Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Bowery Coastal is stuck on dry land
In 2009, Tommy Peters, president of B.B. King’s Blues Clubs, inked a 10-year lease with CityPlace in West Palm Beach. Peters was doubtful about the venture from the outset, but CityPlace made the deal attractive with an initial rent-free incentive. Peters signed on the dotted line.
After the opening buzz died down, the club was met with a number of setbacks, including chef turnovers, a real-estate crisis, a recession and construction delays for a neighboring convention-center hotel. Five years into the lease, the B.B. King’s was done at CityPlace.
In the fall of 2015, after a year of renovations, the company transformed the space into Lafayette’s Music Room. The menu was again focused on Southern food, but the club booked jazz, country and rock acts, in addition to blues and R&B groups. Less than a year later, Lafayette’s “temporarily closed for renovation,” according to the company’s website.
Fast-forward to December 2016, when Joe Cirigliano and Karena Kefales opened Bowery Palm Beach, a combination restaurant and live-music venue. The restaurant, called Bowery Coastal, initially offered a “sea-totable” concept that appears to have morphed into something else. More on that later. Meanwhile, the music venue, Bowery LIVE, hosts an array of tribute bands, local acts and national artists such as the Smithereens, Jefferson Starship and Blue Oyster Cult.
Cirigliano and Kefales first drew public attention in 2015, when the former New Yorkers appeared on HGTV’s “Caribbean Life,” a property-hunting series that documented their search for a “dream bar” in St. John’s. For Bowery Coastal, they hired native New Yorker Anthony “Theo” Theocaropoulos to be their executive chef. A graduate of the Lincoln Culinary Institute, Theocaropoulos worked in the kitchens of chef Michael White’s Ai Fiori and Mario Batali’s Eataly. The timing was right: Theocaropoulos’ plans to open a Palm Beach outpost of Cooklyn, a project he oversaw in Prospect Heights, had fallen through.
Surrounded by patio tables, a spacious bar and floor-to-ceiling windows, the dining room at Bowery Coastal maintains an open-air feel. Wood-planked floors, an oversize specials chalkboard, strings of draped Edison lights and a vibrant living wall create a warm, casual atmosphere.
The aforementioned sea-to-table concept, however, appears to have been diluted with a heavy Latin twist. I appreciate seasonal menu changes, but this feels drastic. Tacos, Mexican street corn, sweet plantains and nachos are now offered on the menu.
As explained by our server, the menu doesn’t
offer appetizers, but rather several small-plate options for sharing or multiple courses. Deviled eggs ($6) got a zesty bump and an orange hue from smoked tomato and piquillo pepper. But they lacked salt. The crab cake ($17), formed with a generous amount of jumbo lump crab, had little filler. A crispy, golden crust brought a nice contrast to a moist center, but like a beautiful woman overly made up, the delicious cake was buried in mango salsa and spicy mayonnaise. Menu-listed tangerine segments didn’t make it to the plate. Bowery nachos ($16) look interesting on the menu, but they fell flat with braised lamb that was surprisingly dry from a moist cooking technique, overly dry black beans and a cloying barbecue sauce. Mexican street corn ($7) had all the right elements: chipotle rub, garlic aioli and queso fresco. Unfortunately, too much time on the grill resulted in a charred taste that couldn’t be masked. Other small plates include lobster guacamole ($17), Theo’s octopus ($16) and Asianinspired Bowery chicken wings ($10).
From the “Sides” section of the menu, the mixed beets ($8) were a light, refreshing medley of yellow, red and candy-cane varieties topped with a complementing salty ricotta salada. I appreciated the fresh oregano, which worked well with the earthy beets. If you like your Brussels sprouts ($8) al dente, you’ll enjoy them here, served with a balsamic reduction. A Caesar salad ($12) was as classic as it gets, with add-on options of grilled chicken ($4), salmon, steak or shrimp ($6). Other salads include a cobb ($15) and the Bowery salad ($18) with jumbo shrimp and lobster.
Bao now share menu space with tacos, and the restaurant offers them with chicken, fish, steak, shrimp, duck, veggie, alligator and lamb.
I ordered the duck bao, ($5), a steamed bun filled with duck confit, piquillo pepper, pineapple slaw and cilantro. The acidic peppers and charred pineapple imparted great flavors, yet the shredded duck was dry. Veggie tacos ($4) served on a flour tortilla needed a drizzle of sauce over the sautéed kale, cabbage and tomato to bring it to life. My vegetarian dining partner was left longing for the “Chef ’s selection of grilled market vegetables,” as the menu description reads.
A display of iced East ($2) and West ($3) Coast oysters greets diners at the restaurant’s entrance. The oysters are listed on the “Raw Bar” section of the menu, but oddly, so are peel-and-eat shrimp ($9) and tempura-battered tuna ($14).
The selection of entrees offers something for people seeking a more traditional dining experience. Among them are chimichurri steak ($28), Atlantic salmon ($24), lobster mac and cheese ($22), Berkshire pork chop ($23), lobster roll ($20) and the Bowery burger ($16). My burger, served with butter pickles, smoked Gruyere and crispy shallots, was on the dry side.
I ordered a side of truffle Parmesan fries ($8) to go with the burger. I’m not sure what was more irritating: the absence of truffle on the fries or the additional basket of plain fries that came with the burger. They are not listed on the menu, and the server neglected to tell me about them.
Describing the desserts, our server said the Elvis ($8) was like a “bananas Foster with French toast.” But these bananas were not flambeed and served atop cubes of stale cinnamon bread, vanilla ice cream, dried cherries and peanutbutter sauce. In theory, it could have worked. A chocolaty brownie ($8) topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce made for a more satisfying ending.
My dining companion summed up our meal with the observation, “Everything was good but missing something.” Bowery Coastal may want to turn the boat around and look for it.