At the Table newsletter: A spicy new restaurant. Cult pizza. Dog Day deals. And free cake!
A spicy new restaurant. Cult pizza. Dog Day deals. And free cake!
The end of August brings us a stir of restaurant openings, new dining deals and free cake(!), among other tasty tidbits.
I’ll start with some spicy restaurant news.
Ela Curry Kitchen
The highly anticipated, classic Indian restaurant by Stage Kitchen chef Pushkar Marathe, opens Tuesday in Palm Beach Gardens. One might say the Ela Curry Kitchen concept has been a sensation even before its debut. When Marathe announced preview pop-ups featuring Ela’s menu at Stage in recent weeks, the events sold out within hours.
Some cool things to know about Ela:
• The inspiration. Named after the Sanskrit word for cardamom, Ela is an ode to Marathe’s travels throughout his native India. The son of an Indian Air Force radar technician, Marathe explored his homeland’s diverse mix of cultures and flavors as his family moved to new bases in new states. He draws inspiration from those years as well as from his time in college and his visits to neighborhoods and homes that were strikingly different from his family’s Hindu, vegetarian household.
“What I learned is that the true Indian food lies within the households of India,” Marathe told me this week. “What I’m doing is taking inspiration from the food I learned by eating at my neighbors’, friends’ and family’s houses. This is my interpretation of the food I loved as I traveled throughout the country.”
• The food. The menu lists Indian street snacks (“chaat”), nine types of curry dishes, various “not curry” dishes, breads, rice dishes, chutneys and other condiments, plus a thali-style tasting menu. That tasting menu features the traditional thali fashion, in which dinner courses are presented as multiple components on a large serving plate. While most entrees are served thali style, the special tasting menu is an option that’s offered for the entire table for $65 per person.
Menu highlights include lentil fritters with yogurt, tamarind chutney and crispy sev noodles (dahi vada), Kerala beef short rib with curry leaves, star anise and coconut oil, masala lamb chops with tamarind, goda masala, cashews, raisins and chives, tandoori chicken with cilantro chutney, mint and red onion, and desserts such as karanji pastry stuffed with coconut, mango, jaggery and ghee.
• The space. Marathe and his Stage business partner, Andy Dugard (former general manager at Buccan Palm Beach), transformed the original Coolinary Café location at Donald Ross Village plaza in northern Palm Beach Gardens.
That space had become available when chef Tim Lipman merged his acclaimed café with his bar, The Parched Pig, to create a larger restaurant simply called Coolinary. The Ela partners and interior designer Anna Woodman gave the space a look that’s both regal and relaxed. Terrazzo dining tables and black cane chairs are set by a beautifully textured accent wall that’s done in smoky blue-gray with shimmering gold touches.
The intimate space offers seating for 28 at the indoor tables, 15 at the indoor bar/counter and a dozen or more at Ela’s sidewalk tables.
I’ll write more about this restaurant in the coming days – stay tuned!
Hours: Ela opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 30) and will serve dinner Tuesdays through Sundays from 4 to 9 p.m. Lunch service is planned for fall. Reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made via Ela’s website or by phone.
Ela Curry Kitchen: 4650 Donald Ross Rd., Suite 110 at the The Shops of Donald Ross Village, Palm Beach Gardens, 561-345-2196, ElaCurryKitchen.com
Death by Pizza
A few months into the 2020 pandemic days, I wrote about a Delray pizza pop-up with a remarkable cult following. (Here’s that story.) The square, Detroit-style pies were so in demand, they’d sell out just minutes after the minds at Death by Pizza opened their online reservation window. You’d order the pizza at noon on a Monday – if you were lucky and quick, that is – and pick it up the following Sunday.
Now the concept will take a major leap. Death by Pizza creator Koby Wexler and his family plan to open a brick-and-mortar, takeout pizza shop in downtown Delray Beach. They hope to open the new shop in mid-October.
The pizzeria takes over the former New Vegan space, which is just blocks from the Wexler family’s popular Two Fat Cookies and Two Fat BrEGGfast concepts, both of them housed together on Northeast 2nd Avenue. Death by Pizza will operate as a takeout-only shop with an expanded menu.
Death by Pizza: Coming this fall to 528 NE 2nd St., Delray Beach, DeathByPizzaDelray.com
Dining deals continue
We still have a few days to gobble up The Palm Beaches Restaurant Month specials, but that doesn’t mean the end of summer’s dining deals.
September brings us two new restaurant-month promotions. Both Flavor Palm Beach and Downtown Delray Beach Restaurant Month kick off Sept. 1 and run through Sept. 30. Put them together and you’ve got discounted options at more than 100 local restaurants.
Free cake!
Nothing Bundt Cakes, the national chain of bakeries, is turning 25 on Thursday and wants to give away 100,000 cakes from sea to shining sea. What’s in it for you? A mini Bundt cake, if you’re one of the first 250 customers to claim the offer on Sept. 1.
More specifically, you’d get a Confetti Bundtlet (if you’re one of the fortunate 250).
Nothing Bundt Cakes has locations in Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach and Boca Raton.
To find a shop, visit NothingBundtCakes.com/find-a-bakery.
Let’s tell food stories!
The lineup is set and the stories are percolating for The Post’s upcoming “Storytellers on Food and Family” event Sept. 14 in Lake Park.
I’ll join six terrific storytellers at the Black Box Theater that night – including chef Louie Bossi of the Big Time Restaurant Group’s Louie Bossi’s Italian Ristorante – to riff on all things food.
Read all about the event and “tellers” here. Tickets are available online only, at this link. I hope you’ll join us!
Oh, and Happy National Dog Day!
Cheers from my favorite canine foodie, the spirited boy with the feisty-falsetto bark. He’s my pandemic baby and devoted shadow, now 2 years old. His name is Lenny but sometimes I call him “gordo” or “munchkin” or whatever else his cuteness inspires.
He was born in Alabama and came to me via All For One Pet Rescue, a wonderful network of foster homes based in Royal Palm Beach. He loves people, his pup pals, the most destroyed of his toys and rotisserie chicken. He chases lizards but has yet to catch one.
If you’re looking for something special to do with your pooch today: restaurateur Burt Rapoport offers doggie menus at his Delray Beach eateries, Deck 84 and Burt and Max’s, as well as his Boca Raton restaurant Max’s Grille. The restaurants donate 20 percent of their doggie-menu sales to Vets Helping Heroes, a Boca Raton-based charity that offers service dogs to retired veterans and active military personnel.
On the pup menu at Max’s Grille, the first of Rapoport’s restaurants to offer a dinner for doggies:
Chasing Chickens in the Backyard – a grilled chicken breast served with steamed rice, carrots and green beans ($10).
Herding Cattle on the Farm – ground beef steak served with steamed rice, carrots and green beans ($14).
Barkaroni Pasta – steamed pasta served with green beans and carrots ($10).
Undoubtedly, Lenny would go the “Chasing Chickens” route.
Max’s Grille is at 404 Plaza Real in Mizner Park, Boca Raton
Deck 84 is at 840 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
Burt and Max’s is at 9089 W. Atlantic Ave. in the Delray Marketplace, suburban Delray Beach
Wishing you a delicious weekend!
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Newsletter: A spicy new restaurant. Cult pizza. Plus Dog Day deals.
