VERO BEACH — While the sine qua non of a great restaurant is a talented chef, there is more than creative, expertly prepared food to a top dining experience.
And at The Tides, where long-time Vero chef Bruce Turner on most nights now capably assumes the lead role in the kitchen in place of founding chef and co-owner Leanne Kelleher, the force that keeps this restaurant a favorite of beachside diners is über-host Claudia Arens.
No restaurant in Vero – no restaurant within an hour’s drive, for that matter – has a front-of-the-house team that is as polished, professional and proficient at seeing that The Tides’s regulars leave both well fed and eager to return.
The credit for this goes to Arens – partner of chef Kelleher, who currently spends most of her time these days focusing on revival of The Patio.
Claudia is the very model of a great host: warmly welcoming guests, getting them seated and started on a drink, checking back to be sure all is well, and finally sending them happy into the night.
And the superb treatment of diners doesn’t stop there. Assisting Arens is Valerie Martin, herself a front-of-the-house star at husband Yannick’s fondly remembered Café du Soir, and The Tides’ wait staff, which is second to none.
(Servers stop by your table, and remind you of something you had talked about on previous visits! How special does that make you feel?)
So it was on a recent Friday evening.
Claudia welcomed us back and handed us off to veteran server Joanie, who engagingly recited that evening’s specials (accompanied by her own recommendations) before setting off to bring us a bottle of a moderately priced pouilly fuisse.
For starters on this visit, I decided to try the soup of the moment ($8), which on this evening was a rich, creamy seafood chowder, featuring chunks of several of the fish being featured that evening.
Absolutely delicious.
My husband, meanwhile, ordered the flash fried calamari ($14). These tender pieces of squid, very lightly dusted with cornmeal, were creatively served atop an Asian salad, with a wasabi aioli that gave the ponzu a nice kick.
Then for entrees, we went for two of the evening’s specials. I chose the roasted halibut ($38) and my husband went for the swordfish ($38).
The swordfish, a cut several inches thick, was perfectly grilled, and garnished with a single fried shrimp. Swordfish doesn’t get any better than this.
The halibut, a beautiful piece of fish, was topped with a corn salsa and served with a lobster ravioli with chunks of lobster.
The ravioli would have made a great stand-alone dinner; combined with the halibut, the dish was sensational.
On a previous visit several weeks earlier, we chose two of this seasons’ appetizer specials. I had the fried green tomatoes ($15), an imaginative dish layered with crab, and my husband tried the special oysters ($14), lightly fried and served on a bed of wilted spinach with a warm bacon vinaigrette.
Hard to say which was the better.
Then for entrées on this earlier visit, I had the grilled grouper ($35) while my husband had another special, the tuna ($38).
This latter dish was a thing of beauty – gorgeous pieces of rare tuna fanned out over a bed of ponzu-flavored rice, and garnished with a diver scallop.
Excellent.
On both visits, we wound up too full to partake of The Tide’s very tasty desserts.
When we dined there most recently, we were seated in one of the attractive, well-spaced interior rooms. On the previous visit, we scored a table outside on the patio – a very enjoyable spot on a pleasant evening.
Dinner for two with a modest bottle of wine, before tax and tip, will run you approximately $150.
As we were leaving this recent Friday, Claudia told us that in mid-May, The Tide’s will be bringing back its Sunset Menu – an opportunity it has offered the past couple of years for those willing to eat really early to sample some of this restaurant’s great dishes at about half the normal dining price.
That is an offer that can hardly be refused. Even at the regular prices, the dining experience offered by The Tides remains one of the island’s best values.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at [email protected].
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
