The 31st annual Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival is here and it’s time to stand in awe as over 600 artists take to the streets (literally) of Lake and Lucerne Avenues and create their masterpieces with chalk as their medium and asphalt as their canvases.
If you’re thinking that all that art appreciation can work up an appetite, you’re right. Though there will be a food court area at the two-day event that begins Sat., Feb. 22 , there are also many excellent restaurants throughout the downtown area. Possibly even a few you’ve heard about and have been wanting to try. Now is your chance.
Here are several new restaurants along with a few staples definitely worth checking out:
Restaurants new to downtown Lake Worth Beach
Oceano
With the Michelin Guide’s recent announcement that the Palm Beaches will be added to its coverage area in 2025, one spot the team’s top-secret inspectors must visit is Oceano. The restaurant reopened Jan. 17 after a six-month remodeling, and not only does it look spectacular, the food is fantastic, as it should be because it’s helmed by husband and wife exec chef-partners Jeremy and Cindy Bearman, who shared a Best Chef: South James Beard Award semifinalist nod in 2023. The genius of Oceano is its flexibility: You can indulge in espresso martinis and desserts at the bar, share a fantastic pizza or go whole hog with sharables and starters to fantastic desserts. That’s all up to you — and your wallet.
Information: 512 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth Beach. 561-400-7418; oceanolwb.com
Not So Bizarre Café
Opened in August 2024, this funky, bohemian restaurant is essentially a reincarnation of the once once-beloved restaurant Bizaare Ave Café that closed around 2013. Owned and operated by Lisa “Aloha-Lani” Mercado, Not So Bizarre Café features the same style of offbeat furnishings, mismatched plates and a great vibe. Mercado would know as she was the original’s dessert chef and known for her award-winning peanut butter pie.
In addition to the look, Mercado fashioned the menu to include dishes from the original along with new offerings. “Some of the big sellers that were on the original Bizaare Ave Café menu included the baked brie, crepes and peanut butter pie,” she said. They are all available again. One of their new and most popular dishes is the Huli Huli Chicken. Influenced by her time on living in Hawaii, Mercado said it starts with an organic airline chicken breast, or Statler cut, that is pan seared for crispness, baked and served with house-made pineapple-guava teriyaki sauce, coconut rice and salad with a house-made lilikoi dressing. For dessert, though the peanut butter pie is an award winner, Mercado’s Italian Key Lime pie is no slouch in the taste and decadence department and is regularly a top contender for favorite dessert.
Huli Huli Chicken is a roasted airline breast with house made teriyaki sauce, rice and salad at the Not So Bizaare Ave Cafe on September 24, 2024 in Lake Worth Beach, Florida.
Information: 921 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach. bizaareave.com
Coast Seafood
Setting up shop near Lake Worth Beach’s venerable Bamboo Room on South J Street, this restaurant opened in August 2024. Owned and operated by the mother/daughter duo of Blair Jones and Lexe Leeman, Coast Seafood is focused on serving excellent ocean-derived fare including appetizers like their tuna poke and shrimp ceviche, along with entrées like the ahi tuna tostada or their daily fish specials. Jones said their menu is based on “some of my favorites” and that she and her daughter have worked together to create a menu that features “some fun interesting ideas.” Popular dishes include their crab cakes, the blackened shrimp po’boy, the seafood salad roll (made with lump crab, shrimp and lobster) and the ‘fresh catch of the day’ featuring their tomato artichoke broth and creamy asparagus risotto. Though both Jones and Leeman are Delray Beach natives, Leeman said “We’re really embracing Lake Worth Beach… the love and support… has been fantastic.” They recently added a large outdoor seating area.
➤ Coast Seafood: Opens in historic location in downtown Lake Worth Beach
Information: 17 S. J St., Lake Worth Beach. instagram.com/coast.seafood.lwb
Sushi by Bou
Sushi by Bou opens at Benny’s on the Beach in Lake Worth Beach on Feb. 7.
