Gainswave Therapy in Delray Beach, FL

Three new restaurants will join Delray Beach's sizzling downtown scene next year, landing on a section of Atlantic Avenue that's becoming Main & Main for its lively eateries and bars.

American Social Bar & Kitchen, or AmSo as it is known by its patrons, will open next year in the Pineapple Grove district, just north of Atlantic Avenue.

In addition, Roka Hula, a new Polynesian-themed restaurant and bar by the company that owns Calaveras Cantina and Voodoo Bayou, will open in the former Taverna Opa space at 270 E. Atlantic Avenue.

Meanwhile, Ohio-based One Hospitality has taken over the space occupied by Salt7 at 32 S.E. 2nd Ave. While Salt7 remains open with the same name and a tweaked menu, the restaurant company plans to change the concept to a hip new brand next year.

These establishments will boost what already is becoming Delray Beach's hottest corner: The intersection of Second Avenue and East Atlantic Avenue.

"We love this section of the Avenue," said Reed Woogerd, managing partner of One Hospitality. "We're all about synergy in the market and this neighborhood. And we want to give people a different flavor as they hop around and enjoy Atlantic Avenue."

On any given night, revelers cluster in the area, drawn to buzzy places such as El Camino, The Office, Park Tavern and Rocco's Tacos & Tequila Bar.

The scene is making the avenue not only a place for fine dining but also a destination for young professionals. And AmSo and Roka Hula will only add to the vibe, said Jeff Sussman of Boca Raton-based Sussman Realty, which brokered both leases.

American Social will take up space formerly occupied by Meisner Electric in the Ocean City Lumber Company property, known for its distinctive water tower. The family behind Meisner Electric sold the property for $30 million in 2022 to an affiliate of Investments Limited in Boca Raton.

The 2.5-acre site is on the south side of N.E. 1st Street, from Railroad Avenue to N.E. 2nd Avenue.

The years-long hunt for a Delray Beach spot

Tony Mijares Jr., an American Social partner, said the company had searched for years for a downtown Delray Beach location without success.

This Pineapple Grove spot finally fit the bill not only for its large size but also for its location just off the crowded avenue and across the street from a city-owned garage where patrons will be able to park.

Mijares said he's optimistic the American Social spot in Delray Beach will be as popular as its sister restaurants.

"It's a draw," Mijares said of the restaurant and bar, which welcomes patrons as family. "People like our concept and our atmosphere. Wherever we open, we get lots of action. And we believe Pineapple Grove is a nice, elegant area that is a great place to be."

The location marks the second Palm Beach County location for American Social, which earlier this year opened in Boca Raton's Mizner Park. American Social also has locations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando.

Opportunity creates inspiration for Voodoo Bayou restaurateur

Curtis Peery of Roka Hula said he wasn't necessarily looking to open a restaurant in downtown Delray Beach.

His company, True Grit Hospitality, already was busy with its Calaveras Cantina locations in Jupiter and Boca Raton as well as Voodoo Bayou, its popular Cajun food destination in Palm Beach Gardens and Fort Lauderdale. A Voodoo Bayou location in Orlando also is under construction.

But when the Taverna Opa space became available, it was too good to pass up, Peery said.

Delray Beach already is bustling with Mexican eateries, so Peery decided to bring something different to the market.

His solution: A craft cocktail tiki bar with a Pan-Asian menu featuring items ranging from sushi to dumplings.

Plans are to transform the former Greek eatery space into a Polynesian-style getaway.

"We're going to have a large bar with specialty liquors and a really neat ceiling filled with globes and botanicals and lanterns. It's an awesome design with an element of escapism when you come inside the building," Peery said.

Peery said he hopes to open by the end of 2024.

What's in store for Salt7 in Delray Beach?

Then there's Salt7, a swank steak place on the ground floor of the Worthing Place apartment building, just behind Worthing Park, at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and S.E. 2nd Avenue.

One Hospitality bought the Salt7 space in October, then redid the menu to add a greater variety of items, said Reed Woogerd, managing partner of One Hospitality's Southeast expansion. Tom Prakas, a Boca Raton-based restaurant broker and an Ohio transplant, handled the transaction.

More:Delray Beach's Sundy Village first tenants include popular wine bar, Asian eatery

Woogerd said One Hospitality has been looking for a spot in South Florida for some time. When he and partners came to Delray Beach and surveyed the location, "We saw the opportunity to have a corner spot on Atlantic Avenue connecting us to Pineapple Grove, which is part of the thriving downtown," Woogerd said. "It was a no-brainer for us."

