Summer restaurant guide: Best new places to eat in Palm Beach County, plus critic's choice picks
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Summer is no longer the dead season in Palm Beach County, which has become a year-round place to live, visit and dine out.
New restaurants are popping up all over the place, many of them with outdoor patios for soaking up summer.
So, if you've missed the must-try dining destinations or new restaurants we've announced, here's a your handy guide to summer dining.
This list will be updated throughout the summer. Check back as we add more.
Best summer restaurant deals in Palm Beach County, includes kids-eat-free
Summer restaurant specials have started to trickle in. Pretty soon, they’ll become a downpour of deals, and in this sticker-shock era, that’s a welcome thing.
Here's a range of summer specials already announced, from north to south county.
Hot summer restaurant deals: Eateries in Palm Beach County, includes kids-eat-free
Popular Mexican restaurant El Camino opens in downtown West Palm Beach
Delray Beach’s popular El Camino Mexican restaurant swings its doors open today at The Square plaza in downtown West Palm Beach and hosts its grand opening weekend through the 4th. The new spot serves lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and two daily social hours (late afternoon and late-night).
Must-go: Popular Mexican restaurant El Camino opens at The Square in WPB
Brooklyn's Pig Beach BBQ debuts in West Palm Beach
Two years after Brooklyn’s Pig Beach BBQ rolled out a series of smoky pop-ups in West Palm Beach, the brand has opened its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in the El Cid neighborhood. The big debut was June 30.
Menu offerings include cherry and hickory-smoked brisket, smoked pork shoulder with hatch vinegar sauce, barbecue sandwiches (including a smoky jackfruit sandwich), blackened fish sandwich, fried chicken and burgers (including the Double Smash Burger that won the Burger Bash championship at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival last year). Plus there’s smoked fish dip, plenty of cookout side dishes, salads and sweets.
Read all about: Brooklyn's Pig Beach BBQ debuts in West Palm Beach
Yelp names 8 restaurants in Palm Beach County 'Best Places to Eat in Florida'
Eight Palm Beach County restaurants earned a spot on Yelp’s inaugural “Top 100 Places to Eat in Florida” list, the crowd-sourced review site announced this summer.
Yelpers raved about the fresh fish at Boca Raton’s Poke Jay Hawaiian-style restaurant, number 16 on the list.
'Best Places to Eat in Florida': Yelp names 8 restaurants in Palm Beach County
Have you heard of the birria taco craze? Here are five Mexican restaurants for the best decadent tacos
In a realm where comfort food, cheese-pull snapshots and glammed up street dishes coincide, birria tacos are king.
Although the most traditional Mexican birria tacos, those popularized in Jalisco state, are filled with stewed goat that’s cooked low and slow, most local renditions here are stuffed with long-simmered, chile-scented beef birria.
Birria, we should note, refers to the stewed and shredded meat, not the taco. The word itself translates loosely to “worthless mess.” But while these tacos can be messy, they’re far from worthless.
The birria buzz: Five best Mexican restaurants for decadent tacos in Palm Beach County
Looking for the best meat markets for you summer cookouts? Best local butcher shops
In a county where outdoor cookouts happen year-round, it may not seem like a big deal that Memorial Day weekend is considered the start of grilling season. But it is the last national holiday weekend before our summer swelter kicks in – reason enough to fire up the grill.
And if you’re seeking butcher-quality meats to toss on the grill, you have some good local options, markets stocked with holiday-worthy cuts.
Grilling guide: Best meat markets, butcher shops for your summer cookout
Don't feel like grilling? Here's our critic's choice for the best barbecue restaurants right now
Meat-loving grill masters in the local dining industry have been banking on our collective appreciation of barbecue. The past couple of years have brought us a good batch of new and expanded ‘cue concepts.
Critic's choice: Best barbecue restaurants
Okeechobee Steakhouse sister restaurant debuts
West Palm Beach’s iconic Okeechobee Steakhouse recently welcomed a new sister steakhouse in suburban Jupiter. It’s the first time the Okeechobee family has opened a steakhouse in nearly 75 years, says third-generation owner Ralph Lewis.
“We’ve opened a few other restaurants, but this is the first venture into another steakhouse. It’s exciting for my family and for myself,” he says.
Lewis Steakhouse which serves dinner and happy hour nightly, has transformed the former Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant space in the Chasewood Plaza, located on the corner of Central Boulevard.
Opening: Okeechobee Steakhouse sister restaurant debuts in Jupiter
The SoSo debuts as West Palm Beach's new 'fast-fine' restaurant
The SoSo, the casual eatery dreamed up by a couple of childhood buddies, made its quiet debut in mid-April on South Dixie Highway in West Palm’s South of Southern neighborhood.
Owners Kye Akavia and Alex DiSchino, who grew up in the neighborhood, structured the airy and surprisingly spacious spot as a “fast-fine” restaurant. That translates to plenty of tasty, chef-driven options that are made to order but served in the time it takes to savor a few sips of wine.
They've breathed new life into a 1960s-era building on South Dixie Highway, giving it a clean, modern look: crisp-white walls, blonde woods, light mauve-pink seating and pops of lush greenery (by local plant expert/purveyor Garden Girl West Palm Beach).
Mini-restaurant critic's review:: Favorite dishes at The SoSo, West Palm's new 'fast-fine' eatery
Double Roads Tavern and other favorite restaurants find life after closing
The bad news: Your go-to neighborhood restaurant has closed. The good news: It’s reopening nearby. Such is the bright side of some pandemic-time closings in Palm Beach County, where various restaurants have found there can be new life many months later.
Relocated: Double Roads Tavern and other favorite restaurants find life after closing
Liz Balmaseda is The Post’s food and dining writer. She also writes the free weekly newsletter “At the Table,” for which you can sign up here. On Instagram, she’s @silkpalm. If you’re on Facebook, check out The Post’s dining page @PostonFood.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Summer guide: West Palm Beach's new restaurants, critic's choice
