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SUMMER GETAWAYS: ROAD TRIPS AND JET PLANES

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• FOOD TRENDS WE LOVE • BUZZWORTHY SHOWS • CITY SHAKE-UPS

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Advanced Brain Tumor Care, Close to Home When facing a brain tumor diagnosis, patients want two things: the most advanced care possible and a team they can trust. At Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, patients can find both.

The Brain Tumor Program at Marcus Neuroscience Institute is designed to bring highly specialized care together under one roof. Patients benefit from a multidisciplinary team that includes neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, radiation specialists, imaging experts, rehabilitation professionals and navigators who work closely together to develop individualized

treatment plans. That level of coordination can make a meaningful difference for patients and families during an already stressful time. Marcus Neuroscience Institute offers many of the advanced technologies and treatment approaches patients may otherwise expect only at major academic centers. These include minimally invasive brain tumor surgery, laser ablation, fluorescenceguided surgery to better identify tumor tissue, awake brain mapping, intraoperative MRI and advanced imaging tools that help surgeons operate with greater precision while protecting healthy areas of the brain. Sponsored Content

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The program has also expanded with the addition of Surabhi Ranjan, M.D., a dual boardcertified neuro-oncologist at the Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health, at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Together with Warren Selman, M.D., neurosurgeon and chief medical executive of Marcus Neuroscience Institute and the team, she helps provide comprehensive care that looks beyond surgery alone, connecting patients with medical therapies, supportive care and access to the latest clinical trial opportunities when appropriate. Another major milestone is the Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Cancer Institute’s proton center, which broadens access to a highly targeted form of radiation therapy. For some patients, proton therapy may offer a more personalized treatment option that helps spare surrounding healthy tissue.

Marcus Neuroscience Institute is committed to timely access. Patients with urgent brain tumor concerns can often be seen within 24 hours, helping them move quickly from uncertainty to expert evaluation and care.

For South Florida patients and families, that means advanced brain tumor treatment, multidisciplinary expertise and compassionate support — all close to home. To learn more or request an appointment, visit BaptistHealth.net/Marcus or call 561-955-4600.

DIRECTORY

Advertising and event resources

Take advantage of Boca Raton magazine’s prime advertising space—put your ad dollars to work in the premier publication of South Florida. For more information, or to partner with Boca Raton magazine on a community event, call 561/931-2278, or email nicole@bocamag.com.

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Custom publishing

Create a magazine tailored to fit the needs and character of your business/organization. Ideal for promotions, special events, introduction of new services, etc. Contact Christiana Lilly (christiana@bocamag.com).

Story queries

Boca Raton magazine values the concerns, interests and knowledge of our readers about the community. Please submit story and profile ideas by email to Christiana Lilly (christiana@bocamag.com). Due to the large volume of pitches, the editor may not respond to all queries. Boca Raton does not accept unsolicited, ready-for-print stories.

Web queries

• Access $500,000 – $5,000,000+in home equity • No monthly mortgage payments • Retain ownership and title to your home • Unlock tax-free cash to enhance your lifestyle goals

Submit information regarding our website and online calendar to Tyler Childress (tyler@bocamag.com).

Letters

Your thoughts and comments are important to us. All letters to the editor may be edited for style, grammar and length. Send letters to Christiana Lilly (christiana@ bocamag.com).

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Memories of Switzerland

I read with interest Angela Caraway-Carlton’s article about Mount Pilatus in the April 2026 issue of Boca magazine. In the late 1980s my husband and I traveled to Switzerland for a two-week vacation. We began our trip in Lucerne and were eager to go to Mount Pilatus. The hotel manager monitored daily weather reports and informed us that one particular day was perfect for our visit. We boarded a cable car to ascend to the top. Alone in the cable car, we soon wondered why it was considered a good day to visit when we could glimpse nothing of the dramatic views we anticipated. Soon after we traveled toward the top, a thick cloud enveloped our cable car, and an eerie and frightening sensation overtook me. The higher we climbed, the thicker the fog. Suddenly, we reached the top of Mount Pilatus, and golden sunshine welcomed us. We conversed with many Swiss citizens there and spent a glorious day. It was a trip well worth taking. Thank you. Sincerely, Sandra Friedman July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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FROM THE EDITOR

Time Traveler While our Best of Boca feature leads to reflection of the last year, a milestone birthday brings up fond memories

CARINA MASK

Written by CHRISTIANA LILLY

was stumped on what to write for this issue’s letter from the editor. As it’s the July/August issue, that means Best of Boca is back, so I figured I would rehash some of what you’re going to read on page 50. Then it occurred to me that this issue comes out during a milestone in my life: turning 40. I wish I could say I didn’t care; that age is just a number, or that I’m excited to enter the fourth floor in life. While age truly is just a number, 40 feels like a pretty big number right now. And just like with Best of Boca, where we look back at the last year of happenings, it has me looking back at the last four decades. There are things I’ve accomplished that I never thought possible, and then there are things I thought I would have that I don’t. What would little me have thought of where I am at 40? Stepping into a mental time machine, I’d find one of my childhood rooms where I’m practicing my reading and writing. It’s hard, little Christiana, I know, it’s so hard, but by fourth grade, trust me, you won’t be able to stop reading.You’ll tattle on yourself by climbing down the stairs to ask your parents how to pronounce a word in a book when you’re supposed to be sleeping.You’ll crack the code to writing, and you’ll actually do it for a living. You’ll even write two books! Then there’s middle school. I’d tell myself that even though you’re supposedly not the coolest in the arbitrary hierarchy of preteens, you’re so lucky to have good friends you have so much fun with and who will keep your secrets. That it’ll help you realize that good friends can help you through any uncomfortable situation and heartbreak. And no, your plan to meet your future husband in college and get married at 24 is not happening. Twenty-four seems old, but it’s not. Continuing through my time travel, I would step into the journalism classroom at my high school and tell 17-year-old me that one day, you’ll become the editor in chief of a highly respected magazine.Yes, even after graduating in the middle of a massive recession and working as an administrative assistant at the office of a geriatrics doctor for almost two years, you’ll finally make your way into a newsroom and climb the career ladder. Because no, scheduling colonoscopies and calling in prescription refills is not forever! Two layoffs will happen, but you’ll be fine. Speaking of graduation, you won’t get into the University of Florida at first.You’ll be devastated. But your dad will encourage you to research every professor and class at the College of Journalism and Communications and write an appeal letter. They accept it, and you start college a month after graduating high school.You’ll meet some of your closest friends here. I would also sneak back into Korrigan’s, a shuttered Irish pub in Deerfield Beach that I’m pretty sure is a Wawa gas station now, and tell the girl sitting in the corner with her friends,“that boy playing the happy hour onstage, you’re going to marry him.” You both will get a dog and buy a beautiful home.You won’t know it then, but you buy it just in time, because about a year later, a global pandemic will stop the world from spinning. (People will estimate it’ll go away after two weeks, but it won’t—sorry.) Young adult Christiana, eventually you’ll have steady income and you’ll be able to travel more and more.Your passport has stamps from Thailand, Peru, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico, Kenya, Colombia, and other places you’ll fall in love with. There are also road trips up the California coast, hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, seeing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree aglow, enjoying live music in Nashville and deep-dish pizza in Chicago, and taking a train through the Rocky Mountains. Your siblings and best friends will have babies, whom you’ll spoil in the quest to be crowned Best Auntie in All of Time and Space. The editor with her Ready or not, 40 is coming ... and I like to think that if 80-year-old me dropped in for a visit, with a gentle tap on bridesmaids my shoulder she’d have even more stories of things for me to look forward to.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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MORE ROOM FOR WHAT MATTERS

©2026 California Closet Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Each California Closets® franchised location is independently owned and operated. Local contractor licenses available at californiaclosets.com. Photo: Stefan Radtke

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THE LOCAL

CARINA MASK

B O C A C H AT T E R H OT L I S T T H E S K AT E R H O M E T OW N H E R O SEA TURTLE SEASON BEAUTY LO O K

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Skater Nicole Bobek shares her highs and lows in a new memoir; read more on page 30.

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THE LOCAL

BOCA CHATTER

SAY OM Browsing the exhibits at the Boca Raton Museum of Art is grounding in itself, but there are more opportunities to find your center. Once a month, the museum hosts sound healing sessions and yoga flows. The former is with sound therapist Tecia Linville, who guides participants through an hour-long meditation using Tibetan bowls, crystal singing bowls, Native American flutes, and other instruments that hit the eardrum and your soul just right. For yoga, the one-and-a-half-hour vinyasa flow is led by Leslie Glickman of Yoga Journey Studio in Boca Raton. Visit bocamuseum. org for the schedule. Yoga at the museum, and sound therapy with Tecia Linville

Locals sound off on issues affecting our community.

This summer is America’s 250th birthday. Who is your American hero? “Margaret Bourke-White showed the world exactly what courage and curiosity looks like from behind a lens. As a woman of many firsts—including the first female war correspondent—she captured the industrial soul of America and gave a face to the Great Depression. Her incredible work is one of the reasons I chose to study photojournalism, and her life is a constant reminder that our story is best told by those brave enough to seek out the truth.”

— George Karp, author

“Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss was a U.S. Army combat medic during World War II and saved around 75 lives during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. What makes his service especially remarkable, besides the number of lives he saved, is that he was a conscientious objector and never carried a weapon throughout his military service, adhering to his religious beliefs even in the midst of combat.”

— Jake McNeil, director of education at the Boca Raton Historical Society

CARINA MASK

— Rachel O’Hara, assistant director of marketing and communications at Saint Andrew’s School

“With great courage, Jackie Robinson opened the door for thousands of Black athletes. Willie Mays, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Jim Brown, and countless other All-Stars all owe a debt of gratitude to No. 42. Jackie may not have been the greatest, but he was the first.”

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BOCA CHATS When Jen Boronico opened the first Boca Tanning Club 23 years ago, she knew she wanted to“level up”the tanning experience.“When you walked into a tanning salon, they didn’t care to put any money into the ambience of the place. But we said, it’s like Starbucks: You can sit home and make a cup of coffee for probably a quarter, but why do we all go to Starbucks? It’s the friendly environment, a place that you feel comfortable and welcome.” She designed an upscale lobby, hired a muralist to paint rainforest-inspired art, and invested in top-of-the-line equipment. It paid off: From its origins in Boca Raton, Boca Tanning now has 10 locations in Florida and one in New York. It’s the official

tanning partner of the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders, and in addition to its UV, sunless, and airbrush tanning, it now offers red light therapy and teeth whitening—part of Boronico’s companywide pivot toward general wellness services.

Why “club” instead of “salon?” I actually am trying to move away from that, because people think they have to sign up for something. The reason it was called a club is because when we first started, and for over a decade, we were open 24 hours. And we’ve got high-energy, almost EDMtype club-style music.

How has the tanning industry changed? They were all pretty much mom-and-pops back then, and there were more than 20 little places, I believe, just in Boca. … And

now we’re pretty much the only ones left. I think it’s a testament to the fact that what we did was the right way to do it. What you have in your mind when you think of a tanning salon, we’re not that. We wanted to create something completely different, and a big part of that vision was making sure we didn’t burn people.

Your brand includes our city name; does Boca Raton have an aspirational appeal outside of our city? I am a lifelong Boca resident. I wasn’t born here, but I’ll certainly die here. I’ve been here since 1985. So to me, it doesn’t get any better than Boca. Maybe I’m biased, but I think there’s a lot of people that know about Boca Raton. — John Thomason

1942

Don’t-Miss Events

The year Casablanca was released

FABULOUS FOURTH OF JULY

WHEN: July 4 throughout Boca Raton WHAT: A daylong celebration of America’s 250th birthday, starting with the Firecracker 5K at FAU and ending with a finale at Countess de Hoernle Park, including food, drinks, activities, and a fireworks display. myboca.us/1456/fourth-of-july

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SUMMER IN THE CITY

American Academy of Dermatology

WHEN: July 17 and 31 at Mizner Park Amphitheater WHAT: The summer music series is back, with July performances by Yvad & the Legal Roots, a tribute to Bob Marley; and Peace of Woodstock, a tribute to the Woodstock festival. myboca.us/2205/summer-in-the-city

BATTLE OF THE BANDS

The Marina Effect, winner of the over-20 category at last year’s Battle of the Bands

WHEN: Aug. 7 at Mizner Park Amphitheater WHAT: The city’s rockin’ event returns for the sixth year, inviting local adult and youth bands to perform for the $2,500 grand prize. Plus, meet budding business owners at the Pop-Up Youth Market. myboca.us/2093/battle-of-the-bands

1,083

Turtle nests in Boca Raton in 2025

1958

First Fourth of July celebration in Boca Raton

Fabulous Fourth of July

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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THE LOCAL

HOT LIST

“TYPOE GRAN: ANATOMY OF A PRACTICE” WHEN: Aug. 20Sept. 20 WHERE: Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors COST: $45 CONTACT: 954/9289800, islandcitystage.org This play by Jonathan Spector is set among the board of directors at Eureka Day, an elite private elementary school in California. Diligently concerned with inclusion, safe spaces, and seldom rocking the boat, the board members are forced to confront latent divisions among themselves and their students’ parents when a mumps outbreak begins to spread throughout the school—and its liberal vaccine policy is put to the test. As if training his crystal ball on the fractures of a post-COVID future, Spector penned this prescient comedy in 2018. Offering a sympathetic voice to all viewpoints, Eureka Day found renewed purchase on Broadway in 2025, where it won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Kudos to Island City Stage for reserving the buzziest show of its season for the summer slowdown.

WHEN: Now-Oct. 11 WHERE: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton COST: $10-$16 museum admission CONTACT: 561/392-2500, bocamuseum.org

From the time of his childhood, when he would cut open his teddy bears simply to discover how they worked, Miami artist Typoe Gran has been curious about the process of creation. He remains a seeker, and childhood psychology, when mixed with a certain whimsicality and a palette of stark colors, remains a focal point of his art, which is often large, optically confounding, and public. His murals have appeared at the Arsht Center, the Andy Warhol Museum, Miami’s Brightline Station, Perez Art Museum Miami, and the Orlando Museum of Art, among many other venues.“Anatomy of a Practice” marks Gran’s first solo museum exhibition and will include site-specific murals as well as drawings, sculptures, and lightboxes, immersing viewers in his irrepressible oeuvre.

“PERSISTENCE OF MATTER: TRANSFORMING DISCARDED MATERIALS INTO ART THAT INSPIRES & PROVOKES” WHEN: Now-Sept. 27 WHERE: Cornell Art Museum, 51 N. Swinton Ave.,

Delray Beach COST: Free, but donations welcomed CONTACT: 561/654-2220, delrayoldschoolsquare.com As the old saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. This adage can ring especially true for artists, whose ability to see renewed utility in consumer detritus—Americans produce 268 million tons of waste each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency—makes them top stewards of a“waste not, want not”culture. Curated with the understanding that what we discard doesn’t disappear—instead, it evolves—“Persistence of Matter”gathers artists who deploy reclaimed objects in their work. Selected artists include Boca Raton’s Ron Garrett, who creates maritime-inspired art from materials collected at sea; Mike Silverman, who forms figural sculptures from antiquated hard drives and motherboards; and Autumn Kioti, whose repurposed fabrics and objects are central to the artist’s mystical visions. Ship by Ron Garrett

Typoe Gran

ORIOL TARRIDAS

EUREKA DAY

DEVO

WHEN: Aug. 28, 8 p.m. WHERE: The Fillmore,

1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach COST: $94.50-$196.45 CONTACT: 305/673-7300, fillmore-miami.com Whenever I think of the best cover songs ever recorded, Devo’s angular take on The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” comes immediately to mind. Devo Distilling the tune down to its nuts and bolts while losing none of its feral intent, it’s a vital example of an artist molding a pop staple into something innately weirder. (Mick Jagger, to his credit, was a fan.) The song appeared on the group’s revolutionary 1978 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo!, and nearly 50 years later, Devo is still certifiably strange, boasting a crunchy, art-punk sound that marries live and electronic instruments; set lists that include costume changes and eccentric video interludes; and a stealth political philosophy, centered on the “devolution” of humanity, from which the band derived its name. At this tour, titled “Mutate Don’t Stagnate,” three of the founding members will perform the group’s only Billboard-charting hit, “Whip It,” along with decades of underground bangers that attest to Devo’s enduring cult appeal.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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P R O V I D E N TJ E W E L R Y. C O M

W E S T PA L M

NAPLES

PA L M B E AC H

FORT MYERS

JUPITER

WELLINGTON

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THE LOCAL

THE SKATER

The Wild One

— Nicole Bobek

Above: Bobek: The Wild One by Todd Fischer and Caidin Ferrigno. At right: Bobek skates at Palm Beach Ice Works.

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Written by TYLER CHILDRESS

he world of competitive figure skating isn’t one to forgive or forget a scandal. The expectations of its athletes are clear: present yourself as a picture of elegance and grace both on and off the ice. If a skater makes headlines for anything other than a gold medal, that means trouble. It was this thought at the back of Nicole Bobek’s mind that loomed over her surprise 1995 U.S. Figure Skating Championships win. Michelle Kwan was the clear favorite, the golden child who embodied all that was typically projected upon a figure skater; she was consistent, fluid, and disciplined. Bobek, meanwhile, was the wild card—raw, impulsive, and confrontational toward authority. “I didn’t fit into the norm of what, at that time, skating was,”Bobek says.“The politics were so different, of how we had to act, how we had to look, how we spoke, and there was a lot of pressure on those things. And even though I did do those things [that were expected], I still had a bit of this wild streak in me.” But Bobek won. Her routine to the soundtrack of Doctor Zhivago dazzled the crowd, the judges, and even herself. In footage from the performance, Bobek celebrates the landing of the elusive triple-toe loop with a subtle fist pump. But as she stood on the podium at the edge of her Olympic dreams, a secret that had worked its way through figure skating circles was about to hit the mainstream. The year prior, Bobek had been charged with home invasion after entering the home of a friend who had given her the access code to the garage. Bobek took some cash that she found before being discovered by the homeowner, her friend’s father, who called the police. She claimed that her friend had given her permission to enter and take the cash. What ensued was a legal battle that ended with Bobek, then 17, being placed on probation. The news traveled through the figure skating world but wouldn’t hit the tabloids until after her triumph at Nationals. “I couldn’t really fully enjoy it, because I had that in the back of my head,” says Bobek of her Nationals win. The victory represented a turning point both personally and professionally for Bobek following the media circus that ensued. Her life became defined by headlines even after her retirement from figure skating following the 1998 Winter Olympics, in which she competed with a hip injury and placed

17th. Now, with her memoir, Bobek: The Wild One,, published in October 2025, Bobek sets the record straight on her tumultuous life in raw, literary detail. “I had to come clean, really with myself, with a lot of things, and I think a lot of memories and stuff I really just brushed under the rug and didn’t address for many, many years,”Bobek recalls.“It was really exhausting, because it was like, how many lives did this girl live?” Bobek’s memoir takes readers through the highs of her career and the lows of her personal life—from competing in the Olympics to the depths of drug addiction—in unflinching detail, with no dark corners to spare. In her journey from teen prodigy to addict, then through recovery to motherhood, every stone is lovingly, and often painfully, turned over. “This book, for me, [is] just an [acceptance] of everything that’s happened and how I’ve consistently learned from it, unfortunately, the hard way, but building up from that to where I am now,” Bobek says. And where Bobek is now is Lake Worth Beach, as a happy mother with a renewed passion for the ice, free from the pressures of competition or performance. “I have so much fun now going out on the ice,”she says.“I make little Instagram videos, I skate to whatever I want. I don’t have demands. Sometimes people write, like, ‘Why aren’t you jumping?’ Because I don’t need to. Because I’m 48, and I might break a hip.” Bobek hopes her story can inspire others going through their own struggles, and maybe even avoid“the hard way”by which she learned her toughest lessons. “A lot of people don’t make it through a lot of things that I’ve been through, and maybe I can be a light for somebody,”she says. “I am fully accepting towards myself now, probably more than ever before. And now it’s like, you either get me or you don’t get me. If you don’t get me, it’s OK. The world will still keep moving.”

CARINA MASK

“I had to come clean, really with myself, with a lot of things, and I think a lot of memories and stuff I really just brushed under the rug and didn’t address for many, many years.”

From Olympian to addict, Nicole Bobek’s rise and fall was tabloid gold in the ‘90s and aughts. In her new memoir, the former figure skater shares her side of the story.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

5/27/26 4:03 PM

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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THE LOCAL

HOMETOWN HERO

Dr. George Ackerman

After losing his mother to Parkinson’s, Ackerman is on a mission to spread awareness and find a cure Written by TYLER CHILDRESS

“We’re just trying our best to make sure that no family feels alone.” — Dr. George Ackerman

This page is a tribute to community citizens who have demonstrated exemplary service and leadership to the city of Boca Raton and is in memory of John E. Shuff.

eorge Ackerman spent most of his life in law enforcement, and his background shows in the way he describes the night that he realized his mother’s battle with Parkinson’s disease took a turn for the worse. “I got a call at 4 a.m. to rush over to Boca,”he recalls.“I approached her door, and I saw a figure moving, and I didn’t know what was going on. She was actually moving her furniture out of her home, and I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ She said she thinks there’s someone inside that’s going to harm her, and I believed her. … I went in and cleared the house. It was empty.” Having responded to countless emergencies during his days as a police officer, Ackerman knew to rush his mother to the emergency room, where he was told by doctors that his quick thinking saved her life. “That was the night that everything progressed downhill,”he says.“We don’t know if it was due to the changes in medication, but she now had delusions and hallucinations. And to be honest, those were even more frightening some days than Parkinson’s itself.” Prior to that incident, his mother, Sharon, had the characteristic Parkinson’s symptoms—muscle stiffness, difficulty with fine motor movements—but the family had been told by more than a dozen specialists that“you don’t die of Parkinson’s, you die with it.” “We heard of the word Parkinson’s, but we didn’t even know it [was] a disease or something that would take her life,”Ackerman

says. But on Jan. 1, 2020, Sharon lost her life at age 69 due to complications from Parkinson’s. After watching his mother struggle with the disease for more than 15 years, Ackerman resolved to help make sure no more families went through what he did. In 2020, he launched Together for Sharon, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness for Parkinson’s and finding a cure. “I did my PhD and dissertation on aiding African American mothers who lost their loved ones due to murder in West Palm Beach,” Ackerman explains.“But then my whole life shifted to caregiving, and I feel today that a lot of the Parkinson’s community, to me, are almost like those family members who lost a loved one.” Together for Sharon started small, with Ackerman sending out free Parkinson’s awareness bracelets that quickly made the rounds on social media.“I don’t know what happened, but somehow it went viral online, and celebrities and everyone around the world were wearing the band. We had to stop [donating them]. I couldn’t afford it, because I donated them all for free.” Since Together for Sharon’s founding, Ackerman has interviewed more than 3,000 Parkinson’s patients and their families around the world, written a children’s book with his daughter, hosted 400 podcast episodes on the subject, spoken before Congress on the importance of Parkinson’s research, and worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation on spreading Parkinson’s awareness. “We’re just trying our best to

Dr. George Ackerman

make sure that no family feels alone,”Ackerman says.“And I don’t want any other family to go through the loss or what my mother had to battle, because it’s not easy to even describe.” (togetherforsharon.com) WHERE AWARENESS AND RESEARCH IS LACKING: I think what’s lacking is that people need to reach out to their representatives. And I send a million letters, but just me. But if everyone in Florida or even the country would flood their politicians—local, city, state—it would change the world. MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT PARKINSON’S: [Parkinson’s] used to be known as an elderly white man disease, and that’s no more. Parkinson’s affects 10 million people throughout the U.S., people from every race and culture. The disease does not discriminate. THE DISEASE IN SOUTH FLORIDA: South Florida, and Florida specifically, has one of the highest diagnoses [of Parkinson’s disease] in the country. ON THE PREVALENCE OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE: I’ve been really involved in the last six years and learned from leading scientists [that] every 20 minutes someone is diagnosed in the world with Parkinson’s. We’re supposedly going to go from 1.2 million people today to almost 20 million in just 15 to 20 years, which is really frightening.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

LOCAL HH Ackerman 26.indd 32

5/27/26 4:13 PM

Find your next chapter with Jackie Feldman 234 Alexander Palm Road Boca Raton, FL 7 BEDS | 9.5 BATHS | 8,993 SF OFFERED AT: $21,500,000 Set along 100 feet of pristine waterfront in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, this exceptional estate enjoys rare privacy and tranquil, nature-filled views across from the preserved sanctuary of Capone Island.

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© 2026 ONE Sotheby’s International Realty. All rights reserved. Sotheby’s International Realty® and the Sotheby’s International Realty Logo are service marks licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC and used with permission. ONE Sotheby’s International Realty fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. Any services or products provided by independently owned and operated franchisees are not provided by, affiliated with or related to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC nor any of its affiliated companies. The information contained herein is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. Pricing subject to change without notice. This communication has been sent to a general market segment and pursuant to the applicable rules, is not intended to be a solicitation to any recipient who may have entered into an agreement with another broker. We are happy to work with them and cooperate fully.

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5/14/26 11:44 AM

THE LOCAL

ROUNDUP

Turtle Power A primer on sea turtle nesting season Written by JOHN THOMASON

RELEASE DATE

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center—located on North Ocean Boulevard directly across the street from the beachfront where countless turtles nest—remains Boca Raton’s central resource for sea turtle advocacy. While Gumbo Limbo’s 2026 schedule for Turtle Walks ends July 2, there is still time to participate in its Hatchling Release program. On select dates from July 13-Aug. 27, participants can observe newborn turtles, released by Gumbo Limbo staff, as they scurry off into the ocean for the first time.

SHELL SHOCK

A juvenile sea turtle from Loggerhead Marinelife Center

All species of sea turtles globally are either threatened or endangered, as pollution, artificial lighting, and boat collisions affect turtle mortality. According to Juno Beach’s Loggerhead Marinelife Center, which

researches and cares for sea turtles, unintended boat strikes of sea turtles have tripled in Florida since 1980—the majority occurring during nesting season. The center advises boaters to“go slow for those below” and travel at a minimum speed when cruising the 45-mile Sea Turtle Protection Zone, encompassing all of Palm Beach County, during nesting season. Ensuring our beaches are free of pollutants such as plastics is also key to the species’ survival. Up to 1,000 sea turtles die each year from entanglement in plastics—an average of more than one turtle every nine hours—according to the State of the World’s Sea Turtles, a program from the nonprofit Oceanic Society. Gumbo Limbo hosts group beach cleanups of 10 to 25 participants; to schedule a cleanup, call Jillian Taylor at 561/544-8612 or email jtaylor@bocaraton-fl.gov. Other organizations that organize cleanups include Boca Save Our Beaches (bocasob.com) and Ocean Blue Project (oceanblueproject.org/beach-clean-upboca-raton).

FLORIDA’S WILD BACKYARD

Speaking of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, while environmental advocates mourned the loss of the institution’s sea turtle rehabilitation center last summer, the space that housed it is going to good use. The former rehab facility is now home to “Florida’s Wild Backyard,”a new permanent exhibition in keeping with the center’s educational mission. Leveraging the space’s existing seawater supply and tanks, the attraction explores the region’s ecosystems and the various native reptiles, plants, and aquatic species that inhabit them, including snakes, gopher tortoises, box turtles, and various marine animals. Participants can also partake in an interactive scavenger hunt to help identify invasive species and discover threats to local ecosystems.