At first, plans were to bring Forno Kitchen+Bar, a One Hospitality Italian concept that helped galvanize the popular Short North district in Columbus, Ohio, which Woogerd said is similar to Pineapple Grove.

But now Woogerd said the company still is deciding whether to bring Forno or a different concept to the avenue.

More:American Social eatery and bar coming to Boca’s Mizner Park

Woogerd said One Hospitality will evaluate the scene, talk to customers and other business owners, and devise the right concept for the Salt7 space next year. Woogerd, a seasoned restaurant operator who has opened eateries in California, Washington State and Texas, said he even moved to Delray Beach as part of One Hospitality's expansion to Palm Beach County.

Whatever the company decides, "We see this corner right outside of Worthing Park as a place to make a beacon for our brand in South Florida," Woogerd said.

Alexandra Clough is a business writer and columnist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. Twitter: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — A 92-foot luxury boat worth several million dollars beached in Delray Beach since Friday was removed Sunday afternoon.

TowBoatrUS Ft. Lauderdale was able to move Past Time, which had lost power and beached at Linton Avenue, out of the sand.

The yacht was moved out of the way at 3:15 p.m. and headed on a three-hour trip to Viking Service Center in Riviera Beach.

Captain Larry Acheson, president of the company, said he had 20 people working to remove it since Friday.

"We had various vessels all with different missions," he told WPTV. "We had to pull the diesel fuel off board. Various people on the beach and various people on the disabled vessel. If it starts taking on water, we had to have people running the pumps."

Acheson said he could not disclose information on the owner.

Seth Stern with Wavy Boat, who had been taking video of the boat Past Time the past few days, told WPTV reporter Chris Gilmore "You'll never see a boat like this beached again in your lifetime."

The Viking 92's engines locked up and a generator malfunctioned in high winds, Stern said.

"This is not a small boat. This is not a small operation," Stern said.

On Sunday, crews with the Fort Lauderdale towing company were trying to get the yacht back in the water, including pumping out fuel.

Despite several failed attempts, they planned to get it back in the water at high tide.

"The attempts that I have witnessed have been unsuccessful due to the lines snapping due to the sheer weight of the boat," Stern said. "Today it's nice to see they're pumping off all the fuel and oil to prevent any kind of environmental spill for when they do pull this boat off. It'll also lighten the boat tremendously, making the rescue much easier."

Stern did some research to see the value of the boat.

"I looked one up just to see the prices and there's currently one listed for $12 million, but it doesn't have some of the same bells and whistles as this one," he said. "So the estimation of $15 to $16 million is fairly accurate on this boat. However every day it sits here getting battered by the waves that value has to go down."

Another boat has been stranded at Jacksonville Beach for two weeks.

Luke Rehberg told First Coast News he has decided to demolish "Aqualon," which he had called him.

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Ocean One Bar & Grille, which blitzed into the South Florida market three years ago touting lunch entrees under $6, has abruptly shut all six of its South Florida locations.

As of this week, phone lines are disconnected at each of the trendy sports pub’s outposts in Delray Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Davie, Dania Beach, Coral Springs and Kendall. Meanwhile, the Florida website, OceanOneFL.com, reroutes customers to Ocean One’s last remaining location: Its 15-year-old flagship in Las Vegas.

Whether the closings are temporary or permanent is unclear. No explanation was offered by the mini-chain’s owners — David Stein, Ron Rowe, and Tony and Rosita Visone — and multiple calls and texts to Tony Visone’s cellphone number seeking comment went unreturned this week.

Ocean One Bar & Grille confirmed the closings only after multiple concerned diners left comments on the restaurant’s official Facebook pages. When one asked why Ocean One chose to shutter its Delray Beach outpost, the account replied, cryptically: “For reasons we prefer to keep private.”

In the same thread, the account later added: “All Florida locations are closed.”

This week, the front doors of Ocean One’s Coral Springs location, which reportedly closed Dec. 11, were seen padlocked shut. In Davie, a construction worker told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the location wasn’t permanently closed but rather being “remodeled.”

In the Sun Sentinel-run, 133,000-member “Let’s Eat, South Florida” Facebook group, Ocean One diners have been sounding off about Ocean One’s possible demise. Many remained split about the food quality, with opinions ranging from “trash” to “great quality for the price.” Others wondered how $5.99 entrees were sustainable in an inflationary market.

The Dania Beach location shuttered on Dec. 22, according to Emily Wirley, marketing manager for Kimco Realty Corp., which operates the 102-acre Dania Pointe shopping complex. That sit-down, which debuted in October 2020, was Ocean One’s first entry into the South Florida market, coaxing pandemic-weary customers back onto restaurant patios with discount lunches, dinners and all-day happy hours.

