offerings.</p>
<p>“We had a party of three vegans who came in, and Chef Dan made them a whole vegan meal. There’s a joke there,” he laughed.</p>
<p>“Three vegans walk into a butcher shop. ...”</p>
<p>Hours for the shop are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but once Phase 2 is initiated and the bar is open, hours will change.</p>
<p>The Butcher and The Bar, 510 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach. Phone 561-903-7630; <a href="http://www.butcherandbar.com">www.butcherandbar.com</a>.<br /></p>
<p>Feeding South Florida, the food bank that partners with other nonprofits throughout the county, has expanded with a 5,000-square-foot kitchen and food prep area that can now handle the production of 10,000 hot meals weekly. The Boynton Beach facility on Park Ridge Boulevard opened in July.</p>
<p>It’s just in time to meet much greater needs, said Sari Vatske, executive vice president.</p>
<p>“The need has doubled because of COVID,” Vatske said. She listed as recipients homebound older adults, school kids out on summer break, and numerous nonprofits that help food-insecure populations across the county.</p>
<p>Add to that people who are newly unemployed in the food and hospitality business, who find themselves needing basic help, and a potentially threatening hurricane season.</p>
<p>The organization also took over serving Boynton Beach’s homebound seniors for the Community Caring Center of Boynton Beach.</p>
<p>“We’re doing 1,000 meals weekly for CCC,” Vatske said.</p>
<p>The new facility has a pantry up front. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients can come in and get cleaning supplies, canned goods and dairy perishables as part of the program. The facility acts as a drive-through distribution center as well, providing boxes of SNAP benefit food weekly.</p>
<p>In the main production area, a gleaming new commercial kitchen line is in place.</p>
<p>“This is the culinary training kitchen,” Vatske said. “We’re going to have 10 to 12 people at a time, for 16 weeks, training here.”</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960958256,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960958256,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="166" height="166" alt="7960958256?profile=original" /></a>Feeding South Florida chefs, led by Chrissy Benoit, will team with volunteer guest chefs from the community to train people to work in the culinary field, both kitchen and front-of-house positions.</p>
<p>The goal is for graduates to find work in commercial restaurants. The program is open to anyone with at least a GED who wants to get into the culinary field or improve his or her career, she said.</p>
<p>The plan is for classes to be sponsored, Vatske said, with the goal that they are free for the trainees.</p>
<p>For now, the teaching kitchen is idle because of COVID-19. “We are hopeful by October we’ll have teaching and training,” Vatske said.</p>
<p>The organization also will add commercial events, such as catering large affairs.</p>
<p>“We will have a revenue-generating component. The money earned will be reinvested into our program,” she said.</p>
<p>In the past, Feeding South Florida relied on vendors to help produce its meals; FSF now will become a vendor to others, supplying hot meals for recipients of other programs.</p>
<p>For special events and catering work, the agency will hire from its grad pool.</p>
<p>“We’ll also have an incubator program for food products,” Vatske said. Entrepreneurs can learn to make and market their own products in a commercial environment.</p>
<p>“Right now, we’re focusing on scaling our production. We’re still hiring and training for current production.”</p>
<p>Workers on the production side are cooking and packing meals for distribution. Soups are prepared in one of the giant tilt skillets — cream of celery was the choice on a recent day. The menu rotates through a four-week plan.</p>
<p>Meals are cooked rapid-fire in the new combi ovens. These are high-volume ovens that perform multiple functions such as baking, steaming, poaching and roasting.</p>
<p>“These are amazing,” Vatske said. “They are state-of-the-art,” allowing them to turn out hundreds of complete meals much faster.</p>
<p>Volunteers are used to pack and seal the food trays.</p>
<p>A cold storage area is being added; for now, it shares space with the major distribution area. There’s also a small laundry room where kitchen linens and uniforms are laundered, keeping everything in house.</p>
