Spirits are high at Okeechobee Steakhouse, the county’s oldest family-run restaurant that made its debut as the Okeechobee Drive-In in 1947. Ice cubes clink against cut glass as patrons greet one another near the crowded horseshoe bar. Jazz notes fill the air, and deep burgundy leather banquettes await guests who can hardly wait to sink forks into sumptuous fare. A polka-dotted skirt rustles as its wearer reaches to greet a gentleman in a chocolate velvet jacket. In a room filled by the well-heeled, old friends recount generations-deep family lore and relative newcomers remark on the allure of the place. It’s a time of celebration, prosperity, and growth across the country—and no place does boom time quite like the Palm Beaches.
The venue has evolved from a drive-in where a steak and martini would be served curbside to patrons who were either willing to travel to the edge of the wilderness far west of town or leave their agriculture-based homesteads to head toward the city for a meal.
“We served a lot of blue-collar lunches in those days,” says Ralph Lewis, now the third-generation proprietor of Okeechobee Steakhouse, as well as the business’s latest outposts: Okeechobee Prime Meat Market, Lewis Steakhouse, Lewis Prime Grill, Okeechobee Prime Barbecue, and Okeechobee Prime Event Hall & Catering. The steak sandwich was popular then and now, but much else has changed. Today, the restaurant serves only Prime wet- and dry-aged steaks, and the 40-cent cocktails have given way to a wine selection of more than 800 bottles that has earned Wine Spectator’s Best of Award of Excellence.
“We had the lieutenant governor for lunch today,” says Lewis, who is hosting this dinner party with his wife, Laura. He remarks that politicians, businesspeople, and foodies make up a lot of their clientele. Lunch is brisk with dealmakers. “We’ve had millions of dollars in transactions negotiated on these tables.”
The evening, though, is when the magic happens.
Tonight’s menu features classics from the 1947 menu, like shrimp cocktail, French onion soup, T-bone steak, ribs, fried chicken, fried shrimp, foil-wrapped baked potatoes, peas, and glazed carrots. Most are still served today, though with greater attention to quality and in a diminished quantity than the early days.
“We were actually busier by volume [then] than we are today,” Lewis says. “The difference with fine dining is that the pace is slowed down. Instead of being in and out in an hour, your meal will last two or two-and-a-half hours. It’s who we are now.”
And tonight’s setting is the restaurant’s Bourbon Room, a private space just past where the original grill pit sat. The details resurrect a time gone by—a splay of patriotic colors remind that the war is over and America’s growth is on the rise. Penny Murphy, the third-generation president of Pioneer Linens, set the table with her grandmother’s china, a red gingham tablecloth, linen napkins, and London train silver “that has a good weight but isn’t too precious to use,” she says.
Murphy grew up in the area and remarks on how much things have changed. “In the ’50s and ’60s, [West Palm Beach] was a normal small town, except that you had Palm Beach with its world-class restaurants, The Royal Poinciana [Playhouse] which would bring in Broadway shows, incredible shops, and the Norton, which we’d climb on a school bus to visit,” Murphy says.
Richard Johnson Jr. (who attended the dinner with his wife, Charlene) adds to the reflection. “My 93-year-old mother—she’s still with us—likes to tell a story about coming to the Okeechobee Drive-In with her father,” he says.
Johnson serves as the board chair for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. His parents gave the lead gift to fund the creation of the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum, which is hosting “Wish You Were Here: Tourism in the Palm Beaches” through June 28. The special exhibition highlights artifacts and stories of the things that drew people to the area—from sports and nature to legendary hotels, a vibrant music and art scene, and an array of dining options.
In a special area of the exhibit, archival items like old menus and chefs’ tools will show the evolution of the county’s culinary scene via legacy restaurants like Okeechobee Steakhouse.
The epicurean evolution, of course, extends beyond restaurants. Cheney Brothers—a foodservice distribution company that Joe Cheney started in 1925 to help supply mostly hotel-based restaurants with the products they needed to keep locals and visitors fed—has also grown alongside the county’s restaurant industry. Cheney’s grandson, Byron Russell (dining with his wife, Laura), became CEO in the early 1980s and helped to usher Cheney Brothers into the modern age, and beyond.
