Palm Beach Gardens is about to get a gastropub that started as a catering company feeding local sports teams. Smoke & Maple Gastropub is getting ready to open at 12325 Northlake Blvd. in Avenir, on the western side of the city, with Korean barbecue gator bites, a 32-ounce tomahawk for two, a bourbon club and a happy hour that runs every day of the week.

The restaurant's own site now reads Opening Soon, lists its hours and is already taking reservations through SevenRooms.

From a garage to Northlake Boulevard

Smoke & Maple is the first restaurant from HOLD Hospitality Group, and its origin story is about as small as they come. By the group's own telling, the idea started with four people, about $6,000 and a garage, and the company itself began as a small catering outfit serving local athletic teams. That business grew into a hospitality group, and Smoke & Maple is its first big room.

The four partners split the work. Nick Lanier sets the menu's direction, which he calls Rustic Refined: comfort food from different cultures, taken up a notch. Tara Dodson runs operations, Joel Hartunian handles restaurant management, and Brendan O'Hara, who comes from mixology and bar operations, runs the bar. The group says it plans to grow slowly and stay local, and that this is the first of more to come.

It is not a small first effort. State records show plans for about 167 seats.

Three rooms, three moods

The space is split into three distinct areas, each meant for a different kind of night:

  • The bar: a sweeping horseshoe lined with rare spirits and craft beer, designed as the center of the room.
  • The lounge: tufted leather, crystal chandeliers and a vintage map of Florida on the wall, built for a quieter drink after dinner.
  • The dining room: blue velvet banquettes, warm lighting and tall ceilings, big enough for a birthday table and still calm enough for two.

There is also a bourbon and whiskey club, which gives members access to rare barrel picks and bottles that are hard to find elsewhere in Palm Beach County.

What is on the menu

The dinner menu reads like a steakhouse that got bored and went traveling. Starters include Korean barbecue gator bites with a sesame glaze and spicy remoulade ($16), a jumbo lump crab cake ($22), roasted escargot in spicy chorizo butter ($17), truffle burrata ($18) and a French onion soup under a lid of Gruyère ($14).

Mains run from a maple wood smoked half chicken with wild mushroom ragù ($29) and a signature burger with aged cheddar and truffle aioli ($24) to Korean barbecue short rib tacos ($26) and a braised pork osso buco over parmesan risotto ($38). The grill side is where it gets serious: a prime New York strip ($48 for eight ounces), filet mignon ($52 for six), a bone-in prime ribeye ($78), a Brazilian-style Wagyu picanha with habanero chimichurri ($64) and a 32-ounce tomahawk ribeye for two with black truffle butter ($145). Sides are $10 each, and dessert includes a maple crème brûlée ($12) and a key lime tart ($11), because this is still Florida.

Behind the bar, the signature is a Maple Old Fashioned made with pure maple syrup and black walnut bitters ($16), alongside a Smoke & Tonic built on mezcal, elderflower and cucumber.

Happy hour, every day

The detail locals will probably care about most is happy hour, which runs daily from 3 to 6 p.m. at the bar and lounge. Signature cocktails including the Maple Old Fashioned, the Smoke & Tonic, a bourbon sour and a Florida spritz drop to $10, and the food list includes oysters on the half shell at market price, gator bites ($14), Wagyu sliders ($16), crispy calamari ($13), tuna tartare ($18) and Gouda tater tots ($11). Local drafts rotate daily.

When to go

Once it opens, the kitchen is set to run from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The group held a hiring fair over the summer to staff up, and the reservation system is live, so the opening looks close. No date has been announced; the restaurant's site and its newsletter sign-up are the best places to catch it.

For Avenir and the neighborhoods around it, Smoke & Maple is the kind of place a new community needs early: somewhere to take the in-laws, watch a game at the bar or stop in for a $10 old fashioned on the way home, built by people who started out feeding the local teams.