Best restaurant news: What to eat at Guy Fieri’s local ‘DDD’ picks? Some favorites!

It’s been quite the star-studded week on The Post’s restaurant beat:

•   Jon Bon Jovi showed up at Benny’s on the Beach for a seafood lunch. (Here’s what he had at the waterfront restaurant.)

•   The famous publisher behind Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado and other publications announced a partnership with the Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival. He and festival director David Sabin say it will expand the fest in important ways.

•   And four Palm Beach County restaurants are still aglow from recent visits by Food Network celebrity Guy Fieri, who has started to feature them this season on his series “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”.

As part of Fieri’s “DDD” family of America’s favorites, those restaurants undoubtedly will get a boost, maybe even destination-dining status.

As in their visits to local restaurants in recent years, Fieri and his production team have chosen well — and, interestingly, they’ve picked some places that are not diners, drive-ins or dives. Mostly, they are neighborhood gems and local concepts worth exploring.

So maybe a “DDD” mini-guide is in order. Think about the deliciousness that awaits at Fieri’s previously featured restaurants, like chef Tim Lipman’s Coolinary in Palm Beach Gardens, chef Clay Carnes’ Cholo Soy in West Palm Beach and chef Eric Baker’s Rebel House in Boca Raton. (If Rebel House is in your plans, keep reading for an important announcement about that restaurant.)

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What to order at the ‘DDD’ restaurants?

There are neighborhood gems in Fieri’s most recent batch of featured restaurants. Here’s what I would order at this season’s Palm Beach County stops:

•   At Rose’s Daughter in Delray Beach, one of two outstanding Pineapple Grove restaurants by the talented chef/restaurateur Suzanne Perrotto, I’d start with the spinach dumplings. These fluffy orbs of spinach and homemade ricotta are seasoned with cracked black pepper and served upon luxurious pecorino cream sauce. And I might order one of Perrotto’s handmade pasta dishes, like the frutti di mare (one of Fieri’s featured dishes), which tops squid ink pasta with jumbo shrimp, scallops and clams in an nduja-tomato broth with a bit of saffron aioli.

•   At The Butcher and the Bar in Boynton Beach, I’d have what Fieri had: the Italian-style porchetta sandwich by butcher and executive chef Logan Gates. The chef lavishes attention and flavor on the pork roll, which he rubs with fennel, garlic and lemon. He serves it on locally baked ciabatta bread with gremolata, shaved fennel and preserved lemon vinaigrette.

•   At La Cosinita Latina in Palm Springs, there’s no doubt what I'd order: the shrimp mofongo. Owner/chef Max Lucena serves the plantain mash with large shrimp in a creole sauce. It’s one of at least 10 mofongo dishes he offers at the authentic Puerto Rican restaurant.

•   At the Cheffrey Eats food truck in Boca Raton, I’d definitely order one of chef/owner Jeffrey “Cheffrey” Lemmerman’s cheesecake jars. Lemmerman, who has a permanent parking space at the Barrel of Monks brewery, layers the cheesecake batter with other flavorings and batters and poaches them in individual jars.

The “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” episode featuring The Butcher and the Bar and Cheffrey Eats airs at 9 p.m. tonight on Food Network. Next Friday’s episode will feature La Cosinita Latina. 

Farewell, Rebel House

You may want to hurry if Rebel House is in your “DDD” exploration plans. The Boca Raton space will transition into another concept by executive chef and co-owner Eric Baker. He and partner David Bouhadana are moving AlleyCat, their Japanese izakaya presently at Royal Palm Place on Southeast Mizner Boulevard, into the Rebel House space, the owners announced via Instagram this week.

Rebel House will take reservations through March 26. AlleyCat makes its debut in its new, expanded space on April 3. According to the announcement, parts of Rebel House will remain there in spirit:

“Although Rebel House will not be operating as it has for the past decade, many of the Rebel House’s best features will survive.”

•   Rebel House/AlleyCat: The new AlleyCat will be at 297 E. Palmetto Park Rd., Boca Raton, 561-353-5888. 

Also on the news buffet

Brightline restaurants. With Brightline on the verge of opening an eagerly awaited route to Orlando, its West Palm Beach station is about to get busier. Here’s my new guide to restaurants near the station, a handy list for when your out-of-town guests descend on the station, asking “where’s a good place to eat?”

Burlesque brunch. This new restaurant in Lantana is doing a cheeky Sunday brunch throughout March. But that’s not the only thing to know about Ravish Off Ocean.

Honolulu-Mex? You’ve had Tex-Mex, but have you tried Hawaiian-Mex cuisine? That’s the concept at the new Bear’s Food Shack and Tequila Bar in Lake Worth Beach.

Feliz St. Patrick’s Day!

I had to laugh when both WalletHub and LawnStarter listed Hialeah, my childhood city, as “least Irish” in America and second-least-best city for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, respectively in separate studies. Hialeah is where I fell in love with Irish culture and stories, thanks to the Irish nuns at Immaculate Conception Catholic School, hailing from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.

They were immigrants from a lush, green island, just like my fellow Cuban-born classmates and me. At home, we may have had Cuban picadillo, rice and plantains for dinner on plates devoid of anything green, but at school we were the Celtics (“the mighty, mighty Celtics!”).

For those Sisters of Mercy and the Irish-Hialeah memories they spark, I raise a toast today, the most Irish of days. Sláinte!

Have a delicious weekend!

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Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She covers the local food and dining beat. Follow her on Instagram and Post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best food: Favorites at Guy Fieri 'DDD' restaurants in Delray, Boca