Updated Feb. 18: Owner Burt Rapoport’s modern Chinese-American restaurant opened Feb. 17, and during its opening weeks will accept reservations online only at PagodaKitchen.com. The restaurant will be open for dine-in only, with take-out service to be added later. Guests will be allowed to bring their own beer or wine for the next two weeks until Pagoda receives its liquor license.
Veteran restaurateur Burt Rapoport wouldn’t dare open his first Chinese restaurant without some drama in the dining room. Namely: the spectacle of Peking ducks crackling on a rotisserie spit.
This attention-grabbing visual – reminiscent of ducks displayed in the windows of Chinatown storefronts – is the one hang-up that has foiled the opening of Pagoda Kitchen in Delray Beach, Rapoport tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The new restaurant, described as “traditional Chinese but for Americanized palates,” will open in mid-December after a two-month delay caused by a single piece of missing equipment: an exhaust hood for that dining-room rotisserie.
“I would say the hood’s coming any day now, but I’ve been saying that for about six weeks,” Rapoport says. “We could have opened now and added the rotisserie later, but listen: There’s going to be a huge demand for this type of cuisine, and I want to make sure every customer is happy.”
Glazed Chinese spare ribs and tender char siu chickens turning on two 6-foot-tall vertical rotisseries are the centerpiece of Rapoport’s 5,600-square-foot restaurant, which replaces the old Mediterranean eatery Apiero at Delray Marketplace.
Rapoport can’t help fussing over these small details, although his Rapoport Restaurant Group eateries (Max’s Grille, Deck 84, Burt & Max’s) pull him in many directions. One restaurant, Prezzo – the popular Italian revival of Rapoport’s famed 1990s eatery – opened a second location in Palm Beach Gardens on Nov. 28.
Wary of stretching himself thin, Rapoport is now a silent partner at Prezzo, handing over the reins to new managing partner Eddie Pazzuoli (Tavolino Della Notte in Coral Springs) in January 2020. He say he no longer has any day-to-day involvement at Prezzo, but he’s a 50-50 investor at its new sister location at 4520 PGA Blvd.
“With Prezzo, I was like a pitcher on the baseball field in the fifth inning who gave it all he had, and now Eddie is finishing the game,” Rapoport says. “I couldn’t give it the focus it needed so I stepped back. The food went from good to great and I really hit the jackpot with Eddie. Revenue is up 30 percent from January to October this year over the same period in 2019.”
Which gives Rapoport more time to obsess over Pagoda Kitchen’s rotisseries. Rapoport has programmed the menu – a hybrid of elevated Chinese takeout and Asian street-market items – with help from Pagoda chef Bryan S. Emperor. Prices are still being finalized, but entrees (in the $20-$38 range) will include 48-hour short rib with steamed rice and sweet peas; General Tso-style chicken and broccoli, pepper steak topped with onions, red and shishito peppers; and steamed Chilean sea bass in a pool of fermented black bean sauce and baby bok choy.
Smaller plates ($11-$23) will include moo shu pork served with steamed pancakes and hoisin sauce; crispy kung pao chicken in chili soy glaze; sticky rotisserie spare ribs; and tuna tartare tacos topped with tobiko caviar and spicy aioli. Pagoda’s 2,500-square-foot patio has an island bar serving wine ($8-$19 per glass, $26-$61 per bottle), sake ($16-$35) and craft cocktails ($12-$14).
To Emperor, these dishes represent a hybrid of elevated cuisine and “approachable Chinese food that touches your soul.”
“To understand the essence of the food, you have to know where the food comes from,” says Emperor, who has lived in Beijing and worked in several Asian restaurants in Kyoto, Beijing and Washington, D.C. “You have to get it right.”
Pagoda Kitchen, at 4917 Lyons Road #100, in Delray Beach, plans to open in mid-December. Read the full menu at PagodaKitchen.com.
