The Jupiter Grill is bringing a coastal steakhouse vibe to Harbourside Place, the downtown destination for dining, retail, entertainment, boating and hotel stays.
And helming the kitchen for this culinary concept is the winner of season 9 of Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” in 2011, chef Paul Niedermann.
“When you’re sitting on the water, on the inlet, you feel like you’re transformed into another kind of restaurant feel. And that’s kind of where my ideas for the menu and the layouts came from,” says Niedermann, a Boca Raton resident who grew up in Davie. “If we’re a traditional steakhouse on the water that’s this close, and we’re not tapping into that resource, it’s gonna fail.
“At the end of the day, people in Jupiter — and people in Florida, in general — they like to be outside, they want the breeze.”
Successfully navigating the perils of the Fox-TV reality show competition meant that Niederman won a stint at the now-shuttered BLT Steak in Manhattan for a year, before continuing with the company opening BLT Steak venues around the country for the next four years. After making subsequent cameo appearances on “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Florida native and Johnson & Wales University grad returned home and took over chef duties at Delray Beach’s Hudson at Waterway East (also closed) and both Salt7 locations in Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
The 8,000-square-foot Jupiter Grill, which opened April 29, is the newest project from restaurateur Dave Magrogan (Harvest Seasonal Grill, Lantana Cabana, Atlantic Avenue Yacht Club) and operating partner Dan Morris (Smith & Wollensky).
For Magrogan, having a “coastal steakhouse” means paying equal attention to both menu categories and keeping the fare light but buzzworthy.
“There’s a lot of steakhouses you go to where there’s great steaks and then here’s your salmon choice or here’s your one other fish choice or here’s some scallops, and the fish is more of a dumping to handle for that guest that’s not interested in steak,” Magrogan says. “Although we have an amazing steak menu and our butcher block sector in the menu is absolutely fantastic, we also have just as interesting of a seafood raw bar option. We wanted something that felt like it was a premium steakhouse but also had the coastal elements. You can look out the windows and see the mangroves and the water.”
Here’s more about The Jupiter Grill in excerpts from a question-and-answer session Niedermann, Magrogan and Morris. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What makes Chef Niedermann a good match for The Jupiter Grill?
Magrogan: Because he’s very like his cuisine: He’s approachable. He’s humble. He’s a very talented chef, but he’s a very approachable chef. And in all my years in restaurants, I’ve never been a chef, but I’ve always, hopefully, identified what consumers are looking for. And I try to always put myself in the consumers’ (shoes). … I think that Chef falls at an amazing place in his career right now, where he can sit in a room and allow opinions about food to be open, and we all come up with what’s best for the guests. And that’s not always possible with chefs, especially chefs as talented as Paul.
Q: What makes Palm Beach County so attractive to your company?
Magrogan: I think Dan and I both experienced … the negative of the Northeast; the way they handled COVID was particularly damaging to restaurants. But what we see in Florida is the same thing everybody is seeing … we see that people want to move here for the lifestyle, for the opportunities, for the weather. Then you have a whole base of tourism that comes down and likes to spend money. And then you have the snowbirds who like to live here for part of the year. So there’s always the group of consumers, whether that’s a regular Florida resident that loves going out and has a little bit more balance to their life. The thing I’ve noticed about Florida … they live just a little bit more, they enjoy going to a 3 o’clock happy hour. Up north nobody’s going to 3 o’clock happy hour. It just doesn’t happen … in Florida, people say, “Hey, I’m done with work for the day. I’m going out and I’m gonna get some good food and I’m gonna have a drink and I’m gonna run into a friend or two.” There’s a better balance, I think, to life in Florida.
Niedermann: I feel like our area up here, from Stuart to Jupiter to West Palm, is kind of where the bigger money’s coming in, the higher-end clientele … coming from up north. They’re not moving to Miami. They’re not moving to Fort Lauderdale. They’re moving to the Treasure Coast and moving to Stuart, they’re moving to Vero. They’re moving to Sebastian. So this is where we want to be.
Q: Why debut the concept in Harbourside Place, where BRAVO Cucina Italiana used to be?
Magrogan: I love Jupiter. I have a good friend that lives in Admirals Cove, and he’s the biggest Jupiter cheerleader. He’s a broker and he showed me the site. I walked through and I just said, “If you put a personalized, independent restaurant in this space vs. a large chain restaurant, it has everything you need.” You have amazing water views. You have a great facility, great layout potential with the space. But it needs to be something that reflects the local community.
Q: So far, what are the most popular dishes?
Niedermann: Our Angry Cashew Lobster. And surprisingly, our Jupiter Cobb salad. I would also say our No. 1-selling steak is our 8-ounce filet. Honestly, we sell a lot of the Harissa Glazed Carrots as a side. Our chocolate cake is probably our top-selling dessert so far. And when I say it’s a chocolate cake, it’s a fun chocolate cake. It’s about 10 pounds on the plate. It takes two guys to carry it out.
Q: Is there something on the planning board that you just can’t wait for foodies to experience?
Niedermann: It’s funny you ask that. So Dan and I are big on doing dinners. We’re big on doing events. So we’re actually working on something … Dan has a very good network of people in the wine industry, so I’d like to do wine dinners, but I’d like to do single vineyards. And I’d like to have them do the exploration of the vineyard with the food. … We can also we can parlay that into whiskey, scotch dinners. But I’d like to tell the story with it. And I think the clientele, and Jupiter, is 100% ready for that.
Q: What can you tell us about the wine program?
Morris: I’m going for a Wine Spectator Award. I definitely want that. So there’s certain standards for that. I’m very familiar with it with my (Smith & Wollensky) background and won, I think, three of them in Philadelphia for it. Our general manager, Tim Eagan, is an advanced sommelier out of Master Court and he put our wine list together and I just think it’s fabulous. There’s about 140 bottles and it hits international wines … just as much as the big hitters … But I didn’t go overboard with it. Sometimes you look at wine list and it gets a little overwhelming, I think. We have 140 bottles on the list. I have 20 by the glass, so 160 total. That is a good manageable wine list that also puts us on the mark for the Wine Spectator Award.
Q: And what about the cocktail menu?
Morris: We wanted to do more of a modern steakhouse, so I took that into the cocktail area. I wanted more of a progressive spin. Instead of a mojito, I did a Passion Fruit Caipirinha, which is a traditional drink of Brazil, with the cachaça. I did a Blueberry Old Fashion. We have a margarita on there, but we did it with butterfly pea powder, so it’s purple with black sea salt. I wanted something that was vibrant for the water. There’s a sidecar on there, but it’s called the Red Sports Car. I do it with Campari. We have a Negroni on there, but we did a Sake Negroni because we have oysters and some shellfish. So I took a traditional steakhouse menu, ripped it up, and made it a little more Florida.
The Jupiter Grill is at 149 Soundings Ave., in Harbourside Place. For more information, visit thejupitergrill.com or call 561-768-9582.
