Pride Month 2023: Critic's guide to well-loved LGBTQ+-owned restaurants
When I think of restaurants with heartbeats, I think of places driven by family and good friends and great love stories. A few come to mind now during Pride Month, when we celebrate the contributions of America’s diverse LGBTQ+ communities.
I can think of various LGBTQ+-owned restaurants that are popular for their delicious and from-the-heart dishes. Behind the scenes, many are shaped by the love stories they nurture. While these restaurants are worthy of our attention year-round, they are especially so in June, when they most proudly glow.
The restaurants in this roundup feature a variety of concepts, from American bistro to Thai to Trinidadian.
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Chunkay
Welcome to Riviera Beach’s home for Trinidadian roti and doubles, an eatery and takeout shop that’s owned and operated by chef Wendy Tilkaran and her wife/business partner Evita Thomas.
They first opened the shop in Lake Worth Beach in late 2020, but moved it to its present location in May 2021.
A former cop with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, Tilkaran followed her love and their shared culinary passion to South Florida in the spring of 2019. It turned out to be a lucky decision not only for her and Thomas, but also for those of us who love authentic Trinidadian soul cooking in Palm Beach County.
What dish to try there this summer: The flaky paratha bread or, of course, the rotis! Chef Wendy fills the soft, grilled, hand-clapped roti flatbreads with curried meats and veggies. Pair them with aromatic Trini-style sorrel juice for the full Chunkay experience.
Chunkay: 8344 Garden Road, Riviera Beach, 561-473-3710
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Table 26
Behold the stylish, welcoming restaurant built by Ozzie Medeiros and Eddie Schmidt. Their love story spans 27 years and it powers Table 26, the South Dixie Highway restaurant they opened in 2012.
They met at a stoplight in New York in 1995. On a Nantucket night 13 years later, Schmidt dropped to one knee at a Boston Pops concert and, before thousands of spectators, asked Medeiros the most important question of his life: “Will you marry me?”
Medeiros’ “yes” not only transformed their lives as a couple, it also set in motion the events that led to their opening of Table 26. In the modern lines of the restaurant named for the latitude of Palm Beach, their focus is on old-school hospitality.
What dish to try there this summer: Go for the T26 Signature Cheeseburger by executive chef Martha Encarnacion. It’s beautifully stacked and the smoked pepper aioli adds a dreamy touch.
Table 26: 1700 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach, 561-855-2660
Malakor Thai Café
Artist Billy Manthy and chef Noopy Areerak opened this charming Thai restaurant 12 years ago. It has been a go-to, neighborhood favorite in Northwood Village ever since. If you’ve ever had Malakor’s green papaya salad, you know why.
The married couple continues to draw inspiration from Areerak’s native Thailand, where he grew up amid the jasmine rice fields of Yasothon province in the northeastern part of the country. In fact, that is where Areerak and Manthy were remarried last year in a traditional Thai ceremony.
The trip was a joyous one all around, Areerak says.
“I saw my mother for the first time 18 years,” the chef says.
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He and Manthy were first married in New York in 2013, two years after they opened Malakor in Northwood. Renewing their vows in Areerak’s hometown, surrounded by loved ones and blessed by local monks, “brings us to a complete circle,” Manthy said in a Facebook post.
The couple owns a string of South Florida restaurants, including the 7-year-old Kao Gang in Palm Beach Gardens, the months-old Malakor Thai Express in Loxahatchee, the 4-year-old Malakor Thai Isaan in Coral Gables and the recently debuted Nour Thai in Oakland Park.
What dish to try there this summer: The Malakor Salad. It combines freshly shredded green papaya, peanuts, tomatoes, green beans, garlic, chili, lime juice and palm sugar and tops it with tempura shrimp. It’s the restaurant’s star dish, in my book. Then again, Malakor means papaya in Thai.
Malakor Thai Café: 425 25th St. in Northwood Village, West Palm Beach, 561-762-9070
Almond Palm Beach
The list includes Almond, a Palm Beach restaurant with New York roots (and a Bridgehampton location). Founded by childhood friends Eric Lemonides and (chef) Jason Weiner, the American bistro is where Lemonides works side by side with fiancé Lee Felty. It is also where Lemonides and Felty’s love story blooms.
The couple will be married Sept. 9 in Sagaponack, New York.
What dish to try there this summer: Almond is closed for summer, but will reopen in the fall, says restaurant rep Jennifer Martinez. But when it is open, you can’t go wrong with Le Grand Macaroni and Cheese with prosciutto and truffles ($29 lunch, $35 dinner).
Almond: 207 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach, 561-355-5080
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Pride Month 2023: LGBTQ-owned restaurants near West Palm Beach
