By Susan Bryant
Food photography by Kelly Sterling, portraits by Felipe Cuevas
Adrienne Grenier
3030 Ocean
3030 Ocean is undergoing a rebirth. The 16-year-old establishment, known for setting the bar for fine dining in Fort Lauderdale, recently underwent a three-month-long renovation, freshening its dining room with ocean-inspired textures, colors and maritime accents. Despite the restaurant’s physical makeover, 3030’s newly appointed executive chef, Adrienne Grenier, is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the culinary masterminds (Dean James Max and Paula DaSilva) that previously helmed its kitchen.
“I think 3030 has always maintained a consistent presence in the area, known for doing elegant seafood,” says Grenier, who grew up in nearby Hollywood. “It’s been a really close family of chefs working together, from Dean to Paula to me.”
Grenier launched her career at 3030 in 2005 as a line cook before leaving for stints in Los Angeles and again alongside DaSilva at 1500° at Eden Roc Resort Miami Beach. She returned to 3030 two years ago, but not before being crowned champion of the cooking competition show, “Chopped,” in 2012.
“I received such a wonderful foundation of cooking knowledge from both Dean and Paula, as well as a strong leadership spirit,” Grenier says of her predecessors. “They are really where I got my style of cooking from.”
Grenier’s farm-to-table menu showcases a mix of seasonal and signature dishes such as snapper crudo, charred octopus, Jackman Ranch bone-in rib-eye and, for dessert, a tropical fruit tart with guava sorbet.
The expanded bar/lounge area, which has been reconfigured to filter out the lobby noise, serves innovative cocktails such as the Cranberrylicious Margarita and Gingerbread Man Martini.
With all of 3030’s changes, there are a few touches Grenier will not let go by the wayside, namely the white-tablecloth service and exceptional ingredients. “I like to take the freshest products available and not manipulate them too much,” she says, “allowing the ingredients shine on their own.”
3030 Holiday Drive, Fort Lauderdale; 954.765.3030; 3030ocean.com
“I think it’s important to strike a balance between keeping it simple and making the plates look beautiful.” —Adrienne Grenier
Philip Darmon
Hardy Park Bistro
Two years ago, when Philip Darmon resigned from porthole galleys after cooking on international yachts for more than a decade, he didn’t want to return to his Aussie homeland. Instead, he and his wife, Jessica, moved to Fort Lauderdale to create a new American bistro in an intimate, 40-seat spot that had previous incarnations as a barbecue joint and a Greek diner. What they created was Hardy Park Bistro, the quintessential neighborhood restaurant, where it’s not unusual to see Darmon and his staff poking their heads out of the kitchen window to greet customers.
“We’re trying to fill a void in the Fort Lauderdale market of small, chef-driven restaurants,” Darmon says. “There are not a lot of places to go for a $24 entree with good European technique and lovely, attentive service. We’ve formed a little niche, but we’re attracting a broad range of people.”
For dinner, Hardy Park Bistro offers daily blackboard specials that accompany a weekly menu of five starters and five entrees. Diners can expect to find such items as country pork terrine, Thai green curry, braised short ribs and crisp salmon.
“If we stay the same, we’re dead,” Darmon says, who added breakfast service over the summer. “We’re going to keep our foot on the gas, and we’re not going to slow down.”
Darmon attributes his yachting experience to his eye-catching presentations and luscious desserts, such as saffron-infused poached pears with house-made cardamom ice cream and pound cake.
“We let ingredients shine on their own,” he says. “No fuss. You’ll be able to taste every one of the ingredients and all the flavors coming together.”
21 SW Seventh St., Fort Lauderdale; 954.652.1475; hardyparkbistro.com
“Our restaurant is loud and fun. It’s intimate, so people stick their head in the kitchen all the time. We’ve made a lot of friends that way.”
—Philip Darmon
Lauren DeShields
Market 17
You might call Aaron and Kirsta Grauberger pioneers. When the brother-and-sister duo opened Market 17 five years ago, most people didn’t even know what farm-to-table meant. “People thought we were a health-food restaurant or vegan. They were fearful,” Aaron says.
Nowadays, the proliferation of this concept has helped, not hurt, them with competition. “It extends the network of people farming down here,” Aaron says. “There’s also recognition. It took a while for people to recognize that we were a forward-thinking restaurant.”
They now source from 25 Florida farms, including one in Davie they lease, which lowers their carbon footprint. “At the beginning, we had people foraging for us, but it was a challenge to find what we needed,” Aaron says. “We would call up, and people would laugh at us. Now, farms and distributers are actually seeking us out.”
When searching for an executive chef, the Graubergers recruited Lauren DeShields, who had honed her skills with Dean James Max at 3030 Ocean before leaving to work in San Francisco and then returning to South Florida to work alongside Max at his Singer Island restaurant.
Noted for her rustic yet refined style, DeShields has created a menu filled with house-made charcuterie and wild game like grilled emu, alongside possibilities such as grass-fed beef tartare, Florida sunray venus clams and Key West pink shrimp. “Keep it simple, keep it fresh,” she says. “You don’t want to mask flavors. If you have a perfect ingredient, why mess it up?”
1850 SE 17th St., Suite 109, Fort Lauderdale; 954.835.5507; market17.net
“I like my dishes to look beautiful, but it’s got to make sense. It’s got to have balance to it.”
— Lauren DeShields
Toby Joseph
Wild Sea Oyster Bar
When Wild Sea Oyster Bar & Grille debuted nearly three years ago at the Riverside Hotel, the menu was daring, yet hopeful.
“We wanted to blow Fort Lauderdale away with an unforgettable experience,” says Toby Joseph, who has been executive chef of the Riverside Hotel for the past six years. “We had pig ears and beef cheeks, and Fort Lauderdale wasn’t ready for that. So we adjusted to what people were familiar with.”
A graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, Joseph found his love of cooking at an early age at his father’s delicatessen in Cape Cod. After stints at prestigious restaurants in Houston and Philadelphia, Joseph arrived in Fort Lauderdale.
His familiar—yet still adventurous—cuisine translates to Maine mussels cooked with beer; monkfish loin with grits and smoked Gouda; and hickory-smoked pork shank. His seafood-centric modern American menu changes every couple of months with sustainable and organic ingredients, along with cocktails such as a house-infused jasmine vodka martini and a Bacardi 8 Old Fashioned with house-made coffee bitters and Drambuie. A raw bar serving up to eight varietals of East and West Coast oysters leads to the sleek dining room anchored by a wine cellar and blue sea-creature light boxes.
“The heart of it is giving someone an experience with simplicity,” says Joseph, who was previously the head chef at the St. Regis, Fort Lauderdale (now The Ritz-Carlton). “Seafood is such a delicate flavor, and a beautiful piece of hog snapper doesn’t need a lot to go with it. My style is ‘less is better,’ such as my octopus dish with a little smoky flavor from the bacon.”
620 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; 954.467.2555; wildsealasolas.com
“We’re a crisp, clean, elegant restaurant that fits the cuisine we present. I wanted to bring a little Cape Cod to South Florida.” —Toby Joseph
Originally appeared in the Winter 2015 issue.
