Truluck’s Open in Fort Lauderdale
Folks in Boca have been raving about their neighborhood Truluck’s for a while now so I was champing at the bit to attend the press opening. I’m happy to report it was worth the wait. Not only is the Fort Lauderdale location a beautiful site, but also the chefs and staff really made the brand proud. Guests were spoiled first with an open bar and then with a four-course meal that was so decadent it made me feel like praying to Poseidon and Gaia. They treated us to braised hiramasa with sea beans and peekytoe crab, chilled whole Norton Sound king crab, lump crab cakes that were thankfully thin on breading and hugely “lump,” and sliced Niman Ranch New York strip with king crab mashed potatoes. The entire meal was lovely, and the wine pairings were perfection, but the dessert course was the part that truly sent my tablemates and me reeling. People do not—I repeat, do not—skip the carrot cake, nor the chocolate malt cake. Those flavors are forever stored in my foodie bank of memories.
If you’ve never heard of Truluck’s, here’s a mini bio. This seafood, steak (dare I add “cake?”) and crab house opened in Houston around 1992. Each location updates its menus weekly with fresh seafood selections from the East Coast, West Coast and Gulf Coast. Those on the “Save Our Seafood” bandwagon also should know the chain vows to never serve endangered or overfished species. And I have my suspicions that the chain is going out of its way to plant its upcoming sites within a 100-foot diameter of any Capital Grille since the diner demographics have to be pretty similar.
But don’t feel like a visit will break your budget. The Fort Lauderdale resto offers a $35 deal nightly, which includes soup or salad, choice of entrée and shared dessert. (You already know which ones to choose, right?) And it’s worth a visit for just a glass of wine and a half-price appetizer during cocktail hour, Mondays through Saturdays from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
Truluck’s locations in South Florida include:
2584-A East Sunrise Blvd. at The Galleria in Fort Lauderdale, (954) 396-5656, and
351 Plaza Real in Mizner Park,
Boca Raton, (561) 391-0755. Rumors also swirl around a location at 777 Brickell Ave. in Miami slated to open by the end of this year or by Spring 2010.
Riki Altman
Riki is a freelance writer and a self-proclaimed foodie. She founded Wordstar Ink in 2003 and has been eating her way around the world—with a smile—ever since.