South Florida Sun Sentinel
Oct 20, 2021 6:53 AM
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Plaza Delray, a shopping/dining center being developed for suburbs west of the Florida Turnpike in Delray Beach. (Atlantic Aerial Imaging / Courtesy)
Plaza Delray plans on upping the culinary game in West Delray, joining the hub of shopping centers at the intersection of West Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road.
The restaurant/retail center has already leased all of its 30,700 square feet of space so surburbanites west of the Florida Turnpike can expect the likes of Sicilian Oven and Olive U Mediterranean Grill to open over the next three weeks.
Damn Good Sweets, a bakery from the Damn Good Hospitality Group (Revolution Live, Green Bar & Kitchen, Warren Delray), is expected to land early next year.
Dunkin’ and The Poké Company are already up and running.
Sicilian Oven is coming to the suburbs of West Delray. The eatery will open soon in Plaza Delray, a new restaurant/retail center on the southeast corner of West Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road. (Rod Stafford Hagwood / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
“Plaza Delray is strategically located for customers traveling north and south,” explains Dunkin’ spokeswoman Erica Roomy. “This location is surrounded by several schools and residential developments, which makes it very accessible for all members of the community.”
Plaza Delray sits at 8858 W. Atlantic Ave., a crossroads location getting buzzier and busier with dining, drinking, entertainment and shopping options coming onto the scene and serving high-end residential developments such as GL Homes’ Seven Bridges, Boca Bridges, Lotus and Dakota Delray communities.
- And just down the road to the east is Tuscany Shoppes with dining options such as BurgerFi, MIA Kitchen & Bar, Starbucks and Yellowtail Modern Asian Cuisine & Sushi.
- Even next door is another shopping center, Shop Delray, with a popular Joseph’s Classic Market as well as Nekter Juice Bar and Ripe, an organic health food store. That’s also where Warren American Whiskey Kitchen is, a chic hotspot from the same people behind Damn Good Sweets coming to Plaza Delray.
“It’s been amazing the last four months,” says Brian Freed, a partner with Damn Good Hospitality Group, referring to Warren. “We wanted to add this dessert element there…but kitchen-wise we were just not set up for that.”
The Poké Company now has a new location in West Delray. The eatery, known for its Hawaiian fare, is located in Plaza Delray. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Freed says that the idea is for Damn Good Sweets to not only bring made-from-scratch desserts, pastries, ice creams to West Delray, but to also elevate the dessert fare by supplying sweets to their other properties such as Green Bar & Kitchen, Stache Drinking Den & Coffee Bar and, of course, Warren Delray. He also adds that the location, as the company has seen with Warren Delray, is ideal.
“The amount of building and what they have over there within 2 miles north or south on Lyons Road, three, four, five thousand homes,” Freed says. “It’s a great location. The homes they are building probably start at no less that $700,000, probably a million now with all the demand.”
Ralph DiSalvo, who along with Andrew Garavuso co-owns Sicilian Oven, agrees about the customer base potential of West Delray.
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“We saw Delray as an extremely underserved community with demographics that matched our other six locations perfectly,” DiSalvo says. “Plaza Delray provided a beautiful center that met our new non-negotiables for all locations: Expansive covered comfortable outdoor seating and curbside capabilities to best serve the desires and needs of our guests.”
“They know the home growth that is coming to that area,” explains Chris Stewart, PEBB’s senior vice president of leasing. “They are eating, living and breathing it every day. They just knew there were a lot of voids that need to be filled.”
In addition to the dining, the center will also have tenants such as Cooper Orthodontics, fitness studio F45, Salon Suites, Anderson & Cole Nail Spa as well as a chiropractor and a veterinarian.
Dunkin’ was the first eatery to open in Plaza Delray. The grand opening of the Next Generation store (new technologies and design elements) was Friday, Aug. 27. “The Delray Beach community has been very receptive to our opening and we look forward to continuing serving new and existing customers every day,” says Erica Roomy, field marketing manager for South Florida. (Rod Stafford Hagwood / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Damn Good Sweets, Sicilian Oven, Olive U Mediterranean Grill and The Poké Company are all coming to Plaza Delray, which is in West Delray Beach at West Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road. The restaurant/retail center is being developed by PEBB Enterprises, the same firm behind the upcoming Restaurant Row in Boca Raton (Rod Stafford Hagwood / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Sicilian Oven is coming to the suburbs of West Delray. The eatery will open soon in Plaza Delray, a new restaurant/retail center on the southeast corner of West Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road. (Rod Stafford Hagwood / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
