LAKE WORTH STEAK HOUSE REOPENING IN OCTOBER
Michael Meyers has been a Callaro’s Steak House customer for months. He loves the service, the chef, the food and staff.
“I’ve been a couple of times,” he said. “I’ve had lunch and dinner.”
The restaurant made such an impression, 717 Lake Avenue, LLC (also the address of the restaurant) bought Callaro’s in July for $1.4 million. After the owners bought the restaurant, they changed the company name to 717 Lake Avenue LLC.
“We’ve been all over social media,” said Meyers, Callaro’s director of operations. “Two weeks ago I did a video and it’s up to 4,700 views.”
The restaurant recently closed for renovations. Meyers said the company is spending about $250,000 to fix up the site.
“We’re doing a remodel on the light fixture, tables, entryways and kitchen equipment,” he said. “We’re giving it a more contemporary, modern look.”
The original plan was to reopen in August or September, but Meyers said that date is now mid-October.
He said the menu will be 85 percent the same and 15 percent in upgrades. “We’re adding pasta dishes, we’re changing some of the sides,” he said. “We’re also building a 1,500 rack wine room, but we’ll probably have close to 300 or 400 wines.”
Pam Triolo, owner of First Impressions Creative Services, a marketing and public relations firm, said the menu will be completed soon.
“Some of the dishes will have an Italian flair,” she said. “They asked all 15 staffers to return, which most of them are.”
Meyers said, however, Callaro’s will be hiring new workers as well to bring the staff count up to 25 or 30.
“We’ll be back bigger, better, stronger and with a new look,” he said.
Danny Callaro, the site’s former owner told The Palm Beach Post in July that the offer was the perfect storm.
“I did it because they were frequent customers in the restaurant and they loved everything about (it),” he said.
He said the deal was done rather quickly.
“Back in December they came to me and then I had a deposit check three days later,” Callaro said. “They didn’t want to take over the restaurant in the middle of season, so they signed to let us stay until July.”
The steak house relocated in 2011 from Manalapan, where it operated for 10 years.
“We were there since 2011 and we had great customers who followed us from Manalapan,” Callaro said. “We had a lot of great customers who liked the vibe and feel of the restaurant and hopefully they’ll come back when it reopens.”