REINVIGORATING FOOD & SERVICE

Palm Beach Post
March 13, 2009

Those at ZED451 set out "to create something truly unique," according to Daniel Harf, chief brand officer for Tavistock Restaurants, which developed the concept.

Although the restaurant incorporates some aspects of locally popular Brazilian steakhouses, Harf says, "We've taken the whole dining-out experience and looked at it differently."

To understand, he says, think of a party at your own home. You invite your friends into your kitchen where you have some favorite music you've recorded in the background. You pour a drink, have a few bits of charcuterie on the counter along with some choices of cheese that you offer as you toss a few interesting salads. Guests relax and help themselves.

Then you move into the yard where you light the grill and cook a few steaks and perhaps some fresh-caught fish. Guests taste a bit of this and a little of that.

Now translate that experience into a restaurant, and you have ZED451, Harf says.

The Harvest Tables replicate what you might serve your guests in your kitchen. Here you help yourself from charcuterie, cheeses and small platters of interesting salads. The platters hold about four servings of salads that are frequently replenished to look fresh and new.

Options might include spicy fruit salad; wedges of Bibb lettuce; and wild rice and pumpkin seed salad with orange and cranberry dressing. Comfort food sits alongside what Harf describes as more "edgy" options.

You won't see a chafing dish or sea of ice anywhere on these buffet tables. The cold food is kept cool on refrigerated slabs of marble, and the hot foods such as soups are in homey La Cocotte casseroles set on induction burners covered with smooth black stones.

You'll also see river stones on your table. A dish of them. When you are ready for your entree, place one by your plate. That's the signal for a chef complete with toque to stop by your table to offer you a taste of what he's carrying on a swordlike skewer or small platter.

People love it when the chef finds time to come into the dining room and talk to them, Harf says. At ZED451, the chef not only stops to talk but to discuss and carve a selection of entree.

"You decide if you'd like to sample it or not," Harf says (small tongs at your place setting let you help yourself from his platter or skewer).

The dish might be 35-day-aged Greg Norman, Australian Wagyu that is cooked and sliced to order, braised short ribs served with creamy horseradish sauce or tempura-battered mahi mahi in orange glaze served with mango salsa. Each evening there are 15 entrees from which to choose, says Steve Byrne, director of culinary operations.

Another part of the concept: Your meal is prix fixe ($33 for the Harvest Tables; $55 for Harvest Tables plus entrees; dessert ordered from a menu is additional).