COURTESY OF LOGGERHEAD MARINELIFE CENTER

n Palm Beach County’s beaches, humans aren’t the only sentient creatures coming out of their shells to enjoy our temperate climate. For locals, strolling Boca Raton’s beaches after hours and spotting a giant leatherback turtle nesting just offshore is a rite of passage. For tourists, it’s a signature amenity in what is now the officially designated Sea Turtle Capital of Florida. Palm Beach County earned the honor this past spring, in recognition of a nation-topping 2 million hatchlings born here each year. Most of them are loggerheads, the most prolific breeders among the turtles of the Palm Beaches. In 2025, our county led the state with 25,614 tracked loggerhead nests, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). You can also track nest numbers in Boca Raton at myboca.us/2139/Nesting. Scientists have yet to pinpoint why sea turtles prefer to nest on one beach over another, though our proximity to the Gulf Stream current—which turtles use to navigate the ocean—could be a factor. Sea turtles tend to return every summer to the same spots, like snowbirds in reverse. Perhaps they’ve found that, like humans in search of the good life, once they discover Boca Raton, they tend to stay. Given that we are smack-dab in the middle of sea turtle nesting season (March 1 to Oct. 31), there’s no better time for an après-dinner turtle spotting session.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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KNOW YOUR TURTLES

LOGGERHEAD: Named for its large and blocky head, this is the most common sea turtle in Florida, recognizable for its broad and ruddy brown carapace. It swims slower than its turtle counterparts, and falls prey to sharks more often, but its strength in numbers is unparalleled in the region.

GREEN TURTLE: Christened for its green body fat, this turtle is less bulky than the loggerhead, with a more streamlined body and a smaller head. Despite the color in their name, these turtles’ upper shells are more of an olive brown, and they usually rest in rock ledges and coral reefs. In 2025, the FWC tracked 13,202 green turtle nests in the county, about half the total of loggerheads.

LEATHERBACK: Unlike their turtle brethren, these unique creatures forgo the usual scaly shell for the firm, leathery skin that gives them their name. Leatherbacks can grow exceedingly larger than either the loggerhead (with an average weight of 275 pounds) or the green (350 pounds, give or take), with the heaviest on record reaching 2,000 pounds! The FWC tracked only 493 nests in Palm Beach County last year.

COURTESY OF PALM BEACH COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

From left, a group of hatchlings make their way to the ocean, a green turtle swimming around colorful reef formations, and a sea turtle hatchling

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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THE LOCAL

FEEL GOOD

At First Blush Its first location outside of New York, Blushington lands in Boca Raton Written by CHRISTIANA LILLY

I’m a tough client. I know what I like; I know what I don’t like.” — Dr. Karen Diaz Meaike

or Dr. Karen Diaz Meaike, beauty routines are a must. Not for vanity, but for self-care. Having worked in child welfare for 22 years before splitting her time between Connecticut and Boca Raton, taking the time to get her hair and makeup done is a tiny escape. “When you’re young, you have so much energy, and you just go, go, go. You don’t realize that taking care of yourself is a huge component of that, right? It was my treat, being able to go get a massage or get my hair and makeup done,” she says. Now working in real estate, she’s added “salon owner” to her repertoire. A longtime “professional client” of Blushington in New York, Diaz Meaike opened the first franchise outside of the Empire State this spring (19635 FL-7 Suite 40 in Boca Raton), offering hair, wig, makeup, and skin care services. For those needing a blowout and makeup on the regular for meetings, luncheons, and special events, there are also membership tiers. “We provide you a very luxury experience, but also meeting time constraints that every busy person has these days,” Diaz Meaike says. (blushington.com) How do you balance makeup with summer sweat? In this weather, you don’t want it to be caked on, and so we have a lot of very good products that withstand humidity and also that you feel comfortable in. ... Madison is one of our makeup artists, and she’s super, super popular, and we do a lot with regard to product knowledge, so really understanding the products. She’s going to be working on putting my summer routine together for me, as she knows I don’t go anywhere without some form of makeup.

How are products selected? Corporate really works with the product lines directly; they’ve created these Dr. Karen Diaz Meaike relationships. ... We’re the first franchise, so we have specific products within those lines that we have here; however, we’ve empowered the artists here to tell us based on their knowledge and expertise, but also based on the feedback from clientele. You have vitiligo [a condition that causes skin to lose color or pigmentation. —Ed]. How does that make you more cognizant of the products offered? I’m obviously very sensitive. ... We have BeautyRX by Dr. Schultz, and it’s very good for sensitive skin. It’s not abrasive in any which way, shape, or form. And then we have some eye patches that infuse the moisture in your face, all to kind of prep to receive the makeup application. How important is serving different hair types? That’s prime; that’s paramount. Blushington itself has always prided themselves on being very inclusive. Obviously, I have textured hair. Like I said, I’m a professional client, so to speak, so I’m very particular. In training the staff ... I’m a tough client. Having wig services is unique. Why offer it? My opinion is that wigs are becoming more of a fashion statement, rather than just out of necessity. People are very intrigued by that. We’re getting everyone from all walks of life being able to change up [their] hair without having to commit to a style. ... It’s like putting on a whole new outfit.

SUMMER BEAUTY PICKS FACE VALUE A lightweight oil to prep your skin for makeup application; mix two to three drops into your foundation. $33, hydrating facial oil, Danessa Myricks Beauty

K BEAUTY We’re still loving Korean skin care, and of course this CC cream has SPF 25 and skin tints in three different shades. $46, high definition radiance face cream, Erborian

LINE IT UP Sweat be damned, this eyeliner isn’t going to budge. Comes in 15 different colors, both matte and shimmer. $24, Stay All Day Smudge & Set waterproof gel eyeliner, Stila

CALM DOWN Banish fly-aways and frizzy hair with this hair oil, which also serves as a great heat protectant when styling your tresses. $62, hydrating hair oil, Kérastase

SCULPTING A creamy yet matte formula to add definition to your makeup look without feeling heavy. Available in four shades. $53, contrast stick, Kevyn Aucoin

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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A SENSE MEDITERRANEAN IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN BOCA RATON OF THE

26 Restaurants + Galleries, Spas, Boutiques and More

CMY

A Dining & Shopping Destination in Downtown Boca Raton House of Sherrida

Chops Lobster Bar

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5/15/26 1:37 PM

THE LOCAL

LOOK

EUGENIA KIM sun hat with scarf, $425, CHANEL mules, $1,500; both from Saks Boca WALTER BAKER blouse, $198, tweed blazer, $298, tweed short, $188, large tote, $698; all from Walter Baker

Touch of Glamour This summer, face the great outdoors with style

IAN JACOB

Styling by ZLATA KOTMINA

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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Elizabeth Bennett, MBA CFP™ Certified Financial Planner™

Intercoastal Wealth Planning Serving South Florida

561.210.7339

intercoastalwealth.com Certified Financial Planner Elizabeth Bennett’s clientele is as varied as the services offered by her firm, Intercoastal Wealth Management. From a woman who wants to prepare or needs help with life-changing events, to fiftysomething empty-nesters planning their retirements, to young earners seeking direction on how to best allocate their accruing wealth, Bennett excels at creating customized financial plans that target each individual’s unique situation. “I believe in financial planning for everyone,” says Bennett, whose professional experience in finance spans 35 years. “We all need to have financial literacy in our life, and to understand how to use the assets we have to grow our wealth.” At Intercoastal, Bennett and her advisors offer myriad money management needs, from investments and business planning to insurance and tax services, all streamlined in one highly efficient office. Even in the age of automation and AI, such technology will never replace the human-focused, interpersonal touch that is central to Bennett’s mission.

Photography: Michael Connor

When Bennett takes on a client, they “really are part of our family,” she adds. “I don’t have a canned portfolio ready to go for your risk tolerance. We talk through it, and I always start with a financial plan so I can truly understand who you are, what assets you have, and how I can help maximize those assets so that we reach your goals.”

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Securities offered through J.W. Cole Financial (JWC) member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through J.W. Cole Advisors, Inc. (JWCA). Financial planning, insurance, and tax services offered through Bay Financial Planning and Tax Services, LLC DBA Intercoastal Wealth Planning a Registered Investment Adviser, Bay Financial Planning and Tax Services, LLC and JWC/JWCA are unaffiliated entities.

BRANDED CONTENT

5/18/26 4:08 PM

THE LOCAL

LOOK

Pool Party Because the only thing that should be hot is you

SAINT LAURENT shopper tote bag, $4,300, ALEXANDRE BIRMAN platform, $695, TOM FORD sunglasses, $535; all from Saks Boca

IAN JACOB

Bikini set, $240, hand fan, $42; both from Michelle Farmer

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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Medical

SPOTL GHT Elizabeth Polsinelli, DO

Concierge Medicine of Boca Raton 825 Meadows Road, Suite 111 Boca Raton, FL 33486

561-961-3005 cmbocaraton.com

Founded on the belief that health care should be deeply personal, proactive, and relationship-driven, Concierge Medicine of Boca Raton has established itself as one of South Florida’s premier physician-owned concierge internal medicine practices. Led by Dr. Caitlin Prickett, founder and medical director, the practice is redefining modern primary care through elevated service, advanced preventive medicine, and highly personalized health care, going above and beyond the standard of care. With intentionally limited patient panels, the physicians are able to provide a level of accessibility and continuity rarely found in traditional health care. Patients benefit from extended appointments, same- or next-day availability, direct physician communication, comprehensive wellness planning, and cutting-edge diagnostic and longevity-focused testing tailored to each individual’s goals and needs. All physicians are board certified in internal medicine and trained in U.S.-based medical schools and residency programs. Each physician focuses on a strong physician-patient relationship and considers themselves a patient’s “partner in health.” The practice currently has three physicians: Caitlin Prickett, DO, Jaron Schaumberg, DO, and Elizabeth Polsinelli, DO.

Photography: Carlos Aristizabal

Dr. Polsinelli recently joined the practice and is currently accepting new patients. She attended medical school at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and residency at Broward Health Medical Center, where she served as chief resident.

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Dr. Polsinelli is known for her compassionate, patientcentered care and commitment to building meaningful physician-patient relationships. Together, the physicians at Concierge Medicine of Boca Raton blend clinical excellence with a warm, elevated experience that prioritizes time, trust, and truly personalized care, offering patients a modern health-care experience designed around health, wellness, prevention, and longevity. BRANDED CONTENT

5/29/26 9:51 AM

C ASC ADE OF SOUL S 1958 -1959 , 50” X 40” OIL ON CANVAS BY LEON KE LLY

2 2 6A WO R T H AV E N U E

Provident Fine JArt, Inc_BOC0726.indd 1

PA L M B E AC H , F L

561.833.0550

5/12/26 2:14 PM

WORTH THE TRIP

S PA I N & M O R O C C O › 43 F I F T H AV E N U E H OT E L › 46 V I C T O R I A 1883 › 48

Small Jet, Big Journey On an intimate private-jet journey through Spain and Morocco with Abercrombie & Kent, every landing unlocks rare access and bucketlist excursions—like riding camels and sleeping in a fancy tent in the desert Written by ANGELA CARAWAY-CARLTON

fter landing by private jet at the regional airport in Errachidia, Morocco, a flex in its own right, our small caravan of travelers with luxury outfitter Abercrombie & Kent is whizzing past date-palm groves and dusty desert villages. That same morning, we’d woken up in Granada, Spain, and after just 90 minutes on a cushy jet, we were already en route to a collective bucket-list moment: spending the night in the Sahara Desert. Without elite access to a chartered private jet, covering the distance between the two would have swallowed an entire day.

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A camel caravan traverses the Merzouga Desert in Morocco

5/28/26 9:35 AM

WORTH THE TRIP

SPAIN & MOROCCO

sand. Unlike other outfitters, A&K builds its camps new for each group, then they’re disassembled and disappear like a mirage after the group departs. From the outside, the tents are unassuming. But once I duck inside, a whole new world opens up: a billowing fabric ceiling floats above a plush bed dressed in fine linens, grounded by layers of kilim rugs for warmth at night (temperatures in the desert dramatically plunge after dark). Passing through another opening, there’s a washbasin and mirror, and in the third curtained space, a chemical toilet and a handheld shower with warm water. Roughing it, this is not. Soon, our group is summoned back to the main camp for sunset cocktails. Sipping wine while seated on patterned poufs, and spontaneously breaking out in dance as the sun casts its fiery glow on the sandy hills with my new friends—who were strangers just 48 hours ago—is a core memory in a five-day trip filled with many“pinch-me”moments. After a traditional

TOM GRIFFITHS

My excitement builds when the sloping, terracotta-hued sand dunes come into view, and we excitedly spot a duo of rogue camels grazing near the roadside. Suddenly, we’re off-roading and bumping along the rocky terrain to reach our next waiting mode of transportation, a gaggle of camels. This is a moment I’ve dreamed about for months. After the local guides wrap scarves around our heads for protection from the sun, sand, and wind, we mount our individual camels and start the wobbly trek across the dunes. It didn’t even faze me that I was hovering six feet off the ground, trusting an animal that had just catapulted me forward when it stood up, because I couldn’t help but be in awe of the rippling waves of red sand and utter quiet. Soon, Abercrombie & Kent’s private tented camp near Et-Taous comes into view, its solar-powered tents standing in quiet formation on a lanterned path, glowing milky white against the terracotta

Moroccan feast in the communal dining tent, the sounds of chanting and drumbeats beckon us to the fire circle. A group of musicians dressed in white robes belt out soul-stirring Gnawa music while we gaze at the stars that blanket the night sky. A&K purposefully seeks out isolated camp spots, and at this moment, that seclusion is not lost on me. Back in my tent, I snuggle under the sheets and silently thank those lucky stars above for a cozy bed with a warm electric blanket. The next day, a private jet is waiting again, and in an hour, we touch down in Marrakesh. It’s an immediate energy shift from the solace of the desert. Over the next few days, our Moroccan guide Mohammad This page, from top: Enjoying a drink at camp, camels resting, solar-powered tents, and a fireside gathering with traditional music

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director appeared, carrying the keys to the Tower of the Captive. The tower is not open to the general public—only to A&K’s guests.“The room talks to you,” he said, pointing out the carvings and inscriptions on the walls.“It’s screaming beauty, poetry, and learning.” That night, we were treated to dinner by a private chef who created traditional Sephardic dishes, accompanied by Spanish and Arabic music, and a beautiful dance performance with belly dance-esque movements that left us mesmerized. By journey’s end, the gloss of private jets and exclusive experiences had given way to something deeper. It struck me how artfully A&K connected Granada and Morocco through their intertwined Islamic heritage. While my group experienced a shorter version of A&K’s 11-day journey through Spain and Morocco, it left me with a clear sense that the full itinerary is worth the time.

TOM GRIFFITHS

(who joined us for the entire trip) helps navigate the chaotic and winding labyrinths of the medina souks, introducing us to his favored makers of rugs—who unfurl their colorful wares like magic carpets—and to a white-coated man at an herbalist shop who’s hawking argan oil and herbal remedies. We’re treated to an elaborate lunch on the lawn of the swanky Selman Marrakech hotel while being regaled by its private collection of champion Arabian horses. Their sleek coats glisten in the sun as they showcase their grace and pedigree training, from trotting to standing on their hind legs. And one morning, we slip on helmets and climb into the leather seats of vintage motorcycle sidecars to zip around Marrakesh. With the sun on our faces, we cut through the back alleys of the medina and then escape the frenzy of the old city to Palmeraie, a calm oasis of palm groves in an upscale area of town. Part of the allure of an A&K Small-Jet Journey experience, which averages around 10 people, is the exclusive skip-the-line access to prime attractions. After our guide Mohammad easily gains entry for our group to wander the Jardin Majorelle—a color-drenched garden created by French painter Jacques Majorelle and restored by design legend Yves Saint Laurent—my mind drifts back to earlier in the week in Granada, Spain. We’d slept at Hotel Palacio de Santa Paula, a former monastery in the city’s historic center dating back to the 16th century, then started our first full day with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Alhambra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site dripping in patterned tiles of Nasrid art and intricate architecture. The closest thing I’d seen to the Islamic palace was The Boca Raton’s Spa Palmera, which is fashioned after its Moorish architecture. After we roamed the outdoor gardens with fruit trees and arched hedges, the Alhambra’s

This page, clockwise from top left: Nazaries Palace of Alhambra in Granada, Spain; Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh, Morocco; a water seller in the desert; and a souk in Marrakesh

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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WILLIAM ABRANOWICZ

COURTESY OF THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL

FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL

WORTH THE TRIP

Cool and Collected

The Fifth Avenue Hotel merges global eclecticism with Gilded Age glamour to tell a unique New York story

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Café Carmellini’s Chicken Gran Sasso for Two; Kolkata cocktail; the hotel lobby’s two cabinets have a tapestry titled Bugs and Drugs; the hotel’s front entrance is through the original mansion; speakeasyinspired Portrait Bar

t seems fitting that the former Fifth Avenue home of Charlotte Goodridge, distinguished Gilded Age hostess and New York City tastemaker, has been reincarnated as a destination for modern connoisseurs. Goodridge, who was known for her lavish parties and arts salons back in the day, would delight in the global-aesthete vibe and winks of whimsy that mark the mansion’s newest iteration as The Fifth Avenue Hotel. The Fifth is the grand outcome of hotelier Alex Ohebshalom’s restoration of the original brickand-limestone residence and addition of a 24-story glass tower—a decade-long effort by the team of Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, Perkins Eastman architects, and Flâneur Hospitality. For those who have been watching and waiting, The Fifth rewards with imaginative luxury in the form of an obsessively collected, unconventionally so-

phisticated aesthetic you don’t see every day. With its lavishly draped fabrics, unapologetic splashes of color, and an art collection that is equal parts important and eccentric, it feels at times like a modern-day palace. The lobby, with its jewel-toned

furnishings, fluted-mirror panels, and curious assemblage of crystals and oddities, draws you in like a moth to light. Passing through a chic tent-like nook, the hotel unfolds in similarly maximalist fashion. Around a corner is the intimate Portrait Bar, named for

WILLIAM ABRANOWICZ

EVAN SUNG

ERIC MEDSKER

Written by DAPHNE NIKOLOPOULOS

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globe chandeliers. The menu nods to Italy and France but hits all the New York notes. This isn’t where you come for comfort fare, unless your version of it includes rabbit cacciatore or squab en croûte. As expected of Carmellini, the food is exquisite—especially the chef’s specialty, Chicken Gran Sasso for Two, presented tableside in two phases (white and dark meat): a true gourmand’s delight. The rooms and suites feel like the pied-à-terre of a well-traveled friend with the eye of a stylist. Seafoam green-painted walls and millwork, including an arched room divider, offer a punchy backdrop

WILLIAM ABRANOWICZ

COURTESY OF THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL

WILLIAM ABRANOWICZ

the collection of portraits lining its wood-paneled walls. The dimly lit atmosphere recalls a speakeasy, and the cocktails play on The Fifth’s worldly theme with spirits from Marrakesh, Seoul, Oaxaca, and Cebu Island, among others. This traveler’s recommendation is the Kolkata concoction: a bomb in mango lassi clothing. In a lighter, brighter part of the hotel is Café Carmellini, the namesake eatery of chef Andrew Carmellini of James Beard fame. The room is a refined amalgam of New York and Milan, with tables and banquettes arranged around two massive trees lit by multitiered

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Café Carmellini; a lushly layered corridor; suites are appointed with jeweltoned fabrics and accessories, including Murano chandeliers and Chinese bar cabinets.

for inlaid accent tables, horse head lamps, and a red-lacquered bar cabinet that opens to a gilded dragon motif. Though the windows reveal a crammed cityscape outside, one swipe of the heavy saffron-colored drapes will transport you to a Parisian boudoir, where your only decision is when to have the butler pop the Champagne. New York stories are sometimes whispered, other times told in boldface type. The Fifth is definitely the latter: a grand oeuvre of hospitality inspired by the legends of the past but firmly rooted in a modern vision of American high society. (thefifthavenuehotel.com)

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VICTORIA 1883

CRAIG DENIS CREATIVE

WORTH THE TRIP

The Victoria 1883 is across the street from the Indian River

Yesterday Today

A modernist escape wrapped in Victorian elegance recalls the hospitality of a bygone era Written by CATHY CHESTNUT

FROM TOP: A peek inside the hidden “speakeasy,” the Sheldon Suite has a private balcony and claw-foot tub, and the dining room leads to a small porch for alfresco breakfast

ew Smyrna Beach maintains a mellow ambience that harks back 40 years, unlike many beach towns along South Florida’s bustling coastline. The small city seems to fly under the tourism radar, though it is a hot spot for surfers. If quietude (read: no crowds) sounds inviting, then this city with a population of 32,000 is an ideal destination. The Victoria 1883 is a welcoming place to drop your bags and begin your journey. The oldest local residence, the former waterfront estate is located along North Riverside Drive in an invitingly walkable, oak-canopied neighborhood overlooking the Indian River. Though it’s authentically Victorian opulence on the outside, the husband-and-wife team of architect Peter and Fabiola Spooner completely reimagined the interior of the seven-suite bed-and-breakfast with a modern design. In 2022, it reopened following a 17-month renovation. Fabiola, who is happy to detail the property’s history, is the event planner who oversees weddings and community gatherings on the spacious lawn beneath the property’s centuries-old oaks. Guests can arrange to enjoy an intimate, private meal in the hidden “speakeasy,”which is artfully concealed inside the former carriage house. The chef

also serves a healthful, complimentary breakfast to your table on the porch overlooking the river or in the dining room before you strike out to explore the area’s rich natural resources. Two must-see destinations are the 184-acre Smyrna Dunes Park along the shores of the Ponce de Leon Inlet and the Canaveral National Seashore. The dunes park features a 2-mile elevated boardwalk with scenic overlooks that takes visitors through the massive dune systems covered with dense vegetation and down to the quizzically crowd-free shoreline. In addition to the dunes, the national seashore has several points of interest, including the historic Eldora State House, an 18-foot Timucuan mound, marshes, oak hammocks, and beaches. The time of year dictates whether you will see the migratory birds—thousands—that use the barrier island as a stopover or sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. While exploring these natural amenities on foot, bicycle, by car, or in a kayak, you may find yourself wondering: Where is everyone? Both locations were peacefully, sparsely populated on a 76-degree April day. After working up an appetite, grab a bite downtown or head to the patio garden at Third Wave Café & Wine Bar on Flagler Avenue in the heart of a quaint residential neighborhood, which caught the attention of celebrity chef Guy Fieri. (victoria1883.com)

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MUÑOZ PHOTOGRAPHY

CITY LIFE

INDIE HOUSE FILMS

100 CLUB

LEFT PAGE: Illustration of Boca’s centennial concert. THIS PAGE: Above, moments from Boca’s centennial celebration. At right, The Addison’s centennial party.

Some people extend their birthday celebration to the entire month, but when you’re turning 100, why not go the entire year? That’s what the City of Boca Raton did for its centennial in 2025, with an Ode to Boca poetry contest, a concert headlined by Weezer, a drone show at BRiC, a 1920s-themed Flavors of Boca food crawl, and a soiree hosted at The Addison— which included the 100th birthdays of the Boca Raton Police

Department as well as The Addison, which gave away $100,000 in donations to area nonprofits. Does Boca know how to throw a party, or what?

MAKING CONNECTIONS

It’s long been a source of frustration that Jeffery Street doesn’t connect to US-1, but no more! A railway crossing is going to be built in three phases, with construction starting this fall and completion projected by the end of 2027.

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George Snow Scholarship Fund, Loggerhead Marinelife Center, the Marine Animal Rescue Society, and the Dolphin Research Center. Gumbo Limbo is still home to three full-time turtle residents: Morgan, Lefty, and Lady McNubbins.

CITY LIFE

THE RISE OF SAVE BOCA

AN ELECTION TO REMEMBER

This year’s mayoral race proved to be the most expensive in city history. The three candidates—former City Councilmembers Fran Nachlas and Andy Thomson, and dark horse candidate Mike Liebelson—spent a combined $1.4 million. Thomson triumphed over Liebelson by just five votes after a recount. As for the rest of the local races, Save Boca was the biggest winner of the ballot, winning three council seats and defeating the downtown campus proposal.

One of the most darling additions to Boca Raton was the children’s Trafﬁc Garden at North Park, a scaled-down, miniature roadway with stop signs, traffic lights, and railway crossings for kids to maneuver with their bicycles and scooters.

A sea turtle being treated by the now-shuttered Coastal Stewards

FAREWELL TO COASTAL STEWARDS Former Mayor Scott Singer

MOVING ON UP

After generating quite a bit of controversy in his final term as mayor, Scott Singer is now onto bigger and better things—namely running for Congress. Voters soundly

LOOK BOTH WAYS

Florida Atlantic University—or Florida Atlantic, as it’s been redubbed to prevent confusion with Florida International University (FIU)— cracked the list of the nation’s top 100 universities for the first time this year. While it’s technically tied for 100th place with the University of Arkansas and the University of Idaho, it represents a big step for our hometown institution.

The Coastal Stewards’ management of a sea turtle rehab at Gumbo Limo was short lived, with the rehab closing last summer. That also meant the beloved gift shop closed. Three months later, the nonprofit folded entirely. Its remaining donations were split among the

COURTESY MY BOCA PARKS

Mayor Andy Thomson

The biggest city news this year was undoubtedly the battle for downtown. Real estate developers Frisbie Group and Terra Group, following months of master plan changes for the 30 acres around city hall, had their proposal overwhelmingly defeated at the ballot box. The project’s chief opposition was Save Boca, a grassroots group that emerged in defiance to private development. Save Boca went on to have three of its endorsed candidates, including founder Jonathan Pearlman, win city council seats.

rejected the Terra/Frisbie proposal that Singer championed, and his political stunt of putting a billboard promoting Boca Raton in Times Square using $70,000 of taxpayer money certainly lost him love among some residents, so we’ll see how his campaign shakes out.

TOP MARKS FOR FAU

Traffic Garden at North Park

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PEOPLE WORTH TALKING ABOUT Marta Batmasian: A longtime resident of Boca Raton, Batmasian was recognized for her decades of philanthropy and business. First, the Boca Raton Historical Society surprised her with a star on the Walk of Recognition, a program she has sponsored since its inception. Then, the Boca Raton Regional Chamber selected her as this year’s DIAMOND Award winner.

Adam Hasner: It was a long, and often sketchy, road that got us to the new Florida Atlantic president, following a controversial selection process. But we have to admit, Hasner has been making some pretty admirable decisions for our local university. So far, we hear that he has been incredibly responsive to the faculty and student body, and has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising.

Karen Lynch:: Speaking of women entrepreneurs, Lynch and her husband’s $5 million donation to Lynn University established the Karen S. Lynch Center for Leadership and Social Impact. The former CEO of CVS Health, she was ranked by Fortune as the No. 1 Most Powerful Woman in Business three years in a row, and on Oct. 7, the Boca Chamber will be hosting the Karen S. Lynch Women’s Leadership Symposium at Lynn. Mark Sohaney: A newbie from Pearl Harbor, our new city manager was selected from a ﬁeld of seven prospective hires and has been making waves ever since. He took over at a contentious time, with the Save Boca movement coming to a head. After the election, Sohaney promptly ﬁred the police chief and two assistant city managers. However you feel about his decisions, we do appreciate his open communication, launching the “Let’s Talk Boca” series with the public in April.

Jonathan Pearlman: Who is he? Where did he come from? There are so many unanswered questions about the enigmatic Save Boca founder who rallied thousands of residents in a crusade against private development in the city. To some, he is a bulwark against rampant overdevelopment; to others, he’s a charlatan. Wherever you land on him, there’s been some evidence to support the claim that he didn’t meet the eligibility requirements to run for the city council seat that he won in March, and Pearlman has been notoriously dodgy with responding to press questions.

COURTESY LYNN UNIVERSITY

Mike Liebelson: A dark horse in this year’s March election, Liebelson came just ﬁve votes short of defeating Andy Thomson in his mayoral bid. Like Pearlman, Liebelson was opposed to the Terra/Frisbie proposal for the city’s downtown campus. While he didn’t explicitly associate himself with Save Boca, he didn’t exactly shy away from adopting the group’s anti-development rhetoric. Since losing the mayoral race, Liebelson has appeared during public comment at City Council meetings, where he has advocated that the city terminate all of its existing contracts with outside consultants, a move that city staff argue would have disastrous impacts.

