The owners of Avalon Steak & Seafood say you can expect a new take on the old steakhouse when they open on the dining/drinking enclave of Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach.
“If all goes well, we expect to open Feb. 23,” says Antonello Paganuzzi, director of operations.
And when they do so, not only will the look and feel be the antithesis of what many think of as a steakhouse, the menu will also be radically different.
“The way we do them now, which is the newer approach, when it comes to ... getting that crust of the steak through searing instead of killing it under a broiler,” explains Curt Huegel, president and founder of Host Restaurants, which is bringing Avalon to 110 E. Atlantic Ave., formerly Casa L’Acqua Ristorante Italiano/Deco Drive Cigars.
You can start to make reservations on Feb. 10 via OpenTable.com. For more information, go to AvalonDelray.com.
Paganuzzi, who previously worked for Le Cirque and the Maccioni family, adds, “What we perceive as a steakhouse 10 years ago as opposed to what we perceive as a steakhouse now is a steak charred with quite a lot of butter on it. But what we are doing here is searing the steak instead and lock in all the flavor of the steak. We brush it with butter, just a little bit of finishing butter, but we don’t want to drown it in butter.”
The restaurant’s name comes from the mystical island of legend where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur was forged and where the hero of Medieval literature was taken after battle to magically heal his wounds.
The look
The design is also radically different, more sunny seaside eatery than dimly lighted clubby retreat.
“The words we used ... were ‘approachable elegance,’ ” recalls Huegel. “There’s a comfort to it.”
The 5,200 square foot location will — with coronavirus protocols — be able to accommodate 102 diners indoors (including barstool seating) and 64 outside on the raised and covered porch area and at the sidewalk bistro tables.
The aesthetics were inspired by Delray Beach’s reputation as a “high end beach town” with a little Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard and the Keys thrown in for good measure. That translates into a naturally lighted, sleek look with soft neutrals and oceanic blues behind coastal art and vertical gardens.
“Steakhouses in the past were more, I don’t know, more of a manly dark kind of restaurant,” explains Paganuzzi. “This is much more of a brighter feel.”
The menu
Paganuzzi says the fare will be, “More of a lighter style. We will have a seafood section, a crudités section.”
The kitchen will focus on serving steaks, beef, seafood and poultry with all the latest cuisine buzzwords attended, such as sustainably sourced, organic, grass-fed and they say the offerings will be free of hormones, steroids and antibiotics.
Some of the dishes on the menu will include:
- Filet mignon, 28-day dry-aged prime ribeye and a 36-ounce tomahawk for two.
- Seafood including 32 ounce aged bone-in “tuna ribeye”; whole-roasted fish of the day; “Angry Lobster” (with fermented house sriracha, ginger, Pullman toast) and scallop carpaccio (with huckleberry agro dolce, spiced cashew, citrus segments, basil oil and marigold).
- Light entrees for health-minded or vegetarians such as roasted cauliflower (with tahini, herb vinaigrette, goat cheese and basil) as well as kimchi fried rice.
The average check should be in the $70-$75 dollar range, considering there will be options ranging from quarter-ounce steaks to vegan dishes.
Huegel — a 30-year veteran restaurateur with brands in his resume ranging from Scarpetta and Rebar to Campagnola and Printers Alley (in Nashville) — says, “Everyone comes in with an idea in their head of what a steakhouse is, even though we’re trying to do something different. We are looking to have a [variety of dishes] across the board that will allow us to be better than that old school steakhouse that shoves stuff down your throat in order to fill out the check.”
Why Delray Beach?
“Everyone in New York is looking to build restaurants in Florida,” says Huegel. “We started the process before everyone jumped into the mix. We were down there so we had a little bit of an edge on people.”
They started looking around the state about five years ago, but started getting serious about the Delray Beach market over the last two years, looking at the space on Atlantic Avenue (next to Rocco’s Tacos and Tequila Bar) 10 months ago.
And of course, COVID-19 caused delays from permits to getting “furniture shipped in. It’s crazy how global the pandemic is. Just getting chairs delivered is a big deal,” says Paganuzzi.
He adds that while they looked at other areas that they say were very tempting, such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Jupiter and even Naples, they felt that Delray Beach was the right vibe.
Paganuzzi, who has lived in Fort Lauderdale and Davie for 12 years, recalls, “I saw this avenue and this community getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I told Curt that this market is going to be a beast in a few years. It’s got a lot of diversity, with Boca, West Palm, Pompano, all feeding into it.”
