Sally Zalk
Owner and President
Essential Meeting Services
Boca Raton, Fla.
What are three hot spots you would recommend for groups meeting in Palm Beach County?
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B.B. King’s at CityPlace, West Palm Beach: This restaurant and jazz club is probably the best thing going on in the county. You can reserve a whole table and do special menus. They’re very accommodating. The house band plays all through the dinner hour, and it’s Chicago-style blues and jazz—very cool. We just don’t have this kind of music in Florida. Then at about 9 p.m., they start the show. They bring in a singer, and everybody’s up and dancing. It’s just great, and people love it. When you consider the cost-cutting planners are dealing with, bringing a band into a private place can get very expensive, so this is a good option. B.B. King’s can handle about 100 attendees. It’s a big open space with a dance floor.
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Gol! The Taste of Brazil, Delray Beach: This Brazilian restaurant is a hit because they serve food in the rodizio style—servers come around with platters of steak, lamb, chicken and fish and slice it right at your table, and you pull it off as they’re slicing. It’s just a fun thing, and groups always like it. They also have huge salad bars with hot and cold foods, which allows people to get up and mix and mingle. It’s much more interactive than just sitting and having a plated dinner. What’s good, too, is they have about 15 different types of meat, and with the salad bars, it doesn’t matter if someone’s a vegetarian or has a restricted diet. Nobody’s going to go hungry.Because of the restaurant’s size, though, you’d have to bring a smaller group. I’d say 30 is the ideal. Then after dinner, the group can stroll Atlantic Avenue and go shopping or sightseeing. Delray is such a hot area right now. And with groups not spending on private venues, it’s economical to provide a wonderful dinner, then let people go and explore on their own.
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Palm Beach Improv, CityPlace: The Improv at CityPlace is always fun for groups because you can take over the whole place and have a casual night of dinner and comedy. They offer light fare like salads, hamburgers, chicken fingers, that kind of thing. It gives you a lot of flexibility, because anytime you take over a facility, you can pretty do much whatever you want.I think groups like it, too, because when you’re in meetings all day and learning, it’s fun to get out for a night of laughing together. A word of caution, though—you should probably find out who the comedian is. If they’re a little too raunchy or too controversial, it could be a disaster. Just make sure whoever is appearing is "corporate appropriate." You can always go beforehand and see a sample, and take your client to get his or her approval.