<p>The agency also works with FEMA and Florida’s CERT (the emergency response team coordinators), as well as community groups to provide meals for emergency workers and people in shelters during disaster relief efforts.</p>
<p>Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that devastated parts of Texas and Louisiana in 2017, wiping out resources for food, spurred a new program for Florida, Vatske said.</p>
<p>The state funds FSF and other organizations, which have high-production meal-distribution plans ready whenever a storm approaches.</p>
<p>Other funding comes from federal agencies, as well as a number of local partners such as Publix, the Quantum Foundation and other private groups.</p>
<p>Volunteers and donations are still needed from the community, she said, more than ever to help people outside the government programs.</p>
<p>Vatske said FSF is grateful for all donations. “Absolutely. We have general programs and supplies to fund.”<br /> For information about the programs or volunteer opportunities, go to feedingsouthflorida.org.<br /></p>
<p>Chef James Strine has taken the helm at Taru, the new moniker for the restaurant at the Sundy House.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960958089,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960958089,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="155" height="211" alt="7960958089?profile=original" /></a>It is billed as “New Florida Cuisine,” and puts a twist on Florida influences from the Caribbean (jerk ribs with tamarind barbecue sauce); Cuba’s croquettes (turkey and stuffing croquettes with cranberry mayo), or a Florida bouillabaisse (local fish, clams, shrimp, grits). He also dips into Asian influences, with Dynamite rice (furikake, crab, pork belly) and rice noodles and clams, with wine, garlic, bone marrow and Thai basil. Taru also gives a nod to a hot trend by offering poutine (fries covered with burrata and foie gravy).</p>
<p>Though Strine is a master at meats — he’s noted for charcuterie and his butchering skills — he knows vegetarian plates as well (cauliflower steak and waffles).</p>
<p>Strine comes from a string of noteworthy kitchens, including Cafe Boulud, Buccan and Grato, as well as his most recent gig at The Trophy Room in Wellington.</p>
<p>The restaurant is still open for its acclaimed Sunday brunch in the garden — a romantic setting on any occasion.<br /> Taru at the Sundy House, 106 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Phone 561-272-5678; <a href="http://www.sundyhouse.com">www.sundyhouse.com</a>. Open for dinner Monday-Saturday; brunch Saturday (a la carte) and Sunday (prix fixe buffet).<br /></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960957872,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960957872,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="160" height="241" alt="7960957872?profile=original" /></a>In brief … Viva La Playa, a new Latin restaurant, takes over the former Mulligan’s space at the Lake Worth Casino beachfront plaza. Chef Jeremy Hanlon of Benny’s on the Beach, the sister restaurant, brings flavors from South America through Latin America to the menu. The eatery planned a September opening. ...</p>
<p>Plans are still on hold for the season’s green markets, but Delray’s GreenMarket is celebrating its 25th year anyway — with a new cookbook. Residents are asked to send in their favorite recipes to be included in the Community Cookbook Tastes of the Season. To participate or for more information, email Lori Nolan at nolan@mydelraybeach.com. The Vol. 2 cookbook is still available for $12 by calling the Community Redevelopment Agency at 561-276-8640.</p>
<p><em>Jan Norris is a food writer who can be reached at nativefla@gmail.com</em></p></div>Business Spotlight: Iconic Boca Raton shop is about meating — and meetinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/business-spotlight-iconic-boca-raton-shop-is-about-meating-and-me2020-01-29T16:32:31.000Z2020-01-29T16:32:31.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917700,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917700,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960917700?profile=original" /></a><em>The Meating Place owner Del Valeriay with some of his team (l-r): Brett Fournier, manager Jack Baitz, Erick Andersen and Joey Baitz, Jack’s son. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes there were moments when he wondered how much longer he’d keep the business. Tastes were changing, the market for quality meats coming and going, everyone looking for bargains. His three children had left for other pursuits. Some of his longtime customers were gone now. <br /> That was in 2010.