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VAN HORNE PICTURES

Mary Csar: There was a changing of the guard at the Boca Raton Historical Society, with Csar stepping down as executive director after 27 years. She started as the organization’s lone full-time employee, leading it through recessions, a major renovation, and a hefty $1 million naming donation. We’re in good hands, though, with her successor Olivia Hollaus taking over after years as a board member and volunteer. It’s as close to an in-house hire as you can get! Mark Swillinger: Boca Raton is known for its generosity, but Swillinger blew us away when the FAU College of Nursing announced that he would be making a $1.5 million donation in honor of his late wife, Marilyn. Then, another $1 million was donated to Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music, as well as a terrace garden at the performing arts center, a classroom in the business center, and a student resource space. Bravo!

MICHAEL CONNOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Andrew Hagen: Following the departure of longtime Boca Helping Hands Executive Director Greg Hazle, Hagen took over the reins of this vital local nonproﬁt that services tens of thousands of residents. He has already earned our favor for providing food assistance to federal workers during last year’s government shutdown.

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CITY LIFE A CLOSE CALL

“Be prepared,” they say, and the Boca Raton Airport proved that mantra true. In September, the airport was put to the test when a Bombardier Challenger 300 overran the runway during landing. Rather than crashing into traffic on I-95, the plane was forced to stop by the Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS). The four passengers were safe without any serious injuries. The weird thing, though, was that EMAS had to be used at the Chicago Executive Airport the very same day. What is going on?!?

IT’S A 10

For Boca Raton families, Sugar Sand Park is a local mainstay, from

its carousel rides and playground to the Willow Theatre and Children’s Science Explorium. Now, the rest of the country knows it, as it was voted one of the Best Public Playgrounds by USA Today’s 10Best’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Other contenders included playgrounds in New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, San Antonio, and more. Kudos to Boca!

DOWN AND OUT

It was over before it even began. This year the developer of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel filed for bankruptcy. The project, which had been in development for more than 10 years, apparently just ran out of money.

A spike in construction costs during the pandemic certainly didn’t help. Work continues on the Mandarin Oriental Residences, which has faced similar delays and has seen condo buyers sue to reclaim their deposits. The developer expects the residences to be completed this year.

BINYAN STUDIOS

BEST OF BOCA 2026

A rendering of Mr. C Residences in Boca Raton

MR. C RESIDENCES

What the city lost in Mandarin Oriental, it may regain with the planned Mr. C Residences. The luxury development is expected to be completed by 2029, but we’ve seen what those timetable estimations are worth. Whenever it gets here, it’s safe to say it won’t be doing anything to solve the city’s affordable housing crisis.

A rendering of Martin Manor

A RESIDENTIAL WIN

After years of careful planning, ground has finally been broken on the Martin Manor redevelopment. The housing complex within Boca Raton’s historic Black neighborhood, Pearl City, is being completely reconstructed for residents of the former Dixie Manor and is expected to be completed this fall.

ROBOTS RISING

Sugar Sand Park

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Boca Raton debuted the BocaConnect shuttle service in 2024, and now we have the MiCa autonomous (AKA driverless) shuttle. It runs a 2.6-mile loop from Mizner Park to Royal Palm Place—with

nary a human driver in sight. Have you hopped aboard?

MAY WE HAVE A WORD?

In the ultimate sign that our city has officially arrived as a place of cosmopolitan heft, Boca Raton made the New York Times Crossword Puzzle last July. The clue: Home to Florida Atlantic Univ.” BOCA was, and always is, the answer!

FUN WITH FLAGS

Former Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer decided to commemorate Boca Raton’s centennial last year with the adoption of a new ﬂag. Apparently, he was the only one who thought so. Not a single member of the former city council took him up on his plan, and the idea of a new city flag faded into memory.

• A volunteer whose time and generosity made Boca Raton a better place for more than 50 years, Catherine “Kate” Toomey moved to the city in 1973. She presided over the Junior League of Boca Raton, Boca Raton Historical Society, Saint Andrew’s Parents Association, and the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club Women’s Golf Association. • Courtney LaBelle, a beloved teacher, coach, and alumna of Spanish River High School, departed at just 33 from cancer. Spanish River’s principal, Allison Castellano, described LaBelle as “a fierce champion for her students and players, dedicated to helping every Shark reach his or her full potential.” • Boca Raton made national news for all the wrong reasons last spring when a Cessna 310 airplane crashed near the intersection of Glades Road and Military Trail, killing all three passengers: Robert Stark, 81; Stephen Stark, 54; and Brooke Stark, 17. • Rapper Carlito Junior Milfort, known professionally as Poorstacy, carved out a unique space in the fluid borders between emo, punk, hip-hop, and heavy metal. A native of Palm Beach, he released two studio albums before perishing from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Boca Raton motel at age 26. • An eminence of South Florida theater for more than 50 years, Lou Tyrrell founded the new play-focused Florida Stage in Manalapan, which premiered more than 150 shows in its 37year run. He soon shifted his focus to south Palm Beach County, running The Theatre at Arts Garage from 2011 to 2015, and founding Theatre Lab at FAU in 2015, both with a mission to mount exclusively new plays. • Comedian Steven Pickman, who performed for decades as Sarge, was a fixture on cruise ships, on opening stints for artists such as The Beach Boys, and especially in the theaters of South Florida, where his New Year’s shows at venues such as The Wick and Boca Black Box are much remembered. • Lauded by The Art Newspaper for her “indefatigable curiosity and vast expertise,” Kathleen Goncharov served as senior curator at the Boca Raton Museum of Art for more than 14 years, capping an illustrious career that began in 1980 in New York City. Her blockbuster Boca shows include “Glasstress” and “Smoke and Mirrors: Magical Thinking in Contemporary Art.”

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SHERRY FERRANTE

From where we’re sitting, one of the year’s biggest stories involved our own internal housekeeping. After about a dozen years of diligently reporting and commenting on city news in south Palm Beach County, Randy Schultz retired from bocamag. com this past spring. This decision, which was completely Schultz’s own, was well earned but bittersweet. In the words of our Editor Emeritus Marie Speed, who brought Schultz into our tight-knit team,“Randy’s column, City Watch, has been required reading here for years—and has educated me weekly on the issues

Business is burbling at the former Ofﬁce Depot corporate headquarters, which was sold to BH Group and Pebb Enterprises for north of $100 million in 2023 and rebranded into a mixed-use office and residential development known as The Eclipse. The leasing of 50,000 square feet of office space for health care provider MDVIP, announced earlier this year, brings the total leasing capacity of The Eclipse to 98 percent. A 36,700-square-foot Equinox fitness facility is part of the eventual plan. If you think progress is moving too slowly, keep in mind that an actual eclipse only occurs every 18 years or so.

DANIEL DESLOVER/ ZUMA PRESS WIRE

END OF AN ERA

(NEAR) TOTAL ECLIPSE

• Avison Young’s Keith O’Donnell, a mentor, real estate titan, and a giant in the South Florida business community, left an impact that can be felt in myriad Boca Raton institutions, from Mizner Park to Lynn University’s master plan to the Lynn Cancer Institute to Ofﬁce Depot’s corporate headquarters.

MANNY ZALDIVAR

Randy Schultz

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

PETER LORBER

AARON BRISTOL

and challenges facing Boca, Delray, and Florida in general. To say the end of this column leaves a glaring void in our local culture and our local news coverage is not an understatement. It is a very great loss.”

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Boca West’s expansion, and the soon-to-open Boca Paddle will be the city’s premier climatecontrolled indoor club. And it’s not just for hobbyists: The Palm Beach Royals is South Florida’s latest pro

Michele Miuccio

for nearly six years, and two of its stalwart deputy city managers, Chrissy Gibson and Jorge Camejo, in what has been described as a major administrative shakeup. Pointing to the timing of the firings and their seeming lack of cause, critics have decried these departures as politics as usual.

GINA FONTANA

CITY LIFE

medicine after witnessing doctors rescue people in her war-torn home country. Cheers to Jon and Bonnie Kaye, who have volunteered to host this event since its inception.

White Coats-4-Care

THE “BOCA AQUARIUM”

MMCGUIREHALE

Chrissy Gibson

Jorge Camejo

BLACK THURSDAY

Well, that was quick. A mere two days after the March 10 municipal elections that reshaped Boca Raton’s local government, the city fired its police chief, Michele Miuccio, a 37year law-enforcement professional who led the police department

Get the popcorn, because the Boca Aquarium—or, should we say, Diamonds by Raymond Lee—went viral for all the wrong reasons. The Boca Raton jewelry store appears to have a wall of fish tanks and advertises public shark and stingray feedings as well as a touch tank. The internet responded to a local mom’s viral TikTok from her visit by creating reaction videos as well as commenting on the diamond store’s social media. Whoever manages their accounts was more than entertaining, posting AI models dripping in diamonds accompanied by the caption,“Fake aquarium, real heat.”

PADDLE TESTED

It seemed to happen as quickly as an ace serve in America’s

Walk of Recognition’s Luminaries of the 2000s

fastest-growing sport: Pickleball became the pastime of Boca Raton. We are well beyond the first impromptu pickleball courts painted at Sugar Sand Park’s Field House in 2014. These days, Boca Raton’s country clubs, municipal parks, private neighborhoods, and retailers have put pickleball front and center, with the city emerging as the pickleball capital of the country. The sport is central to the amenities of Boca Grove and

sports team, and at one point earlier this year, four of the top 10 ranked pickleball players in the U.S. hailed from Boca Raton.

CALL ME DOCTOR

There are plenty of feel-good events, and the 2025 White Coats4-Care was especially heartfelt in its 15th year. Money raised supported scholarships for medical school (of 4,165 applicants, only 80 were selected!), and we got to hear from impressive students, including one who was inspired to enter

EVENTS WE LOVED

• The former Roofclaim.com Boca Raton Bowl got a much catchier—but not shorter name—Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans. That’s right, last year’s Boca Raton Bowl was sponsored by none other than Bush’s Beans, which went all-out with bean-themed festivities, including bean marchers during the city’s holiday parade. • Many a celebration has been hosted at The Addison, so we shouldn’t be surprised that its own milestone birthday bash was over

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A Toast to 100 Years, a cocktail reception in the front drive that included an all-ice Champagne bar, food from the resort, and a massive projection by BARTKRESA studio onto the façade of Cloister. A more exclusive gala was hosted the next night, and here’s what we know: There was a 14-foot spinning birthday cake, individual ice sculptures at each guest’s place setting, a performance by John

Clev Lubin celebrates at Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans

the top. Think live music and dancers under the banyan trees, decadent floral and feather displays, photos ops, a cake cutting ceremony, photo stations, and Past, Present, and Future party zones.

ly been hosted at The Breakers—with more than 200 Ferraris parked on the 18th fairway. Automotive enthusiasts had the opportunity to get up close with fully restored Ferraris dating back to the 1940s.

• In its 35th year, the Cavallino Classic made its way to The Boca Raton for the very first time—it had previous-

• Also at the storied resort was a weekend bash to celebrate its own 100th birthday. We were able to attend

MUNOZ PHOTOGRAPHY

A projection onto The Boca Raton during A Toast to 100 Years

Ready to get the party started at The Addison’s centennial bash

Legend, and a drone show followed by a fireworks display.

Cavallino Classic

• Rather than select a handful of community leaders to be honored with a star on the Walk of Recognition, the Boca Raton Historical Society instead bestowed the honor to a class of luminaries who guided the city through the 2000s. Coinciding with the city’s centennial, the class included 25 rock stars.

Zoe Lanham, Michele Miuccio, Troy McLellan, and Fran Nachlas

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FOOD & DRINK NEW RESTAURANTS

we don’t have to drive all the way to PGA. • Cultura brings Southern Italy to Boca with a selection of fresh-baked pastries and

sandwiches made with Italian-sourced meats. • Explore Mediterranean favorites at Motek, a buzzy new restaurant that comes

LEMON POP

ATLANTIC CURRENT

• Chef Pushkar Marathe brings his globally inspired plates to Boca Raton at Stage Bar & Kitchen. Finally,

This page, clockwise from left: Moroccan fish at Motek, Charm City Burger, a spread from Pubbelly Sushi

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TURTLE HOUSE PRODUCTIONS

Clockwise from above: Beet tartare at Anyday, Berenjena con Queso at La Terraza Tapas and Bar, Chef Pushkar Marathe, and pizza from Lombardo's. Below: Spicy tuna bomb at Stage

to us by way of Miami. • Anyday Boca offers Mediterreanean dishes with just a touch of Latin and Pan-Asiatic inspiration. • Pubbelly Sushi marries the bold flavors of Latin America with elevated takes on sushi and Japanese small plates. • The wait for Charm City Burger Company is finally over. The new Boca location marks the first expansion of the famed Deerfield Beach three-napkin burger joint. • For a city where a sizeable chunk of the residents are NYC transplants, we should

have a New York-style pizza restaurant on every block. Lombardo’s, which opened earlier this year, puts us one step closer to that lofty goal. • Famed confectionary Kilwin’s has finally made its Boca Raton debut. The fudge is peerless, and there’s something so satisfying about watching it being made in front of you. • Tapas restaurants are a dime a dozen now, but few pull off Spanish small plates like La Terraza Tapas & Bar Restaurant. Come for the ham croquetas and grilled octopus, and stay for the live guitar music.

COMING SOON

• Does Boca need another Starbuck’s? Well, it’s getting one. The ubiquitous coffee house adds another feather to its cap with a drive-thru location opening on Military Trail across from the Wyndham hotel. • Town Center mall is getting a new restaurant, Felice. The NYC import serves up dishes inspired by the Tuscan coast. • Neapolitan-style pizza is all the rage now, and we’re getting a new place to sink our teeth into the airy, crispy crust with Piacere, opening on Yamato Road. • We’re almost done

asking when Limani will make its debut at Town Center mall. It’s been years since the announcement, and we’re about ready to give up hope.

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AARON BRISTOL

FOOD & DRINK Artisanal charcuterie board at Louie Bossi’s

FOOD TRENDS WE'RE OVER

Dubai chocolate pizza at How Ya Dough'n

TRENDS WE LOVE

• Just when we were getting sick of fast casual dining, a new trend roped us back in—hot chicken. While spicy fried chicken may not sound like a huge culinary step forward, local spots like Louie’s Rock’n Hot Chicken put a modern spin on the classic Southern staple

with a secret recipe that would put Col. Sanders to shame. • The Dubai chocolate trend took our social media feeds by storm this year to the point that some of our favorite local spots added menu items inspired by the pistachio-chocolate-phyllo medley. The highlight for us was How

Beef tallow, used for both cooking and skin care

Ya Dough’n’s Dubai chocolate pizza, topped with chocolate fudge, pistachio butter, and crunchy kataifi shredded phyllo. • We’ve all heard—and made—the complaint that there’s no Chinese restaurants in Boca. Well, at least now we’ve got a few good options for dumplings. Dumpling King and Serious Sanji are our new go-to spots for handcrafted dumplings that won’t break the bank. • Who doesn’t love the idea of healthy fried food? There’s no such thing, but at least we can trick ourselves when we see that a place uses beef tallow for all their frying. At least it’s healthier than seed oils (apparently).

• Nothing makes us turn around and leave a restaurant quicker than a self-service kiosk. This new trend of automation leaves us standing frustrated in front of touch screens while the employees who should be paid to take our orders end up being tech support. • Nothing makes us lose faith quicker in our order accuracy than when our server takes it without writing it down. We have no doubt you have an excellent memory, but please, for our peace of mind, break out a notepad.

MARKET VALUE

West Boca residents no longer have to trek east for fresh produce, microgreens, baked goods, artisan crafts, and much more; last spring, the growing region finally debuted its own farm-

ers market, on Glades Road near the Turnpike, on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. And unlike many seasonal markets, this one is open yearround!

WELCOME BACK

Local hospitality veterans have resurrected a Boca dive bar treasure, Tall Boy. Formerly The Whistle Stop, a legendary Boca watering hole for more than 40 years, Tall Boy maintains the sports/dive aesthetics and boasts a late-night kitchen and weekly happenings like standup comedy and karaoke.

FROM THE ASHES

Louie Bossi’s finally reopened after a kitchen fire shuttered the local-favorite Italian restaurant. By the time it reopened, however, founder Louis Bossi was embroiled in a controversy involving alleged domestic violence.

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Artisans of Wine & Food

FOODIE EVENTS WE LOVE

• The world’s largest gathering of Napa Valley wines outside of Napa was held at The Boca Raton’s annual Artisans of Wine & Food. This year’s iteration included vintner lunches, three tasting pavilions, an invitational golf tournament, a pickleball classic, and a gala hosted by chef Mario Carbone. • Boca Raton’s Seafood Festival is quickly becoming one of our favorite city events. It returned for its second year this January, offering a variety of seafood bites at just $10 a ticket. • Formerly Sunset Tequila Fest and now shortened to The Tequila Fest, this annual celebration of all things agave at Mizner Park Amphitheater is a can’t-miss event for tequila and mezcal enthusiasts.

IN MEMORIAM

Cocktails at Tall Boy

We lost a lot of good restaurants this year that each deserve more pages of copy than we could ever hope to get past the editors. Spare a thought for Le Rivage, The French Gazebo, Penelope, and Loch Bar. We also lost Hooter’s, which was a devastating blow for divorced dads who smoke in the car with their kids. While it never ended up opening, we’re also bummed that we never got to try Madame Tang’s, which

was slated to open at Town Center mall. French bakery Tartelette Patisserie also closed its Boca Raton location, opening a store instead on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach.

SUMMER RESTAURANT ROAD SHOW

We love this initiative, launched last summer from the Greater Boca Raton/Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce. To encourage eating out during the slow-

er months of July to September, diners at participating restaurants—including CVI. CHE 105, Max’s Grille, and Stage—received a passport and a stamp acknowledging their visit. The more restaurants visited and stamps accrued, the greater the chance of winning a raffle for a local staycation. For those who didn’t win, take comfort that at eateries like these, the journey was surely as pleasurable as the destination.

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BEST OF BOCA 2026

PAUL RICHARDSON

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Postmodern Jukebox

JUKEBOX MUSICAL

“You’re a bunch of retired millionaires; let me hear you scream!”This bespoke bit of crowd banter kicked off Postmodern Jukebox’s (PMJ) opening-night performance at Festival of the Arts Boca, and the cheeky fun continued for the next hour and a half. The musical collective, which performs contemporary songs in vintage styles and with a cabaret vibe, offered a down-and-dirty blues take on “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and a sultry lounge rendition of “No Diggity.” PMJ founder Scott Bradlee even appeared for a surprise

piano medley based on audience input. Even the presence of rain the following night, at a dynamite screening of Jurassic Park accompanied by a live orchestra, didn’t dilute one of the best Festival of the Arts programs in years.

Spanish River Park, and local caterer Graze Craze. Whether the city should tout these connections is another story, as reviews of Members Only: Palm Beach ranged from unenthused to, literally,“the worst show ever,”per the Daily Buzz.

IS ALL PUBLICITY REALLY GOOD PUBLICITY?

COME TOGETHER

Boca Raton made several cameos in Netflix’s Members Only: Palm Beach, a reality series about the Champagne problems of Palm Beach County socialites. Eagle-eyed viewers spotted Mizner Park, the Boca Raton Historical Society,

In its first iteration in Boca Raton, Beatles on the Beach did not disappoint with its weekend full of Fab Four-themed music and entertainment clustered around Mizner Park Amphitheater. Morgan Freeman himself introduced his headlining Symphonic Blues Ex-

From top, a Postmodern Jukebox singer, and Jurassic Park with live orchestra

perience, even duetting on a cappella renditions of “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude” with the festival’s clearly smitten founder, Daniel Hartwell. But our apex moment from the festival? That would be The Peakles, a top-shelf Beatles tribute

from Portugal, encoring their set with a blistering take on “Helter Skelter.”

CAUGHT ON VIDEO

Injecting a welcome dose of weirdness into Boca Raton’s cultural veins, the Boca Ra-

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RYAN MCGINLEY:GQ.

ton Museum of Art’s exhibition of video art, “Too Late to Rewind,” was as delightful as it was stubbornly strange. The work appeared on an eclectic array of apparatuses, from vintage cathode ray televisions and 30-year-old Macintosh computers to wall-filling projectors and light boxes. One piece involved attendees listening to old movie clips on a corded landline telephone. We can’t say we “got” every piece in the exhibition,

but compared to art that is self-explanatorily pretty, we’d rather be confused than unchallenged.

SWIFTIE NATION

The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce mania took center stage in Boca Raton when the couple spent their summer in our hometown, with sightings in Mizner Park, Johnny O’s Gymnasium, and dining in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. The biggest splash happened when

GQ magazine dropped their interview with Kelce, featuring a photo shoot in the Everglades, Miami Marine Stadium, and The Boca Raton’s Beach Club.

NEW BLOOD AT THE MUSEUM

The Boca Raton Museum of Art welcomed two new hires in its curatorial division, and both are already making waves. New Curator-at-Large Ross Karlan played a key role in securing the first-ever solo museum exhibition for the buzzworthy Miamian TYPOE GRAN, running through mid-October. Karlan’s appointment follows the hiring of Keffie Feldman as chief curator. Boca poached her from a Connecticut museum, where she recently won two awards for conceiving “Stitching the Revolution,” a

traveling exhibition on quilters with a subversive approach to their medium.

Clockwise from bottom left: Travis Kelce in GQ, Members Only: Palm Beach, Morgan Freeman at Beatles on the Beach, Ross Karlan and Keffie Feldman, and “Too Late to Rewind”

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BEST OF BOCA 2026

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Travis Kelce, Billy Joel, and Kevin James

HOLLYWOOD COMES TO BOCA

If you thought you spotted somebody resembling Travis Kelce, Kevin James, or Billy Joel walking around Mizner Park or dining in Midtown, there’s a good chance you were right on the money. These are just the most highprofile of the celebs purchasing mansions in the city. Kelce trains in a $20 million property in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club; Kevin James recently purchased a $17.5 million home, also in Royal Palm; and Billy Joel owns a $29.5 million mansion in The Sanctuary.

Giovanni Parra and his quintet

GUILHERME DE DOMENICO

WE GIVE A HOOT

Lynn University’s 2026 Fashion Showcase

Kudos to Hoot/Wisdom Recordings, a student-run, faculty-supervised record label based out of Florida Atlantic, which received a 2025 nomination for Best Tango Album for its release Milonguín by Colombian bandoneonist and composer Giovanni Parra and his quintet. The honor marked the fifth nomination for FAU professors Alejandro Sánchez-Samper (producer, recording engineer, and mix engineer) and Matt Baltrucki (recording engineer and mastering engineer) of the Department of

Music in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. The Grammy went to a different artist, but, as the saying goes, it was an honor just to be nominated.

SK8ER STYLE

Embracing bold colors and designs with a streetwise urban aesthetic, Lynn University’s 2026 Fashion Showcase earned raves as the university’s best runway event yet. With six designers and more than 300 students contributing from the school’s fashion, hospitality, communication, and design programs, the show featured graffiti art and skateboards aplenty, along with sustainably sourced styles that were, in some cases, literally star-studded.

A VERY BOCA MURAL

As a culmination of its centennial celebrations, the City of Boca Raton unveiled a new mural for the doors of Mizner Park Amphitheater’s stage late last year. Replacing its more universal painting of a musician and dancer, the new design leans into the hyperlocal: The large-scale piece, using oranges and other earth tones, is an ode to Boca with Easter eggs from around town and history. This includes a golfer, sea turtle, owl, Johnnie

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Brown the monkey, the Shriners camel, a pineapple from the Morikami plantation, classic Boca Raton Spanish Revival architecture, a vintage sunbather reminiscent of Bettie Page, and more. But that wasn’t the only piece of public art that premiered over the past year. Eclectic artist Lauren Tanner created

four mosaics at Wildflower Park, in ceramic styles and vitreous glass, that address distinct chapters in Boca’s history, as well as a colorful, interactive splash pad at South Beach Park.

CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS

Also at Lynn University was its annual Celebration of the

RICK MUNROE

New mural at Mizner Park Amphitheater

Pepsi National Battle of the Bands

Arts, a blockbuster production put on by theatre students. From the ensemble piece “One More Day” from Les Misérables and the pinktastic “Oh My God” from Legally Blonde to the tap numbers from

Singin’ in the Rain and Newsies, the show truly had us On Your Feet! (which happened to be the grand finale). Kids, don’t forget us in Boca Raton when you’re onstage on Broadway and the West End.

MARCH MADNESS

Marching bands from Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) brought their invigorating sounds, infectious energy, and upbeat dance moves to FAU’s Flagler Credit Union Stadium for the annual Pepsi National Battle of the Bands, which supports scholarships for its talented students. Staged amid the stadium’s bleachers, the competition’s inaugural performance in the Palm Beaches, hosted during Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend, welcomed bands from Bethune-Cookman, Florida Memorial, North Carolina A&T State, South Carolina State, Southern University, and A&M College, with the latter’s team, The Human Jukebox, bringing down the house.

Celebration of the Arts at Lynn University

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Drs. Ari Silverstein and David Taub at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro

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U PDOWN &OUT

From scaling Kilimanjaro to running the Boston Marathon and diving into ocean depths on a single breath of air, local athletes have met some of the fitness world’s most daunting challenges. Learn how they pushed their limits to meet the moment. Written by Tyler Childress and John Thomason

MAKING THE CLIMB

Drs. Ari Silverstein and David Taub

ummiting the snowy peak of Mount Kilimanjaro was an ascent 30 years in the making for Lynn Cancer Institute’s Dr. Ari Silverstein. The famed Tanzanian volcano left its indelible first impression on Silverstein during a safari he took with his family to Kenya in his 20s.“You’re in the middle of nowhere in the plains of Africa, and there’s this giant mountain,”recalls Silverstein.“I asked,‘Can we hike that?’And they said,‘You can, but it’s a lot bigger than it looks.’” Silverstein left Kenya resolved to one day return and make the climb, so last year, when longtime friend and fellow Lynn Cancer Institute Dr. David Taub came to him and said that he wanted to scale Kilimanjaro for his 50th birthday, Silverstein jumped at the opportunity. “At this stage of life, where the kids are

grown and professionally successful, I [was] looking for a challenge or something to kind of sink my teeth into,”says Taub. Silverstein adds,“He said, ‘I’ve been thinking about this for a couple years,’ and [I said] enough thought. Let’s go, let’s do it.” The duo spent the following few months researching the right outfitter to guide them on their trek while training for the 20,000foot ascent. With little options for practice in the nation’s flattest state, the doctors visited Florida Atlantic University’s Flagler Credit Union Stadium several times a week to climb up and down the stairs while strapped with 20-pound backpacks. “We both went at it pretty hard,”recalls Taub.“I think coming from sea level, you’re a little scared of what that altitude will do to you, so we probably overtrained a little bit. We figured we’re only going over there

once, and we wanted to make it successful.” A month before they were set to fly to Tanzania, they put their training to the test with a hike up one of Colorado’s 14,000foot peaks, a weekend excursion which nearly put an early end to their ambitions. As the doctors ascended the Colorado mountain, Taub was assailed by coughing fits from the lack of oxygen while Silverstein began to question the green light his cardiologist had given him after putting in a heart stent just one week prior.“For me to get to 14,000 feet was just like, ‘Am I going to have a heart attack and die on the spot?’” Silverstein recalls. Fortunately, the pair reached the peak and made it back down without incident and were back at work Monday morning. For the doctors, the trip served as proof of concept that they could climb Kilimanjaro.