Then came a rapid expansion. The restaurant charged $4.99 (later increased to $5.99) for a raft of dishes ranging from grilled lemon-herb salmon and half-pound sirloin burgers to tenderloin quesadillas and orecchiette pasta. There was also an all-day happy hour of three-for-one premium cocktails for $12.

The mini-chain had been dogged with criticism in recent months in the “Let’s Eat, South Florida” group over claims of loud music, patio tables blocking sidewalks, poor customer service and cleanliness issues.

State inspectors temporarily shut the Coral Springs outpost in March over an infestation of live flies. The presence of insects also triggered three shutdowns by the state in 2021 at Ocean One’s Delray Beach location, for issues that included a fly landing “on (a) cinnamon-fried tortilla.”

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — A new survey by bankrate.com found that 57% of Americans have been financially affected by an extreme weather event over the past decade, including a Delray Beach couple WPTV first spoke with in 2022 after Hurricane Ian.

Last year, Marcia and David Hayot were forced to rebuild.

"It took about nine months to complete," Marcia Hayot told WPTV.

WPTV first met the Hayots at their Delray Beach home after they were hit by a tornado caused by Hurricane Ian last September.

"It just went 'shooosh.' It took 5 to 10 seconds. It had passed and did all the destruction," Marcia Hayot told WPTV last year.

The back half of the house and the roof were destroyed.

"With everything, furniture that we had to replace because we lost a lot of belongings, it was about $50,000," Marcia Hayot said.

The Hayots told WPTV they received about $17,000 in aid from FEMA but the rest was paid out of pocket because they don't have property insurance.

"We had stopped insurance because it had gotten prohibitively expensive and we just decided, let's put our own money aside," Marcia Hayot said. "If we need it, it'll be there for us and that's what we did."

According to a new survey by Bankrate.com, 57% of Americans have been financially impacted by an extreme weather event over the past decade and 57% of Americans also feel that trend will continue over the next 10 years.

"It's understandable that people are having trouble, struggling, to make their homeowners payments," Shannon Martin, a Bankrate analyst, told WPTV.

Martin said these days, that's causing homeowners to drop their insurance or at the very least, drop the extra coverage for wind and flood damage.

“We never want to see people drop coverage. We know they're having trouble securing coverage and things like that. Always see what else you can do," Martin said. "Talk to your agent about maybe increasing to a higher deductible. A lot of plans in Florida have a separate wind and hail that's a percentage of your dwelling."

For the Hayots, they told WPTV they'd rather continue to self-insure, because right now, it could cost them around $8,000 for property insurance each year.

"Can't afford it anymore," Marcia Hayot said.

DELRAY BEACH — A precautionary boil water notice was issued Tuesday in Delray Beach for all properties from East Atlantic Avenue to George Bush Boulevard and from the Intracoastal Waterway to North Ocean Boulevard.

The notice comes after a city water main near Andrews Avenue and Harbor Drive on the barrier island was damaged by a Florida Power & Light Co. subcontractor working in the area, interrupting the water service provided by the city.

Crews have completed repairs to the water main, but several steps lie ahead before Delray Beach officials lift the notice. Here’s what else area residents need to know.

How long will the water notice be in place for Delray Beach?

The precautionary boil water notice will remain in effect until a bacteriological test shows the water is safe to drink. Once testing is complete, people in affected areas will receive a rescission notice telling them so.

The rescission notice and any updates will be shared on the city’s website, delraybeachfl.gov, and the city’s Facebook (@CityofDelrayBeach) and Twitter, or X, (@citydelraybeach) pages. For more questions, call (561) 243-7312.

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What does a ‘precautionary boil water notice’ mean for Delray?

The notice means that an incident occurred that could potentially lead to back-flow or bacteria entering the water system. This could include low to no pressure, a water main break or a disruption in the power plant. In this case, it was a damaged main.

Residents are advised that all water used for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth or washing dishes be boiled. A rolling boil of one minute is sufficient, per the utilities department. Bottled water may be used as an alternative.

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A history of water issues in Delray Beach

In 2020, the Florida Department of Health investigated why the city had not been cleaning its water storage tanks at least once every five years. About a month later, a nonprofit warned of chemicals in the city's water. The city insisted its water met standards.

Last year, a sinkhole swallowed a woman's car in the Kings Point neighborhood, leading to Kings Point ramping up $7 million in water and sewer projects.

This year, a Delray Beach whistleblower who alleged she was fired from her job as a water inspector for bringing water treatment problems to the state's attention settled her water contamination lawsuit for $818,500.

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Jasmine Fernández is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at jfernandez@pbpost.com. Help support our work. Subscribe today.