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Biting the Dust
The Reynolds of the Burt/Jack partnership moved out of the area, but partner Jack Jackson is holding on at his upscale Jackson's Four Fifty on Las Olas, far removed from the site in the port, where for the past year guests had to pass security checkpoints entering and departing.
The Left Bank was never quite as good after Brehier, that Jacques of all trades with TV show, books and cooking school, sold it in 1997; and La Ferme, one of my favorite retreats, found it increasingly difficult to carry on after chef Henri Terrier's stroke, no matter how hard his incomparable wife, Marie-Paule, tried to hold it all together.
Charley's Crab
There have also been basic changes in the nearby Charley's Crab restaurant on the waterway (954/563-3597): The giant Landry's Restaurants Inc., with 2001 revenues of more than $746 million -- second to Darden's Red Lobster in the casual seafood market -- purchased the waterfront landmark from the Muer family along with four others of the same name in Florida, plus Chuck & Harold's in Palm Beach and 13 restaurants in South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Michigan.
There used to be a Charley's Crab at Sarasota's St. Armands Circle, but franchise owner Jim MacDonald bought the place and changed the name to Crab & Fin, adding one of the best raw bars in the state. He built mightily on the Muer foundations, part of the empire founded in 1964 by Chuck Muer, heir to a grand restauranting tradition, and lost by Chuck Muer in 1993 when his boat, "Charley's Crab," was lost at sea during a fierce storm in the Bahamas.
His seven children carried on valiantly but in 1997 sold some 80% of their corporation to Chase Manhattan and Prism Capital for a reported $44 million. The bank was not comfortable in the most trying of trades and was courted by the competition, notably Brinker International, but it eventually sold to Landry's, which happily added the outstanding properties to its portfolio, bulging with 213 links in 36 states, including the Rainforest Cafe and the Crab House collections with important outlets in Florida.
Landry's has not rocked the boat since taking over, allowing the separate units to run the same course they've been navigating since Muer's loss at sea, but there has been some welcome upgrading. Chuck & Harold's in Palm Beach (561/659-1440) looks spiffier than ever. The flash-fried calamari tossed with cherry peppers and the black bean soup with spicy sausage are alone worth the trip as are the seared beef and smoked salmon carpaccio ($5 to $14).
Fresh fish is broiled, Cajunized, grilled or sauteed. Plus there are such comfort stops as veal meatloaf with roasted garlic mash and barbecue baby back ribs slathered with chipotle sauce ($17 to $29).
The Charley's Crab menus are not quite as exotic as I learned at Pal's Charley's Crab in Deerfield Beach (954/427-4000) with such regular items as Idaho rainbow trout and peach-glazed chicken breast. Other menu items range from $12 to $29 for New Zealand rack of lamb and $35.50 for crab-stuffed lobster.
The fare is similar at Charley's other crabs, in Palm Beach on the oceanfront (561/659-1500), Jupiter (561/575-9838) and Naples (941/430-1357). In all the Crabs the wine list provides select vintages for all that seafood.
Dennis Max
A more dramatic restaurant reorganization involves the dissolution of the Dennis Max empire. The once-mighty Max has been reduced to just one holding with his original partners still in place at Max's Grille in Boca Raton's Mizner Park (561/368-0080), outclassed by Mark Militello across the courtyard and the new Pranzo next door -- where Max once had a very good bakery and diner/coffee shop. With Max are, and were since the beginning in 1978, the ultra-talented Burt Rappaport and Patti Max. The ever expansion-minded Rappaport has opened two other spots, Henry's in Delray Beach and Perry's in Aventura, and is opening a third, Mon Ami, a casual French bistro in a great location between P.F. Chang's and J. Alexander's in a hot new Boca location.
The name Max has been retained (but not the Dennis) by the reorganized Max's Restaurant Group, which now includes a quartet covering the waterfront, literally: Max's Beach Place in Fort Lauderdale's Beach Place (954/525-5022); Max's Grille Las Olas (954/779-1800); Max's WatersEdge Grille in Manalapan (561/588-5445); and Max's Grille in Weston (954/217-0212). There you can find such standbys as bacon-wrapped meatloaf and chili-lime-peanut glazed Buffalo wings. Prices range from $14 to $30.
Meanwhile three other Dennis Max graduates are soaring to the summit of their profession. Nick Morfogen, one-time chef/partner in Nick & Max's in Boca Center, has recently been made a partner in the restaurant he serves so well, Golden Spoon winner 32 East in Delray Beach.
In the space Nick vacated in the upscale Boca Center, the longtime head chef and daytime manager of Mizner Park's Max's Grille, John Belleme and Allison Barber, opened Zemi bankrolled by none other than Karen Kozlowski, wife of Dennis, former CEO of Tyco International.
Zemi's menu is non-stop "New American" excitement: From cracked pepper seared foie gras with pear pommegranite pan sauce to crispy duck with Asian vegetable stir fry and orange balsamic pan juices. Appetizers range from $9 to $20. Entrees, $18 to $33, are served nightly.