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They discovered a month later, however, that Kilimanjaro is far less forgiving than a Colorado mountain. “When we got [to Kilimanjaro], we expected it to be fairly hard,” says Silverstein, but the first few days of the initial ascent passed with relative ease. The doctors and their group—consisting of a few friends they’d invited along—spent much of the time joking, laughing, and swapping stories as they steadily made their way up. “The daily hikes were about six or seven hours, eight or nine miles, up a couple thousand feet, down a couple thousand feet,” says Silverstein, with the ups and downs intended to acclimate the body to the increasing altitudes.“The first five or six days are steady, solid days; the last day is really brutal. “The last day, you basically climb up to about 16,000 feet, where you camp during the daytime. You make the ascent at night. They say that’s for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s so you can’t see where you’re going, because [for] a lot of people, if you see it, you would turn around. And two, so you could hit the peak at sunrise.

“It was a true adventure. Not just physical, but a journey that we all took together that I think we’ll probably never forget.” – Dr. David Taub “That night you get up and it’s literally 0 degrees. You get dressed, you put your headlamps on, and you basically start walking straight up. … Over the next five and a half hours, you’re walking up 4,000 feet, freezing cold, you sort of can’t see, there’s a lot of other people ascending, some ahead of you, some behind you, and you can basically see this little trail of headlamps but you can’t really tell the distances, and really you’re just looking at the feet of the person ahead of you and trying to keep going. … Meanwhile, your heart rate—because there’s no oxygen—is going 130 beats per minute.” It was at this point that the doubt started creeping in. “At one point I was having some difficulty breathing, and I was like, ‘Oh man, I brought all these guys out here, I don’t want to be the guy who holds them back or doesn’t make it up,’”says Taub. Finally, after a dogged approach, the group summited the peak just in time to watch the sun rise.“You’re on top of the world; it’s incredible,”recalls Taub. The group spent about a half hour taking pictures and celebrating, thinking that the hardest part was behind them. “The ascent was really hard,”says Silverstein.“It was physically and mentally demanding. Getting down, which you think is easy, is just brutal … You’re just banging on your knees for basically 15 hours. It’s not hard, it’s just miserable.” After 10 hours working their way down the volcano, the group arrived at the base, where they could finally revel in their accomplishment over a celebratory drink.“It’s exhilarating to work really hard for something, train and train, and actually achieve a goal,” says Silverstein. “It was a true adventure,”says Taub.“Not just physical, but a journey that we all took together that I think we’ll probably never forget.”

Melissa Perlman

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STAYING THE COURSE Melissa Perlman

or Melissa Perlman, the journey to the starting line of the Boston Marathon begins five months before the race. It’s then that the Delray Beach public-relations professional begins her rigorous training regimen—running 70, then 80 miles a week, often back and forth across the Linton Boulevard bridge, or on treadmills with the incline function turned way up, to simulate, amid the flatness of Florida, the famously hilly conditions of the Boston terrain. “The buildup for Boston was pretty intense,”she says, referring to her fourth Boston Marathon run, in April 2025.“You’re trying to find those stressors, as we call them, to get your body used to the 26.2mile voyage.” If she sounds like a longtime veteran of long-distance running, it’s because Perlman, whose Instagram handle is @melrunsfast, is, indeed, a fast learner. She completed her first race, Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., at 3:09:17 in 2018. The following year, she ran her first Boston Marathon, improving on her Duluth numbers by more than nine minutes. Eight years and 10 marathons later, Perlman has continued to shave more time off her personal records, including a then-career-best finish of 2:42:28 at the 2025 Boston Marathon, which won her eighth place among women 40-44. And she managed this feat while racing in the elite division for the first time, earning her laudatory coverage in Runner’s World magazine under the headline“Melissa Perlman is the Feel-Good Story of This Year’s Boston Marathon Pro Field.” “The coolest part for me of the entire race is that my bib said ‘Perlman,’”she recalls. “When you’re in the elite or professional field, your last name is on your bib. People don’t know the difference between me and real professional runners that they see on TV all the time. They just see someone running in the field up front, with their last name on their bib, and that was just the most incredible experience to have—thousands of people for 26 miles-plus yelling your name and cheering for you.” For Perlman, the encouragement fueled her when she needed it most—during the marathon’s notorious hills, from the Charles River crossing through Heartbreak

Hill, whose difficulty often forces novice runners into a walking pace.“That’s when it started to really hurt, but you train for that. People talk about hitting the wall, and then all of a sudden they go from running eight minutes per mile to 12 minutes per miles— that’s hitting the wall. So, when it started to hurt for me, I went from going six minutes per mile to 6:20 per mile. So, it’s harder, and it gets to me, and I don’t have that light bounce, but you just pull from mental and physical strength to get yourself through.” For Perlman, the most difficult aspect of the race was the unusual logistics of running much of the course alone, having split off from her class of 60 elite women by mile

together runners seeking Olympic Trials Qualifiers. (For women in the U.S., the current qualifying time to earn a spot in the 2028 USA Marathon Olympic Trials is 2 hours and 37 minutes.—Ed.) She says her life on the asphalt has transformed her in many ways. “I ran in high school; it was my identity,” she says.“And in college, when I stopped running, I lost that for a very long time. So to have that now in my life, for the last eight years or so, and to be excelling and to be winning again, and to be running my best times, it’s this full-circle feeling of loving all parts of me, of who I am and the intensity and the passion of putting my

“The beauty of the marathon is you can’t hide anything that you haven’t done. It shows the work. It’s a very honest race in that way.”

– Melissa Perlman

7 or so.“You really having to go internally and build, create goals, play games in your head of getting to certain points. You keep pushing yourself when it’s really hard and there isn’t someone really close.” Perlman is continuing to set her sights on qualifying for the Olympic trials in 2028, endeavoring always to improve her personal record. Most recently, she dropped nearly another minute off her time to run a personal record of 2:41:43 at the 2026 MicrOTQ Run, a small, invitational-style race in Rockland County, NY, which brought

mind towards something and achieving it. “Physically, of course, I feel stronger and better than I’ve felt in my life,” she adds. “And as a woman over 40, I think that’s an important thing, and probably inspiring for other women that are aging. We can still improve and get stronger. … But for me personally, it just makes every day fun. Outside of work and other parts of life, it really gives me something to work towards, to have a goal, a purpose in that way. And then when I get to achieve it, I love it. It’s like a celebration.”

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ALLIE REILLY

ALEX ST. JEAN

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INTO THE DEEP Kevin McNally

D “There are no quick ways of getting deeper… I have rushed it a couple of times and have had a couple of injuries from trying to rush things.” – Kevin McNally

elray Beach freediver Kevin McNally’s biggest health scare occurred not in deep water but upon coming up for air. It was then, having completed his task at the 2024 CMAS Freediving World Championship in waters off Kalamata, Greece, that McNally blacked out, immediately“face-planting,”as he puts it, into the water.“I never got an answer on how long I was out,”he recalls.“But long enough for the safety divers to swim me over to the platform and pull me up onto it. Then I was put on oxygen. “When I woke up, I was on the platform with the oxygen, a medic and a physician working on me. It took over an hour to get my oxygen saturation back into the 90s. This is because I squeezed in addition to the blackout.”“Squeezing”happens when the alveoli in the lungs rupture and start bleeding, and it’s a more serious complication than a typical resurfacing blackout, in which the competitor usually regains consciousness within a minute. McNally is not, he stresses, a“thrill seeker. You won’t see me skydiving or on a motorcycle or even rollerblading.”And yet his sport of choice is not for the faint of heart. Competitive freediving, in which athletes dive to a predetermined depth, retrieve a piece of Velcro to prove they achieved their goal, and swim up to the surface all while holding a single breathful of air, requires rigorous training for both body and mind. Having honed a technique for breath-holding over many years—his record underwater has exceeded four minutes—McNally’s regimen includes three gym workouts a week and at least two yoga sessions. Mentally, keeping one’s eye on the prize, so to speak, is just as important.“Once I get to the bottom, if I’m at, say, 200 feet, I don’t think to myself, ‘it sure is a long way back to the surface.’ I stay very focused on where I am. I make very small movements with my arms and my legs. I don’t do any extended reaches or looking up with my neck; any of those things can cause a severe lung injury. “The most challenging aspect is getting acclimated to depth,”he adds.“There are no quick ways of getting deeper. Your body has to adapt to deeper and deeper water over a slow period of time. I have rushed it a couple of times and have had a couple of injuries from trying to rush things.” McNally credits his affinity for diving to his childhood in Miami, where he would snorkel

with his siblings to recover shells from the ocean floor. He embraced SCUBA diving in high school, and he discovered freediving as a discipline in the late 1990s. But it wasn’t until 2010 that he found an instructor in West Palm Beach and took his first class in the sport. Some six years later, he graduated to advanced classes and training camps off the coasts of Mexico and the Canary Islands.“While on those trips, I met some of the really deep freedivers, and they mentioned to me that there were world records for people over 50. And they were in 10-year increments. That gave me the idea of what to do when I retired, to go after those world records.” That retirement hobby has become all consuming for McNally, who spent 30 years in the traffic engineering business. He has achieved a peak ranking of 15th best in the U.S. from AIDA International, one of the governing bodies for freediving. Last October, at the Freedom Depth Games in Cyprus, he achieved his deepest dive ever—71 meters with bifins. This August, he will compete on the U.S. Masters Freediving team at the CMAS (Confédération Mondiale Des Activités Subaquatiques, another freediving governing body) World Championship in Honduras. McNally, who turned 70 in January, aims to dive to 81-plus meters this year, which would set the world record for men 70 and older. Competing at this level often means revolving his life around the sport. He spoke to Boca magazine from Greece, amid a four-month stint in the country, the longest he’s ever been away from his Delray Beach home—and his longterm partner, public relations professional Elizabeth Kelley Grace. Keeping this distance, he says, is the hardest part of the life he’s chosen. McNally’s compensation comes in the form of bragging rights.“There is no prize money,” he says.“Probably the biggest prize is a medal you can wear around your neck, and if you get a world record, your name will be on a PDF file on an obscure website that not too many people ever look at.” With no monetary gains on the horizon, McNally thrives on his passion for the practice. “It’s a very centering sport,” he says.“You have to be very focused and able to have a clear mind and be very physically fit and be able to accept coaching from better divers. And I love being in the water and the connection to the water and my fellow freedivers. It’s a great group of people.”

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FLORIDA STYLE &DESIGN OUTDOOR LIVING PRODUCTS

› ›

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For this stunning poolside deck, designer Leanne Yarn recommends using large-format porcelain but stresses that it must be grip-rated. For artificial turf, she specifies a short pile height for comfort under bare feet.

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FLORIDA STYLE & DESIGN

OUTDOOR LIVING

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For larger pool patios, designer Laetitia Laurent creates subareas for conversation and interaction that also break up the monotony of the space.

Weathering the Storm Warm temperatures set the scene for an active alfresco lifestyle here in South Florida, but maintaining our outdoor spaces can sometimes produce more pain than pleasure. Our design experts share pro tips for keeping your patio looking tip-top all year long. Written by CHRISTIE GALEANO-DEMOTT

JESSICA KLEWICKI GLYNN

e’re fortunate to live in endless sunshine, but it can take a toll on the aesthetic of our outdoor spaces. Our sunny days call us outside, but who wants to sit on a moldy chair or gaze at a faded, tattered umbrella? One of the most important areas of our homes isn’t even inside the four walls; thus, it’s often the hardest to keep clean and tidy. That’s why it’s crucial to choose materials, textures, and furniture that will withstand our at-times destructive elements. “When it comes to outdoor, there aren’t that many workarounds, because it has to do so much with the composition,”designer Laetitia Laurent says.“With interior furniture, you may be able to get away with it, but outside, it’s not as forgiving.” Laurent, the founder of Boca Raton-based Laure Nell Interiors, designed a Miami Revival home with a key feature that nearly rivals its waterfront views— an expansive, verdant patio with an impressive Olympic-sized pool. She focused on materials that would not only stand the test of time on the clock, but also withstand time in terms of taste. Outdoor furniture is expensive, so she suggests choosing pieces that feel classic and neutral in color. Pro tip: Always look for light-toned, powder-coated aluminum pieces—a plus if they’re marine grade. If it’s built to endure “the yacht life,” it will adorn your patio in mint condition as well. Inspired by her French heritage, Laurent loves to incorporate the classic South of France stripes into her designs. In this home, the cushions and towel accents are stripped, and she also trimmed the Janus et Cie umbrellas in black and white. For other projects, she enjoys playing with colors and using Capri-inspired yellow, chic navy blue, or vibrant red stripes.

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FLORIDA STYLE & DESIGN

BELOW: For a pool deck, consider anti-slip and heatreflective materials like light-colored natural stone, such as travertine or Florida coral.

WALKTHROO MEDIA

LEFT: Have an outdoor shed or storage bin to put away cushions, umbrellas, etc., so they are easily accessible when you need them— and shielded from the elements when you don’t.

Laetitia Laurent

JESSICA KLEWICKI GLYNN

Regardless of the color palette, a feature to carefully consider is fabric. Laurent suggests focusing on performance fabrics. She has even used these stain- and fade-resistant textiles indoors, allowing her to effortlessly bring the indoors out, especially for clients who are looking for an upholstered look rather than a sleeker sling-furniture aesthetic, sans cushions. If that’s the preference, as in this home, she advises her clients to invest in furniture covers, which add maintenance but ensure the upholstered pieces’ durability. For homeowners who favor teak, Laurent cautions about its additional maintenance requirements. Keeping the wood in the original hue requires yearly oiling; otherwise, waiting for it to patina uniformly over time is a true test of patience. “I love anything that is natural, but by definition it’s not going to look perfect,”she says.“Nature has irregularities, which make it beautiful. So, if you’re using natural elements like wood or plants, they won’t look perfect. They’re going to weather, but that’s what adds charm and warmth to the space.” Working with nature’s formidable, imperfect features is where Erez Bar-Nur shines. The founder of Landscape Design Workshop has always been curious about nature, and that passion has led him to design countless outdoor spaces that

OUTDOOR LIVING

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BEST RESILIENT PLANTS These vibrant, low-maintenance native plants can withstand our Florida heat, salt, and heavy rain: • Trees and palms: Gumbo-limbo, Pitch Apple, Cinnecord, and Florida Thatch Palm • Shrubs: Firebush and Wild Coffee • Grasses: Muhly Grass and Dwarf Fakahatchee • Groundcover: Golden Creeper

GABE DUNKIN

Erez Bar-Nur

foster a sense of connection and calm while remaining resilient and sustainable.“Sustainability should be woven into a project so naturally that you don’t necessarily notice it, but you feel the difference,”he explains.“It’s about designing with shade, water, and resilience in mind and choosing plants and materials that truly belong. When you do that, the landscape becomes more comfortable, more durable, and ultimately more beautiful.” At Aura Delray, he created spaces that support how residents live, with a series of social and leisure areas that invite them outdoors. The result is a multi-family community where the outdoors feel intentional and part of everyday life. Designing for a private residence is similar. He suggests starting with an evaluation of how the outdoor space will be used before choosing plants. Will it be for gatherings, specific activities, or quiet moments of relaxation? Let that be your guide. Bar-Nur also warns against trying to fit too many ideas into a space, which will ultimately create more stress than serenity. And he reminds clients that creating a space that is an extension of the indoors, with the same comfort, is an opportunity for it to feel connected to the landscape rather than separate from it. Bar-Nur’s Boca Raton-based firm is also creating the outdoor spaces for Mr. C West Palm Beach, which is set to open next year. The 27-story luxury hotel-condo project’s areas revolve around the brand’s elevated hospitality and reflect its coastal European elegance. “The goal was to make the outdoors feel like a natural extension of the interior—calm, welcoming, and easy to spend time in,” he says. The prop-

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BINYAN STUDIOS

FLORIDA STYLE & DESIGN

erty will boast elaborate gardens, two pools, and a rooftop, each designed with lush, native Florida-friendly plants and even a few sculptures. Designer April Mondelli also looked to coordinate her client’s patio with the interior. Swapping out blues for earthier greens and natural stones, Mondelli created a space that feels less coastal and more like a continuation of the moody interior lounge it overlooks. When working on the water, as in this East Boca home, Mondelli opts for weather-resistant materials, such as natural stone and Sunbrella fabrics in neutral tones, so the design never competes with the views. She also gave the existing fireplace a less coastal, more contemporary look with a modern porcelain fluted terrazzo tile design that grounds the space and creates a striking focal point.“Even in Florida, I love the idea of fire,” she says.“I like the ambience and gathering area it creates. It’s a vibe.” Mondelli’s April Elizabeth Designs also excels in curating a space that feels sophisticated through its mix of luxury and affordability.“I don’t think every single thing has to be a high,” she says. For her clients, she splurges on larger pieces, like dining tables and sofas, but reaches for more reasonably priced smaller items, such as end tables or ottomans.

OUTDOOR LIVING

LEFT: To design a landscape that is enjoyable all year round, Erez Bar-Nur starts by creating shelter from our rain and sun, as he did at Aura Delray. This includes a mix of plants and structures, like this outdoor kitchen and dining pavilion. BELOW: In April Mondelli’s design, the natural stone, along with the choice for artificial turf, supports the homeowners’ need for low maintenance in their globetrotting lifestyle.

April Mondelli

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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FLORIDA STYLE & DESIGN

OUTDOOR LIVING

Kass O’Brien

SERENA WOODWARD GILMORE

INDESTRUCTIBLE OUTDOOR ART

Kass O’Brien creates one-of-a-kind ceramics crafted to scoff at our harsh weather. Can art really be weather-proof? Absolutely. Her pieces are anything but statuesque. The ceramics may be sturdy and extremely low maintenance, but the Pennsylvania native’s art also has a sense of movement and wonder that draws your eye to every angle. Whether it’s a vase, planter, plate, napkin holder, candlestick, or lamp, the handmade work of art offers rich texture. Each leaf is hand-cut, each anemone is hand-rolled, and each vein is hand-scratched, a process that takes weeks to complete. “Every piece has a memory of an experience that I’ve had,” she explains, as her inspiration can come from trail running, the ocean, or even her childhood. As a longtime South Floridian, she has a passion for creating ceramics that can live outdoors year-round with little maintenance, save for the occasional wipe-down. There’s no need to weatherproof them against rain, humidity, or salt. “They’re indestructible,” she says. “Just enjoy the piece outside. I want to spread joy through my art. That’s really important to me.” She explains that when the clay is fired at the right temperature, it becomes vitrified, making it impervious to water. Pro tip: If shopping for ceramics, make sure they’re stoneware or porcelain and not terracotta, which tends to be more porous. kassobrien.com

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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LEFT AND BELOW: The home sits on the golf course’s 17th hole, with the cart path skirting it. When the homeowners showcased a piece of art for golfers, they chose this uplifting message of love by Jane Waterous.

CARMEL BRANTLEY

For Leanne Yarn, knowing how to choose the right materials comes from years of experience and a laser-focused anticipation of her discerning clients’ distaste for early-onset wear and tear. Yarn’s dedication to details has led her to discover unique, exclusive vendors specializing in outdoor materials that go above and beyond the usual. For this Boca Raton home, her Yarn Design Associates team designed a patio that’s both elegant and ultra durable. The space’s varied seating areas are shaded by a warm, wood-like ceiling that’s made of PVC. Yarn selected this material to avoid any panels warping in our scorching heat and humidity. The planks mirror a natural grain texture without the need for additional maintenance, such as resealing. And after years of fighting mildew and fading, Yarn also found a vendor that sells customizable PVC-made area rugs, like the woven cabana-striped one she chose for this home. For fabrics, Sunbrella remains her go-to. And while she recommends quality sling furniture, like Skyline Design loungers, instead of cushioned upholstery pieces, for clients who want that look, she recommends local vendors Couture Jardin and Elaine Smith for durable throw pillows. The outdoor kitchen features Dekton by Cosentino porcelain, which she always sources for its variety of styles and its ability to withstand our weather without cracking or fading. Pro tip: Run the porcelain up the back of the hood to prevent grilling smoke from staining your exterior. “These days, clients want everything to last forever,” she says. “That means everything we are sourcing is high-performance. They don’t want anything that will cause them problems, and we always recommend a service that Scotch Guards everything for another layer of protection.”

Leanne Yarn

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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FLORIDA STYLE &

DESIGN

PRODUCTS

HAUTE OFF THE GRILL

For the home chef, the backyard becomes a stage for culinary showmanship, where statement grills, artisan pizza ovens, and cocktailready accents turn every gathering into an occasion worth savoring. Curated by AMANDA MESA

1. Cuisinart Venture™ Portable Gas Grill $230, Sur La Table, Boca Raton, surlatable. com. 2. Vita Outdoor Dining Table - $1,390, Modani, Boca Raton, modani.com. 3. Wylder Beverage Tub - $349, Birch Lane, Boca Raton, birchlane.com. 4. Emporia Stainless Steel and Brass-Plated Coupe Glasses (Set of 4) - $62, CB2, Miami Beach, cb2.com. 5. Calliope Barware Set - $59, Birch Lane, Boca Raton, birchlane.com. 6. ZWILLING Flammkraft Model D Freestanding Pool Gas Grill - $12,000, Crate & Barrel, Boca Raton, crateandbarrel.com. 7. Wave Cutlery 16-Piece Set - $126, Addison Ross, usa. addisonross.com. 8. Coastal Rattan Indoor/ Outdoor Bar Cabinet - $998, Anthropologie, Boca Raton, anthropologie.com.

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DESIGN

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sculptural loungers, crisp cabana seating, and thoughtful accents made for swimming, sipping, and soaking up the sunshine in style.

1. Francis Outdoor Lounger - $1,865, Rove Concepts, Hollywood, roveconcepts.com. 2. Beach Club Set $1,196, Serena & Lily, Palm Beach, serenaandlily. com. 3. Fieldbar Drinks Cooler Box - $249, Williams Sonoma, Boca Raton, williams-sonoma.com. 4. Oceanpark Lounger - $598, Serena & Lily, Palm Beach, serenaandlily.com. 5. Platform One Outdoor Daybed With Table - $2,395, Lumens, lumens.com. 6. Business and Pleasure Co. Beach Towels - $79 each, Perigold, West Palm Beach, perigold.com. 7. Les Jardins Teak Emoe Outdoor Shower - $2,616, Perigold, West Palm Beach, perigold.com. 8. Pool Day Throw Pillow - from $45, Society 6, society6.com.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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FLORIDA STYLE & DESIGN

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PLAY IT FORWARD

Bring a little friendly competition outdoors with luxe game-night essentials, from sleek foosball and ping-pong tables to classic lawn games made for playful afternoons and plenty of post-dinner fun.

1. Jonathan Adler x Michaels Game Sets - from $50, Michaels, Boca Raton, michaels.com. 2. Gidget Cornhole Boards - $350, Williams Sonoma, Boca Raton, williams-sonoma.com. 3. Outdoor Pingpong Table - $9,899, Lumens, lumens.com. 4. RS3 Rectangular Max Dining Foosball Table - $18,642, Lumens, lumens.com. 5. Backyard Pong Golf $220, Sharper Image, sharperimage.com. 6. Oversized Mahogany 4-in-a-Row Game - $200, Pottery Barn, Boca Raton, potterybarn.com 7. Printworks Beach Tennis Set - $85, Saks Fifth Avenue, Boca Raton, saksfifthavenue.com.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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Part of the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation’s 2025-2026 Season of Dance Part of the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation’s 2025-2026 Season of Dance

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Dance Photo credit: David Seabrooke Dance Photo credit: David Seabrooke

Boca Ballet Theatre is proud to present this Boca Theatre is proud to presentof this balletBallet by Marius Petipa, choreographer The ballet byBeauty Mariusand Petipa, choreographer of The Sleeping Swan Lake. La Bayadère is Sleeping Beauty andand Swan Lake. La is a classic tale of love betrayal setBayadère in amythical classic tale of Known love and set instory India. forbetrayal its dramatic mythical India.“Kingdom Known for and the iconic ofits thedramatic Shades,” story this and of the Shades,” this balletthe is aiconic jewel“Kingdom of 19th-century choreography. ballet is a jewel of 19th-century choreography.

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B A C K S TA G E PA S S

Joseph Williams of Toto, performing July 31 at iThink Financial Amphitheatre

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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B AC K S TAG E PA S S

TAKE 5

Lisa Corrao

On the heels of her first comedy special, this 20-year standup veteran continues to embrace the messy Written by JOHN THOMASON

The heart of comedy is thinking of this weird idea, forming it into a joke, polishing it with an audience. And I thought, well, I can do that. It doesn’t have to be a stadium or theater or anything grandiose. Somewhere and anywhere, someone’s going to listen to jokes.” —Lisa Corrao

isa Corrao’s first experience telling jokes in public was not at an open-mic night or a comedy club. It was at her grandmother’s funeral, where, even in a time of mourning, she killed.“I was absolutely devastated, and my coping mechanism was finding the funny,” she recalls.“And the next thing you know, my aunt said, ‘I want you to speak at my funeral.’ I guess that’s the early version of me booking gigs.” Corrao was around 25 at the time, and some five years later, she performed her first proper set—part of her graduation from a comedy class at the Fort Lauderdale Improv—while maintaining her day job as a middle school teacher. Compared to her fellow aspiring comics, she was a late bloomer.“All these other comedians are 17, 18, maybe early 20s. I’m 30. I have a daughter. This is not something I’m necessarily going to do as a career. I’ll do it for fun and for the love of it.” Yet it didn’t take long for Corrao, a Fort Lauderdale resident, to rise through the ranks of the South Florida comedy scene, from underground clubs to opening for headliners at the various tri-county Improvs to touring with big-name comics. Here in Boca, she’s performed at Sadman Comedy, The Studio at Mizner Park, Biergarten, and the Boca Raton Public Library. But it took the passing of another pivotal birthday, her 50th, for Corrao to satisfy a rite of passage for any comedian: her first comedy special. Lisa Corrao: A Cute Crisis, chronicling a 2025 performance opening for Patton Oswalt in Wisconsin, dropped on Amazon and Apple TV this past spring. In it, Corrao—in personal, observational, conversational style—addresses topics such as her diminutive height (she’s 4’10.5”), a health crisis involving a damaged heart valve, and the economic reality of pursuing comedy at 50 (“You’re never too old to move back in with your parents”). For a comic who had previously shunned the social-media spotlight, the special has boosted Corrao’s national profile, inspiring her to finally post clips online.

Are there skill sets that transfer from teaching to comedy? All of the skill sets transition over, truly. Because you have a room full of human beings that don’t care. And how do you get them to care? … I was definitely the fun teacher. I was really good with the sort of troubled kid, and because I was good with them, my classroom was almost all troubled kids. … I literally had gang members, so there was a lot of conflict and friction with that. But these are hecklers, right? This is just like a bar. People don’t want to be in the same room together, and all of a sudden they’re drinking in it,

and you have to still be like, Hey, we’re paying attention up here. … To be succinct, to get people to listen, it’s all the same skills. Who are some of the familiar names in comedy that you’ve opened for? Of course Patton Oswalt, who I’m such a huge fan of. I got to work with Gilbert Gottfried, and I’m so lucky that I got to experience him in hell gig situations and private shows and birthdays for rich people, where he just tore them apart. I learned about being fearless from Gilbert, because even if he was bombing—especially if he was bombing—he never backed

down. And I’m like, I always want to be that brave. How do you feel your material has evolved or sharpened over the past 10 or 15 years? I don’t think of my material as sharp necessarily. Actually, I think of my style as pretty messy, and I think it’s just how my brain works. Words kind of shoot out of my mouth, and I’m like, well, there they are, so we’re going with it. That doesn’t mean that I don’t work on my jokes, because you definitely figure out how to get the audience to laugh, and you polish it up as best as you can. But I do notice I’ll have alternate punch lines for jokes, and it’s just how I’m feeling for that day. Were you reticent about being so personal in your material, such as mentioning your ADHD and heart issues? I used to be more of a private person, and the more vulnerable I become—and it is scary to be vulnerable—the more it feels right. And especially when I hear people go,“that thing that you said about ADHD, me too.”And that makes me really feel great about sharing that thing about myself. … I never expected that. I’m just hoping people would find it funny. Does the fact that this material is recorded for a special mean that it’s retired? I totally want to retire it now. Some of the jokes were ancient for me. And then a couple, I’d never said even one time before. … I’ve been doing comedy a long time. I have a lot of jokes. So it’s just organizing them in my messy brain.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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IF YOU GO WHAT: Lisa Corrao Live WHEN: 8 p.m. July 3 WHERE: Sol Theatre, 3333 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton COST: $30-$40

JESSE CHIEFFO

CONTACT: 561/702-6639, sadmancomedycafe.com

Lisa Corrao performing in her first standup special, A Cute Crisis

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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CALENDAR

Now-Aug. 29:

Now-Sept. 27:

“60 Seconds: Polaroids from the Collection” at Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach; $15-$18 museum admission; 561/832-5196, norton.org. The original Polaroid Corporation may have gone defunct in 2001, but the brand lives on—and so does the timeless, tactile appeal of instant film. “60 Seconds” features Polaroid photography from the Norton’s Permanent Collection, its depth and breadth arguing for the vitality of this once-endangered analog medium.

