New restaurant alert: See what ex-Joe’s Stone Crab chef is cooking up in Fort Lauderdale

Chef André Bienvenu has bid adieu to his longtime gastronomic home, the iconic Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach, in order to surf-and-turf-it with his own Catch & Cut venture in Fort Lauderdale.

He couldn’t be more thrilled about going out on his own with the new, 9,618-square-foot, two-story restaurant — cool and fashionable upstairs with a more formal downstairs — set to take over the Las Olas spot that formerly housed The Balcony on Monday, Jan. 20.

“I wake up at 2 in the morning, I wake up at 3 in the morning, I wake up at 4 in the morning. But I’m loving it. I’m really excited about this,” Bienvenu tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Of course, he misses the tight-knit community of Joe’s Stone Crab, a canonical culinary touchstone where he helmed the kitchen for the past 26 years.

“Yeah, I’ll be honest with you, it’s like a relationship that ended too early,” he explains. “It still hurts. The family of Joe’s is dynamic. You know, the employees are unbelievable. Joe’s is truly a unique restaurant in this country … from the way they treat their employees to the way they treat their guests, to the way the (Weiss) family at Joe’s never puts themselves first. It’s always the employees first and the customer second. … You know, people talk the talk all the time — they walk the walk every day.”

But the Broward County resident says he just couldn’t take any more of the traffic snarls.

“The commute just got too difficult,” Bienvenu recalls. “I live out in west Pembroke Pines and I was spending four hours a day commuting. And I just felt like I wasn’t giving (Joe’s) the attention that they needed.

“But I have nothing but high praise for that restaurant, to the point where I call almost every day to see how things are going, because I had a staff of 130 employees and they’re family to me.”

CATCH & CUT’S CULINARY CONCEPT

As the name implies, Catch & Cut’s menu will focus on seafood, premium stone crabs, sushi and USDA prime steaks from Allen Bros., a Chicago institution since 1893 known for artisanal hand-cut aged steaks.

“The culinary direction, to me, is simplicity. It’s simple dining with a little upscale twist to it,” Bienvenu says. “There’s nothing worse than when you go to a restaurant and everybody’s on their phone trying to Google what the ingredients are. I’ve always said most of my ingredients you can buy at Publix. It’s simple cuisine, hopefully done well. I’ve had that philosophy all my life.”

Highlights on the menu will include:

• APPETIZERS — Surf & Turf Meat Balls that comes with Maine lobster, beef tenderloin, charred tomato confit and truffle crumbs; Crispy Wrapped Shrimp with lemon ponzu sauce; Pemaquid Black Mussels with Fra Diavolo sauce and a Dip Trio featuring crab pico, lobster hummus, onion dip and served with chips.
• THE CATCH MENU — Alaskan King Crab (1.5 pounds) you can have chilled or broiled with garlic chive butter; Maine Lobster Tail (10-12 ounces) either broiled or popcorn style with garlic lemon aioli; Sea Bass seared with steamed shrimp, clam and coconut curry sauce; Mediterranean Branzino roasted with artichokes, oven-dried tomatoes and olive tapenade; Mahi blackened with a roasted corn reduction and salted popcorn salad and Faroe Island Salmon Miso glazed with pickled cucumber onion salad.
• THE CUT MENU — Center Cut Filet Mignon (8 ounces); Prime New York Strip (14 ounces); Prime Bone-In Ribeye (20 ounces) and Chef’s Wagyu Cut of the Day.
• THE LAND AND SEA ENTREES — The Steak Burger (8 ounces) served with seasoned steak fries; 48-Hour Chicken brined and fried naked; New England Hot Pot with lobster, clams, shrimp, corn, sausage, potatoes and clam broth; Maine Lobster Roll with chips and Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes with artichoke caper remoulade.

“I’ve been to the California cuisine in the ’80s. I’ve gone through the whole molecular gastronomy. I’ve gone through all these different trends. And to me, dining is a social part of the community,” he says. “Don’t be intimidated by the food by any means. We got some staple items, but then we’ve got some new items you’ve never seen before. But still, they’re very simple dishes.”

LAS OLAS LOCATION

Catch & Cut is on the slightly less-buzzy, less-touristy stretch of Las Olas Boulevard, where locals are more likely to visit.

“We chose this spot because, first of all, I think it’s on the Las Olas strip, which I think has a very good reputation, but it’s not on the main street,” Bienvenu says. “We’re a little bit off the beaten path, you know? I don’t have to compete with everybody else on the other tip of Las Olas. So we’re kind of at the end of it.”

A little retail-and-restaurant enclave just east of Himmarshee Canal and west of The Isles, Bienvenu’s new venue sits smack-dab in the middle of the Colee Hammock neighborhood.

“We got a great community behind us. Lots of homes,” he says. “I walk out of here in the morning at 8, 9 in the morning, I see people walking their dogs or riding their bikes. They’re running. And it reminds me of a restaurant that I worked at in Chicago that was very much part of the community. … I wanted us to be the focal point. And I think we’re going to achieve that pretty well here.”

BIENVENU’S VIEWPOINT

Catch & Cut was not part of some carefully laid out objective, Bienvenu says.

“This is something that I didn’t plan for, but it came about a year and a half ago, actually. And I’m excited,” he adds. “I think we’ve got a really good team in place. I like the concept that we’re shooting for. I really like the philosophy. We’re a little bit older management staff and our goal is to really bring hospitality back to where I think it needs to be. I’ve just seen too many restaurants come and go, and the connection and the personality is not there. Hopefully I can translate that into this restaurant.”

Even the name wasn’t set right away. “We had a couple of different names. We were going back and forth,” he says. “We like Catch & Cut. It gives us a little bit of room for growth down the road with other concepts.”

And his intentions go a little further: becoming a go-to spot for dining, drinks and socializing.

“I’m looking forward to meeting new people. I’m looking forward to having new names in my phone. We’re not an upscale restaurant. We’re a neighborhood restaurant, part of the community. That’s what I want to be,” he says. “I want you to come here and get a great burger one night. And the next night, you might come in and get the king crab or the stone crabs or whatever. But I want you to think: Let’s go to dinner tonight, let’s go to C&C, Catch & Cut. That’s what I want.”