Jan NorrisPair with decades of hospitality experience to open a restaurant in the downtown area soon.
The CulinArchy Project, a chophouse, is getting its final finishes and is expected to open soon in the old Locale spot in downtown Lake Park.
Though it’s a new restaurant for the two owners, they have 57 years of experience in the hospitality business between them.
Most of those for both have been at Okeechobee Steakhouse.
Jamie Steinbrecher was a chef there for 12 years before moving to its sister restaurant in Jupiter, the Lewis Steakhouse. In between, he has worked at restaurants throughout Palm Beach County.
Christina Wishart, his business partner and front-of-house manager at CulinArchy, began as a hostess at the famed steakhouse in 1994 and worked her way up to general manager, leaving this year to begin the Lake Park restaurant.
Despite their backgrounds, they want to make it clear the new restaurant is a bar and modern chophouse.
“It’s an eclectic menu. We’re meat-forward, definitely, and we’ll offer a couple steaks, but we’re not a traditional steakhouse. We’re not a Porterhouse-and-baked-potato restaurant,” Steinbrecher said.
A theme of ‘culinary anarchy’
The name CulinArchy reflects the slight veer away from the old-school methods, he said.
“It’s a play on words: ‘culinary anarchy.’ Where tradition meets rebellion. Kind of a nod to where we’ve been and where we’re going.
“And I like referring to it as a project. I think a lot of successful restaurants and businesses are. It’s a constant attention to details and working to stay relevant.”
But it’s approachable, from the door to the check, he said. And the menu is “eclectic but not weird.”
Girl Dinner, grouper cheek fish and chips
Unusual meats such as elk will be on the list, as well as an Iberico pork chop. “It’s the best pork you can buy: Spain’s Iberico pork,” he said.
Unexpected takes on familiar foods include a pork belly served pastrami-style, with grain mustard for an appetizer.
A beet-cured salmon is another starter, served with boursin, herbs, chive oil and a crostini.
There’s a smash burger on the main menu, as well as fish and chips — made from grouper cheek meat. “The best,” Steinbrecher said.
Also on the menu is the Girl Dinner — a Caesar salad, black truffle fries, and a martini or glass of Prosecco.
“I wrote the menu in 2021, just after COVID,” Steinbrecher explained. A lot of the food and drink reps he listened to told him of the popularity of the “girls night out” meals.
“It’s the most popular meal in the restaurants now,” he A dark interior sports a hand-painted steampunk mural on one wall and flocked wallpaper all around. (Photo: Courtesy of Wendy Seale Photography)
said.
A taste for everyone at the table
Sharing dishes for the table is the other trend.
“That way, everybody gets a variety,” Wishart said.
Diners can order a few apps and one or two entrees to share and still get out for $30 or $40 each, Steinbrecher said, depending on their drinks.
The mission overall is to appeal to the modern diner, both said.
That’s “chef-inspired, hospitality-driven,” Wishart said. “We’re going to give the guest an experience of a home away from home.”
Though statistics show restaurant dining overall has been uneven since COVID, “people still go out to eat,” Steinbrecher said. But, he added, they’re going out for an experience as much as food and drink.
Hospitality is key, and Wishart will bring her experience serving everyone from celebrities and notables to the everyday farmers coming from out west for a steak dinner.
“It’s going to be a great environment where the employees are valued,” she said.
“They’re going to want to be here.”
‘Elegant without pretentiousness’
The restaurant is small, and seats only 58 in the dining area in banquettes along a wall and at tables, separated by a short wall from the bar. Seating at the bar and outdoors brings it to around 100 seats overall.
A dark interior sports a hand-painted steampunk mural on one wall and flocked wallpaper all around. Crystal chandeliers hang throughout.
“We want to be elegant, without pretentiousness,” Steinbrecher said. “It looks nice, but we don’t want to be intimidating.”
The price point will be reasonable, he said. “We really are going to offer the details of a $150 steak dinner for a $60- to $80-check.”
A “solid” happy hour is part of the plan, daily. “We’ll have half off wine and spirits, except top-tier alcohol, at the bar and outside patio,” Wishart said. A separate menu will be available with specials during the 4-6 pm service.
A 60-label wine list is heavy with reds, to match the meats, Wishart said. “Old World French and Italians.” A few domestics are included in reds and whites, including the buttery chardonnays still popular with many.
While the menu is finished and the website is active, a few more construction details, along with a permanent sign and final permits, are needed before opening.
For now, there’s self-parking, but that may change if traffic warrants it, Steinbrecher said.
It may happen sooner rather than later, he said.
“Already the locals are driving up on their golf carts, banging on the windows asking when we’re going to open. They say they can’t wait. They tell stories from when it was Locale and Brick & Barrel, too.”
First, they tried to find a West Palm place
The restaurateurs chose Lake Park after a nine-month search for a property, mostly in West Palm Beach.
“We really wanted to be in West Palm but couldn’t find anything available,” Wishart said. “We wanted to be along or near the U.S. 1 corridor.”
Steinbrecher said that’s where diners are. “Wellington diners will come east, but diners who live east won’t go west to a restaurant.”
They also needed a second-generation building, one that required minimal work to get it going.
“We were not going to do a full build-out,” Wishart said. “We wanted to have the least amount invested to get the fastest payback.”
Lake Park also had the advantage of the new Nautilus 220 condo nearby, and a lot of people moving to north county, she said.
While it’s a risk to bring a new restaurant with less visibility than on U.S. 1, the strip featuring the Brewhouse Gallery and the Mos-Art theater is seeing new life.
New businesses have opened in the past two years along the Park Avenue strip and the adjacent 10th Street corridor. The completion of a two-story building next door to CulinArchy will offer another new restaurant to the downtown.
Two 16-story apartment buildings also have been proposed but not yet approved by the town.
The number of new restaurants nearby also helped them choose the spot on Park Avenue.
“We feel this area is really going to take off,” Wishart said.
Steinbrecher is optimistic about the chophouse’s chances as well. Along with a solid business plan, and doing or overseeing most of the work themselves, “I think we’ve made a lot of good decisions.”
CulinArchy at 748 Park Ave. will be open 4-10 pm daily. Reservations are being handled online through Resy. Though they can’t pinpoint an exact day, an early August opening is planned. Check the website for opening day updates.