“Yōkai: Scenes of the Supernatural in Japanese Woodblock Prints” at Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach; $12-$18 museum admission; 561/495-0233, morikami.org. Yōkai, the blanket term for a wide range of supernatural entities inhabiting Japanese folklore, is the subject of this exhibition, which showcases 90 works on woodblock prints and printed books dating back 250 years, from chimeras to ghosts to shape-shifters to sea serpents.

“Rodney Demps: The Surrealist of the Highwaymen” at Cornell Art Museum, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; free with $5 suggested donation; 561/243-1077, delrayoldschoolsquare.com/ cornell. One of 26 members of the original Highwaymen group of itinerant African American artists of the 1950s and ‘60s, Demps was an indelible part of southwest Florida’s cultural history. As this posthumous solo exhibition illustrates, he was among the more expressive artists in the movement, adding surreal touches to rich Florida landscapes.

Art from “Yōkai”

Art from Highwayman Rodney Demps

Tori Amos

COSTELLO

Now-Aug. 16:

KASIA-WOZNIAK

July/August 2026

B AC K S TAG E PA S S

Falstaff

July 7:

July 8:

July 9-19:

Tori Amos at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m.; $46.01$212.19; 561/832-7469, kravis. org. A child piano prodigy at the age of 5, Amos emerged as one of the leading women in rock with her instant-classic 1992 debut LP Little Earthquakes. Seventeen diverse and musically sophisticated releases have followed, wedding the rigor of classical training with a liberated alt-rock pulse and lyrics that confront abysses both personal and political.

Train at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach; 6:45 p.m.; $40.50-$182.50; 561/795-8883, ithinkflamp. com. Train, the sunshine-y San Francisco hit-makers behind “Hey, Soul Sister” and “Drops of Jupiter,” celebrate the success of the latter and its samenamed breakthrough album, which turns 25 this year. Opening acts include Barenaked Ladies (“One Week”) and folk-rocking singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson.

Falstaff: Shakespeare’s Greatest Invention at Seabreeze Amphitheater at Carlin Park, 750 S. Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway, Jupiter; free with suggested $5 donation; 561/543-8276, pbshakespeare.org. Introduced in Henry IV, Part 1, John Falstaff has emerged as Shakespeare’s most memorable comic rapscallion—a haunter of taverns with a lust for life and propensity to beg, borrow, and steal. In this production, his scenes from several of the Bard’s plays combine to paint a complete picture of this complicated glutton.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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Now-Oct. 4:

Now-Oct. 11:

Now-Oct. 18:

“RAW: In Retrospect” at Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach; $15-$18 museum admission; 561/832-5196, norton.org. Established in 2011, the Norton’s RAW, or Recognition of Art by Women, series of solo exhibitions from women artists will soon celebrate its 10th iteration. To mark the occasion, this retrospective showcases dynamic and thought-provoking work from the previous nine RAW artists, including Jenny Saville and Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

“Frantz Zéphirin: The Messenger” at NSU Art Museum, 1 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; $16 adults, $10 seniors; 954/525-5500, nsuartmuseum.org. A selftaught wunderkind, Haitian artist Zéphirin creates feverish, outsider visions of Biblical passages, Vodou rituals, chimeric creatures, and mystical voyages—including more than 2,000 paintings of the Haitian mermaid goddess La Sirène. “The Messenger” marks his first solo museum exhibition.

“Exploring Jess: Beat Generation Visionary” at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; $12-$16 museum admission; 561/392-2500, bocamuseum.org. A staple of San Francisco’s Mission District in the 1950s and beyond, single-named painter Jess is one of the more underrated artists to emerge out of the 1950s Beat Generation, creating maximalist work that integrated concepts of alchemy, chemistry, the occult, literature, and popular culture.

“Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: Selections from the 404 Art Collection” at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; $12-$16 museum admission; 561/392-2500, bocamuseum.org. This late Ivory Coast artist created much of his corpus while working as a government clerk, drawing his subjects on found cardboard pieces, and using the implements he had nearby. The results have transcended the restrictions of their production, referencing aspects of folklore, daily life, and politics.

Train

JAMES DOUGLAS COOPER

SKYLAR WATKINS

Now-Sept. 27:

Work by Sylvia Plimack from “RAW”

Art from Frantz Zephirin

Men at Work

July 11:

July 14:

July 16:

July 23:

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County at Willow Theatre, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton; 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.; $9-$12; 561/3473948, myboca.us/2508/willow-theatre. Atlantic Coast Theatre for Youth presents this children’s production, an adaptation of Mark Twain’s career-making 1865 tall tale inspired by the California Gold Rush era. Entertainers will channel Twain’s humor through music, folk-art puppetry, and comic characters.

“Possible Futures: Hope, Fear, and What Comes Next” at King Library at Society of the Four Arts, 101 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach; 5:30 p.m.; free; 561/655-2766, fourarts. org. This book discussion group focuses on recent titles that reflect the increasingly uncertain future of the planet, country, and body politic. Participants may choose from titles including American War by Omar El Akkad, Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, and others.

Men at Work with Toad the Wet Sprocket at Pompano Beach Amphitheater, 1801 N.E. Sixth St., Pompano Beach; 7 p.m.; $46.69-$58.06; 561/2237231, pompanobeacharts.org. Two standard-bearers of power-pop in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively, co-headline this summer bill. Australia’s Men at Work kept hearts aflutter and dance floors grooving with hits like “Down Under” and “Who Can it Be Now?”, while Toad the Wet Sprocket’s alt-rock staples include “Walk on the Ocean” and “All I Want.” Japanese poppunk veterans Shonen Knife open.

The Australian Pink Floyd Show at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m.; $34.51-$235.76; 561/8327469, kravis.org. Honing its Pink Floyd chops since 1988, this tribute act from Down Under is known for its immaculate re-creations of the progressive/psych rockers’ dense and grandiose material, dating all the way back to the Syd Barrett years and all the way beyond Roger Waters’ exodus.

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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CALENDAR

July 25-Jan. 3:

July 29:

July 31:

“Florida Roots: Ralph Coburn” at Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach; $15-$18 museum admission; 561/832-5196, norton.org. A modest and unassuming talent, this undervalued abstractionist leaned into the idea of choice, randomness, and even audience participation in his paintings. At his most radical, he allowed spectators to reorder his gridbased paperboard collages, encouraging viewers to assert their own artistic agency.

“Katharine Hepburn: Talented, Stylish, and Spirited” at Glazer Hall, 70 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach; noon; $175, including lunch and NA beverage; 561/576-7860, glazerhall.org. Famed author and lecturer René Silvin will lead this presentation on the four-time Academy Award-winning actress and headstrong cultural icon, utilizing more than 200 pictures and videos to explore the private personality hidden among her countless memorable characters.

Dr. Gianni Bianchini & the Type 1 Trio at Arts Garage, 94 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach; 8 p.m.; $53-$56; 561/4506357, artsgarage.org. Playing Arts Garage for the 10th time, fan-favorite pianist, organist, and vocalist Bianchini, whose Rolodex of collaborators includes Arturo Sandoval, Joshua Redman, and Jason Marsalis, returns with fresh arrangements of classics from the American Songbook, accompanied by a bassist and drummer.

AUSTEN WALDRON

July/August 2026

B AC K S TAG E PA S S

Art from Ralph Coburn

Motley Crue

Taiko drumming at Obon Weekend

Rob Zombie

Aug. 14:

Aug. 15-16:

Aug. 20:

Mötley Crüe at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach; 6:30 p.m.; $61.50-$256.50; 561/795-8883, ithinkflamp. com. The hedonistic rock quartet, still featuring original members Nikki Six, Tommy Lee, and Vince Neil, which returned to touring in 2022 after a lengthy absence, will bring back the thunder, pyrotechnics, and general lasciviousness on its “Return of the Carnival of Sins” tour. Opening acts Tesla and Extreme heighten this ‘80s glam-metal throwback.

Obon Weekend at Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; $10-$16 museum admission; additional charge for certain events; 561/495-0233, morikami.org. At this summer staple, attendees can experience a taiko drum concert, visit a Bon altar providing insights into the Obon tradition, and participate in a dance workshop. Guests can then fill out tanzaku slips with messages for their companions on the Other Side and float them on Morikami Lake.

Rob Zombie & Marilyn Manson at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach; 6:30 p.m.; $45 and up; 561/795-8883, ithinkflamp.com. The golden age of shock rock rises from the undead at this double bill of the ‘90s and 2000s most theatrical and convulsive hard rock icons. Rob Zombie continues to draw from cult horror movies for his raging, cinematic sound, while the controversial Manson will play cuts from his 10 albums of brooding industrial angst.

bocamag.com • • • • July/August 2026

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July 31-Aug. 3:

Aug. 1-2:

Aug. 13-14:

Toto, Christopher Cross & the Romantics at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, 6017 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach; 6:45 p.m.; $45 and up; 561/795-8883, ithinkflamp. com. The summer’s definitive yacht-rock triple bill is sure to evoke salty breezes, positive vibes, and danceable grooves. Headliner Toto’s buckets of hits include “Hold the Line,” “Susannah,” and “Africa,” while Cross (“Sailing,” “Ride Like the Wind”) and The Romantics (“What I Like About You,” “Talking In Your Sleep”) are no less familiar with Billboard acclaim.

“Summer Breeze” at Grassroots Gallery at Arts Garage, 94 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach; free admission; 561/450-6357, artsgarage. org. Florida artists endeavor to capture the spirit of the season, interpreting the pleasures of summer as they see fit, be they personal memories, sun-drenched landscapes, or quiet moments of reflection in Palm Beach County’s quietest time of year.

Boca Ballet Theatre: La Bayadere at Olympic Heights Performing Arts Theater, 20101 Lyons Road, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun.; $25-$55; 561/9950709, bocaballet.org. This dramatic full-evening ballet from master French choreographer Marius Petipa is set amid the wedding celebrations, opium dens, and places of worship of royal India, and charts the tragic love triangle between a temple dancer, a warrior, and the daughter of the rajah. Elite guest artists will join Boca Ballet Theatre’s summer-intensive students.

Jonathan Butler at Funky Biscuit, 303 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton; 6 and 9 p.m.; $71.25-$92.43; 561/3952929, funkybiscuit.com. The first Black musician in apartheid-era South Africa to be played on the nation’s radio stations, this guitarist and singer-songwriter inspired Nelson Mandela during the leader’s imprisonment. Combining influences of R&B, jazz, and worship music, Butler has released 28 albums since his 1975 debut, with three of them topping the U.S. Contemporary Jazz charts.

MARTIN GROENENSTIJN

DAVID G SEABROOKE

July 31:

Toto

Jonathan Butler

Laure Kilmartin

Boca Ballet Theatre’s La Bayadere

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Aug. 29:

Aug. 30:

42nd Street at Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 N.W. Ninth St., Delray Beach; various show times; $45; 561/272-1281, delraybeachplayhouse.com. This Tony-winning musical, set during the Great Depression and based on the beloved 1933 film of the same name, centers on a small-town ingénue who lands a leading role in a splashy Broadway musical after a star actress breaks her ankle. 42nd Street is flush with Broadway standards, including “We’re in the Money” and “I Only Have Eyes For You.”

Slightly Stoopid at Sunset Cove Amphitheater, 20405 Amphitheater Circle, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m.; $54.50-$60; axs.com/ events/1352756/slightly-stoopid-tickets. The party band Slightly Stoopid, with its feel-good fusion of rock, punk and reggae, headlines this triple bill of similarly minded acts to round out the summer. Arrive early for Boston-born reggae rockers The Elovaters and the Sublime-inspired bedroom pop artist DENM.

Laure Kilmartin at Boca Black Box, 8221 Glades Road, Suite 10, Boca Raton; 7 and 9 p.m.; $38.50-$58.50; 561/4839036, bocablackbox.com. This Emmy-nominated standup comedian, who wrote monologues for all 11 seasons of Conan on TBS and performed a New Year’s Eve set from one of Saddam Hussein’s occupied palaces during the Iraq War, is unafraid to embrace the dark. Like her material, her books 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad and Dead People Suck find humor in the midst of grief.

Chris MacDonald’s Jukebox Memories at Boca Black Box, 8221 Glades Road, Suite 10, Boca Raton; 7 p.m.; $38.50$48.50; 561/483-9036, bocablackbox.com. One of Elvis Presley’s top impersonators and the originator of “Memories of Elvis” expands his persona and vocal range to embody numerous singers from the peak jukebox era, including Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Dion and Van Morrison.

July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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Our boutique has been a mainstay for savvy shoppers for more than 35 years. Boca Raton's "Chic Boutique" is so much more than great fashion finds, home furnishings and hidden treasures. We are committed to making a difference in our community. With your support we continue to enrich the lives of countless people in our area by: • • •

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SARAH SARPOLIS

Lobster birria machete at Geronimo

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Geronimo in Delray Beach boasts one of the East Coast’s largest selections of tequila.

BRAND AID CREATIVE GROUP

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Tequila Fever

Geronimo Tequila Bar and Southwest Grill pairs its impressive tequila collection with bold New Mexican flavors Written by CHRISTIE GALEANO-DEMOTT

P RARE SIPS Geronimo’s extensive and ultra-impressive list offers us the opportunity to sip several exceptional, unique tequilas (and mezcals) without having to spend time scouring for them. Prices are 2 oz. pours. • Código 1530 15 year Añejo $800 (500 bottles in the world) • Volcán de mi Tierra Añejo $667 (35 bottles in Florida) • Clase Azul 25th Anniversary - $144 • Clase Azul Spirit of Champions (Joven) - $400 • Clase Azul Ultra (Extra Añejo) - $400 • Fortaleza Blanco - $25 • Fuenteseca 5 year Extra Añejo - $54 • G4 Madeira Dia de Los Muertos - $76 • Ultramundo Mezcal - $54

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atience is truly a virtue. We were teased with “coming soon” announcements for a year and a half, but Connecticut-based Geronimo Tequila Bar and Southwest Grill finally opened its doors to Atlantic Avenue this January. The transformation from Cabana El Rey’s Latin vibe to Geronimo’s New Mexican mood is impressive. Aside from its location, nothing evokes its previous life. Artisanal, handcrafted wood ceilings adorn the bar, while the interior dining space sits under a wooden chevron pattern illuminated by flickering gas lighting. A mix of textures and materials, including fine leather and beautiful woods, nod to its Southwest personality but in a refined, sophisticated way. Let’s not forget the walnut-barrel booths that compete with the bar for everyone’s favorite spot to sit. If the spacious indoor/outdoor bar is Geronimo’s heartbeat, the extensive tequila collection is its soul. With one of the East Coast’s largest selections, even the most discerning agave enthusiast will find a new favorite. Geronimo focuses on showcasing New Mexican cuisine, but what exactly is it? New Mexican food is a blend of Mexican and indigenous ingredients and techniques that come together to create a variety of bold, flavorful dishes, all rooted in a love for chiles. Its famed Hatch chile peppers, irrigated by the Rio Grande, have been grown by the area’s indigenous communities for centuries. They come in a variety of forms—green (if harvested early) or red (if left to mature on the vine)—and heat levels. These chiles are

the foundation of many dishes, including enchiladas, burritos, stuffed peppers, and chile con queso. At Geronimo, you can find Hatch peppers in the chile stew, fried cauliflower, mac and cheese, quesadillas, and chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers). A standout dish is the Navajo“Taco,”which is similar to a Mexican tostada. This interpretation combines traditional ingredients like a tangy pibil marinade, roasted morita (or smoked red jalapeño pepper), and red chili sauce with a modern twist featuring duck instead of pork, topped with a plantain-and-olive chopped salad, all served on native frybread, or fried flatbread. For those who hate choosing between seafood and red meat, the Machete is the answer to your prayers. Hearty portions of Maine lobster and ancho pepper-braised short rib are wrapped in a warm, crispy tortilla and topped with Oaxaca cheese, green-chile salsa and crispy chicharrón. The menu also includes standard options like street corn, burritos, quesadillas, and tacos on house-made corn tortillas—alongside unique choices such as its elk meatloaf, queso flameado, or sizzling cheese dip, and fully loaded nachos. The menu also features several South Florida favorites, including ceviche, crudo, calamari, smash burger, chicken wings, and baby back ribs. Practicing patience paid off with the opening of Geronimo Tequila Bar and Southwest Grill, which has brought a lively New Mexican flair to Atlantic Avenue that we can’t wait to revisit. 105 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach; 561/819-4144; geronimobarandgrill.com

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Dining Guide Palm Beach County BOCA RATON 388 Italian Restaurant By Mr. Sal—3360 N. Federal Highway. Italian. This family-owned outpost of its Long Island flagship prides itself on nostalgic, quintessential dishes. Pastas like alla vodka, marinara and spicy rigatoni share the menu with chicken and veal entrees in beloved preparations like masala, Milanese and parmigiana. Choose from half or whole portions to share with the table. It’s also known for its lively ambiance, so come here for an Italian feast but stay for the party. Dinner nightly. 561/794-3888. $$$

AARON BRISTOL

Abe & Louie’s—2200 Glades Road. Steakhouse.

Lobster bomb at Bluefin Sushi

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Under $17 $18–$35 $36–$50 $50 and up

All Americans are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among them the right to a thick, juicy, perfectly cooked steak. At this posh, comfortable (and expensive) meatery, the USDA Prime steaks are indeed thick, juicy and perfectly cooked, also massively flavorful and served in enormous portions. Don’t miss the New York sirloin or prime rib, paired in classic steakhouse fashion with buttery hash browns and uber-creamy creamed spinach. Chased with an ice-cold martini or glass of red wine from the truly impressive list, it’s happiness pursued and captured. • Lunch Mon.-Fri., dinner nightly. Brunch on Sat. and Sun. 561/447-0024. $$$$

AlleyCat—297 E.Palmetto Park Road. Japanese. Chef Eric Baker’s Japanese izakaya, or a casual spot for drinks and bites, is serving up dishes like sushi, dumplings and fried rice that have an unexpected whimsical element. Here you’ll find king crab tacos and hot fried chicken alongside the hamachi ponzu and spicy scallop roll. And to deliver the freshest sushi in town, he has partnered with celebrated sushi chef David Bouhadana of Sushi by Bou. • Dinner Tues.-Sat. 561/353-5888. $$ Arturo’s Restaurant—6750 N. Federal Highway. Italian. After 40 years of feeding our Boca community, the Gismondi family is still going to great lengths to take care of its patrons, who, over the years, have become honorary family members themselves. Arturo’s brings generations of diners together with its warm ambiance, classic and consistent Italian fare, and its award-winning 1,000+-bottle wine cellar. • Lunch and dinner Tues.-Fri., dinner Sat.-Sun. 561/997-7373. $$$ Basilic Vietnamese Grill—200 S. Federal Highway. Vietnamese. This popular restaurant offers satisfying food and reasonable prices. Plus, there’s bubble tea. Opened in 2014, it has a wide range of Vietnamese favorites, such as cha gio tom

heo, fried shrimp and pork Imperial rolls, all kinds of pho, noodle bowls, chicken curry and more. • Lunch and dinner six days a week; closed Tuesdays. 561/409-4964. $$

Bluefin Sushi and Thai—861 N.W. 51st St., Suite 1. Sushi/Thai. Arrive early for a table at this Asian hot spot—it’s popular with no reservations for parties fewer than six. Don’t skip the tempura lobster bomb, big in both size and taste. The ginger snapper will impress both Instagram and your stomach. Try the chicken satay and pad Thai. Bluefin offers a variety of dishes from multiple cultures, all well done. • Dinner daily. Lunch Mon.-Fri. 561/981-8869. $$ Burtons Grill & Bar—5580 N. Military Trail. New American. Known for its reliable food as well as its non-gluten, Paleo and “B Choosy” kids menu, the first Florida location for this restaurant is deservedly crowded, so make reservations. Don’t miss the General Tso’s cauliflower, the pan-seared salmon (Paleo), the crab cakes or the Key lime pie. Popular half-portions are available, too. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/465-2036. $ The Capital Grille—6000 Glades Road. Steaks. This is one of more than three dozen restaurants in a national chain, but the Boca Grille treats you like a regular at your neighborhood restaurant. Steaks, dry-aged if not Prime, are flavorful and cooked with precision, while starters from the pan-fried calamari to the restaurant’s signature spin on the Cobb salad (lunch only) are nicely done too. Parmesan truffle fries are crispy sticks of potato heaven; chocolate-espresso cake a study in shameless, and luscious, decadence. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/368-1077. $$$

Casa D’Angelo—171 E. Palmetto Park Road. Italian. Chef Rickie Piper, who has mastered the menu and cuisine of this fine-dining staple for more than a decade, knows when to say when with both plating and ingredients. His dishes, including the sides and accompaniments, are visually appetizing and aromatic. A grilled veal chop easily 3 inches thick proved tender and juicy, and the wild mushrooms served alongside in a marsala added earthiness. • Dinner nightly. 561/996-1234. $$$

Casimir French Bistro—416 Via De Palmas, Suite 81. French. Take a trip overseas without leaving the city and enjoy excellently prepared traditional French dishes, such as duck l’orange or beef bourguignon, or go with Cajun chicken and veal Milanese. The comfortable dining room is a Parisian experience, as is the apple tarte tatin. This is a local favorite, and may we add they have what is as close to real French bread as anyplace in Boca? • Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. 561/955-6001. $$$

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Chez Marie French Bistro—5030 Champion Blvd. French. Marie will greet you at the door of this nicely decorated, intimate, classic French restaurant tucked in the corner of a strip shopping area. This feels like an intimate neighborhood bistro and is a welcome discovery. From escargot encased in garlic butter, parsley and breadcrumbs to a tender duck a l’orange to an unforgettable crepe Suzette, you’ll be in Paris all evening. Voila! Also on the menu: pan-seared foie gras, tasty onion soup, coq au vin, rack of lamb, salads and more desserts. French food in an unassuming atmosphere.• Dinner Mon.-Sat. (closed on Mon. in summer) 561/997-0027. $$ Chops Lobster Bar—101 Plaza Real S., Royal Palm Place. Steak, seafood. There is nothing like a classic chophouse every now and then for a special dinner. At this upscale downtown restaurant, steaks are aged USDA Prime—tender, flavorful and perfectly cooked under a 1,700-degree broiler. There’s all manner of fish and shellfish, but you’re here for the lobster, whether giant Nova Scotian tails flash-fried and served with drawn butter or sizable Maine specimens stuffed with lobster. Let’s face it: Trendy menus come and go, but a great steakhouse is a win-win on all occasions. • Dinner nightly. 561/395-2675. $$$$ Corvina Seafood Grill—110 Plaza Real S, Boca Raton. Seafood. The seafood-centric menu incorporates South Florida’s varied Latin and Caribbean culinary influences into it. Peruvian and Honduran ceviches share the menu with Brazilian fish stew. You’ll also find plantain crusted corvina in a Creole curry sauce alongside Jamaican jerk chicken and island spiced pork ribs. With a focus on sourcing local ingredients, the menu spotlights several daily specials so look out for those. Then there’s the indoor/outdoor bar that invites you to come in and stay a while, especially during its daily happy hour. • Dinner & Sunday Brunch. 561/206-0066. $$ CVI.CHE 105—6000 Glades Road. Peruvian. Classic Peruvian ceviches share the menu with contemporary takes. Chef Juan Chipoco flexes his skills and imagination in both the kitchen and the whimsical space’s design. The menu features tiraditos, causas, sushi rolls and entrées like the lomo saltado and aji de gallina. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/221-0940. $$ Dorsia—5837 N. Federal Highway. Continental. The simple pleasures of the table—good food, personable service, comfortable ambience—are what this modestly stylish restaurant is all about. The menu has a strong Italian bent, evidenced by dishes like a trio of fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with an airy three-cheese mousse, and a cookbook-perfect rendition of veal scaloppine lavished with artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and a tangy lemon-white wine sauce. • Dinner nightly. 561/961-4156. $$ Eddie V’s Prime Seafood —201 Plaza Real. Steak & Seafood. Eddie V’s is famous for its seafood and premium steaks, but this restaurant has also perfected the art of entertaining with nightly live music and a few tableside surprises. • Dinner nightly. 561/237-0067. $$$$ Farmer’s Table—1901 N. Military Trail. American. In the pantheon of healthy dining, Farmer’s Table is a standout in Boca, one of the first restaurants to elevate natural foods to fine dining. Fresh, natural, sustainable, organic and local is the mantra at this both tasty and health-conscious offering from Mitchell Robbins and Joey Giannuzzi. Menu highlights include flatbreads, slow-braised USDA Choice short rib and the popular Ramen Bowl, with veggies, ramen noodles and shrimp. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/417-5836. $$

Everyday Favorites For an affordable bite at any time, consider these durable chains and homegrown Boca favorites— where the attire is understated and reservations are rarely necessary. Biergarten—309 Via De Palmas, #90. German/Pub. Part vaguely German beer garden, part all-American sports bar, this rustic eatery offers menus that channel both, as well as an excellent selection of two-dozen beers on tap and the same number by the bottle. The food is basic and designed to go well with suds, like the giant pretzel with a trio of dipping sauces and the popular “Biergarten burger.” • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/395-7462. $$

Cuban Café—3350 N.W. Boca Raton Blvd., Suite B-30. Cuban. One thing Boca needs more of is coffee windows—and real Cuban restaurants. Part of the charm of South Florida is its melting pot of Latin cultures, and Cuba is the granddaddy of them all. Which is undoubtedly why diners pack this traditional Cuban restaurant for lunch specials that start at $10.95, including slow-roasted pork served with white rice and black beans. Other highlights include the Cuban sandwich, the media noche and (on the dinner menu only) lechón asado. Full bar. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/750-8860. $ Los Olivos Bistro—5030 Champion Blvd. Argentine. The family-owned bistro’s menu honors familial Argentine roots with typical crave-worthy dishes like empanadas and plenty of red meat. Still, it also honors the cuisine’s Spanish and Italian influences with its standout paellas and housemade pasta. • Lunch and dinner Mon.Sat. 561/756-8928. $

Rocco’s Tacos—224 Clematis St. Mexican. Big Time Restaurant Group has crafted a handsome spot that dishes Mexican favorites, as well as upscale variations on the theme and more than 425 tequilas. Tacos feature house-made tortillas and a variety of proteins. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/650-1001. (Other Palm Beach County locations: 5250 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, 561/416-2131; 110 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561/808-1100; 5090 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, 561/623-0127) $

The Sandwich Shop at Buccan—350 S. County Road, Palm Beach and 1901 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. Takeout stop. Like big sister Buccan Italian restaurant, the Sandwich Shop is full of flavor and builds your favorite sandwich with just a touch of delicious creativity you won’t find elsewhere. Owned by celeb chef Clay Conley and partners, the menu has hot or cold sandwiches, salads, sides and drinks (both alcoholic and non). Good-sized portions mean the Italian and prosciutto subs include leftovers if you have some willpower.• Lunch daily. 561/833-6295. $$

Tap 42—5050 Town Center Circle, Suite 247. Gastropub. This hugely popular nouveau-Industrial gastropub is not for the faint of eardrums when packed, but don’t let that discourage you. The kitchen here executes the hell out of a short, simple all-day menu. Grilled salmon chopped salad with tomatillo ranch dressing is delightful, as is guacamole studded with fat chunks of bacon and charred corn. Same goes for decadent shrimp mac-n-cheese. The wicked-good chocolate bread pudding with salted caramel sauce would be the envy of any Big Easy eatery. • Lunch Mon.-Fri. Brunch Sat.-Sun. Dinner nightly. 561/235-5819. $

Tropical Smokehouse—3815 S. Dixie Highway. Barbecue. When you take the distinct tastes of Florida/ Caribbean/Cuban dishes and pair them with barbecue, you end up with a place you visit a lot. Local celeb chef Rick Mace smokes the meats himself, and his recipes include all kinds of citrus in tasty spots (sour orange wings, pineapple carrot cake); you’ll discover new favorite flavors. Don’t miss the BBQ pulled pork, brisket and ribs. Try the hot and sweet hushpuppies or the homemade chorizo queso in this very casual spot that we can happily say is also unique—there’s nothing else like it. • Lunch and dinner Tues.-Sun. 561/323-2573. $$

Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen—399 S.E. Mizner Blvd. American. Natural, seasonal, sustainable. You’ll enjoy the varied menu, and won’t believe it’s made without butters or creams. Try the too-good-to-be-true buffalo-style cauliflower appetizer, the seared salmon or buffalo burger, and

have apple skillet for dessert. Healthy never tasted so good. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/826-2625. $$

Gallaghers Steakhouse—2006 N.W. Executive Center Circle. Steakhouse. At this chophouse, the staff is laJuly/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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ser-focused on service, the bar pours stiff drinks, and the kitchen dishes out perfectly cooked steaks—a pure embodiment of what you’d expect from a steakhouse. While Gallaghers proved itself a master of its craft, don’t overlook the other items on the menu, like the stuffed shrimp and veal chop. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/559-5800. $$$$

The Grille On Congress—5101 Congress Ave. American. Dishes at this longtime favorite range from tasty chicken entrees and main-plate salads to seafood options like Asian-glazed salmon or pan-seared yellowtail snapper. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/912-9800. $$ Houston’s—1900 N.W. Executive Center Circle. Contemporary American. Convenient location, stylish ambience and impeccable service are hallmarks of this local outpost of the Hillstone restaurant chain. There are plenty of reasons why this is one of the most popular business lunch spots in all of Boca, including menu items like Cajun trout, the mammoth salad offerings and the tasty baby back ribs. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/998-0550. $$$

Il Mulino New York Boca Raton—451 E.

