Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Max returning to Fort Lauderdale with Even Keel
Dean James Max made a big splash with 3030 Ocean at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort, and the acclaimed chef will soon dive back into the Fort Lauderdale restaurant scene with Even Keel Fish & Oyster.
The seafood-focused restaurant aims to open in January 2019 at 4100 N. Federal Highway, formerly the site of Cibo Wine Bar.
“So many locals and visitors just want a good piece of fish and some fresh seafood, but where can you go to get that?” Max says. “A lot of those old Florida seafood houses are gone.”
After making 3030 Ocean one of Fort Lauderdale’s top restaurants and mentoring an impressive roster of young chefs, Max left for other pursuits after 14 years in 2013. “It’s been five years and I still have old customers coming up to me all the time saying, ‘When are you coming back? We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting,’ ” Max says.
Max, 51, a Deerfield Beach resident, has been waiting, too. He operates restaurants in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Grand Cayman Island and the Bahamas. He scouted areas in Pompano Beach and elsewhere for a new South Florida restaurant. When the Cibo site became available, he felt it was the right place at the right time.
“We were able to make it happen much faster here,” Max says. Even though two Italian restaurants have failed at the site (Cibo and Bar Italia), Max was not deterred. Even Keel is located on the busy US 1 corridor, has a parking lot and will seat 160
inside and another 20 on the patio. He hopes the restaurant will attract patrons from throughout Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, Lighthouse Point and even Boca Raton. It will be priced moderately for seafood, with small plates in the $15 range and entrees in the $25-$35 range. Even Keel will serve dinner nightly at 6 p.m., with happy hour and bar bites starting at 4 p.m. Weekend brunch will be available, but the restaurant will not offer weekday lunch service at the start.
“I started off doing street restaurants and that’s what excites me most,” Max says. “We want it to be a neighborhood place that’s fun and friendly, with cocktails and quality food that’s interesting and always evolving.”
Joining Max as partners are two longtime chefs with local ties who have worked with him since the early days of 3030 Ocean: Dave MacLennan, a Cardinal Gibbons High graduate, and Brad Phillips. Each has spent the past decade running kitchens at Max restaurants around the country. “For them it’s a homecoming,” Max says.”I called it Even Keel because we’ve worked together for so long and we’re all pretty calm and level-headed.”
MacLennan, Phillips and general manager Rick Hamilton (most recently with the Foundry in Pompano Beach) were inside the restaurant earlier this week working on the kitchen, bar, dining room, menus and hiring. State licenses are pending. If all goes smoothly, Max says, the restaurant will start training workers after the holidays and open in mid January.
“It seems like a nobrainer — this area needs a good seafood restaurant,” MacLennan says.
Max — not to be confused with restaurateur Dennis Max, no relation — returns to a South Florida restaurant landscape that is ever more competitive and demanding. It also is a place where many of his proteges have blossomed into culinary stars. Among the talent who spent time at 3030 Ocean: Jeremy
Ford of Stubborn Seed in Miami Beach, Niven Patel and Pushkar Marathe of Ghee in Miami, and Paula DaSilva of Burlock Coast in Fort Lauderdale.
“It makes you feel old,” Max says. “But to be honest, they all deserve the success they’ve gotten … They all had passion, drive and vision. We created a pretty good environment at 3030.”
Even Keel will feature a raw bar with stone crab, oysters, clams and shrimp, and a selection of fresh fish and seafood that will come from more than a dozen purveyors. The restaurant also seeks a permit to buy product directly from fishing boats. Max says the restaurant will spotlight local items and also bring in oysters from Washington and Massachusetts, scallops from Maine and sea urchin from California. The menu will include ceviches, crudos, fresh pastas, meat and items from a brick oven including roasted whole fish and lobster, flatbreads and pizza. “A clam pie is definitely in the works,” Max says.
Max also has been busy with Blue Ocean Poke, a new fast-casual concept featuring raw, marinated fish. The first one opened in Deerfield Beach last month, and another is scheduled to open in Boca Raton in early 2019. Poke (pronounced PO-kay) is a Hawaiian dish that has been popular in California for years. “It’s been catching on in South Florida, but for a lot of people it’s still a new food,” Max says. “It’s such clean, light eating.”
Max travels eight days a month to oversee his other ventures, including a fastcasual Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma City. He says he is looking forward to making Even Keel his home base, a place, if you will, to find his equilibrium.
“Whenever I’m around, this is where I’ll be,” Max says.