What does South Florida taste like? Find out during Locals Dinner at Driftwood
What is South Florida cuisine? It’s a question loaded with debate from different viewpoints, histories and ethnicities. It’s what makes the region so interesting.
But no chef has a better handle on the ingredients that come out of South Florida soil and seawater than Jimmy Everett, the owner of Boynton Beach restaurant Driftwood and a native who grew up fishing on area waterways. Combining local ingredients and preparing them in a thoughtful way is what he does best.
Those skills will be on display at Driftwood’s second annual Locals Dinner on Monday, May 19, a multicourse, communal dinner that celebrates the end of the traditional South Florida harvest season and showcases the bounty that the region’s farmers, fishers and producers have to offer.
The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with a cocktail hour that includes welcome bites and a complimentary drink. The dinner — a “farm-forward” tasting menu served to about 65 to 70 guests at communal tables — begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are available, but unlikely to last: Cost is $125 a person, with an optional beverage service for $50.
Along with locally caught seafood, the dinner will include contributions from Quincey Cattle Co. in Chiefland; Keely Farms Dairy in New Smyrna Beach; Holman’s Harvest, Gratitude Garden Farm and McCoy’s Florida Honey in Loxahatchee Groves; Charmed Life Farm in Loxahatchee; Kai-Kai Farm in Indiantown; 5150 Chocolate Co. in Delray Beach; and Munyon’s Paw-Paw in Palm Beach Gardens.
‘It’s connecting people with their local food source, which I think there is way too little of.’ — Driftwood owner Jimmy Everett
Chef Jimmy Everett will shine a spotlight on South Florida farmers, fishers and producers during the second annual Locals Dinner on Monday, May 19, at his Boynton Beach restaurant, Driftwood. (Atlantic Current Media/Courtesy)
A meal created from regional ingredients and served to a gathering of area residents is not the only way Monday’s event earns its name: Everett’s guest list for Locals Dinner will include a couple dozen farmers, fishers and other folks who have produced the items on your plate. You may find yourself seated with a chocolatier on one side and an oyster farmer on the other.
Everett happens to be one of the most respected chefs in South Florida, having trained at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, then opening restaurants in New York, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
Also on his resume are stints at Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Marea on Manhattan’s Central Park South, Wylie Dufresne’s Lower East Side landmark WD-50 and, locally, Giovanni Rocchio’s revered Valentino Cucina in Fort Lauderdale.
During the event, Everett and partner Tommy Coombs will introduce each course, discuss its inspiration and offer the person in the room who is responsible for its ingredients the opportunity to speak about it.
“People were really intrigued. They wanted that,” Everett says of guests at last year’s inaugural dinner. “It’s connecting people with their local food source, which I think there is way too little of, in general. Just people understanding what goes into the food that they eat.”
There’s something in it for the producers, too, Everett says.
“Last year we had a bunch of the growers, fishermen, our oyster farmer, our mushroom guy. A lot of them know of each other and have heard of each other, but they’ve never actually met. And it’s all communal seating so they’re chit-chatting it up and talking about collaborating. It was just a really cool event,” he says.
Local farmers also rarely get a chance to eat their own product in a restaurant, Everett says. They are too busy to go out during the growing season, and when they have time, their ingredients are no longer available.
“We’re giving the producers an opportunity to see what we do with the food that they produce, to actually be able to see it in a restaurant,” Everett says. “We’ve worked on the menu for, like, two months. So it’s very thoughtful. A lot of thought was put into each course.”
The Locals Dinner menu currently features raw Treasure Coast oysters and crudo made with local fish; soft shell crab (with green mango, tamarind, salsa umami); Holman’s Beet Agnolotti (with hazelnut brown butter, dry-aged Charmed Life duck yolk, Munyon’s Paw-Paw and citrus); Quincey Cattle Oxtail au Poivre (with crispy potatoes and Gratitude Garden mushrooms); Florida Peach Cobbler (with ice cream made with cream from Keely Farms Dairy, plus McCoy’s honey); and a 5150 bonbon.
But it is an evolving document, and serendipity will rule right up until dinnertime, as Everett is constantly coming across new ingredients and inspiration. He was just given a bunch of local tamarind (“which is not very common”), and a connection in Davie is bringing him mamey, which he plans to turn into a caramel for 5150 Chocolate to add to the bonbons.
“The lady that we get our duck eggs from, she has a mulberry tree, so she is sending her 12-year-old daughter up into the mulberry tree twice a week for the last two weeks to get us enough mulberries,” Everett says, admitting he’s not sure yet what he’s going to do with the berries.
“It’s been a work in progress. We have the main structure of the menu, just to be able to promote it. But there’s definitely some vagueness, to be able to see where it goes,” he says.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Second annual Locals Dinner
WHEN: 6 p.m. Monday, May 19
WHERE: Driftwood, 2005 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach
COST: $125 per person (service fee & sales tax not included); optional beverage pairing is $50
