A favorite seafood restaurant gets a glow-up, new life in Palm Beach Gardens

I love it when a once-popular, mainstay restaurant gets a glow-up. And I love a good come-back story. It’s even better when both things are true at once. I experienced just that during a recent visit to the newly revived Spoto’s Fish & Oyster (formerly Spoto’s Oyster Bar).

This seafood-loving restaurant, a fixture on the PGA Boulevard dining corridor for 21 years, has gotten quite the makeover. And new diners are now flocking to the place. That’s thanks to Spoto’s new ownership/culinary team, a new menu and vibe.

This is not the first successful seafood restaurant for Baron Skorish and Bryce Statham, Spoto’s new owners/chefs. They are the team that brought the popular, Louisiana-inspired Blue Moon Fish Company to Lauderdale-By-The-Sea more than two decades ago. (They sold that restaurant in December 2020.)

Skorish and Statham opened their new version of Spoto’s on Feb. 3, 2023, bringing a fresh focus on ingredients and presentation. They have elevated the menu offerings, leaning into the restaurant’s seafood core, adding sushi that’s made fresh to order and their own Spoto’s branded oysters.

Spoto’s Kiss oysters hail from Prince Edward Island. Spoto’s Wish oysters are harvested off of Massachusetts.

“Both are cold water oysters with great salinity,” says Statham, an avid fisherman who was happily retired for more than two years when he got the offer to join the new Spoto’s project.

Dine-in customers can see those oysters, depending on availability, on the restaurant’s daily list of fresh oysters, sushi and other raw bar items. A good way to enjoy Spoto’s oysters and sushi is at the bar during social hour (weekdays from 4 to 6 p.m.). The Blue Point oysters from Long Island Sound are $2.50 each.

Spoto’s offers roasted oysters as well ($19 for four). Oysters Rockefeller are baked with creamed spinach, Pernod and asiago cheese. Oysters Bienville are offered in a creamy wine sauce. And the Louisiana Firecracker Oysters are fried and served with remoulade, mango curry wasabi and crispy leeks ($19 for four).

But there’s much to taste beyond Spoto’s oysters. (And, yes, there are steak, chicken, ribs and pork chop dishes here as well.)

At lunch recently, I enjoyed a refreshing, three-citrus shrimp and whitefish ceviche ($19), standout corn-flour-dusted and fried calamari with chili-lime dressing ($18; one Spoto’s many new gluten-free options) and a hearty, open-faced blackened swordfish sandwich that was stacked with lettuce, tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts and brought together by avocado crema and aioli ($27).

Hot spot on PGA Boulevard

In its heyday, just after its PGA Boulevard opening in 2003, the original Spoto’s was the place to be on the Palm Beach Gardens dining corridor. As buzzier spots opened — Rocco’s Tacos in 2012, The Cooper in 2014 — the crowd began to thin at Spoto’s. Later, an ownership change brought new life but could not restore the intangibles that customers once loved about the restaurant, particularly the energy of it.

Now, at the new Spoto’s Fish & Oyster, I sensed that original energy had returned, particularly to the kitchen. Clearly, Statham and Skorish are having fun. And customers are reaping the benefits.

Those seated at two particularly lucky tables can witness that fun, Statham told me by phone after my visit. Those booths, located by the partly open kitchen near the spot where chefs expedite orders, have become chef’s tables of sorts.

If he happens to be expediting that day, Statham will turn around and place random, small bites on those tables for the diners to try.

“I turn around and shovel so much fun food their way,” says Statham. “Some folks are catching on now and requesting those booths.”

Read about more great restaurants on PGA Boulevard in my dining guide!

Downtown West Palm roots

The PGA Spoto’s wasn’t the first in Palm Beach County. The seafood restaurant brand dates to 1998, when restaurateur John Spoto opened the first Spoto’s Oyster Bar in downtown West Palm Beach, on the Datura Street space where Avocado Grill now stands. It was hot from the start.

Case in point: Just months after it opened, The Post asked then-part-time Palm Beach resident Jimmy Buffett to describe his perfect South Florida warm-weather day. His reply:

“I would swim before nine. Then I’d go to my air-conditioned room, read and do my Spanish lessons. I’d go to Spoto's (Oyster Bar) for an air-conditioned four-hour lunch. Then, I’d swim after six and go to bed.”

Spoto’s Fish & Oyster

Where: 4560 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, 561-776-9448, Spotos.com

Hours: Open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday brunch: Offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Spoto’s bottomless brunch is a sumptuous affair for $79.95 per person. It includes a selection of the restaurant’s most popular plates, unlimited oysters, shrimp, crab legs and hand-rolled sushi, a carving station, breakfast items, plus endless mimosas, Bloody Marys and sparkling wine.

Social hour: Offered at the bars Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m., featuring $8 bites and discounted drinks.

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Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She covers the local food and dining beat. Follow her on Instagram and Post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New owners bring best seafood restaurant Spoto's to Palm Beach Gardens