When we heard that Daniel Traimas, sous chef from Sable Kitchen & Bar, a creative New American restaurant in Chicago, had taken over as executive chef at the Vero Beach Hotel & Spa and introduced a new menu at Cobalt, we were eager to check out his dishes.
So last Thursday, we arrived at the elegant restaurant of the island’s best hotel a couple of minutes before our 7 pm reservation.
To our amazement, the fashionable dark-paneled grill — with its 15-foot-high glass wall that looks out on the fire pit and the sea – was full. The adjoining lounge, which attracts large numbers of locals to what is clearly the top happy hour in town, also was full. The tables outside near the fire pit were full as well.
Never seen Cobalt that crowded before. Clearly, it was a good thing we had reserved. And we were shown to a nice table – the only table available – in the northernmost dining room.
As it happened, that proved to be the perfect distance from which to enjoy the stylings of the Shanaphy clan, a jazz quartet holding forth on this evening in Cobalt’s bar.
Frankly, the new menu didn’t look dramatically different from that of Vero native and executive chef Rachel Bourdon, who had held that post for just over a year before moving on. But Traimas had a few new items for us to consider, and we tried to focus on them.
For starters, I ordered the conch chowder ($11), and my husband and our companion decided so share an order of calamari ($14).
Then for entrées, I picked one of the new items from the menu – the Arctic char ($27). I figured that coming from Chicago, Traimas would be very familiar with fish that like the cold. My husband opted for the braised short ribs ($32), which sounded mighty appealing on a chilly night, and our companion went with a local fish, the fried snapper ($33).
A few minutes later while we were enjoying a very nice Chardonnay, our excellent waiter, George, returned apologizing profusely. The kitchen was out of the braised short ribs, he reported. So my husband switched to the evening’s special, a grilled Atlantic salmon topped with a lobster cream sauce ($30).
When the appetizers finally arrived, the spicy chowder was very well seasoned, and the calamari were perfectly flash fried. So far so good.
But then we waited. A good thing we were enjoying the Shanaphys. Finally, the entrées came, and it appeared that the very dry salmon also had been waiting. Our waiter, who did a lot of apologizing on this evening, quickly returned it to the kitchen, and emerged a short time later with another that was only slightly overcooked.
My char, however, was a nice piece of fish, pan seared, and served with roasted red pepper coulis, sunchokes, and duck fat roasted cauliflower. Our companion’s fried snapper was again well prepared, with sweet chili lime and crispy basil, and accompanied by jasmine rice and baby bok choy.
We concluded our meal with homemade cookies ($6) – an assortment that included chocolate chip, a peanut chip, and a pumpkin spice sugar cookie.
Dinner for two with wine, before tax and tip, should run somewhere around $130.
Based on only one meal, we would say it is premature to compare Chef Dan to his predecessor, Chef Rachel, or the previous executive chef, Michael VanBuskirk, both of whom prepared some memorable dishes. And after years of rarely being crowded, we were pleased to see Cobalt finally getting the patronage they had earned.
Now, it is a matter of the kitchen under Chef Dan’s leadership being a bit more prepared for those busy evenings.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at Tina@VeroBeach32963.com.
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.