Food Editor: Best reasons to visit oldest steakhouse in Florida, right here in PB County

Liz Balmaseda, Palm Beach Post
·5 min read
Okeechobee Steakhouse has been a fixture on Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach for more than seven decades.
Okeechobee Steakhouse has been a fixture on Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach for more than seven decades.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

We’ve got a particularly meaty dining column today. We’ll travel from Florida’s oldest steakhouse to a smoked Wagyu brisket feast.

But there’s love for the non-carnivores as well. There’s a plant-forward Diwali brunch to know about. And there’s one of my favorite new sweet bites, one that’s not in the least meat-related!

Dining news: Upcoming restaurant inspired by Japanese Wagyu beef

New: 'Sexy' Chinese-inspired restaurant opens with modern menu

Goodbye Grub: Iconic pizzeria closes in Palm Beach County

Let's start on Okeechobee Boulevard with Okeechobee Steakhouse

The Porterhouse steak at Okeechobee Steakhouse.
The Porterhouse steak at Okeechobee Steakhouse.

The steakhouse that gives you a free steak on your birthday is celebrating a birthday of its own. Okeechobee Steakhouse turns 75 this month. Here are three reasons to plan a visit to Florida’s oldest steakhouse.

There’s a fancy whisky dinner. Okeechobee Steakhouse will host a Macallan single malt Scotch-paired dinner next Thursday night (Oct. 27) in its intimate Bourbon Room. Highlights of the five-course menu include a smoked duck breast with Macallan-duck jus and a Macallan-soaked, dry-aged New York strip with black truffle demi-glace. Dinner, which starts at 6:30 p.m., costs $300 per person, plus tax and tip, and reservations are required. (Call the steakhouse at 561-693-5151.)

It’s your birthday. If that’s the case, not only do you get a free steak (with the purchase of another), you’ll get Okeechobee’s legendary service. Of course, you’ll get that any time of the year, but doesn’t it feel special on your birthday?

You can meet celebrity chef Robert Irvine. The Food Network star will headline the “Beef N Bourbon Experience” dinner during the Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. The four-course dinner with bourbon pairings, which costs $350 per person, takes place in the restaurant’s event hall. Tickets are still available on the festival’s website.

  • Okeechobee Steakhouse: 2854 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach, 561-683-5151

Smoky, new chef collab

When so many creative chefs work within a few blocks of one another, ideas will drift like smoke and sometimes spark collaborations. Such is the case of South Dixie Highway, which is experiencing a wave of culinary collabs.

Earlier this month, chef Matthew Byrne welcomed the inventive minds at Celis Produce to a tasting dinner at his Kitchen restaurant on Dixie. In August, chefs Clay Carnes (Cholo Soy) and Rick Mace (Tropical Smokehouse) teamed up for a whole-hog cookout at Mace’s restaurant on Dixie. That same month, indie pastry chefs Anna Ross (Anna Bakes) and Caroline McGinley (La Gringuita cookies) paired up to create an all-dessert, multi-course dinner on Dixie.

A marbled cut of Wagyu beef at Palm Beach Meats.
A marbled cut of Wagyu beef at Palm Beach Meats.

Now comes another joint effort, one that brings together Tropical Smokehouse’s chef Mace and Palm Beach Meats’ chef Emerson Frisbie next Wednesday night (Oct. 26). Their focus: Japanese A5 Wagyu “Brisket n’ Fixins”.

Frisbie will welcome his Tropical Smokehouse neighbor chef Mace, from a half-mile down the road, to the meat market’s pop-up space. Mace will bring the smoked, finest-grade (A5) Japanese Wagyu brisket to the party.

The rest of the platter, by Frisbie and friends: Japanese potato salad, apple-jicama slaw, Palm Beach Creamed Honey and buttermilk dressing, corn on the cob with Espelette pepper and sumac butter, Red Splendor Farm biscuits and pickles by chef Daniel Ramos and for dessert banoffee (banana and toffee) cream pie by Anna Ross of Anna Bakes.

