GOODBYE GRUB
This Delray Beach eatery has closed its doors, but is it really forever?
Max’s Harvest, a restaurant that brought local harvest-inspired cooking to the county before the farm-totable wave turned to a fad, closed its Delray Beach doors July 1. However, its owner says he may reopen the restaurant under a new concept.
Within its understated, earth-tone interiors, the Pine- apple Grove spot served an upscale foodie crowd in the polished tradition of a Dennis Max restaurant for more than eight years. Max, a pioneer- ing restaurateur who helped bring modern, California- influenced cuisine to South Florida in the 1980s, opened Max’s Harvest in early 2011. With clean, elegant dishes and a relaxed vibe, the place quickly became one of the hottest restaurants in Delray’s dining district.
But the Atlantic Avenue district, amped and increasingly bar-centric, has changed in dramatic ways since Max’s Harvest’s debut at 169 NE Second Ave., notes owner Fred Stampone.
“The Delray Beach dining and entertainment mar- ket has evolved significantly, with an emphasis on a more casual dining experience and lounge-driven vibe that is bet- ter suited to the younger Delray Beach clientele,” Stam- pone wrote in a statement he emailed to The Post.
Atlantic Avenue’s emergence “has challenged Max’s Harvest to re-evaluate its concept,” says Stampone.
With an ambitious new hotel (The Ray Delray Beach) and entertainment complex planned for just a block north of the Max’s Harvest site, Stampone says his team is exploring assorted options “which include a complete makeover of its existing concept, development of an entirely new concept or sale of its leasehold interest.”
For his part, Max, who left the restaurant last year and is helping to design an upscale food hall planned for Southeast Third Avenue, thanked locals and staff alike for their part in Max’s Harvest’s rise.
He said in the prepared restaurant statement:
“I am appreciative to the thousands of loyal guests who enjoyed our brand of culinary experience.”