<br /> A decade later, Del Valeriay still owns The Meating Place, still comes in mornings to make sure his top quality meats are top quality, still greets the customers he’s served for 52 years.<br /> Valeriay is 82 now, and the butcher shop is still at 277 E. Palmetto Park Road. He’s owned it for 42 years, and worked there a decade before that.<br /> “We’re in business more than 50 years now,” he says, “and we’re very proud that it’s our passion for quality and service that keeps bringing our customers back.”<br /> When the doors open at 9:30 a.m., Valeriay has the full trays lining the display cases — the Delmonicos and the New York strip, the porterhouse, the prime ribs, short ribs and sirloin burgers. A little farther along you’ll find the lamb from Colorado and the veal from Wisconsin.<br /> “You have to have the passion for the business in you,” he says, surveying the display. “If it’s not 100%, go on to something else.”<br /> Valeriay was born with it in him, 100%. <br /> His grandfather slaughtered beef in Italy before emigrating, then he and Valeriay’s father owned shops in Meriden, Connecticut.<br /> In 1968, Valeriay came to Boca Raton and went to work for a fellow named Sal Santelli, who had opened The Village Butcher, the town’s first meat market, in 1963, and later The Meating Place.<br /> Ten years later, he bought the business from Santelli and has owned it ever since.<br /> “He was a good friend,” Valeriay says. “He’s gone now.”<br /> In 1993, Valeriay opened another Meating Place at Yamato and Jog roads but sold it in 2013.<br /> The original shop on East Palmetto Park Road is still basically the same as when he bought it, but the town around it isn’t.<br /> “When I was first here, there was nothing,” he says. “Now look. Nine-story buildings all around us.”<br /> He shakes his head, still amazed by the changes he’s seen.<br /> “I remember going to pick tomatoes at a place called U-Pick over where Spanish River High School is now,” he reflects. “Strawberries and tomatoes.”<br /> The Meating Place is a family business in which the employees, unrelated by blood, have become family through longevity. The manager, Jack Baitz, 63, has been here 36 years. His twin brother, Mike, has been a meat cutter and counterman for 15.<br /> They were born on Christmas Day, Jack first by 10 minutes.<br /> “We’re mirror twins,” he says. “Mike’s a lefty, I’m a righty. He has girls, I have boys. He’s mechanical and I’m better at cutting meat. He’s boisterous and I’m more on the quiet side.”<br /> Jack takes credit for the market’s prepared food business.<br /> “When I first came here I said, let me try some ham salad,” he recalls with pride. “That was the first thing I made, and we went from ham and chicken to tuna and crab salads.”<br /> Today, the cases are full of prepared meals — chicken Parmesan and cacciatore; stuffed shells, peppers and cabbage; shepherd’s pie and beef stew. All the cooking is done in the store, using the same high-quality meats they sell.<br /> “I might even do some jambalaya,” Jack says. “Today I’m doing meatloaf.”<br /> One item you won’t find? Veggie burgers.<br /> “I’m a meat eater,” Valeriay says. “But everything in moderation. I eat meat twice a week, and I don’t order meat in restaurants.” He shakes his head. “When you handle the best, you don’t need the rest. I eat fish in restaurants.”<br /> For the past year, Jack’s son Joey, 25, has been here too, learning the business.<br /> “The most important lessons I’ve learned,” he says without hesitating, “are know your stock and know your customers.”<br /> The Meating Place has been knowing its customers for a long time.<br /> “We’re taking care of the kids’ kids now,” Valeriay says. “You know the customers’ names and their dogs’ names.”<br /> Jack nods. “One lady I’ve seen pregnant with four kids over the years,” he says, “and now the kids are finished with college.”<br /> Sal Falcone likes to think his business has been around a long time. He and his brother, Vinny, opened their V&S Italian Deli at 2621 N. Federal Highway in 1985, but The Meating Place gives him pause.<br /> “We buy all our ground beef from there to make our meatballs and lasagna,” Falcone says. “We can’t find anything better in the marketplace. And I love that name, The Meating Place. It’s a great pun, and it’s so true. The people who come in all know each other, so it really is a meating place and a meeting place.”<br /> But how much longer?<br /> Del Valeriay wondered back in 2010, but it doesn’t seem to concern him these days.