As she gives examples of the types of customers she’s met along the way, Murphy pauses to introduce Russell as “one smart gentleman,” to which he comments about the towels and linens he has always purchased from her family store and quips, “You’ve known me since the ’80s, and I was on a tear back then.”
In fact, that was when Russell managed to convince his grandfather, after several false starts, to embrace the technology that would eventually revolutionize the way Cheney Brothers supports area restaurants.
“We operate the same as Amazon,” he says. “It can tell you what’s coming in, when it can be delivered, what your last order was, and how much you paid for it. The chef or purchasing agent can discuss the trends, where your highs and lows are for 52 weeks a year.”
This fall, Virginia-based Performance Food Group (PFG) acquired Cheney Brothers Inc. and the company’s 3,600 associates. Per a statement from PFG, the acquisition creates a stronger presence for PFG in the Southeast region and provides additional distribution capacity.
This type of growth is becoming common across the Palm Beaches, but strong relationship building remains key for many local companies and entrepreneurs. Just ask Lindsay Autry, a James Beard–nominated chef and the chef/partner of Honeybelle at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens. Autry’s family ran a peach orchard in North Carolina when she was growing up, and she recounts selling their produce to local grocery stores and at roadside stands. “For me, I’m not always driven by cost,” she says. “I’m driven by relationships.”
Autry says she can call a longtime contact at Cheney Brothers and get exactly what she needs when she needs it. “Even though he’s not even a sales rep anymore, if I call and say I need mayonnaise, he tells me to come by and he will help,” she explains.
In the 15 years that Autry’s lived and worked in the Palm Beaches, one of the biggest changes she’s noticed is the increase in chef-driven restaurants. That is due, in part, to the efforts of Autry’s husband, David Sabin, president of Brickhouse Public Relations and co-founder and producer of the Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival.
Launched in 2007 as a one-night tasting event, the festival—of which Autry is also a co-founder—is now a widely attended multi-night series of seated and strolling food and wine tastings, dinners, seminars, and classes, hosted at local hotels and restaurants. Wine Spectator became a media partner in 2019, and last year Sabin and Wine Spectator’s publisher, Marvin R. Shanken, announced a joint venture to expand the festival’s programming. This year’s event, which runs December 12-15, involves 60 of the area’s top restaurants, 50 celebrity chefs, and 120 wineries pouring varieties rated at 90 points or better. Sabin says the growth of the festival over the last 17 years reflects a similar evolution in the local food and wine scene.
“We’ve had the opportunity to showcase the area’s most quintessential venues in unique ways,” he says. “We’re certainly responsible for strong relationships within the culinary community, and I think we’ve given a platform that has grown within the area, with the opportunity to showcase the best of the best.”
Change is nothing new for Palm Beach County’s restaurant business, as the Lewises can attest. The first Ralph Lewis and his wife, Norma, met in the 1930s while working in the restaurant of West Palm Beach’s El Verano Hotel. Their Okeechobee Drive-In became a family affair, with their son, Curtis, working the broiler starting at age 12. When his dad died when he was 18, Curtis stepped up to run the restaurant with his mother.
“Over the years, I noticed things were changing,” says Curtis Lewis, who is dining with his wife, Jeannie, this evening. The two met at the restaurant, where she worked many front-of-house positions. “I realized we would go under unless we changed with them.”
In 1968, the restaurant stopped its curbside service. In 1975, it adopted its contemporary steak house identity and rebranded to its current moniker. The secret to the restaurant and the Lewis family’s longevity and success?
“Being consistent,” the elder Lewis says. “Serving great food, giving great service, and really taking care of our customers. That’s hospitality, and we believe in it big-time.”
Story Credits:
Table linens and design: Pioneer Linens, West Palm Beach
Floral design: R. Varito Designs and Institute, West Palm Beach
Tabletop accessories: Devonia Antiques, James & Jeffrey Antiques, West Palm Beach
Vintage china and silverware compliments of Penny and Alan Murphy
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