Pictured: Salad at Cafe Martier
It’s a new and improved and much larger Caffe Martier (411 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/450-6169) with the five-year-old eatery’s recent expansion into the next-door space once home to Gol! churrascuria. Along with the dramatic increase in space and style (think bistro tables, a bar and fountain under a towering pitched ceiling), comes live jazz several nights a week, a juice bar and dinner menu with dishes like pecan-crusted tilapia with asparagus and butternut squash and chicken francaise with asparagus and roasted potatoes.
The local brewing scene took a big step forward with the debut over the weekend of Barrel of Monks (1141 S. Rogers Circle, 561/510-1253) in Boca Raton. The labor of love of a trio of Belgian ale fanatics, BofM will brew (and sell) only Belgian-style ales from a facility that’s a awful lot nicer than the funkier digs of other area brewpubs. If you want to check ‘em out, they’re open Wednesday through Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 9 p.m.
Well, that didn’t take long. . . The disappearance of 100 Montaditos from CityPlace, that is. It seems the Florida branch of the Spanish-based company has filed for bankruptcy, halting ambitious expansion plans and shuttering several of the company’s 17 Florida outlets. Also defunct is Garage VV, an eclectic eatery in West Palm’s burgeoning Northwood neightborhood. Good word of mouth and an enviable pedigree—the restaurant was part of the Little Moir restaurant group—apparently weren’t enough to keep the doors open. Nobody ever said the restaurant business was easy.