<br /> “I’m semi-retired now,” he says. “At 82, I think I deserve it. I swim, and I don’t drink or smoke. No desserts, no candy. My mom lived to be 93, and I have her genes.<br /> “How much longer? I leave that up to the Lord.”</p></div>Dining: Junior League’s Flavors 2020 will star some of Boca’s best restaurantshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/dining-junior-league-s-flavors-2020-will-star-some-of-boca-s-best2020-01-28T20:30:00.000Z2020-01-28T20:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960930661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960930661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960930661?profile=original" /></a><em>Honorary Executive Chef Patrick Duffy with Flavors 2020 Chairwoman Richalyn Miller (left) and Cristy Stewart-Harfmann at The Addison in Boca Raton. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Jan Norris</strong></p>
<p>Once again, the Junior League of Boca Raton kicks off its year with the annual food and wine extravaganza Flavors 2020, on Feb. 6 at The Addison.</p>
<p><br /> The 11th year of the dine-around format has 30 South Florida restaurants serving up tasting plates for guests. They get to vote on their favorites this year, and a people’s choice will be awarded.</p>
<p><br /> Among the participating restaurants: Harvest Seasonal Grill, Kapow Noodle Bar, Loch Bar, M.E.A.T. Eatery and Taproom, Melting Pot, Lemongrass Asian Bistro, Just Salad, Ramen Lab Eatery, Benihana’s, Burton’s Grill and Bar, and Rebel House.</p>
<p><br /> The theme is “Fall in Love with JLBR” — a tie-in to Valentine’s Day.</p>
<p><br /> Flavors committee Chairwoman Richalyn Miller of JLBR worked with the volunteers who stage the fete. Patrick Duffy, The Addison chef and honorary executive chef of the event, serves as coordinator for food and beverage.</p>
<p><br /> Along with the food stations, unlimited wine, craft beer and spirits are available. A raffle, a number of pop-up shops and a live auction are included.</p>
<p><br /> A DJ and live entertainment, including Fred Astaire dancers, will perform.</p>
<p><br /> VIP ticket holders will have their own lounge and get early admission at 6 p.m. and swag bags.</p>
<p><br /> It’s typically a sold-out event with only 600 tickets available.</p>
<p><br /> Proceeds from the all-volunteer event benefit the Junior League of Boca Raton and its community projects, including promoting children’s welfare, eliminating hunger, and supporting Boca’s community diaper bank. </p>
<p><br /> <em>Junior League of Boca Raton’s Flavors 2020, Feb. 6 at The Addison, 2 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Tickets are $100 general admission, $165 for VIP entry. For information and tickets, call the Junior League at 561-620-2553 or go to <a href="http://www.JLBR.org">www.JLBR.org</a>.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Boca Bacchanal</strong> is ready to rock the town March 6 and 7. Several events lead up to Boca’s largest wine and food festival, including this month’s Bubbles and Burgers.</p>
<p><br /> Feb. 20 at the Boca Beach Club, Bubbles and Burgers is hosted by the Alina residences. It’s an informal bash with a wide variety of specialty burgers and a selection of Champagne, sparkling and still wines to taste.</p>
<p><br /> Tickets for the party, 6-8:30 p.m., are $100.</p>
<p><br /> Vintner dinners are set for March 6 in private residences and historic sites around Boca Raton. Limited tickets to the dinners are $350.</p>
<p><br /> Six chefs or pairs of chefs have been matched with local resident hosts and vineyard representatives. A multicourse dinner prepared by visiting chefs is the highlight.</p>
<p><br /> The Grand Tasting, set for March 7, is usually a sell-out. The dine-around at the Boca Raton Resort and Club features top wineries pouring samples to match foods prepared by local and visiting chefs.</p>
<p><br /> More than 100 live and silent auction items will be up for bid, including travel packages, wine, perfume, electronics, art works, and experience packages.</p>
<p><br /> <em>To learn more about any of the events or to buy tickets, go to <a href="http://www.bocabacchanal.com">www.bocabacchanal.com</a>.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Prime Catch</strong> in Boynton Beach is opening its new dock-and-dine Prime Island bar with events Feb. 7-9. The restaurant has already redecorated the dining room, which now offers water views from every table.</p>
<p><br /> With the new docks, Prime Catch will accommodate more boats. The bar is situated right on the docks. A special Bar Bites menu is in place as well.</p>