ANDREW MILLAR

Palmetto Park Road. Italian. From the four pre-menu bites to the after-dinner coffee from freshly ground beans, this is a white-tablecloth venue that delivers on its upscale promises. Try the langostino, the red snapper, the risotto, the pasta, or go for the ceviches, caviars and seafood tower. Save room for dessert and complimentary lemoncello. Make a night of it. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/338-8606. $$$

Hamachi crudo at Kasumi

Save Room

Between its dolci, gelati, coffee drinks, and digestives, Louie Bossi’s over-the-top dessert menu extends to 32 items.

Josephine’s—5751 N. Federal Highway. Italian. Tradition trumps trendy, and comfort outweighs chic at this Boca favorite. The ambience is quiet and stately but not stuffy, and the menu is full of hearty dishes to soothe the savage appetite, like threecheese eggplant rollatini and chicken scarpariello. • Dinner nightly. 561/988-0668. $$

Kapow Noodle Bar—402 Plaza Real. Asian. Kapow delivers an effervescent ambiance that makes you want to relax and stay a while. Its varied menu has something for every craving, from crispy rice and tacos to rolls and even Peking duck. Up your dinner game by reserving a seat at the separate omakase bar serving chef-curated bites that aren’t on the regular menu. And if you’re looking for a memorable night out, book one of the three karaoke rooms.• Lunch and dinner daily. 561/567-8828. $ Kasumi—999 E. Camino Real. Japanese. As the Waterstone Resort & Marina’s second waterfront restaurant, this modern Japanese eatery delivers an elevated level of cuisine. Its shareable menu features sushi rolls, nigiri, sashimi and a variety of larger entrées. • Dinner nightly. 561/226-3033. $$$ Ke’e Grill—17940 N. Military Trail, Suite 700. Traditional American. In this busy dining scene for more than 30 years, you will find a lot of seafood (fried calamari, blue crab cakes, yellowtail snapper Francaise and lots more), a few steak, chicken, lamb and pork options, and a quality house-made apple crisp. Your traditional choices are baked, fried, breaded, grilled, broiled, sauteed. With Provencal, Francaise, maple mustard glaze, toasted macadamia nut pesto and piccata twists. A consistent crowd for a consistent menu. • Dinner nightly. 561/995-5044. $$$ Ke-uH—5250 Town Center Circle. Japanese. With a passion for hospitality, this Japanese restaurant’s menu focuses on sharing plates. While most of the menu does stay true to its Japanese roots with izakaya plates like shishito peppers, edamame, crispy rice, and gyozas, it includes out-of-the-box options like the spicy

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honey shrimp and wagyu sliders topped with a delicate quail egg. There are also nods to Latin cuisine with dishes like the grilled corn, tacos, and ceviche. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/295-8616. $$

Kousine Peruvian Asian—1668 N. Federal Highway. Peruvian/Asian. Chef and owner Danny Kou shares his Peruvian heritage with a curated menu of dishes that accurately represent his country’s famous ceviche while introducing patrons to unique dishes that are just as tempting. Kousine’s space is bright and modern, with exposed industrial ceilings complemented with warm woods and greenery. Lunch and dinner daily. 561/430-3337. $$ La Condesa—3320 Airport Road. Mexican. Mexico’s bold, colorful and lively culture is reflected in its cuisine, and it’s evident at La Condesa. This family-owned restaurant’s take on Mexican fare offers a sizable menu with a wide selection of popular drinks and dishes like margaritas, nachos, street tacos and burritos. You can also opt for less mainstream dishes like the mole cazuelitas, and you won’t be disappointed. Lunch and dinner daily. 561/931-4008. $

La Nouvelle Maison—55 E. Palmetto Park Road. French. A dining experience at a French restaurant is never just about satiating your hunger. It’s about the entire experience, and La Nouvelle Maison embraces that joie de vivre from the moment you step inside. Whether you delight in the garlic-infused escargots, steak tartare or beef Bourgogne, none of the classic French dishes disappoint here.• Dinner nightly. 561/338-3003. $$$$ La Terraza Tapas & Bar—21170 St. Andrews Blvd. Spanish. La Terraza Tapas & Bar instantly transports you to Spain. Its brick barrel ceiling, moody lighting, crimson walls and wooden furniture create a charming, rustic aesthetic reminiscent of a Spanish taverna. Start with the Tabla Terraza charcuterie board before enjoying a few warm tapas, like the croquetas de jamon, camarones ajillo and octopus. • Lunch and dinner Wed.-Sun., dinner Mon.-Tues. 561/576-3040. $$

La Villetta—4351 N. Federal Highway. Italian. This is a well-edited version of a traditional Italian menu, complete with homemade pastas and other classic dishes. Try the signature whole yellowtail snapper encrusted in sea salt; it’s de-boned right at tableside. Shrimp diavolo is perfectly scrumptious. • Dinner nightly. (closed Mon. during summer). 561/362-8403. $$$

Louie Bossi’s—100 E. Palmetto Park Road. Italian. This jumping joint serves terrific Neapolitan pizza (thin crust), but don’t miss the other entrées. Start with a charcuterie/cheese plate and grab the amazing breadsticks. All breads and pastas are made on the premises. Other faves include the carbonara and the calamari, and save room for house-made gelato. Unusual features: Try the bocce ball court included with the retro Italian décor. • Lunch and dinner daily, weekend brunch. 561/336-6699. $$$

Luff’s Fish House—390 E. Palmetto Park Road. Seafood. A renovated 1920s bungalow houses this shipshape restaurant, in addition to two large, outdoor deck and patio areas. It’s known for familiar dish names with new tweaks: smoked fish-hummus dip, falafel fish fritters, crab guacamole, mussels in coconut curry broth, plus the paella on Sundays only. Don’t leave without the enormous slice of the Key lime pie, topped with meringue on a graham cracker crust. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/609-2660. $$

Maggiano’s—21090 St. Andrews Blvd. Italian. Do as the Italians do, and order family-style: Sit back and watch the endless amounts of gorgeous foods grace your table. In this manner, you receive two appetizers, a salad, two pastas, two entrées and two desserts. The menu also includes lighter takes on staples like chicken parm, fettuccine alfredo and chicken piccata. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/361-8244. $$

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Mario’s Osteria—1400 Glades Road, Suite 210. Italian. This popular spot features rustic Italian fare in a sleek environment. Signature dishes like the garlic rolls, lasagna and eggplant “pancakes” are on the new menu, as are butternut squash ravioli and thick, juicy rib-eye served “arrabiata” style. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/239-7000. $$

Buzz Bite

Matteo’s—233 S. Federal Highway, Suite 108. Italian. Hearty Italian and Italian-American food, served in giant “family style” portions, needs no reinventing. Though there is no shortage of local restaurants cooking in that genre, it’s the details of preparation and service that make Matteo’s stand out. Baked clams are a good place to start, as is the reliable chopped salad. Linguini frutti di mare is one of the best in town. • Dinner nightly. 561/392-0773. $$$

Max’s Grille—404 Plaza Real. Contemporary American. Since 1991, this modern American bistro in Mizner Park has been a true local classic. The food and decor are both timeless and up to date, and the ambience is that of a smooth-running big-city bistro. Service is personable and proficient. The menu is composed of dishes you really want to eat, from the applewood bacon-wrapped meatloaf to the wickedly indulgent crème brûlèe pie. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Brunch Sat–Sun. Dinner nightly. 561/3680080. $$ Meat Market — 2000 NW 19th St. Steakhouse. Meat Market has infused Midtown Boca Raton with glamour. Its posh interiors and high energy complement its diverse menu that revolves around steak but is also sprinkled with daily specials and sushi that shouldn’t be overlooked. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/245-6777. $$$$

Boca Burger Battle

n July 11, the annual fight for the best burger returns. The Boca Burger Battle brings together talented local chefs in a friendly competition to crown the ultimate grill master. The event will take place at Sanborn Square, where guests will be treated to unlimited burger bites paired with craft beer, spirits, and wine samples. Tickets start at $71, with proceeds supporting the Children’s Giving Foundation, a Boca Raton charity dedicated to helping local children’s nonprofits. Enjoy a delicious afternoon with friends while supporting a local cause—it’s a win-win. Will last year’s reigning champ, Duffy’s Sports Grill, be the judges’ top choice once again, or will another restaurant’s burger take the top spot? And will attendees agree that The Vault Bar & Restaurant’s burger deserves to win the People’s Choice Award again? You’ll have to try them all to find out. (bocaburgerbattle.com) —Christie Galeano-DeMott

ITALIAN STEAKHOUSE

Mia Rosebud shines as Boca Raton’s most preeminent Italian Steakhouse. Lauded for its USDA Prime cuts, quintessential Chicago-style Italian classics, and locally caught seafood, this South Florida outpost of the 50-yearold, family-owned Rosebud Group offers one of the longest happy hours— and best steakhouse burgers in town.

Our Rosebud Signature BRICK CHICKEN

Rosebud signature whole, crispy pan-roasted chicken, broccolini, oregano white wine sauce 150 E PALMETTO PARK RD, BOCA RATON, FL 561-462-3000 | MIAROSEBUD.COM

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MEET THE CHEF

New in Town: A Chef Q&A Celebrated chef José Mendín brings his culinary flair to Boca Raton with his beloved gastropub, Pubbelly Sushi Written by CHRISTIE GALEANO-DEMOTT

ometimes dining out can get too serious. That’s why chef José Mendín created Pubbelly Sushi around the idea that sharing food with friends is about having fun. Now, the five-time James Beard Award semifinalist is bringing his love for crafting creative Japanese and Latin-inspired dishes with quality ingredients and meticulous technique to Boca Raton’s Restaurant Row.

Why did you want to bring your popular Miami concept to Boca? We believed the brand would fit in well here, and we liked the Restaurant Row location because it’s central for our guests. Plus, we have great neighbors. You can try a different restaurant every day.

What can guests expect at Pubbelly if they’ve never been? It’s a fun, tapas-style menu. We don’t do omakase, sushi bar seating. I want everyone to sit around a table and experience the mosaic of flavors placed in the center. Grab those chopsticks and enjoy every different bite. Sushi spread at Pubbelly Sushi

What have you liked most about coming up to Boca? I love the crowd and am excited to keep welcoming guests who then become regulars. I’ve already made a lot of friends this way.

Tell us about the special “Only In” menu. It’s a menu exclusive to each Pubbelly outpost. I’ve worked with my chefs to create a menu that celebrates that specific location. For Boca, there’s a Boca Raton roll with yellowtail, cucumber, and jalapeño crema. There’s also a Chili Salmon Sashimi with Asian pear, and a branzino prepared with cucumber salsa and truffle honey.

What are some signature Pubbelly dishes that everyone needs to try? The butter krab roll was one of the rolls that started it all. It’s my take on a Maine lobster roll. You can’t dip nori (seaweed) in butter, so I made it with soy paper and ponzu butter for dipping. The crispy salmon roll is my interpretation of a lox bagel with cream cheese

Chef José Mendín

and crispy panko, and the wagyu beef tartare roll is a nod to the classic French dish with a truffle-poached egg.

We’re sure it’s hard to choose one, but what’s your favorite dish? If I could only eat one dish, the tostones with ceviche is it. It’s not a traditional ceviche. Like my other dishes, I like to have fun. So the tostone is Puerto Rican, like me, and the ceviche is a Nikkei take with Hamachi, ginger, soy, cilantro, and yuzu. The hot tostones with the cold ceviche explain my style in one bite.

What about cocktails—what should we try? Definitely the passionfruit mojito, because it’s so Puerto Rican. The coconut lychee martini is also a crowd favorite.

How does Pubbelly reflect your style? It reflects the way I like to eat. I like to share food with my friends and family. That’s what I’m trying to do here. 5377 Town Center Road, Boca Raton; 561/9483991; pubbellyglobal.com

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RESTAURANT DIRECTORY

E AT & D R I N K

Medi Terra—301 Via de Palmas #99. Mediterranean. Embracing western Mediterranean cuisine, the menu is seasonal and revolves around what the owners can freshly source, so make sure to wait for the specials before making any final decisions. The father-son duo bought Ristorante Sapori in Royal Palm Place and redesigned it to reflect their passion for Mediterranean cuisine. Dinner Mon.-Sat. 561/367-9779. $$

herbs and honey, fresh fish and meats, grab-and-go prepared items, and countless Narbona Wine Lodge wines. You can also opt for a sit-down lunch or dinner at its central restaurant or at one of its two bars. The menu, with Italian and Spanish influences, features its pasta alongside a selection of meat and fish dishes. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/692-3933. $$

Mia Rosebud—150 E. Palmetto Park Road. Italian. The

Steakhouse. This wildly popular Boca meatery Monday, Monday packs them in with swift, professional service, classy supper club ambience and an extensive wine list. And, of course, the beef—all USDA Prime, cooked to tender and juicy lusciousness over ferocious heat. The bonein rib-eye is especially succulent, but don’t neglect the New York strip or steak-house classics like oysters Rockefeller, garlicky spinach and crusty hash browns. • Dinner nightly. 561/998-3881. $$$$

menu is precise, focused on what Mia Rosebud does well: USDA Prime steaks and Italian specialties, including house-made pastas. And make sure to save room for the massive slices of cake that are just as indulgent as they look. • Dinner nightly. 561/462-3000. $

Morton’s The Steakhouse—5050 Town Center Circle, Suite 219. Steakhouse. There’s seemingly no end to diners’ love of huge slabs of high-quality aged beef, nor to the carnivores who pack the clubby-swanky dining room of this meatery. While the star of the beef show is the giant bone-in filet mignon, seasonally featured is the American Wagyu New York strip. Finish off your meal with one of the decadent desserts.• Dinner nightly. 561/392-7724. $$$$

Motek—5377 Town Center Road. Mediterranean. Located in Midtown Boca’s Restaurant Row, this family-owned restaurant is known for its Mediterranean and Israeli-inspired menu. A variety of hummus, latkes and labneh za’atar share the menu with classics like the lamb shawarma, beef kebab and salmon skewers. Lunch and dinner daily, weekend brunch. 561/922-3319. $$$

Narbona—5250 Town Center Circle. Uruguayan. This restaurant-market hybrid offers house-made pasta, private-label

New York Prime—2350 N.W. Executive Center Drive.

Patio Tapas & Beer—205 S.E. First Ave. Spanish. Be transported to the Iberian Peninsula with a variety of tapas. Chef Bryant Fajardo, who trained under celebrated chef José Andrés, specializes in one of Spain’s most traditional and iconic cuisines and delivers both classic selections like Manchego cheese and anchovies alongside premium nibbles like seared duck and foie gras. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/419-7239. $

Prezzo—5560 N. Military Trail. Italian. A reincarnation of a popular 1990s Boca venue, this version has updated the dining room, kept the yummy oven-baked focaccia bread slices, and added a 21st-century taste to the menu. Don’t miss the tender bone-in pork chop, thin-crust pizza and seafood specials. Vegetarian and gluten-free choices are on the menu, too. • Lunch Mon.-Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/314-6840. $$

Rafina—6877 S.W. 18th St. Greek. If you find the ambience of most Greek restaurants to be like a frat party with flaming cheese and ouzo, this contemporary, casually elegant spot will be welcome relief. Food and decor favor refinement over rusticity, even in such hearty and ubiquitous dishes as pastitsio and spanakopita. Standout dishes include the moussaka, the creamy and mildly citrusy avgolemono soup and the precisely grilled, simply adorned (with olive oil, lemon and capers) branzino. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/409-3673. $$ Red Pine Restaurant & Lounge—1 Town Center Road. Chinese. The menu is designed to be enjoyed family-style, with substantial portions of classic dishes like house-made vegetable eggrolls, fried rice and General Tso’s chicken, to name a few. The space is bright and lively, with floor-to-ceiling windows, an expansive bar, and several dining spaces accentuated with crimson banquettes. • Dinner Tues-Sun. 561/826-7595. $$ Rino’s of Boca—39 S.E. First Ave. Italian. Guests can expect nightly live entertainment that pairs perfectly with its Italian-American dishes like rigatoni vodka, bucatini carbonara, veal parmigiana and chicken marsala.• Dinner nightly. 561/2448282. $$$

Seasons 52—2300 Executive Center Drive. Contemporary American. The food—seasonal ingredients, simply and healthfully prepared, accompanied by interesting wines—is first-rate, from salmon roasted on a cedar plank to desserts served in oversized shot glasses. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/998-9952. (Other Palm Beach County location: 11611 Ellison Wilson Road, Palm Beach Gardens, 561/625-5852.) $$

2nd Annual

Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club Boca Raton

WEDNESDAY October 28, 2026 6:00 - 10:00 PM

Chaired By:

BRENDON & ASHLEY PANTANO

An Evening of Glitz & Giving

Benefitting local children with life-long physical disabilities, beyond what insurance covers. Enjoy Live & Silent Auctions Dinner & Live Entertainment

TTicketing icketing & Sponsorship Sponsorship Information Information Available Avai a e AAt:t &

www.bellasangels.org/events

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RESTAURANT DIRECTORY

SeaSpray Inlet Grill—999 E. Camino Real. American. Unobstructed views of Lake Boca Raton, soaring palm trees and coastal décor peppered with fringed umbrellas all set the mood for a relaxing experience that will make you feel as if you’re on vacation. The menu accommodates different dietary preferences with gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options. Don’t sleep on the pear tortellini pasta starter; it’s a star item. Portions are hearty and can be easily shared. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/226-3022. $$ Six Tables a Restaurant—112 N.E. Second St., Boca Raton. American. The dimly lit chandeliers, burgundy velvet curtains and smooth Sinatra lyrics set the mood for a memorable evening that’s dedicated to fine dining without pretention. With a seasonal menu that’s ever changing, you can rest assured that whatever husband and wife chef-proprietors Tom and Jenny Finn prepare for you, it will truly be special and made with love. • Dinner Thurs.-Sat. 561/347-6260. $$$$ Stage—5377 Town Center Road. International. Located

AARON BRISTOL

in Midtown Boca’s lively Restaurant Row, Stage offers a globally inspired menu with options for everyone, including many gluten-free and vegan choices. Award-winning chef Pushkar Marathe’s commitment to supporting local farms is clearly reflected here. Be sure not to miss the lychee ceviche and Niman Ranch churrasco. • Lunch and dinner Tues.-Sun. 561/409-2376. $$

Roasted turmeric cauliflower at DVASH

The 11th Hour

On Fridays and Saturdays, Embarcadero 41 stays open an extra hour, from 10:15 to 11:15, for a special late-night menu of select appetizers, makis, and cocktails.

Taverna Kyma—6298 N. Federal Highway. Greek/ Mediterranean. Hankering for a traditional Greek meal, and a menu that offers just about everything? This is where you want to try the meze plates (cold, hot, seafood, veggie), saganaki, grilled entrees and kebobs. From the taramosalata to the branzino and pastitsio, servings are generous and good. Don’t forget dessert. • Lunch Mon.-Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/994-2828. $$ Trattoria Romana—499 E. Palmetto Park Road. Italian. This local mainstay does Italian classics and its own lengthy list of ambitious specials with unusual skill and aplomb. The service is at a level not always seen in local restaurants. Pay attention to the daily specials, especially if they include impeccably done langostini oreganata and the restaurant’s signature jumbo shrimp saltimbocca. • Dinner nightly. 561/393-6715. $$$ Twenty Twenty Grille—141 Via Naranjas, Suite 45. Contemporary American. You’ve probably licked postage stamps that are larger than Ron and Rhonda Weisheit’s tiny jewel box of a restaurant, but what it lacks in space it more than makes up for in charm, sophistication and imaginative, expertly crafted food. Virtually everything is made in-house, from the trio of breads that first grace your table to the pasta in a suave dish of tagliatelle with duck and chicken confit. Don’t miss the jerk pork belly and grilled veal strip loin. • Dinner nightly. 561/990-7969. $$$ Villagio Italian Eatery—344 Plaza Real. Italian. The classic Italian comfort food at this Mizner Park establishment is served with flair and great attention to detail. The reasonably priced menu—with generous portions—includes all your favorites (veal Parmesan, Caesar salad) and some outstanding seafood dishes (Maine lobster with shrimp, mussels and clams on linguine). There is a full wine list and ample people-watching given the prime outdoor seating. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/447-2257. $$

Yakitori—271 S.E. Mizner Blvd. Asian. This Japanese restaurant that has sat for nearly a decade in Royal Palm Place is still welcoming devoted diners and delivering consistent, premium dishes. Sip on one of its refreshing cocktails like the lychee martini or green tea mojito before perusing the vast menu

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that offers everything from sushi and sashimi to fried rice, ramen and entrées from the robata grill. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/544-0087. $$

WEST BOCA Boon’s Asian Bistro—19605 N. State Road 7. Japanese/Thai. This is one of two Boon’s (the other is in Delray Beach), and it’s where the rush to eat excellent sushi started. The fast-moving staff is choreographed to deliver dishes such as shrimp pad Thai that’s light, delicate and happily filled with shrimp. The Thai fried rice is unusually delicate too, with lots of egg, and is some of the best around. The sushi rolls are as fresh and inventive (try the Daimyo roll) as they are beautifully presented. Go early or call for a reservation. • Lunch Mon.-Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/883-0202. $$

Chloe’s Bistro—6885 S.W. 18th St. Italian. One of the few venues that’s on the water, with food to match the view. Try the seafood linguine, the large snapper filets in Marechiara sauce, and the desserts to end on a sweet note. House-made pasta and a good wine list ensure a pleasant, satisfying meal. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/334-2088. $$ City Fish Market—7940 Glades Road. Seafood. A multimillion-dollar remodel of the old Pete’s has turned it into an elegant seafood house with a lengthy seafood-friendly wine list, impeccably fresh fish and shellfish cooked with care and little artifice. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner nightly. 561/487-1600. $$ Ditmas Kitchen—21077 Powerline Road. Contemporary kosher. This west Boca restaurant is named after a Brooklyn avenue in a district known for its food. Here you’ll find very good casual food, and no dairy products are used. Try the Hibachi salmon, all-kale Caesar salad, the shnitzel sandwich. • Dinner Sun.-Thurs. 561/826-8875. $$$

DVASH—8208 Glades Road. Mediterranean. The menu, a collection of Mediterranean fusion dishes with a variety of daily specials, caters to an array of diets, including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free. The Cohen family, who previously owned Falafel Bistro & Wine Bar in Coral Springs for more than a decade, now welcomes diners to this West Boca restaurant that’s tucked away in the Publix Greenwise strip mall. • Lunch and dinner Tues.-Sun. 561/826-7784. $$ Embarcadero 41—8188 Glades Road. Peruvian. Embarcadero 41 offers exceptional Peruvian and Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian fusion) cuisine. This family-owned establishment has four locations, including one in west Boca. Order a bright ceviche and a sushi roll—or two— and you’re sure to be completely satisfied. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/405-6014. $$ Oliv Pit Athenian Grille—6006 S.W. 18th St. Modern Greek. The owners’ goal of bringing together the best of Greek cooking under one roof, much like the melting pot that is Athens, is covered here in an extensive menu. The best way to enjoy the food is to share it: the Pikilia trio with tzatziki, spicy feta and eggplant spread is a starting place. Try the mix grill platter and the hearty red Greek wine. End the night with a unique, velvety frappe cappuccino. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/409-2049. $$

Skyfin Asian Bistro—8221 Glades Road. Asian. After nearly a decade of dishing out elevated Beijing cuisine at MR CHOW inside the posh W South Beach, chef Aden Lee left his sous chef position to venture out on his own. Here, you’ll find both playfully named sushi rolls and fresh sashimi alongside protein-rich house specials, fried rice and noodles. Don’t miss the Toro Roll and Tangerine Peel Beef. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/556-1688. $$

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Villa Rosano—9858 Clint Moore Road. Italian. You can be forgiven for imagining yourself in some rustic Italian hill town as the smells of garlic and tomato sauce waft through the air. Start by sopping up the house olive oil with slices of crusty bread, then move on to a stellar version of clams Guazzetto and delicate fillets of sole done a la Francese. • Lunch Mon.-Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/470-0112. $$

BOYNTON BEACH Driftwood—2005 Federal Highway. American. Driftwood consistently serves inventive dishes infused with chef Jimmy Everett’s fine-dining experience. It also stands out thanks to its dedication to guests, local purveyors and talented staff. Farm-to-table isn’t just a cliché saying here. Everett’s goal as a native South Floridian is to support local farms and fishermen by sourcing hyperlocal ingredients. The menu may change based on what’s available. • Dinner Wed.-Sun. 561/733-4782. $$ Josie’s Italian Ristorante—650 E. Woolbright Road. Italian. This cozy, family-owned restaurant is looking better than ever after a renovation that gave its dining room a more modern, elegant atmosphere in which to enjoy chef Mark Militello’s classic Italian fare. It’s easy to fill up on the hearty portions of its pasta and meat entrees, but be sure to save room for dessert to try the absolutely decadent sixteen layer chocolate cake. In the cooler months, opt for patio seating for waterfront views. • Lunch Mon.Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/364-9601. $$

Buzz Bite Summer Dining Months

his August, two of our summer dining campaigns kick off their highly anticipated deals. To support local restaurants during the summer’s slower tourism season, Dine Out Lauderdale and Miami Spice offer locals and visitors countless opportunities to enjoy specially crafted menus at affordable prices. It’s a chance to visit your favorite watering hole even more often, or treat yourself to a luxurious special-occasion restaurant without needing a special occasion to celebrate. Everything from Japanese to Italian to Vietnamese cuisines are featured, ensuring that everyone can find something to crave, so take your time perusing the extensive lists. Both culinary programs run through September and feature prix fi xe lunch and dinner menus, along with happy-hour bar specials. Don’t worry—the summer dining campaigns highlighting our Palm Beach County dining scene will begin in September with Flavor South Florida and Downtown Delray Restaurant Month. visitlauderdale.com/dineout; miamiandbeaches.com/deals/spice-restaurant-months

Nicholson Muir—480 E. Ocean Ave. Contemporary American. A historic cottage has been transformed into a whimsical Michelin-recognized steakhouse. The Argentine chef celebrates his heritage by cooking over live fire. There are several ways to enjoy Muir’s creations, including multicourse chef’s tasting menus and the classic à la carte. Regardless of how many courses you enjoy, be sure to save room for dessert. • Dinner nightly. 561/336-3977. $$$

Prime Catch—700 E. Woolbright Road. Seafood. Waterfront restaurants are few and far between in our neck of the woods, and those with good food are even more rare. Prime Catch, at the foot of the Woolbright bridge on the Intracoastal, is a best-kept secret. The simple pleasures here soar—a perfectly grilled piece of mahi or bouillabaisse overflowing with tender fish. Don’t miss one of the best Key lime pies around. • Lunch and dinner daily, Sunday brunch. 561/737-8822. $$

Sushi Simon—1628 S. Federal Highway. Japanese. It’s been called “Nobu North” by some aficionados, and for good reason. Local sushi-philes jam the narrow dining room for such impeccable nigirizushi as hamachi and uni (Thursdays), as well as more elaborate dishes like snapper Morimoto and tuna tartare. Creative, elaborate rolls are a specialty. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/731-1819. $$

—Christie Galeano-DeMott

and now he’s showcasing his talented take on Japanese cuisine at his namesake restaurant inside The Ray hotel. Born in Korea and raised in Colorado, Back blends his heritage with Japanese flavors and techniques he has mastered to deliver dishes that are unique to him. With plates made to be shared, the menu is divided into cold and hot starters followed by rolls, nigiri/sashimi, robata grill, mains and fried rice. Dinner. 561/739-1708. $$$$

here pairs beautifully with the small plates full of everything except sushi. No sushi. And that’s fine. Try the takoyaki (octopus balls), the crispy salmon tacos and anything with the addictive kimchi, such as the kimchi fried rice. There are pasta, teriyaki and simmered duck with bok choy dishes—or 16 varieties of yakitori (food on skewers). You’ll be back to beg for more. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/563-8849. $$

Amar Mediterranean Kitchen & Bar—25 S.E. Sixth Ave. Mediterranean. No longer a quaint

Bourbon Steak

bistro, this new version is buzzing with energy while still as charming and welcoming as ever. Dishes deliver solid, bright flavors that honor owner Nicolas Kurban’s Lebanese roots, as his family recipes take center stage alongside Mediterranean favorites that have been elevated with slight tweaks. On some evenings, there is belly dancing entertainment. • Dinner nightly. 561/865-5653. $$

Avalon Beach House—110 E. Atlantic Ave.

