Our favorite arts & crafts festival is returning to downtown Delray Beach this weekend, fit with plenty of beer and wine.
This year, there will be three beer and wine gardens at the 57th annual Delray Affair, which takes place on busy Atlantic Avenue from the Tennis Center to the Intracoastal. It’s the largest arts and crafts festival in the Southeast US, and has a huge number of food and drink vendors to match.
Stop by for some McManis wines or some craft beer at Old School Square, Fourth and Atlantic Avenue, or at Seventh and Atlantic Avenue. The festival runs Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Musical chef chairs continue
In Delray Beach, Addison Reserve Country Club’s Executive Chef Zach Bell is joining Chef/Owner Clay Conley in his Ember Group, which owns Palm Beach’s Buccan, Imoto and Buccan Sandwich Shop and West Palm’s Grato. Bell started his SoFla career when he opened Café Boulud on Palm Beach for Daniel Boulud. Both Bell and Conley have been recognized multiple times by the James Beard Foundation. The Ember Group partners also include Piper Quinn and Sam Slattery.
The recently opened Hai House (in late 2018) has lost Executive Chef James Strine to Wellington’s Trophy Room, where he will oversee the New American menu there. Strine’s career also includes working for Clay Conley at Buccan and Grato, and at Café Boulud. There has not been an executive chef named to replace Strine, but the menu has been revised by well-known SoFla Chef Kenny Tang in a “collaboration” with Collab Hospitality. That includes an emphasis on dim sum and Chinese-American breakfast dishes at the new Sunday brunch menu—which kicks off with Easter brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also note Hai House is starting summer hours after Easter.