<p><br /> <strong>For a look, get to one of these events:</strong></p>
<p>Feb. 7, Happy Hour: At all bars, 3-6 p.m. and again 9-11 p.m. Live music, complimentary chef’s table with light bites from the new menu, signature cocktail specials and more.</p>
<p>Feb. 8, Prime Island: Boat display, live music, special tastings and half off Bar Bites menu.</p>
<p>Feb. 9, Prime for Brunch: New brunch menu, Bloody Mary bar with $5 Grey Goose, bottomless mimosas for $15, live music and boating “Funday” on Prime Island.</p>
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<p><em>Prime Catch is open daily for lunch and dinner 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more info, phone 561-737-8822 or go to <a href="http://www.primecatchboynton.com">www.primecatchboynton.com</a>.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Lionfish,</strong> a sustainable seafood restaurant, is a San Diego import coming to Delray Beach, opening this spring on Atlantic Avenue. <br /> The James Beard Foundation twice recognized the restaurant as a Smart Catch Leader for its sustainable “sea to table” menu.</p>
<p><br /> It will go into the former Luigi’s Coal Fired Pizza space next to Johnny Brown’s.</p>
<p><br /> Lionfish — the namesake fish — is the invasive species decimating reefs locally, as it has nearly no predators. The meat on it is sweet and marketable, but handling the fish’s poison-laced spines is a drawback to mass harvest.</p>
<p><br /> The fish isn’t on the menu at the San Diego location, but with the restaurant’s commitment to locally sourced seafood, there’s a good chance it will appear on the South Florida version.</p>
<p><br /> Sushi and entrees featuring sustainables such as snapper, octopus, shrimp, lobster and mussels are on the San Diego menu and expected to be on Delray’s.</p>
<p><br /> Chef Jose “JoJo” Ruiz of the San Diego restaurant will oversee the startup of this second location. A March opening is expected.<br /> The group behind the restaurant, Clique Hospitality, operates a number of “boutique” restaurants in Las Vegas and California and presents celebrity events featuring foods.</p>
<p><br /> Lionfish will be at 307 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach.</p>
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<p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960930853,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960930853,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="125" height="187" alt="7960930853?profile=original" /></a>The Butcher & The Bar</strong>, coming to 510 Ocean Ave. in Boynton Beach, aims to be a full-service butcher shop, restaurant and old-school bar playing vinyl records. Chef Daniel Ramos of Red Splendor Sausage, and former chef at the Sundy House in Delray Beach, is behind it. No opening date is yet set. Watch the progress at <a href="http://www.butcherandbar.com">www.butcherandbar.com</a>.</p>
<p><br /> <br /> We reported last month that <strong>Jewell Bistro</strong> would be moving from Lake Worth Beach into the Ambassador Hotel in Palm Beach. After press time, we learned owner Dak Kerprich could not reach an agreement with the owners of the hotel and the deal is off. Jewell remains open in Lake Worth. No word on what restaurant will go into the former Sergio’s at the Ambassador.</p>
<p><br /> <br /> <strong>Briefly:</strong></p>
<p>The Boca Raton City Council gave a nod to <strong>Restaurant Row</strong>, an area in front of the new complex approved at Butts Road and Town Center Road. Four 5,000-square-foot spaces are available, plus patios. Already there’s a call out for a bakery, sushi and “high-end Italian” from Prakas & Co., broker for the complex.</p>
<p><br /> <strong>The South Florida Garlic Fest</strong>, now held in John Prince Park in Lake Worth Beach, is celebrating its 21st anniversary Feb. 8-9. Among the new offerings this year are a garlic-avocado grilled cheese, sensory play zones for people on the spectrum and others; and “luxury potties” available to $5 all-day potty-pass holders. Tri-Rail offers a $5 “ride all day” weekend fare. Go to <a href="http://www.garlicfestfl.com">www.garlicfestfl.com</a> to get all the info and tickets.</p>
<p><br /> Jeremy Bearman and spouse Cindy Bearman, owners of <strong>Oceano Kitchen</strong> in Lantana, are opening the doors at their new seafood restaurant High Dive, in downtown West Palm Beach. The 5,000-square-foot space in Rosemary Square, formerly B.B. King’s Restaurant and Blues, will focus on small plates of globally inspired seafood. The creative pastry and dessert menu was created by Cindy, a veteran of noted restaurants across the country. Jessie Bell will lead the beverage program. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.loc8nearme.com/florida/lantana/oceano-kitchen/3401308/">https://www.loc8nearme.com/florida/lantana/oceano-kitchen/3401308/</a></p>