50 Ocean—50 S. Ocean Blvd. Seafood. The former Upper Deck

Contemporary American. This steakhouse was transformed into a chic coastal haven for seafood and lively cocktails. Its menu features a variety of casual dishes like ahi tuna poke, fish tacos, double smash burger and short rib ragu. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/593-2500. $$

at Boston’s on the Beach is now the more upscale, seafood-oriented spot. The menu ranges from familiar to slightly more inventive, from a classic lobster bisque and crisp-tender fried clam bellies to rock shrimp pot pie and baked grouper topped with blue crab. The cinnamon-dusted beignets are puffs of amazingly delicate deep-fried air and should not under any circumstances be missed. • Lunch Mon.-Sat. Dinner nightly. Brunch Sun. 561/278-3364. $$

Bamboo Fire Cafe—149 N.E. Fourth Ave. Caribbean. The Jacobs family joyously shares its Latin and Caribbean culture through food that’s bursting with bright island aromas and flavors. Tostones, plantain fries and jerk meatballs share the menu with curry pork, oxtail and conch. A quintessential Delray gem. • Dinner Wed.-Sun. 561/749-0973. $

Akira Back—233 NE Second Ave. Japanese. Chef Akira

Beg for More Izakaya—19 S.E. Fifth Ave.

Back’s Seoul restaurant earned a Michelin star a few years ago

Japanese Small Plates. The large sake, whisky and beer menu

DELRAY BEACH

1000 E. Atlantic Ave. Steakhouse. Acclaimed chef Michael Mina’s second outpost of his famous steakhouse features a sophisticated coastal aesthetic that’s both bright and relaxed. Start with Mina’s signature duck fat fries, then enjoy a USDA prime hormone-free steak or local fish dish that will be complemented by impeccable service. Dinner nightly. 561/656-8070. $$$$

Brulé Gastro-Kitchen—200 N.E. Second Ave. Modern American. After nearly two decades, chef-owner Suzanne Perrotto remains committed to using locally sourced ingredients, creating dishes that are both inventive and comforting, and offering warm hospitality. If you’re craving a juicy burger, try hers. You won’t be disappointed. The fish tacos and ceviche are also standouts. • Lunch and dinner daily, weekend brunch. 561/274-2046. $$

Burt & Max’s—9089 W. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American. This bastion of contemporary comfort food in west Delray is approaching local landmark status, forging its own menu while borrowing a few dishes from Max’s Grille, like the hearty chopped salad and bacon-wrapped meatloaf. Other dishes are variations on the comfort food theme, including a stellar truffle-scented wild mushroom pizza. • Dinner nightly. Sunday brunch. 561/638-6380. $$ July/August 2026 • • • • bocamag.com

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RECIPE

Caffe Luna Rosa—34 S. Ocean Blvd. Italian. This multiple Delray Beach-award winning restaurant has sparkling service, comfort food taken to a higher level, and a setting just steps from the Atlantic. A success from day one, they dish up big flavors in a tiny space, so call for reservations. Try the calamari fritto misto, then the rigatoni pomodoro and leave room for dessert. Or come back for breakfast. • Open daily from breakfast through dinner. 561/274-9404. $$ Campi Italian—233 N.E. Second Ave. Italian. The Ray Hotel’s Campi Italian exudes a warm, relaxing ambiance. It’s perfect for an aperitivo and excels in pasta. Contemporary glass chandeliers

illuminate its swanky bar and cozy rattan booths, while crisp white tablecloths adorn the tables. • Dinner nightly. 561/576-8366. $$$

Casa L’Acqua Ristorante Italiano—9 S.E. Seventh Ave. Italian. Casa L’Acqua is touted as a fine-dining establishment, and correctly so; diners can expect white tablecloths, tuxedoed staff and attentive service. The wine list is Italian-focused but does offer a variety of bottles from around the world, and each dish is expertly prepared with sizable portions. The main dining room, with its vibey bar and wine cellar, is cozy, and so is its fully enclosed patio in the back. • Dinner nightly. 561/563-7492. $$

Chez Henry’s—16850 Jog Road. American. This casual, unpretentious restaurant in the west part of town never fails to delight diners. Expect attentive service and crisp execution of everything—from meat loaf, burgers and fried chicken to flatbreads and hefty composed salads. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/638-1949. $$ City Oyster—213 E. Atlantic Ave. Seafood. This stylish mainstay of Big Time Restaurant Group serves up reasonably priced seafood that never disappoints, such as shrimp and grits with a jumbo crab cake. This is the place to see and be seen in

Mango Madness

This mango season, elevate how you indulge in Mother Nature’s nectarous treat with Le Colonial’s refined mango mousse recipe Written by CHRISTIE GALEANO-DEMOTT

t Le Colonial, mango is celebrated for its versatility and its ability to bridge sweet and savory. Across Southeast Asia, it is used at every stage of its maturation to add complexity to dishes. Use tart green mangoes in salads and relishes or add them to grilled fish or roasted chicken to brighten flavors. Semiripe mangoes are great for balancing spicy dishes like curries, and fully ripe, fragrant mangoes are best for desserts and drinks. Mangoes are grown in about 600 varieties around the world, and Florida is home to many of them. The team at Le Colonial suggests opting for Alphonso mangoes, which are best suited for ice cream, sorbet, and purées. 601 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach; 561/5661800; lecolonial.com

MAKRUT LIME CURD • 2 egg yolks • 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar • 1/3 cup lime juice • 2–3 makrut lime leaves (or finely grated lime zest) • 4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon unsalted butter MANGO MOUSSE • 1 cup mango purée • 2 tablespoons fruit purée (optional) • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt • 1 cup heavy cream • 1/3 cup powdered sugar • 1 1/4 powdered gelatin (or 2 gelatin sheets) WHITE CHOCOLATE GLAZE • 7 ounces white chocolate • 2 tablespoons neutral oil

GOLDEN SAIGON

COCONUT SPONGE Preheat oven to 340°F. Whisk eggs and sugar until fluffy. Add melted butter, coconut oil, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt, and shredded coconut. Divide into a muffin tin and bake until lightly golden, about 16 to 18 minutes. Cool completely. MANGO COMPOTE Combine mango, purée, sugar, and lime juice in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until fruit softens and mixture thickens slightly. The texture should remain fresh. Cool completely. MAKRUT LIME CURD Warm lime juice with the makrut leaves and allow to infuse, then remove the leaves. Whisk egg yolks and sugar, then gradually incorporate the warm juice. Return to low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat and add butter. Chill until set.

Serves 4–6

INGREDIENTS:

COCONUT SPONGE • 2 eggs • 1/2 cup sugar • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted • 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour • 1/2 cup shredded coconut • 1 teaspoon baking powder • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • Pinch of salt MANGO COMPOTE • 1 1/4 cups fresh mango, diced • 1/3 cup mango purée • 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar • 1 tablespoon lime juice

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METHOD:

MANGO MOUSSE Bloom gelatin in cold water. Warm a small portion of mango purée and dissolve gelatin into it. Combine with remaining purée, passion fruit, and yogurt. Whip the cream with powdered sugar to soft peaks, then fold gently into mango mixture. Use immediately.

ASSEMBLY:

Spoon a layer of mango mousse into muffin tin or small molds. Add a small amount of mango compote, followed by makrut lime curd. Cover with additional mousse, and place a round of coconut sponge on top, pressing lightly to level. Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours or overnight. GLAZE Melt white chocolate gently and stir in oil until smooth and fluid. Allow glaze to cool slightly before using. FINISH Unmold frozen desserts and invert so mousse forms a smooth surface. Place on a rack and pour glaze evenly over each piece. Finish simply, if desired, with toasted coconut, fresh mango, or a touch of lime zest.

TO SERVE:

Allow dessert to rest in refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes before serving. The texture should be soft, with defined layers and a balanced interplay of mango, coconut, and citrus.

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Delray, and the food lives up to its profile. • Lunch Mon.–Sun. Dinner nightly. Outdoor dining. 561/272-0220. $$

Coco Sushi Lounge & Bar—25 N.E. Second Ave., Suite 208. Asian. Local hospitality veterans Tina Wang and chef Jason Zheng continue to grow their restaurant empire with this concept. The extensive menu caters to any palate, dietary restriction or craving and features both traditional and creative dishes. Soups and salads lead into sushi selections and appetizers divided into cool and hot. Cooked and raw rolls are followed by rice, noodle, land and sea entrée options. • Dinner Mon.-Sat. Sunday brunch. 561/926-9434. $$

Cut 432—432 E. Atlantic Ave. Steakhouse. Hipper decor, a more casual vibe and an inventive take on steak-house favorites make this sleek restaurant just different enough to be interesting. Starters such as ceviche (prepared Peruvian style) and ultrarich oysters Rockefeller are first-rate, while the wetaged beef is appropriately tender and tasty. • Dinner nightly. 561/272-9898. $$$ DADA—52 N. Swinton Ave. Contemporary. You’ll find playful dishes that are artfully crafted and warm hospitality in this historic home. Start with its famous dates, and for a comforting dish that won’t disappoint, try the meatloaf. Its cheeky interiors are a nod to the namesake art movement, yet the home’s history is also reflected in its lived-in wood floors and stone fireplace. • Dinner nightly, brunch Sundays. 561/330-3232. $$

Deck 84—840 E. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American. Burt Rapoport’s ode to laid-back tropical dining is like a day at

the beach without getting sand between your toes. Though the restaurant is casual, the kitchen takes its food seriously, whether the stellar flatbreads, the thick and juicy 10-ounce special blend burger or homey seasonal cobbler. And the waterfront location just seems to make everything taste better. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Brunch Sat.–Sun. Dinner nightly. 561/665-8484. $

Drift—10 N. Ocean Blvd. American. Inside the Opal Grand Resort & Spa, the restaurant’s coastal décor is polished with warm woods, textured stone walls, rope detailing and living walls. The bar is spacious, and several nooks overlook the ocean and the buzzy Atlantic Avenue. The all-day menu covers all the bases. You’ll find easy dishes to snack on after the beach, or if you’re craving an extended Happy Hour experience, enjoy the cheese board, hummus, baked oysters and poke alongside casual burgers, flatbreads and salads. The entrées offer something for everyone, including chicken, steak, lamb and fish. Lunch and dinner daily. 561/274-3289. $$

Eathai—1832 S. Federal Highway. Thai. If you’re craving approachable and affordable Thai food, put Eathai at the top of your list. While you can expect to find curries, noodles, soups and fried rice on the menu, the dishes here aren’t the typical ones you’ll find around town. Indulge in the Thai Chicken French Toasted or Crispy Duck Breast with Lychee Curry Sauce or Oxtail Basil Fried Rice to savor the true talent of owner and chef Sopanut Sopochana. • Lunch and dinner daily, except Tuesday. 561/270-3156. $

El Camino—15 N.E. Second Ave. Mexican. This sexy, bustling downtown spot is from the trio behind nearby Cut 432 and Park Tavern. Fresh, quality ingredients go into everything

RESTAURANT DIRECTORY

from the tangy tomatillo salsas to the world-class fish tacos clad in delicate fried skin, set off by tart pineapple salsa. Cinnamon and sugar-dusted churros are the perfect dessert. And check out the margaritas, especially the smoky blend of mezcal and blanco tequila. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/865-5350. $$

Elisabetta’s—32 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian. An ornate Italian spot, with classically prepared dishes including spiedini shrimp, burrata de prosciutto bruschetta, costoletta di vitello (veal), a guanciale pizza, cacio e pepe pasta, malfadine Amatriciana and gemelli puttanesca. Portions are large and that, thankfully, goes for the homemade gelati, too. The best seating outdoors is the second-floor balcony overlooking Atlantic Avenue. • Lunch and dinner daily; weekend brunch. 561/560-6699. $$ Gabriella’s Modern Italian—40 N.E. Seventh Ave. Italian. Craveable, modern Italian American cuisine in a gorgeous space with a stunning circular bar and outdoor patio. The Parm Bar is the star of the menu, but there are several noteworthy supporting players like the housemade tagliatelle, meatballs and tiramisu. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/9163001. $$$

The Grove—187 N.E. Second Ave. Contemporary American. The Grove, which has been tucked inside the tranquil Pineapple Grove district for nearly a decade, continues to surprise diners with its vibrant dishes. The upscale but casually comfortable nook has an international wine list that spans the globe and a seasonal menu that’s succinct and well thought out. • Dinner Tues.-Sat. 561/266-3750. $$

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RESTAURANT DIRECTORY

The Hampton Social—40 N.E. Seventh Ave. American. The Hampton Social is known for its “rosé all day” tagline, but it doesn’t just slay its rosé; its food is equally as tempting. It does a standout job of incorporating its casual coastal aesthetic into not just its décor but also its menu, from its seafood-centric dishes to its droll cocktail names like the vodka-forward I Like It a Yacht. • Lunch and dinner daily, weekend brunch. 561/404-1155. $$

Il Girasole—2275 S. Federal Highway. Northern Italian. If you want Northern Italian in a low-key atmosphere, and nobody rushing you out the door, this is your spot. Start with something from the very good wine list. Try the yellowtail snapper, the penne Caprese and the capellini Gamberi, and leave room for the desserts. Reservations recommended. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/272-3566. $$

J&J Seafood Bar & Grill—634 E. Atlantic Ave. Seafood. This local favorite on Atlantic Avenue—owned by John Hutchinson (who is also the chef) and wife Tina—serves up everything from burgers and wraps to a menu brimming with seafood options. Don’t forget to inquire about the stunning array of 10 specials—every night. This is is a bona fide local goto spot that never disappoints. • Lunch and dinner Tues.–Sat. 561/272-3390. $$

Jimmy’s Bistro—9 S. Swinton Ave. International. Jimmy’s Bistro is a casual neighborhood concept serving consistently delightful dishes from a diverse menu that can transport diners to Italy with house-made pasta or Asia with its delicate dumplings and tender duck. • Dinner nightly. 561/8655774. $$$

Joseph’s Wine Bar—200 N.E. Second Ave. Mediterranean-American. Joseph’s is an elegant, comfortable, intimate nook in Delray’s Pineapple Grove, and an ideal place for a lazy evening. This family affair—owner Joseph Boueri, wife Margaret in the kitchen, and son Elie and daughter Romy working the front of the house—has all tastes covered. Try the special cheese platter, the duck a l’orange or the rack of lamb. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/272-6100. $$

Bao buns at Lulu’s

Happy Anniversary

Park Tavern celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2026. Hit it for brunch, or stop in right after on weekends for its “Between Brunch” menu from 3 to 4 p.m.

La Cigale—253 S.E. Fifth Ave. Mediterranean. Popular venue since 2001, with Greek and Italian dishes and more. Highlights are seafood paella, roasted half duck and grilled jumbo artichoke appetizer. Lots of favorites on the menu: calf’s liver, veal osso buco, branzino, seafood crepes. Nice outdoor seating if weather permits. • Dinner Mon.–Sat. 561/265-0600. $$ Latitudes—2809 S. Ocean Blvd. Modern American. You should come for both the sunset and the food. This oceanfront restaurant is a gem tucked inside the Delray Sands resort. From the airy, bubbly interior to the raw bar, the décor is soothing and fun. Try the lobster and crab stuffed shrimp, the miso-glazed Skuna Bay salmon, the branzino or the veal Bolognese. • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/278-6241. $$$ Le Colonial—601 E. Atlantic Ave. Vietnamese French. Le Colonial radiates classic elegance that is as sophisticated as it is comfortable. Created to showcase Vietnamese cuisine and its French influences, Le Colonial has a standout method of curating classic Vietnamese dishes that appeal to various palates, from meat lovers and pescatarians to vegetarians. The space immediately transports you back to Saigon’s tropical paradise of the 1920s. Lush birds of paradise and palms line the halls that lead into intimate dining nooks throughout the 7,000-square-foot restaurant.• Lunch (on weekends) and dinner daily. 561/566-1800. $$$ Lemongrass Bistro—420 E. Atlantic Ave. Pan-Asian. Casually hip ambience, friendly service, moderate prices and a

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blend of sushi and nouveau pan-Asian fare make this a popular destination. The quality of its seafood and care in its preparation are what gives Lemongrass its edge. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/567-0442. (Other Palm Beach County locations: 101 Plaza Real S., Boca Raton, 561/544-8181; 1880 N. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach, 561/733-1344). $

Lulu’s—189 N.E. Second Ave. American. Lulu’s in Pineapple Grove offers a relaxed ambiance with unfussy, approachable food. The quaint café is open every day and serves an all-day menu including breakfast until 3 p.m. and a selection of appetizers, sandwiches, salads and entrées that are ideal for an executive lunch, lively tapas happy hour, casual dinner or late night snack (until 2 a.m.). • Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 561/453-2628. $

MIA Kitchen & Bar—7901 W. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American. Owner Joey Lograsso and chef Jason Binder have curated a balanced choreography of fascinating yet approachable dishes. The menu travels the world from Italy to Asia and showcases Binder’s formal training with elevated dishes that are exceptionally executed. It’s vibey with a great playlist, and the design, reminiscent of a cool Wynwood bar, is industrial with exposed ducts, reclaimed wood and sculptural filament chandeliers. It’s a place that amps up all your senses. • Dinner Tues.-Sun. 561/499-2200. $$$ The Office—201 E. Atlantic Ave. Contemporary American. Your office is nothing like this eclectic gastropub, unless your office sports more than two dozen craft beers on tap and a menu that flits from burgers and fries to mussels. Don’t miss the restaurant’s winning take on the thick, juicy Prime beef burger and simply wicked maple-frosted donuts with bacon bits and two dipping sauces. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/278-3796. $$ Papa’s Tapas—259 N.E. Second Ave. Spanish. This family-owned restaurant will make you feel welcomed, and its cuisine will satisfy your craving for Spanish tapas. Start with a few shareable plates and then enjoy a hearty paella that’s bursting with a selection of seafood, chicken or vegetables. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., dinner Sun. 561/266-0599. $

Park Tavern—32 S.E. Second Ave. Contemporary American. Check out the high-top seating or bar stools during an excellent happy hour menu that includes deviled eggs, pork sliders, chicken wings and a happy crowd. Entrees are generous and well executed. Try the fish and chips, one of six burgers, fish tacos and more. • Dinner nightly. Brunch Sat.-Sun. 561/265-5093. $$

Rose’s Daughter—169 N.E. Second Ave. Italian. Chef-owner Suzanne Perrotto, who also owns Brulé Bistro, celebrates her family’s Italian roots and its beloved recipes here—especially when it comes to her house-made pizza and pasta. Perrotto’s famous short rib pappardelle was even featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Dinner Wed.-Sun. • 561/271-9423. $$

Sazio—131 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian. This long-lived venue on crowded Atlantic Avenue is a reason to sit down and take a breath. Then take up a fork and try the linguine with white clam sauce or the ravioli Sazio or grilled skirt steak or pretty much anything on the menu. Prices are reasonable; leftovers are popular. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/272-5540. $$

Table 165—165 N.E. Second Ave. Contemporary. The quaint Pineapple Grove restaurant is a contrast of moody drama and glowing cheeriness with its vintage Art Nouveau bar and dazzling adjacent dining room. Chef Coton Stine’s

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continued advocacy for locally sourced ingredients and her enthusiastic support for our Florida farms really shine here in dishes like the seafood rassa. • Dinner Wed.-Mon. 561/2663629. $$$

Taki Omakase—632 E. Atlantic Ave. Japanese. Taki Omakase, a shining example of omakase done right, has opened not one but two locations in our community (the other is at 1658 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton). It is pricy—an experience is more than $100 per person—but it’s worth it, with one caveat: You must enthusiastically love eating raw fish. Every night is different because it prides itself on importing fish, meat and seasonal ingredients from Japan that arrive daily. So, if you do pine for the delicacies of the sea, buckle in and get ready for the talented chefs at Taki Omakase to guide you through a culinary journey unlike anything else.• Dinner nightly, lunch hour Fri.-Sun. 561/759-7362. $$$$ Terra Fiamma—9169 W. Atlantic Ave. Italian. The pleasures of simple, well-prepared Italian-American cuisine are front and center here. Enjoy the delicate, pillow-y veal meatballs in Marsala sauce; lusty chicken Allessandro with mushrooms, spinach and artichoke hearts; and a finely crafted tiramisu that’s as satisfying as it is familiar. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/495-5570. $$

Tramonti—119 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian. In a world where restaurants chase trends with the relentlessness of Casanova in full Viagra heat, Tramonti stands out as a classic outpost of authentic Italian cookery. Not trendy hardly means stodgy, however, as evidenced by expertly crafted, robustly flavorful dishes like the signature spiedini di mozzarella Romana, spaghetti al cartoccio and braciole Napoletana. Torta della nonna is a triumph of the highly refined simplicity that lies at the heart of true Italian cuisine. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/272-1944. $$$

Vic & Angelo’s—290 E. Atlantic Ave. Italian. People watching is a staple ingredient here, a complement to the Italian fare. The wine menu is robust, mainly grounded in Italy but with choices from around the world. Larger than personal pies, thin-crust pizzas are family-friendly, while you won’t want to share the Quattro Formaggi Tortellini, fluffy purses filled with al dente pear and topped with truffle cream. For a protein, try the traditional chicken parmigiana, a hearty portion of paper-thin breaded chicken breast topped with a subtly sweet San Marzano sauce under a gooey layer of fresh mozzarella, and a substantial side of linguine pomodoro. If you have room for dessert, the classic sweets include cannoli and tiramisu. • Dinner nightly; brunch weekends. 561/278-9570. $$

FLAVOR PROFILES

LAKE WORTH BEACH Oceano Kitchen—512 Lucerne Ave. Contemporary American. Chefs and owners Jeremy and Cindy Bearman, James Beard-nominated toques who trained under rock stars such as Daniel Boulud and Joel Robuchon, have a talent for crafting a simple daily menu of ever-changing dishes that explode with flavors and are curated with thoughtfulness and the utmost detail. Genuine hospitality is at the core of their restaurant. Dinner Tues.-Sat. 561/400-7418. $$$ Paradiso Ristorante—625 Lucerne Ave. Italian. A Tomasz Rut mural dominates the main dining room, and there is also a pasticceria and bar for gelato and espresso. Chef Angelo Romano offers a modern Italian menu. The Mediterranean salt-crusted branzino is definitely a must-try. Plus, the wine list is a veritable tome. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/547-2500. $$$

LANTANA Malbec & More—802 N. Dixie Highway. International. This eight-seat jewel box features a spacious bar, perfect for enjoying one of its carefully curated, regularly rotated wine flights. Once seated, enjoy a pizza flight that pairs perfectly with a selection of its tapas. • Dinner Tues.-Sat. 561/585-0123. $

A Culinary Exploration Trying new restaurants and cuisines keeps life exciting. So, if you’ve been craving a culinary adventure, here are three local restaurants to explore that celebrate their heritage through food and are eager to welcome you in. Written by CHRISTIE GALEANO-DEMOTT

TBILISI CAFÉ

Named after Georgia’s (the country, not the state) capital city, this mom-and-pop concept serves traditional Georgian cuisine. The country, which sits at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, has a diverse history, including being part of the Soviet Union before claiming its independence in the early ‘90s. As a result, its cuisine features unique, flavorful dishes like khachapuri (a cheesy bread with an egg yolk) and khinkali, similar to soup dumplings. Georgia is also one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world, so be sure to pair your meal with a glass (or two). And if you’ve watched the newest season of The Drops of God, then you understand the hype.15200 S. Jog Road, Delray Beach; 561/332-3894

Khachapuri

ÇITIR TURKISH DONER KEBAB

This family-owned restaurant celebrates Turkish house-made fare, as reflected in its name: “Çitir” translates to crisp, fresh food. Be warned; it will be hard to choose, because all the comfort foods here are made to order, including the bread for its sandwiches, flatbreads, and wraps. Start with the hummus or Şakşuka eggplant dip before indulging in its famed halal-certified doner kebab meat, slowcooked on the rotisserie. 499 N.E. Spanish River Blvd., Boca Raton; 561/717-4663

5 BOYS HAITIAN RESTAURANT

Creole fare, influenced by Spanish, French, African, and Caribbean flavors, offers guests a true fusion experience. The specialty here is the fried fish, or pwason fri, served with bannann peze, or fried plantains, and pikliz, a spicy pickled relish that combines all the flavors into one crunchy yet tender, hot yet flavorful bite. Another option is the fried pork, or griot, which is slow-cooked, then fried, and served with similar sides. You really can’t go wrong. 2166 N. Dixie Highway, Boca Raton; 561/462-3696

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RESTAURANT DIRECTORY

Ravish Off Ocean—210 E. Ocean Ave. Interna-

HMF—1 S. County Road. Contemporary American. Beneath

tional. Ravish Off Ocean is a delightful dining experience less than a mile from the powdery sands of South Palm Beach. The coastal vibes are evident here with sea-inspired options like local fish ceviche, tuna tartare, fish tacos and a daily catch. • Dinner nightly, Sunday brunch. 561/588-2444. $$

the staid, elegant setting of The Breakers, HMF is the Clark Kent of restaurants, dishing an extensive array of exciting, inventive, oh-so-contemporary small plates. Don’t depart without sampling the dreamy warm onion-Parmesan dip with house-made fingerling potato chips, the sexy wild boar empanaditas, chicken albondigas tacos and Korean-style short ribs. The wine list is encyclopedic. • Dinner nightly. 561/290-0104. $$

The Station House—233 Lantana Road. Seafood. If you’re hungry for Maine lobster, plucked live out of giant tanks and cooked to order, this modest replica of a 1920s train station is the place to go. Lobsters come in all sizes (up to 6 pounds) and are reasonably priced. • Dinner nightly. 561/8015000. $$

PALM BEACH Acqua Café—2875 S Ocean Blvd. Italian. This quaint neighborhood restaurant serves quality Italian favorites with a coastal twist. It’s part of the Al Fresco Hospitality Group portfolio, which also includes Via Mizner’s legendary Renato’s.• Lunch and dinner daily, weekend brunch. 561/547-0005. $$$ Bice—313 Worth Ave. Italian. Bice continues to hold the title of favorite spot on the island. The venerable restaurant offers a marvelous array of risottos and fresh pastas and classic dishes like veal chop Milanese, pounded chicken breast and roasted rack of lamb. The wine list features great vintages. • Lunch and dinner daily. Outdoor dining. 561/835-1600. $$$

NOAH FECKS

Buccan—350 S. County Road. Contemporary American.

