Part nightclub and part trend-setting temple of "World Cuisine," the Grills introduced chilled, fruit-filled sakes and such exciting innovations as broccoli rabe dumplings pasted with parmesan, Peking duck and Confucius chicken salads, lamb spareribs, barbecued salmon, tamarind-glazed pork loin, veal crusted with Japanese panko, and pan-seared tuna smeared with Japanese white and black pepper seasoned with fennel and coriander. They serve lunch during the week and dinner, entrees $20 to $54, nightly.
In a stunning display of diversification, CGM opened in 1998 a pair of restaurants across the street from its South Beach site: Tuscan Steak (431 Washington Ave., 305/534-2233) and Red Square (411 Washington Ave., 305/672-0200). The first is THE place in the state to feast on grilled prime Florentine T-bone steak served in two sizes, large and larger. It's presented with a purée of roasted garlic and lightens the wallet $35 or $60. The calf's liver, with pancetta, fried egg and cipolini onions, and the sage-garnished whole chicken Tuscan style also are noteworthy. Dinners are family-style, served nightly, entrees $15 to $60.
Red Square boasts super chef Robbin Haas, former pacesetter at Turnberry Isle Resort & Club, then SoBe's Bang and Colony Hotel and at the very short-lived Bex in Boca Raton. He has assembled an eclectic menu with American and French accents complementing the Russian, which he calls perestrojka-inspired: Siberian nachos, terrine of foie gras, filet mignon stroganoff, chicken Kiev, cheese blintzes, steak tartare, bouillabaisse. Entrees range from $15 to $35 and are served Wednesday through Saturday.
Shortly before Haas joined the team, CGM's Jeffrey Chodorow took over the food and beverage operations of one of SoBe's hottest properties -- thanks to backers like Madonna -- the Delano Hotel with its heavily hyped Blue Door Restaurant (1685 Collins Ave., 305/674-6400). Chodorow gave it shock therapy by importing famed consulting chef Claude Troisgros, whose track record encompasses Bocuse and Taillevent in France as well as the Connaught in London and multi-starred restaurants in Rio and S?o Paolo. He gives a French twist to the tropical treats, whether served poolside, outside or in, from edible martinis to spa cuisine -- terrific chopped salads, veggie and tuna burgers -- and richer fare: pan-seared foie gras with jicama, kumquats and starfruit, watercress mousse in a crispy pancake drizzled with gorgonzola sauce, Chilean sea bass buttered brown and sprinkled with cashews, garlic and fresh herbs presented with roasted fresh heart of palm. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, entrees $24 to $44, daily.
Never tempted to be satisfied with smashing success, CGM's Jeffrey Chodorow is also into SoBe sub shops, opening Lou's Philly Cheese Steaks (805 Lincoln Road, 305/534-0609), and he's committed to the latest craze of noodlemania, opening Noodles of Asia next door (801 Lincoln Road, 305/925-0050). Few restaurant empires in south Florida, or any part of the state, can match the dizzying expansionist pace of CGM. But the competition is hardly comatose:
Benvenuto1730 N. Federal Highway 561/364-0600
Boynton Beach
It's been almost a quarter century since a Gallic gentleman -- in every sense -- named Bernard Perron opened his first Florida restaurant at this site, a one-time tropical oasis he christened Bernard's. It was an instant success, filling a local need with great style, just as surely as did his second venture, perennial Golden Spoon winner Brooks in Deerfield Beach (500 S. Federal Highway, 954/427-9302). Benvenuto changed hands a couple times, and when Bernard took it back he put more than a million dollars into the kitchen alone and installed a simpler menu without all the fuss and formality, eventually turning it over to son-in-law Jean-Philippe Gaudree. Success continues for the Perron clan in both locations.
At Benvenuto, Bernard's wife Cathy checks the books, son Marc, C.I.A. graduate, is in the kitchen with brother-in-law Jon Howe, who is married to front room overseer Lisa Perron. Together they recently supervised a most ambitious project: an expansion from 9,000 square feet to 20,000, the addition of dance floors and flexibly sized party rooms, planting of gardens, building of new and greatly enlarged parking areas, and yet another impressive improvement to the kitchen. Add in the earlier upgrade and it represents a reinvestment of more than $4 million, but the Perrons justify the expense to satisfy the demand for catering with class and party space to accommodate 20 to 250 with customized menus allowing a wide range of choices. Nightly dinners for two are pegged at $53.50 including a bottle of wine and such entrees as slow oven-braised osso buco Milanese, veal scaloppine on a bed of fresh spinach crowned with lump crabmeat and chive-tomato hollandaise, and pan-roasted snapper with peppers, pine nuts, raisins and sweet onions.
Max's Grille2210 Weston Road 954/217-0212
Weston
The inexhaustible innovators of Boca Raton-based Unique Restaurant Concepts have done it again, opening yet another Max's Grille way out west and reopening, after renaming, Maxaluna in Boca Center (21150 Military Trail, 561/391-7177). It's now known as Nick & Max's in honor of super chef and now partner Nick Morfogen, whose new menu introduces "Sun Cuisine," adding Florida, Caribbean and California accents to the Italian and Mediterranean, served in an upgraded setting with a bit more sophistication, maybe even formality -- the kind that's found in the Weston Grille, and in the Grilles of the same name in Boca Raton's Mizner Park as well as the Las Olas Waterfront in Fort Lauderdale where the menus are more or less the same. Why argue with success? Look for such zingers as pistachio-crusted grouper, maple and ginger glazed oak-grilled salmon, tequila-soaked sirloins and the kind of meatloaf slabs that Max made famous in his Boca Coffee Shop. Lunch and dinner, entrees $8 to $27, served daily. It's now 15 restaurants for Unique and its terrific threesome of Dennis and Patti Max plus Burt Rapoport. But who's counting?
Old Calypso900 E. Atlantic Ave. 561/279-2300
Delray Beach
When the prosperous owners of Boynton Beach's Banana Boat cast about looking for some sure-fire way to find similar success in the restaurant whirl, they moved inland, opening the Fifth Avenue Grill (821 S. Federal Highway, 561/265-0122). When that English tavern wannabe took off, creating its own legion of loyal customers, the owners created a clone to the south in Lighthouse Point (4650 N. Federal Highway, 954/782-4483). They followed up those successful spinoffs with something completely different, returning to the waterfront and opening Old Calypso last November. Occupying a strategic piece of restaurant real estate across the Intracoastal Waterway from Busch's Restaurant, it's a spacious ramble of wall-to-wall windows, dark brown woods and polished brass. The kitchen is blessed with the skills of Joe Calandro, who has 18 years in the organization, first at the high volume zoo of Banana Boat and then at the Fifth Avenue Grills. Now he's in charge of a marvelous menu with mustard-fried catfish fillets sporting incredibly good crusts of perfectly spiced cornmeal, pecan-coated sole, pan-roasted Atlantic salmon, sautéed snapper painted with rum-soaked pepper and propped on a coulis made with mango, marinated bone-in pork loin glazed with ginger, pineapple and Valencia oranges then chargrilled, frog legs loaded with garlic butter and what the menu promises is "The Best Damn Chicken You'll Ever Eat." Lunch and dinner, entrees $15 to $28, served daily.