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<p>Another South County name is also opening in Rosemary Square. Andrew Weil will open a second <strong>True Food Kitchen</strong> in the old Restoration Hardware space sometime this year. Its sister location is in Boca Raton.</p>
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<p><em>Jan Norris is a food writer who can be reached at nativefla@gmail.com.</em></p></div>Coasting Along: Old school still applies in this family businesshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/coasting-along-old-school2010-11-03T21:20:15.000Z2010-11-03T21:20:15.000ZScott Simmonshttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ScottSimmons<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img style="width:477px;height:345px;" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960308489,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
<br />By Tim Norris<br /><br />The secret to the Meating Place, the heart of it, waits somewhere unexpected, past the vintage refrigerated display cases and their parade of steaks and chops and ribs and roasts. <br />Most customers don’t get that far. The meat, in red and pink and pale white array, captures them.<br />The meat also captures the staff, who put their backs and backbones to it, every day.<br />Mike Baitz, for instance, came in just around dawn on this Monday, and Tom Hoffman right after him, and Del Valeriay, the owner, right after them, unpacking fresh boxed meat from their suppliers, cutting, trimming, arranging, displaying.<br />The manager, Jack Baitz, who also is Mike’s twin brother, will come in about an hour later, from a doctor’s appointment. “Don’t come in just to see us,” Tom tells Jack, on his cell phone. “Put an apron on.”<br />“He’s talking to his manager like that,” Mike says.<br />No respect. Or, maybe, a deeper kind.<br />The men have been together, Del says, for a decade and more. He hates to add that maybe this profession, this kind of shop, is endangered. Rents keep going up. Popular tastes keep going other places. <br />A ceramic figure, plump, jolly, aproned, faces the sales floor, and on a Styrofoam plate taped between the shoulder blades, hidden from the public, someone has written “I love papa forever,” and, below that, someone else has written, “Me too.” With a smiley face.<br />“My granddaughter Jessica wrote the top one,” Del says. “My granddaughter Amanda put in the other one.” Nobody touches that plate.<br /><br />Family business<br />Family is the place’s secret, its centerpiece. Ask any of them. They grew up with this.<br />“I followed my dad, followed in the footsteps,” Mike says. “Our family started with a packing house, slaughtering and packing. That was in Kenmore, Ohio. Jack had a meat market up in Kent (Ohio). We had a packing house, Galat Meat Packing, that was my grandfather’s. The chief’s (Del’s) dad had a business up in Connecticut.” <br />Del Valeriay remembers the first time he saw a steer slaughtered, 67 years ago. “It was common talk in our house, nothing sensational,” he says. “It was the way my dad supported us. My grandfather, Marco, was a slaughterer in Italy.”<br />Those were days when millions of Americans worked on their own family farms, and many raised and processed their own animals, for food and income. Now, they say, a lot of people seem to think meat comes into the world perfectly cut and wrapped in plastic.<br />Old school still applies to the Meating Place and its survival. <br />When he bought the original Meating Place and another store, in 1978, Del looked for employees he knew and trusted. “You don’t want anyone around who don’t wanna be around,” he says. “My father taught me that.”<br />This is a family business and, the men say, it’s personal. They don’t advertise, though they’re thinking about it. They count on word-of-mouth.<br />Early any workday morning, on well-worn wood tables in back, they showcase what their fathers taught them and what they improved with practice.<br />On this Monday, with Tom out front working on display, Mike is unpacking shrimp, and Del is slicing veal, on an angle, in perfectly matching cutlets. The meat is from Pennsylvania, raised by the Amish. The knives are Forschner, German steel, and each man has his own.