Popular Mexican restaurant gets new look, Food Network contestant chef in West Palm Beach
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Amid all that is new and upcoming on downtown West Palm Beach’s restaurant scene, here’s a neighborhood go-to spot that has remade itself. Popular for its Mexican street foods, Rivales Taquería recently unveiled the results of its makeover.
A muralist from Mexico is giving the off-Clematis space the final brushstrokes that will complete the renovation project at the Olive Avenue restaurant once known as JimmyChangas.
“We relocated the bar from the back to the front, and opened up the space,” co-owner Jimmy Rivas told me this week.
But more than cosmetic touches, Rivas and his brother/restaurant partner Alberto Valdivia brought in a new chef with Food Network shine to elevate the menu, add new dishes and consult on their other restaurant projects.
She is chef Guily Booth, a Miami chef who has competed on Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen” and “Chef Wanted”' reality series. Booth has worked at an eclectic batch of Miami restaurants (from tapas to seafood to Brazilian to Latino-Caribbean to Miami-style fusion).
Martha Stewart loved her crab cakes
A familiar face on English and Spanish TV cooking segments, Booth told me the most memorable compliment she has received for her food came from Martha Stewart years ago during a South Beach Wine & Food Festival tasting event. The chef was at a festival kiosk, serving up her secret-recipe crab cakes, which Stewart sampled.
“She said, ‘This is the best crab cake I’ve ever had,’” says Booth.
In West Palm Beach, the Rivales Taquería brothers have been fans of Booth’s for years. They took the remodel as an opportunity to bring her on board.
“We needed her expertise to help elevate the menu,” Rivas says. “She added her own twist to the entrees.”
What’s new on the menu?
Those new flavors infuse a lineup of new dishes at Rivales, including:
◾ Tamarind glazed pork belly that’s served with a creamy jicama slaw ($18).
◾ A taco called El Pulpo, filled with slow-cooked octopus, sautéed jalapeño and onions and tomatillo salsa ($8).
◾ Short rib in Mexican mole sauce, accompanied by sweet cornmeal and crispy-fried jalapeño and onions ($32).
◾ Pan-seared scallops with roasted chipotle-sweet potato purée served with tomatillo salsa (Jalisco Scallops, $32).
◾ Pan-seared flounder fillet in a Veracruz-style sauce ($26).
Booth told me she’s excited to take on the challenge in a city with a rapidly expanding dining landscape.
“I am fascinated with West Palm Beach,” says Booth, whose family hails from Ponce, Puerto Rico. “I’m hoping I can bring the good things I’ve learned, cooking in Miami, those special touches and flavors.”
The chef is also adding her touch to the brothers’ other downtown-area restaurant, Cortadito Cuban Café, expanding the variety of bakery offerings (tequeños, pandebono cheese rolls, croissants) at the daylight café.
Wellington location coming up
The Nicaraguan-born brothers are counting on Booth’s help when they open a new location of Rivales in Wellington later this year.
“We’re hoping to open in the next few months. We’re still in the process,” says Rivas.
That new Rivales will take over the Forest Hill Boulevard space that most recently housed La Fogata Mexican Cuisine in the Wellington Town Square by South Shore Boulevard.
Rivales’ full-service concept grew out of the brothers’ popular, courthouse-area taco shop JimmyChangas, which they opened in 2014 in a hole-in-the-wall space off of Banyan Boulevard. The tiny shop drew local raves, a visit from Serena Williams and a spot on USA Today’s “10Best” list for best Mexican restaurants in the West Palm Beach area in 2016.
In 2017, JimmyChangas moved into the more spacious Olive Ave digs. Two years later, the brothers changed the restaurant’s name to Rivales Taquería & Craft Bar.
“We’ve invested so much into this restaurant, but it’s been worth it,” says Rivas. “We have great customers who come on a regular basis and support us. That’s what’s kept us going.”
Rivales Taquería & Craft Bar: Rivales is open for lunch and dinner daily at 106 N. Olive Ave. (between Clematis and Banyan), West Palm Beach, 561-345-3737; RivalesTaqueria.com
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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: Popular Mexican restaurant gets celebrity chef in West Palm Beach