The details: The “Brisket n’ Fixins” dinner is Wednesday, Oct. 26, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Palm Beach Meats, 4812 S. Dixie Hwy. Tickets are $129 (including tip) and can be purchased at this link.

‘Festival of Lights’ brunch

A traditional Indian thali-style presentation at Ela Curry Kitchen in Palm Beach Gardens.
A traditional Indian thali-style presentation at Ela Curry Kitchen in Palm Beach Gardens.

Palm Beach County’s newest Indian restaurant celebrates an ancient holiday this Sunday. Ela, the new “curry kitchen” by chef Pushkar Marathe, will host a festive Diwali brunch with an a la carte menu, traditional music and other treats.

Read more about this brunch and other new unique weekend brunches in Palm Beach County in this story.

The Diwali brunch goes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 23. Reservations can be made at ElaCurryKitchen.com.

  • Ela Curry Kitchen: 4650 Donald Ross Rd., Suite 110 in the Shops of Donald Ross Village, Palm Beach Gardens, 561-345-2196

My new favorite sweet bite

Gloriously gluten-free: The Salty Donut's fleeting specialty item, a chocolate-chip sea-salt cake doughnut. The shop rotates specialty menu items, including its gluten-free and vegan offerings.
Gloriously gluten-free: The Salty Donut's fleeting specialty item, a chocolate-chip sea-salt cake doughnut. The shop rotates specialty menu items, including its gluten-free and vegan offerings.

I was not prepared to fall in love with a gluten-free doughnut, but that’s exactly what happened on a recent Saturday at the new Salty Donut shop in downtown West Palm Beach.

I’ve been trying my best to avoid gluten (due to a non-celiac gluten sensitivity), and I’m happy to report it’s doable and often delicious. But I didn’t think I could order a gluten-free menu item at the hottest doughnut shop in town without experiencing some degree of gluten FOMO.

The day’s specialty gluten-free item, a chocolate chip and sea salt doughnut, proved me wrong. The baked, chocolate-chip cake doughnut wore a chocolate glaze, puffs of buttercream, chocolate-chip cookie crumbles and a sprinkling of flaky salt. What made this bite so memorable was the cake doughnut itself – it was fluffy and moist, not dry or sticky like other gluten-free bites I’ve tried.

It’s a doughnut I could order every day. Sadly, that’s not possible. The Salty has removed the specialty doughnut because it often rotates its menu items. In its place, there’s a gluten-free sticky toffee cake doughnut with butterscotch glaze, vanilla buttercream and candied pecans ($4.50). Is it as life-changing as the chocolate-chip sea-salt doughnut of my dreams? I hope so. If you happen to try it before I do, drop me an email (lbalmaseda@pbpost.com) and let me know how you liked it.

Slicing and dicing

Watch for hand placement: The left shows how Kati Kokal learned to hold a knife in the knife skills class. The right is how she had been holding a knife at home.
Watch for hand placement: The left shows how Kati Kokal learned to hold a knife in the knife skills class. The right is how she had been holding a knife at home.

I recently joined my friends and colleagues Kati Kokal and Hannah Morse at a knife skills class at Sur La Table at The Square in West Palm Beach. It was the most fun I’ve had chopping vegetables! And there were more than a few a-ha moments to be had, like the realization that we had been holding our knives wrong since forever.

Kati has written a wonderful story about the class and the tips we learned. You can read it here!

More from Liz Balmaseda:

Dine on the farm: Best outdoor dinners in Palm Beach County 

Chinese takeout: What's driving the wave of new Chinese-inspired restaurants?

Neighborhood gem shuts but there's "joy" in its closing

Hold the celery, bring the buffet! Meet the $100 Bloody Mary.

Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She oversees The Post's daily food coverage. Follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com. Support local journalism by subscribing to The Palm Beach Post.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best reasons to visit Okeechobee Steakhouse restaurant West Palm Beach