<br />“You don’t mess with a butcher’s knives,” Mike says.<br /> Sharpened with tapered files, retooled in visits from a local craftsman, the knives become implements of art in the butchers’ hands. The men clean up, too, with Clorox and industrial-strength Joy. <br /><br />Lessons in meat<br />From a walk-in cooler, their fathers and grandfathers would have wrestled down sides of beef from hooks, carried in hindquarters, forequarters. <br />This meat arrives in boxes, most of it vacuum-sealed in plastic, much of it from Colorado, Niman Ranch (involving 650-some farms), antibiotic-free, hormone-free, and Cross Creek, and Harris, out of California. <br />Del carefully skins off thin sheaves of fat and peels out sinew. With an unerring eye he slices off filets, chops, medallions. <br />More than 40 years he’s been doing this, and he can walk a customer through the cuts, from boneless rump roast and tip steak to shoulder top blade, and the multiple USDA grades, utility, good and select (the low 40 percent) through three grades of choice to prime (the top 3 percent). <br />“Most people aren’t too educated about meat,” Mike says, and Del offers a lesson.<br />What gives the meat its flavor? Flecks of fat, he says, called “marbling,” or grain. If a supplier doesn’t consistently send meat properly marbled, Del will look for another one. Otherwise, he figures that he loses customers. <br />The wooden work tables date from decades before, and so do the vintage Hobart slicers and the Tyler refrigerated display cases out front, circa 1969. <br />That’s where the men slide the day’s arrangements of cut and packaged meat, laid on the backs of trays on butcher paper, into slots for a customer’s look-see. Mike has just turned a tray of shrimp into garnished decoration, and he slips it into its berth, hoping to turn glances into ogles. <br />From behind the front counters, the men dispense their wisdom about meat and about what matters in life and about cooking, too. <br />They can tell a customer whether to bake, roast, broil, stew or braise. They can advocate a garnish. <br />Life hands you a lemon? Sure, make lemonade. Mike hands you a lemon? Go with the mahi-mahi.<br />Bake at 350 degrees, Tom Hoffman says, a little lemon pepper, couple slices of thin lemon on top, start if off maybe four, five minutes each side, then open it up to make sure it’s done.<br />Then eat. Somewhere quiet, romantic, maybe. When he’s asked, Del says, “Without my wife, Barbara, I wouldn’t be anywhere.” <br />They all like the idea that their high-end product will be eaten in a high-end atmosphere, conjured by someone who cares. <br />Filets are the top-seller, and the ones that don’t move in two days will be wrapped in pastry dough for beef Wellington. Other meats will be sealed and frozen and set into display coolers alongside fish and more exotic meats, duck and quail, buffalo and brisket, Cornish hens and sweetbreads. <br />Above them are galleries of seasonings and condiments, and alongside extends a case of prepared foods, potato salad, chopped liver, cole slaw, crab salad. <br />The staff made and wrapped all those, too. What shows most is the hand-work, the personal touch made literal.<br />The men may talk sports, or faraway places, but they also cook. Part of their business is preparing packaged dinners for customers, for some as often as three nights a week. <br /><br />A lasting legacy?<br />Del says he has moments when he wonders how much longer they’ll all be doing this. In an age of convenience and cutting corners and hurry-up, the appreciation for high-quality meat, he figures, is shrinking, and the market with it. More and more people look for bargains. Some of his long-time, loyal customers, “so many beautiful people,” he says, are dying off. His own children have gone on to other professions.<br />“For awhile, we had four generations going,” Del says. “My son, Jamie, was the last one to leave. But you can’t blame him. This is hard work, a lot of hours. Now he goes to work dressed up, selling furniture, and he’s happy. And I’m happy that he’s happy. Life’s too friggin’ short.” <br />Thanksgiving is coming, and the staff usually do a brisk business in turkeys, fully prepared with all the trimmings. That, they say, is a time where families meet over meat. <br />These men have been doing that, they say, all their lives, every day. <br />For now, for tomorrow and the holidays ahead, they’ll be stepping up to the <br />cutting tables again. <br /><br />In Coasting Along, our writers occasionally stop to reflect on life along the shore.<br /><br /></div>