Upscale Tex-Mex restaurant to take over former Burger Bar space in Palm Beach Gardens

Jordan Brown is helping her family open a new restaurant in northern Palm Beach Gardens. Cue the déjà vu.

The upscale Tex-Mex restaurant, Cactus Grille and Tequila Bar, is expected to open in the former Burger Bar space at Donald Ross Village this fall as early as mid-October. It may be new to the plaza, but its family roots go back to Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1992. That’s when Brown’s parents opened the first Cactus Grille, a rare concept for early-90s Providence.

Brown wasn’t yet born, but she remembers growing up at the popular Tex-Mex restaurant. Now, when she wanders through the new space, she is transported by childhood memories.

“I remember running around, diving into the kitchen, making my own chips-and-chili. I’d sneak behind the bar to make myself Shirley Temples. I was obsessed with grenadine. It was a problem,” says Brown with a laugh.

She is opening the new Cactus Grille with her siblings Olivia and Callahan and parents Jason and Beth. The upcoming restaurant will be larger and a bit more fancy than any of its earlier incarnations in Rhode Island.

Restaurant's early inspiration

What inspired a Tex-Mex restaurant in the first place? A budding romance, back in the day.

“I talked to my dad about this the other day. He said, ‘Your mom loved Tex-Mex food, but we’d have to drive to Boston to have a good Tex-Mex meal,’” Jordan Brown says. “He saw an opportunity to bring it to Rhode Island.”

Related: Acclaimed Gardens chef to open classic Indian eatery

More: Coolinary Café to expand concept at Gardens plaza

The family’s original Cactus Grille underwent several address and ownership changes. Five years after opening the first Cactus Grill, Jason and Beth Brown sold the business to a partner. The concept grew to include three other locations. But when the business collapsed and its assets and name were sold at auction in 2002, the Browns returned to buy back the name. They reopened the restaurant in January 2003 and rehired one of its first chefs.

Their Cactus Grille was a place where the salsas and simmered sauces were homemade and the margaritas were served in those big margarita coupe glasses with the cactus-like stems.

“We’re on the hunt for them, hoping we can bring them back to life,” says Jordan Brown, who serves as the family’s spokeswoman in addition to being a co-owner.

The Browns have hired veteran New York chef Bill Rosenberg, trained at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, as executive chef. Joining him will be South Florida chef TaAvis Williams, formerly a chef at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in Miami Beach. To manage the restaurant, the family has hired Jay Cross, former general manager at Morton’s steakhouse in West Palm Beach.

Classic flavors with a twist at Cactus Grille

There are plans to pay tribute to some of the original Cactus Grille’s recipes, but with a twist, she says.

“We do want to include some of the original things. My sister did find some of the original recipes. We’re workshopping them with our chef now. We’ll update them to make them more 2021,” she says.

The Rhode Island family is not new to South Florida. Jason and Beth Brown have been commuting between Providence and Jupiter for some 11 years, having lived here briefly in the late 1990s. Beth owns a homecare company; Jason works at a Massachusetts-based telecommunications company. Before her parents rekindled their restaurant plans, Jordan moved to Jupiter to run the homecare company. Her sister Olivia lives here and their brother Callahan plans to move here as well.

The pandemic period gave the family a chance to revive Jason Brown’s restaurant dream. The family made other moves as well: Beth sold the homecare company and Jordan has been transitioning to the restaurant project.

The restaurant will slip into the prime, rounded-front space that offers the plaza’s best outdoor seating and bar area, with tables scattered around a large fountain. Its planned arrival coincides with other restaurant news at the plaza, as chef Tim Lipman’s Coolinary Café will move into an expanded area by its sister bar Parched Pig and as a new classic Indian restaurant by acclaimed chef Pushkar Marathe, Ela, heads into the original Coolinary space. And South Florida gastro pub chain Legends Tavern and Grille is opening a location at the plaza as well.

A prime location at Donald Ross Village plaza

“The space is what drove us first,” says Jordan of the old Burger Bar location, which became available after that restaurant closed in 2019 but had remained vacant. “It seemed like the perfect space. We thought it could be amazing for this. My dad was fixated on that space and bringing something to the community that we thought was missing.”

She and her siblings see the upcoming restaurant as a chance to pay homage to their parents’ restaurant from years ago. It’s their dream as well now, which means the restaurant will have its own feel and personality, she says.

“It’s that chic, fun, Tex-Mex tequila bar concept. We want to revive and elevate the old restaurant,” says Jordan.

She envisions the Cactus Grille as a place that offers a range of dining experiences, from date-night dinners to casual suppers to drinks and snacks with friends.

“When they think of Tex-Mex, most people don’t think upscale or date night,” she says, “But that’s what I want it to be.”

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Cactus Grille and Tequila Bar

Opening at 4650 Donald Ross Road, Suite 100 at the Donald Ross Village plaza, Palm Beach Gardens, TheCactusGrille.com

Planned hours are 4 to 11 p.m. daily, with happy hour served weekdays from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tex-Mex restaurant to take over Burger Bar space in Palm Beach Gardens