A chain you scream? Yes, but it epitomizes hospitality with personality and then some at this super fun interactive omakase experience that doesn’t take all night. The newest outpost opened Feb. 7 at Benny’s on the Beach. The space is tiny, so reservations are a must.
Information: 10 S. Ocean Blvd., Lake Worth Beach. 888-670-5996; sushibybou.com
Other Lake Worth Beach restaurants to check out:
Mathews Brewing Co. Scratch Kitchen
Opened a little over a year ago, Mathews Brewing Co. Scratch Kitchen is right next door to the brewery itself (technically, it’s just across the alley) and features a diverse menu that includes a mix of high-end bar and pub food. There are New York and Detroit-style pizzas (made in their 650-degree, gas-fired oven), tacos, bangers-and-mash, fish-and-chips, wagyu beef hot dogs, scotch eggs and their wildly-popular smash burgers. Oh, and if you’re thirsty, the brewery makes some of the best, award-winning beer in the nation.
Information: 125 S. Dixie Highway, Lake Worth Beach. 561-812-3738; mathewsbrewingscratchkitchen.com
L-Dub Subs
Quitting their corporate jobs, Makayla and Danny Clanton opened L-Dub Subs in 2021. Using locally sourced ingredients almost exclusively, they make a tasty sandwich. Tasty, and wonderfully named, like the toasted Hot Mess sub (ham, turkey, roast beef, provolone, toppings), the Italian Stallion (ham, salami, capicola, provolone, toppings), the toasted Redneck Cuban sub (ham, Swiss, Palm Beach pickles, barbecue slaw) and the Put Your Ham On My Thigh toasted sub (prosciutto, chicken, Swiss, toppings). Another favorite is the Lake Quirky Club sub. It comes with ham, turkey, roast beef, bacon, Monterey jack cheese, “dayonnaise”, honey mustard, lettuce and tomatoes.
➤ Palm Beach Post picks: Best sandwiches in Palm Beach County
L-Dub Subs has indoor and outdoor seating in Lake Worth Beach.
Information: 16 S. J St., Lake Worth Beach. ldubsubs.com
Una Bakery
Featuring both sweet and savory, the pastries at Una Bakery in Lake Worth Beach are made with European flour and only the finest Belgian and French chocolates.
Opened in November 2022, Una Bakery is your one-stop shop for savory and sweet oven-baked treats. Owned and operated by Azra Nahic, UNA features pastries, cakes, breads and more, all made from scratch, by hand, daily. Bringing some old-school goodness to Lake Worth, Nahic said she learned the art of baking from her mother and grandmother and that some of the recipes are over 100 years old. She uses only flour imported from Europe and the finest Belgian and French chocolates. Though there are many sweets that will immediately tempt, two of their more popular, savory dishes include the focaccia, a flatbread with figs, porcini mushrooms, beef prosciutto, arugula and a balsamic glaze, and the burek, a Bosnian pastry filled with meat, cheese or spinach.
Information: 513 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach. 727-330-0401; instagram.com/unabakerypalmbeach
Over EZ Café
Grab a classic breakfast like the two egg combo with bacon and home fries at Over EZ’s Cafe in downtown Lake Worth Beach.
This breakfast and lunch spot features classic diner fare and is especially known for their made-from-scratch biscuits and gravy, sloppy joe sandwiches and the Hungryman breakfast, which includes three eggs, bacon, sausage or ham, home-fries or grits, half and order of biscuits and gravy or a short stack, and orange juice. Though they opened in summer 2023, Over EZ is not really a newcomer to the area. Owners Darryl Goldberg and Barbara Milo operated Jo-Jo’s Cafe in Lantana for 28 years prior to EZ, and Goldberg has lived in Lake Worth Beach nearly his entire six-plus decades (long before they added the “Beach”).
Information: 15 N. J St., Lake Worth Beach. 561-444-3698
Eddie Ritz is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at eritz@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best restaurants for Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival 2025