Burger and fries at Café Boulud

Casual elegance of Palm Beach meets modern culinary sensibilities of Miami at the first independent restaurant by chef Clay Conley. The design offers both intimate and energetic dining areas, while the menu is by turn familiar (wood-grilled burgers) and more adventurous (truffled steak tartare with crispy egg yolk, squid ink orrechiette). • Dinner nightly. 561/833-3450. $$$

Café Boulud—The Brazilian Court, 301 Australian Ave. French with American flair. This hotel restaurant gives Palm Beach a taste of Daniel Boulud’s world-class cuisine inspired by his four muses. The chef oversees a menu encompassing classics, simple fare, seasonal offerings and dishes from around the world. Dining is in the courtyard, the elegant lounge or the sophisticated dining room. • Dinner nightly. 561/655-6060. $$$

Always in Tune

Cafe Centro hosts live music Tuesdays through Sundays, including a Tuesday-night open mic and elegant sets from jazz pianist Copeland Davis and his trio on Friday and Saturday nights.

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Café L’Europe—331 S. County Road. Current International. A Palm Beach standard, the café has long been known for its peerless beauty, the piano player, the chilled martinis and the delicious Champagne and caviar bar. Try one of its sophisticated classics like wiener schnitzel with herbed spaetzle, grilled veal chop and flavorful pastas. • Lunch Tues.–Fri. Dinner nightly (closed Mon. during summer). 561/655-4020. $$$

Imoto—350 S. County Road. Asian Fusion/Tapas. Clay Conley’s “little sister” (the translation of Imoto from Japanese) is next to his always-bustling Buccan. Imoto turns out Japanese-inspired small plates with big-city sophistication, like witty Peking duck tacos and decadent tuna and foie gras sliders. Sushi selection is limited but immaculately fresh. • Dinner nightly. 561/833-5522. $$ Meat Market—191 Bradley Place. Steakhouse. “Meat Market” may be an inelegant name for a very elegant and inventive steakhouse but there’s no dissonance in its food, service or ambience. Multiple cuts of designer beef from multiple sources can be gilded with a surprising array of sauces, butters and upscale add-ons. Whole roasted cauliflower is an intriguing starter, while a meaty Niman Ranch short rib atop lobster risotto takes surf-n-turf to a new level. Cast your diet to the winds and order the dessert sampler. • Dinner nightly. 561/354-9800. $$$$

Renato’s—87 Via Mizner. Italian with continental flair. This most romantic hideaway is buzzing in season and quietly charming all year long with Italian classics and a Floridian twist—like the sautéed black grouper in a fresh tomato and pernod broth with fennel and black olives and the wildflower-honey-glazed salmon fillet with crab and corn flan. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/655-9752. $$$

WEST PALM BEACH Banko Cantina—114 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Northern Mexican. Start with the Adelita cocktail and don’t look back. The bacon-wrapped shrimp, the Al Carbon steak tacos and the house guacamole add up to a full-flavor dinner. The west-facing rooftop bar is a nice sunset option, and the Pan de Elote (homemade sweet cornbread with vanilla ice cream and berries) is a delightful end to the evening. • Dinner daily. 561/355-1399. $$ The Blue Door—5700 S. Dixie Highway. Mediterranean. The Blue Door’s vibrant hospitality welcomes you the moment you step through the arched, sapphire-hued entrance. Its lush landscaping and casual yet refined menu take you straight to the southern European coastline. • Dinner nightly. 561/360-2064. $$$

with the tastes of China, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam. The Chinese hot and sour soup is unlike any other, and the sake list is tops. This offsite property of The Breakers is managed with the same flawlessness as the resort. • Dinner nightly (during season). 561/802-4222. $$$

Café Centro—2409 N. Dixie Highway. Modern American. A cornerstone in the Northwood neighborhood, this venue draws because of a complete package: food, drinks and great nightlife and music. Take some char-grilled oysters, add shrimp pesto capellini or a marinated pork chop with polenta, plus local singing fave Tessie Porter, and you have a fun and delicious night out. • Lunch Mon.–Sat. Dinner nightly. 561/514-4070. $$

Henry’s Palm Beach—229 Royal Poinciana Way. American Bistro. Part of The Breakers’ restaurant properties, this venue opened in 2020 and is an elegant addition to The Island. Try the pigs in a pretzel dough blanket, beer can corn, the lobster roll, butter crumb Dover sole and chicken pot pie. All comfort food with a Palm Beach twist, and it’s all delicious. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/206-1896. $$$

French Corner Bistro & Rotisserie— 4595 Okeechobee Blvd. Classic French. It’s France in a tiny venue, with big-taste dishes that include all the faves: beef bourguignon, rack of lamb, duck à l’orange, frog legs Provencale, veal kidneys, tender branzino and simple desserts to end the meal. Reservations are mandatory for dinner. • Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. 561/689-1700. $$

Echo—230A Sunrise Ave. Asian. The cuisine reverberates

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RESTAURANT DIRECTORY

Grato—1901 S. Dixie Highway. Italian. “Grato” is Italian for “grateful,” and there is much to be grateful for about Clay Conley’s sophisticated yet unpretentious take on Italian cookery. Anyone would be grateful to find such delicate, crispy and greaseless fritto misto as Grato’s, ditto for lusty beef tartare piled onto a quartet of crostini. Spinach gnocchi in porcini mushroom sauce are a revelation, so light and airy they make other versions taste like green library paste. Don’t miss the porchetta either, or the silken panna cotta with coffee ice cream and crunchy hazelnut tuille. • Dinner nightly. Sunday brunch. 561/404-1334. $$

The House—7301 Georgia Ave. Modern American. Located inside The Park, West Palm Beach’s public golf course, The House has a bright contemporary aesthetic with massive floor-toceiling windows that spotlight the course’s natural beauty. The menu is approachable and offers something for everyone. It also features unique and interesting takes on dishes like spiny lobster corn dogs. • Lunch and dinner Wed.-Sun., weekend brunch. 561/530-3791. $$

EDUARDO SCHNEIDER

Lamarina—4050 N. Flagler Drive. Mediterranean. Pair sprawling mega-yacht views with shareable Mediterranean-inspired plates. Located at Safe Harbor Rybovich Marina, this waterfront restaurant features a seafood-focused menu. Try the Lamarina sushi roll for a flavor-packed experience, or choose the Maine lobster spaghetti, a savory dish that will satisfy. • Lunch and dinner daily. 561/371-8380. $$$

Macadamia Mahi Mahi at Oceans 234

At the popular French bistro, diners can order one entree and get a second, of equal or lesser value, for free on Sunday to Thursday nights.

DEERFIELD BEACH Chanson—45 N.E. 21st Ave. Contemporary American/ French. A little bit of Palm Beach, a little bit of Italy comes to Deerfield Beach in the form of this elegant, sophisticated restaurant in the oceanfront Royal Blues Hotel. Service is as stellar as the views from the cozy, modestly opulent dining room, notable for the 1,500-gallon aquarium embedded in the ceiling. Consistency can be an issue with the food, but when it is good it is very good. • Breakfast and lunch daily, dinner Tues.-Sat., brunch Sun. 954/857-2929. $$$

Oceans 234—234 N. Ocean Blvd., Deerfield Beach. Contemporary American. One of the only oceanfront (as in, on the beach) options in South Florida, this familiar-with-a-twist venue is fun to both visit and eat. Try the Infamous Lollipop Chicken Wings, a starter that could be an entrée. Seafood is definitely top-shelf, as are the desserts. A true Florida experience. • Lunch and dinner daily. 954/428-2539. $$ Tradition—626 S. Federal Highway. French. This is a petite place with a large following, for good reason. Owners Eric and Anais Heintz start meals with an amuse-bouche and a menu that spans the length of France. Order a creamy Caesar salad with a light anchovy-based dressing. Try the coq au vin (sauce cooked for two days), and if you like calves’ liver, this is the best you’ll find in the area. End with a Grand Marnier soufflé (worth the 15-minute wait), and make your next reservation there before going home. • Dinner Mon.-Sat. 954/480-6464. $$

Leila—120 S. Dixie Highway. Mediterranean. Flowing drapes and industrial lighting complete the exotic decor in this Middle Eastern hit. Sensational hummus is a must-try. Lamb kebab with parsley, onion and spices makes up the delicious Lebanese lamb kefta. • Lunch Mon.–Fri. Dinner Mon.–Sun. 561/659-7373. $$

LIGHTHOUSE POINT

Marcello’s La Sirena—6316 S. Dixie Highway.

Cap’s Place—2765 N.E. 28th Court. Seafood. Eating

Italian. You’re in for a treat if the pasta of the day is prepared with what might be the best Bolognese sauce ever. • Dinner Mon.–Sat. (closed Memorial Day–Labor Day). 561/585-3128. $$

here requires a boat ride, which is very SoFla and terrific for visitors. This is one of—if not the only—family-run, old-Florida seafood restaurants you’ve never heard of, open since the 1920s. The heart of palm salad is the best and purest version around. Seafood abounds; fish can be prepared nine ways and much more. (There are non-seafood dishes that are done well, too.) Go for the short boating thrill and for the food. • Dinner Tues.-Sun. 954/941-0418. $$

Pink Steak—2777 S. Dixie Highway. Steakhouse. This steakhouse offers plenty of choice cuts and classic chophouse appetizers, such as Caesar salad and shrimp cocktail, but don’t miss the other noteworthy options, like sushi and beef tartare. The pink-hued space is accented with tropical murals, plush avocado-green booths, plume-like chandeliers and plenty of flamingoes. It’s undoubtedly a vibe. • Dinner nightly, Sunday brunch. 561/557-9083. $$$$

BOGO at Pistache

Broward County

Pistache—1010 N. Clematis St., #115. French. Pistache doesn’t just look like a French bistro, it cooks like one. The menu includes such bistro specialties as coq au vin and steak tartare. All that, plus guests dining al fresco have views of the Intracoastal Waterway and Centennial Park. • Brunch Sat.–Sun. Lunch and dinner daily. 561/833-5090. $$

Rhythm Café—3800 S. Dixie Highway. Casual Amer-

Le Bistro—4626 N. Federal Highway. Modern French. The menu is modern and healthy—98-percent gluten-free, according to chef Andy Trousdale and co-owner Elin Trousdale. Check out the prix-fixe menu, which includes pan-roasted duck to beef Wellington. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 954/946-9240. $$$ Seafood World—4602 N. Federal Highway. Seafood. This seafood market and restaurant offers some of the freshest seafood in the county. Its unpretentious atmosphere is the perfect setting for the superb king crab, Maine lobster, Florida lobster tails and much more. Tangy Key lime pie is a classic finish. • Lunch and dinner daily. 954/942-0740. $$

ican. Once a diner, the interior is eclectic with plenty of kitsch. The crab cakes are famous here, and the tapas are equally delightful. Homemade ice cream and the chocolate chip cookies defy comparison. • Dinner Tues.–Sun. 561/833-3406. $$

Table 26°—1700 S. Dixie Highway. Contemporary American. Take a quarter-cup of Palm Beach, a tablespoon of Nantucket, a pinch of modern American cookery and a couple gallons of the owners’ savoir faire, and you have Eddie Schmidt’s and Ozzie Medeiros’s spot. The menu roams the culinary globe for modest contemporary tweaks on classically oriented dishes. Try the fried calamari “Pad Thai.” • Dinner nightly. 561/855-2660. $$

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PLACE OF HOPE’S CHAMPIONS FOR CHILDREN RUNWAY EVENT

WHERE: The Boca Raton

WHAT: After a four-week fundraising period, Place of Hope celebrated its biggest giving campaign yet with the Champions for Children Runway Event. In the lead-up to the event, 15 Champions for Children were tasked with outreach, advocacy, and fundraising, ultimately bringing in more than $600,000 to benefit Place of Hope’s programming that provides essential services to children in foster care or who are experiencing homelessness, and to survivors of human trafficking. The Runway Event was co-chaired by Sean Dunn, Catie Feder, Allison Stewart, and Haley Winstead, who oversaw a program that included a runway fashion show with pieces from Michelle Farmer, Mister Pink, J.R. Dunn Jewelers, and Elegant Child. Sponsors included The Boca Raton, Rochelle LeCavalier, Moss Construction, Tony and Robin Solo, and many more.

1: Christina Grace, Jenna Martone 2: Ivana, Owen, David, and Josephina Shoultz 3: Trish and Charles Bender, Will and Kelly Fleming, Tony and Kathryn Woods, Lisa McDulin 4: Emilia and Lauren Silverman, Nikki Stelzer

5: Craig and Emily Jaffe 6: Daniel Hostettler, Stacey Werner, Chelsea Cordner, George Divel, Howard Werner 7: Phoebe Wilkerson, Dominika Jedrzejewska, Michelle Farmer, Cricket Cope, Ariana Hinrichsen, Laura Azevedo, Zlata Kotmina 8: Monika Wroblewska, Rochelle LeCavalier, Seth Burrell 9: Justin Ely, Joe and Gina Glasgow, Corinne Heyl 10: Luke and Karissa Murphy 11: Meryll and Eva Bangsil, Charles Bender 12: Natalie Batmasian, Michelle Farmer 13: Rebecca D’Emic, Jim Garrett 4

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GEORGE SNOW SCHOLARSHIP FUND’S COWBOY BALL WHERE: Boca West Country Club WHAT: Showing up in boots certainly didn’t ruin this black-tie affair. The George Snow Scholarship Fund’s annual rhinestone-studded bash returned for its 32nd year to raise funds for deserving local scholars. Guests enjoyed an evening of honky-tonk tunes, line dancing, and celebrating community members that have furthered the scholarship fund’s mission of helping students pursue higher education. Awardees during the night’s festivities included Community Service Award recipients Steve and Debbie Schmidt, and Corporate Community Service Award recipient the Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation. The highlight of the evening came when Snow scholar Laila Amro took to the stage and shared how she is attending Florida Atlantic University thanks to the support of the George Snow Scholarship Fund. Sponsors included Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, The Addison, James and Marta Batmasian Family Foundation, Mike and Vicki Drews, Boca magazine, and more.

1: Line dancing with Fred Astaire Dance Studios of Boca Raton 2: Troy McLellan, Zoe Lanham

3: Paige Kornblue, Glenn Glazer 4: Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric L. Bradshaw 5: Linda Paton, Liz Hagensick 6: Glenn Glazer, Sean Ragone, Nancy Dockerty 8: Snow scholar Laila Amro 9: John Clidas, Tim Snow, Haley and Brad Winstead 10: Robin Deyo, Debbie and Steve Schmidt, Tim Snow 11: Dorothy MacDiarmid, Ryn Deyo, Robin Deyo 12: Caroline Johnson, Christen Ritchey 13: Marta and James Batmasian

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GINA FONTANA; J.SIMMONS PHOTOGRAPHY

7: Kyle and Kate Stewart

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YMCA OF SOUTH PALM BEACH COUNTY’S INSPIRATION BREAKFAST

WHERE: Peter Blum Family YMCA

WHAT: The YMCA of South Palm Beach County’s signature annual fundraiser returned for its 24th year for a morning of inspiration. Author and burn survivor John O’Leary served as keynote speaker for this year’s iteration, delivering a memorable and powerful address to the crowd of nearly 500 guests. “John left us all inspired, energized, [and] reminded of the power of resilience, community, and purpose,” said YMCA of South Palm Beach County Trustee Linda Paton. The event raised more than $365,000, which benefits the Y’s mission of strengthening community bonds and activating local youth.

1: Terrific Turtles Preschool Class

2: John O’Leary MASTERWING CREATIVE AGENCY

3: Nicole and Mark Grimes 4: Steve Haskins, Terry Fedele 5: Pearl Percy, John O’Leary 6: Alana St. John, Adam Hasner, Jillian Hasner, Michael Graffin 7: Jason Hagensick, Rosie InguanzoMartin, Paul Adkins

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BOCA WEST CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION’S ARTHUR ADLER MEMORIAL GOLF CHALLENGE

WHERE: Boca West Country Club

WHAT: Hundreds of local golfers split off into foursomes and hit the links to raise funds in support of Boca West Children’s Foundation’s mission of providing assistance to children and families in need. Named in honor of foundation founder Arthur Adler, the Golf Challenge brings together representatives from a slew of local organizations for a friendly tournament across Boca West’s four 18hole courses. The tournament’s traditional Duck Drop returned, with rubber ducks dropped from 40 feet onto the green, and the owner of the numbered rubber duck closest to the pin going home with a $2,500 prize. New at this year’s tournament was the PopStroke Indoor Putt Challenge, where donors, participants, and sponsors could face off. This year’s tournament champions were the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County in first place, the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County in second, and Fuller Center in third.

1: Joel Macher, Howard Boilen, Mike Sneider, Aubrey Strul, Stu Steckler 2: Education Foundation Golf Foursome 3: Ken Schwebel, Jeanine Banks, Joel Macher 4: Mike Brennan, Christina Irving, Richard Zenker 5: Neil Saffer, Ed Tierni, Matt Linderman, Charles Bender, Pam Weinroth 6: Christine E. Lynn, Shea Ciarletta, Jan Savarick 7: Dr. Nathan Nachlas, Jonathan Price 6

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MEN GIVING BACK’S BACKYARD BATTLE

WHERE: Boca West Country Club

WHAT: Men Giving Back’s annual Backyard Battle returned for its sixth year for an evening of golf, axe throwing, cornhole, air hockey, and more to give members time to enjoy each other’s company outside the context of fundraising and board rooms. “Men Giving Back was founded on the idea that philanthropy should be both meaningful and fun,” said William “Billy” Marino, Men Giving Back board member and Backyard Battle event organizer. “Our members are passionate about supporting the community, and events like this strengthen the friendships and connections that make that impact possible.” Since its founding in 2020, Men Giving Back has awarded more than $3.5 million to local nonprofits through its Golden Grants.

1: Billy Marino, Ed Ventrice, Dr. Nathan Nachlas, Bill Donnell 2: Peter Triolo 3: Doug Mandel, Josh Freedman 4: Jared Niles, Steven Frankel 5: Mark Abrahams, Matt Custage 6: Jarred Elmar, Stu Morris 7: Jonathan Frechter, Marc Woolf

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OPENING OF “INSIGHTS VIII: CREATIVITY AND THE BIPOLAR BRAIN” ART EXHIBITION WHERE: Florida Atlantic University’s Ritter Art Gallery

WHAT: The Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation celebrated its 21st anniversary with an art exhibition of works created by artists living with bipolar disorder. Presented by FAU’s Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute and the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the exhibition provided a perspective on how these neurodivergent artists perceive the world while raising awareness and researching early-onset bipolar disorder.

1: George Elmore, Marti LaTour, FAU First Lady Jillian Hasner, FAU President Adam Hasner 2

2: FAU Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters Associate Professor of Voice Mitchell Hutchings, DMA, Chris Redding, Serena Spates 3: Joe and LeeAnne LaBanz, FAU StilesNicholson Brain Institute Executive Director Randy Blakely, Ph.D. 4: FAU Schmidt College of Medicine Dean and Chief of Health Affairs Dr. Lewis Nelson, Marcia Mithun and Doug Mithun 5: Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation Founding Director and President Joyce Licht Sang, FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute Executive Director Dr. Randy Blakely, Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation Founding Director Dusty Sang

July/August 2026 issue. Vol. 46 No. 6. The following are trademarks in the state of Florida of Palm Beach Media Group, and any use of these trademarks without the express written consent of Palm Beach Media Group is strictly prohibited: Savor the Avenue; Tastemakers of Delray; Tastemakers at Mizner; Florida Style and Design; Delray Beach magazine; Boca Raton, South Florida At Its Best; bocamag.com; Florida Table; Boca Raton magazine. Boca (ISSN0740-2856) is published 9 times a year (September/October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May/June and July/August) by Palm Beach Media Group. Editorial, advertising and administrative offices: 1000 Clint Moore Road, Suite 103, Boca Raton, FL, 33487. Telephone: 561/997-8683. Please address all editorial and advertising correspondence to the above address. Periodicals postage paid at Boca Raton, Fla., and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: $24.95/8 issues, $34.95/16 issues (shipping fee included for one- and two-year rates). Single copy $6.95. No whole or part of the content may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission of Boca magazine, excepting individually copyrighted articles and photographs. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Boca magazine, P.O. Box 820, Boca Raton, FL 33429-9943.

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EAU RESORT & SPA Everything flows at Eau Resort & Spa. Close to home and set along seven acres of private oceanfront in Palm Beach, Eau is an intimate retreat shaped by rhythm, light, and ease. Thoughtfully designed spaces led by the calming of the ocean, award-winning dining, and transformative wellness experiences invite guests to reconnect with what feels essential — sun, sea air, and time well spent.

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INTERCOASTAL WEALTH PLANNING, LLC Intercoastal Wealth Planning is a financial planning firm that focuses on guiding clients through challenging markets, understanding their risk and other Life transitions. Working with clients who are accumulating wealth as well as business owners who need to understand how to turn their life‘s work into their retirement income stream. We have a new location at 6751 North Federal Highway, Suite 400, Boca Raton. Call us for an appointment at 561.210.7339. Securities offered through J.W. Cole Financial (JWC) member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through J.W. Cole Advisors, Inc. (JWCA). Financial planning, insurance, and tax services offered through Bay Financial Planning and Tax Services, LLC DBA Intercoastal Wealth Planning, a Registered Investment Adviser, Bay Financial Planning and Tax Services, LLC and JWC/JWCA are unaffiliated entities.

Serving South Florida 561.210.7339 intercoastalwealth.com

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BRANDED CONTENT

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2026 HONOREES George Long Award

CP Group, Angelo Bianco

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Research Park @ FAU, Andrew Duffell

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Daniel Hostettler, The Boca Raton

CELEBRATING BOCA’S FUTURE

FOR EVENT AND SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT BOB TUCKER, 522BTUCKER@GMAIL.COM OR 561 - 289 - 0436 Magazine Partner

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SPEED BUMPS

Marie Speed

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Summer in the City

A few personal thoughts about the year gone by from the very good to the very bad—and everything in between Written by MARIE SPEED

nly in South Florida would I think of doing a year-in-review in July/August, just a little past the midpoint of 2026. But we may as well. For all intents and purposes, this mind-numbing stretch of blazing heat and white skies is the giant pause button for ordinary life here. It’s too hot to go outside after 10 a.m. The only sound is whirring air conditioners and a lone mourning dove. All the people with real lives are at their second homes in the Rockies, and the rest of us are huddled around Netflix new releases like refugees around a food drop. So I am going to entertain myself by summing up some of my favorite (and not-so-favorite) parts of the past year, when the world was alive and we saw each other in person and we were not in this infernal holding pattern called summer. My favorite events: The fussy floral enchanted garden of a ladies-who-lunch luncheon hosted by Zoe Lanham at The Addison for the George Snow Scholarship Fund. She pulled out all the stops, from high tea to party favors.You could cut the estrogen in the air with a knife. Also: The annual Celebration of the Arts at Lynn University, which I swear on the graves of Rodgers and Hammerstein is nothing short of fabulous; it is one of my don’t-miss events of the year. I also loved the brilliant spring Perfect Polo Day tailgate hosted by Michael Bacchiocchi and catered by Potions in Motion with a never-ending supply of Veuve Clicquot and really good hats. Then there was the elegant retirement party for Mary Csar at the original Cloister at The Boca Raton, which managed to assemble almost all of my favorite Old Boca people in one room. And there were more, of course, like all those Sunday matinees when I met my movie girls at the Premier Club for Chardonnay and popcorn, a year-round tradition. I will not share the names of the movies we see, but they might involve dinosaurs and megalodons.

Or Downton Abbey, of course. We have a tacit agreement to avoid anything critically acclaimed. I loved the winter we had, even if my drafty little house couldn’t hold the heat. Those cold mornings when steam rose off the ocean like smoke, and I had to wear my 1996 Gators Championship sweatshirt to walk the dog, because after 35 years here, I have no adult sweaters. (And no leggings. I hate those stinky black leggings everyone else loves.) We also had no hurricanes. Not even a close shave. And the best news? Alligator Alcatraz is shutting down. And, finally, there were reports of flamingos returning to Florida. But there were terrible things this past year, too, even aside from the nightmare of American politics. The Gators had a mediocre year, Randy Schultz retired from Boca magazine, and the City of Boca Raton released brilliant and valuable assistant city managers Jorge Camejo and Chrissy Gibson for no earthly reason. And then we elected a whole new city council with no prior experience. Old School Square in Delray is still not its old self, and its garage now makes you pay to park. And all those things are just a footnote to the towers rising all over Boca, bumper-to-bumper rush hour on I-95, wedge salads that cost $34, and Scott Singer inviting the rest of New York to move here. I have decided, however, to focus on what was good and what I look forward to in the year to come. I know that in another month or so there will be no more shared posts on Facebook about everyone else’s lavish European vacations (thank you, Lord), and the weather will start to calm down right about when the Spirit Halloween stores pop up. College football season is only weeks away, and the midterm elections are coming right up. (I am hoping for a real New Year around November 3, but that’s just me). The South Florida I love will shake off these summertime blues, open stone crab season, and come roaring back on the heels of a cold snap before we know it. And that can’t come soon enough.

5/28/26 12:24 PM

CHAMPION

Full charge ahead. THE ALL NEW CAYENNE.

Champion Porsche 500 West Copans Road Pompano Beach, FL 33064 954-946-4020 championporsche.com

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