The 1926 Grand Dame Colony Hotel (525 E. Atlantic, 561/276-4123) reopened in November and is more appealing than ever, with several new shops behind all those awnings and past all that wicker. It's a great place to start the day, sitting on the old-timey porch sipping an early morning coffee and munching on a muffin from the Starbucks cart wheeled onto the sidewalk. Then walk the restaurant real estate, deciding where to return for lunch, snacks, dinner. Be sure to check out Busch's Seafood Restaurant (840 E. Atlantic, 561/278-7600) with spacious outdoor patio and terrace providing delightful waterfront seating directly on the Intracoastal. Next door is the best of English pubs, the happily authentic Blue Anchor Pub (804 E. Atlantic, 561/272-7272) with superb pub grub and an 1867 facade from London's Chancery Lane.
A refurbished Erny's Supper Club (1010 E. Atlantic, 561/276-9191) continues to please the senior set with its straightforward menu and nightly entertainment, while the Old Calypso (900 E. Atlantic, 561/279-2300) continues to justify its 1999 Florida Trend Top Twenty Newcomer Award. Splendid Blendeds Cafe (432 E. Atlantic, 561/265-1035) is still the most reliable place for pasta and rack of lamb, just as Peter's Stone Crabs (411 E. Atlantic, 561/278-0036) is for its namesake delectable and Coasters (777 E. Atlantic, 561/272-6004) for beautiful burgers -- 20 of them -- from the basic to the 40-oz. Mega Man Overboard. And here's some more good news:
Cafe Ciao Toto
522 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/278-3837
Giacomo Famularo and Salvatore Restivo are southern Italians, but their chef cooks with the lightness of the north country, in a classic storefront sidewalk cafe serving excellent luncheon soups and salads, lovingly prepared fillets of fresh fish, incomparable fried calamari and luscious lasagna, accompanied by select Italian wines and heroically crusty bread flown in from New York. Lunch and dinner, entrees $10 to $22, served daily.
City Oyster
213 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/272-0220
Opened in mid-December in the completely overhauled building that housed the short-lived Musicians Exchange, this instantly old, at-home tavern captures the same spirit as the Todd Herbst team's Big City Tavern and the City Hall Bar & Grill on West Palm Beach's Clematis Street and the other Big City Tavern in Boca Center -- but with seafood as a specialty and the requisite lengthy raw bar. Lunch and dinner, entrees $11 to $22, daily.
Delray Cafe
450 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/279-9443
The feeling is Key West and the food is made-from-scratch fresh with huevos rancheros, fritatas and multigrain pancakes for breakfast; homemade salad dressing reubens, patty melts and veggie burgers for lunch, served Tuesday through Sunday until 2:30 p.m.
East Side Bistro
777 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/266-0744
Atlantic Plaza
The terrific twosome of Darrel Broek and Oliver Saucy, who have blessed us all with Cafe Maxx in Pompano Beach and East City Grill in Fort Lauderdale, opened this spinoff in mid-December and are launching another of the same name the middle of this month in Vero Beach. The menu includes such zingers as easier-to-eat Anti-Club, hickory-smoked two-layer sandwiches, prime rib Cubanos, house-corned chicken reubens plus a parade of pizzas, barbecue baby back ribs, shrimp scampi, molasses and rum-glazed double cut pork chops, and yellowtail coated with cashews and crushed macadamians and served with sweet potato mash. Lunch and dinner, entrees $6.50 to $22, daily.
Louie Louie Too
201 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/276-3600
Successful clone of a winner on Fort Lauderdale's Las Olas boasting the "world's Best Pizza" (made from a secret recipe!) along with seafood salads and freshly made pastas, plus gargantuan sandwiches and chicken and veal given the standard American-Italian marsala and parmigiana treatments. Lunch and dinner, entrees $7 to $21.95, served daily.
Martini's
110 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/330-8300
Another month-old millennium marvel, opened in the same space where the Wall Street Cafe struggled for nine months and brought forth by Danny Scarfone, of Fort Lauderdale's Bella Notte and the Design Center of the America's Palm Cafe, who teamed up with partner Jim Deja to open this California Cafe with an Asian twist. There are 15 types of vodka with all kinds of exotic infusions and such boredom breakers as North African chicken baked in banana leaf with tomato broth and plantain cous cous, Thai-barbecued veal rib chop, lobster lasagna, scallop-soul soufflé, soft shell crab tempura, vidalia onion-crusted salmon marinated in ginger-soy, and swordfish soaked in citrus and Bombay gin. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $14 to $27, Tuesday to Saturday; Sunday, dinner only.
Old School Bread Company
105 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/276-0013
Artisan breads, baked goodies, thickly stacked sandwiches loaded with veggies, super salads and soups, coffee, espresso and cappuccino-based favorites and coolers are what keep this old-timey store across from old School Square packed most hours of the day. That plus the appetite-building smells coming from the stone hearth steam-injected ovens and savvy owner Billy Himmelrich from Baltimore who took over last August. Lunch and lighter fare, served until 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Safari Steakhouse
4 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/272-3739
The same professionals who created all the fun of Hoot, Toot & Whistle at 290 E. Atlantic have gifted county carnivores with this red-blooded retreat where prime beef rules the range, from $18.50 for 24 ounces of fresh-ground chop steak with grilled onions to $29 for 10 ounces of filet mignon and $62 for 40 ounces of porterhouse, for two. Top quality lamb and veal chops are also available along with salmon, sole, swordfish and lobster tail plus the usual steak house starters and side dishes. Dinner nightly.
32 East
32 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/276-7868
Never willing to rest on laurels of a Florida Trend 200 Best selection, the talented team here has taken giant steps in the past month, opening not one but two new operations: 32 Degrees, a live music nightclub located next door to 32 East, staying open until 2 in the morning and offering a late night tapas menu, and another restaurant, Thirty-Too at 16950 Jog Road in Delray Beach with a 32 Eats gourmet food shop next door, under the expert tutelage of the talented Wayne Alcaide. His place at the parent has been taken by another star, Nick Morfogen, whose apprenticeship includes New York's finest -- Le Bernardin, Le Cirque, Cote Basque -- and multi-starred winners in Aspen and Napa Valley.