By Gary J. Arzt

If you’re in Palm Beach, and looking for classic French food and service, L’Escalier is the right choice. A very attractive room, classically baroque with plenty of space between the white cloths draped tables.

Located in The Breakers, Palm Beach’s historical, landmark hotel, you have to know that the restaurant will be, as the British say, ‘up market.’ And so it is. It also delivers the best meal in south Florida, and is easily accessible to those living in the four east coast counties (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami Dade, and Monroe).

It provides the kind of dinning, and service, that is not readily available in Florida, or, for that matter, elsewhere. The operative word is elegant! Dishes brought to the table under silver plate domes; soup poured from individual small tureens.

Service of the caliber that I grew up with, but, alas, have been eliminated in favor of waiters introducing themselves by their first names; and kneeling tableside to explain the specials! Not my idea of fine dinning.

The beautiful dinning room.

The cuisine, a melding of classic and contemporary, focused on seasonality. The menu offers a la carte selections as well as a series of Tasting Menus designed to reflect the creativity of the culinary staff and the freshest produce and ingredients of the season.

To recount various dishes, that may never appear again, would be pointless. Instead, it should whet your appetite to learn that on several occasions in 2008-2009, the dishes included or were based on peekytoe crab, Colorado lamb, foie gras, blue fin tuna and the most delicious greens for salads.

The menus include an extraordinary version of the classic French onion soup; caviar; prime filet of beef; stripped bass and honey cured and roasted duck breast.

From the standards to the avant garde, it is hard to imagine anyone not being able to select a superb meal at L’Escalier.

Very competent bartenders can prepare your favorite cocktails, and the Sommelier can bring you the finest wines from a cellar of some 1600 bottle.

The Breakers Palm Beach Food and Beverage Director Nicholas Velardo, Master Sommelier Virginia Philip, and Master Sommelier-L'Escalier Juan Gomez inside the wine cellar.

Extraordinary service, in an atmosphere of old world elegance, with excellent dishes prepared to perfection, L’Escalier is the perfect venue for that special occasion; social or business. Likewise, I have found it the perfect venue for an excellent evening of fine food, wine, drink and conversation, in a setting where your conversation is not overheard by people at the next table!

The desserts, coffee and après dinner drinks meet the standard set by your earliest courses. So, feel free to top your meal off with any or all of them.

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