A legendary Manhattan restaurant known for its steaks, rich history, and distinctive charm is headed for Boca Raton.
Last week, restauranteur Dean Poll announced that he will be bring his legendary New York City dining experience, Gallaghers Steakhouse, to Boca Raton. The restaurant is expected to open in May, marking the first expansion under Poll's direction outside of his historic Manhattan location, which began as a speakeasy in 1927.
“I’m very much looking forward to bringing Gallaghers Steakhouse to Boca Raton- a community my family and I have enjoyed for many years,” Poll tells News Break. “I know some of our Boca Raton guests will have visited our New York location already, but I’m just as excited to welcome first-timers who will realize that Gallaghers is so much more than just a steakhouse.”
In 2022, Gallaghers Steakhouse New York was ranked by OpenTable as one of “America’s Top 100 Restaurants,” based on the platform’s diner reviews. It was also named by The Infatuation as one of “The Best Steakhouses in NYC,” receiving the highest ranking among all restaurants on the list. In recent years, Gallaghers and its culinary experience have received positive rankings, highlights, and reviews byForbes, Eater, Gotham Magazine, Eat This!, and other top national and culinary media.
Originally established as a speakeasy during Prohibition, the Gallaghers story began when it was opened on 52nd Street in Manhattan in 1927 by former Broadway showgirl Helen Gallagher – wife of Ed Gallagher of the vaudeville comedy team Gallagher and Shean- with her partner, the colorful gambler, Jack Solomon. Gallaghers quickly became a hotspot among everyone from Broadway stars to gamblers and bootleggers.
Following the Great Depression and the end of Prohibition, a then-widowed Helen married her partner Jack, and together they turned their speakeasy into a steakhouse, which it remains to this day. Although the restaurant stayed in the original family for 37 years, it was sold in 1964 to Jerome Brody, with whose family the restaurant remained until it was purchased from current owner Dean Poll in 2013.
With a vision to resurrect the restaurant’s genuine mid-century allure, Dean embarked on a full restoration to bring Gallaghers to its better-than-original glory while also adding the essential upgrades and capital improvements necessary to ensure its continued success. Generations of New York families continue to come to enjoy the restaurant’s unrelenting superiority and 90-plus year history.
True to its legacy, the dining experience at Gallaghers Boca Raton will be a balance of casual formality, welcoming guests to relax and enjoy a well-rounded menu of offerings, and world-class hospitality. Upon being seated, guests will be received by silver place settings, custom linens, and a uniformed professional service team, as well as the same lively, lighthearted energy that brought Gallaghers to life nearly a century ago.
Gallaghers’ menu is centered on its famous steaks, aged within its in-house meat locker for 21-plus days before being cooked to temperature on its signature hickory coal grills.
A rarity in the steakhouse industry, Gallaghers’ iconic glass-enclosed meat lockers are not only a unique and aesthetically intriguing addition to their restaurants, but more importantly, they serve as a highly-superior way to dry age beef. While few steakhouses dry age or even portion their own meat in-house anymore, Gallaghers does both- and on display.
While in New York, the meat locker is famously positioned at the restaurant’s entrance, facing 52nd Street, the glass-enclosed locker in Gallaghers Boca Raton will be located right inside the restaurant, as a special feature for guests and bar patrons alike.
Gallaghers Boca Raton will combine both traditional favorites as well as dishes seldom found on your typical steakhouse menu. Gallaghers’ long-established family-style starters such as seafood towers, shrimp and lobster dumplings, and beef carpaccio, and side dishes such as creamed spinach and mashed potatoes, will be upheld on the Boca Raton menu as well.
To ensure high quality from day one, Gallaghers will be opening its Boca Raton location with a seasoned management team currently employed at its New York location. The team, who have collectively been with Gallaghers for more than three decades, have relocated full-time to support the new restaurant’s success.
They include executive chef Alan Ashkinaze, who has been with Gallaghers since he purchased Gallaghers New York in 2013, who will oversee Boca Raton’s culinary team. He is joined by general manager Michael Amore, a 15-year veteran of Poll’s New York restaurants, and bar manager and mixologist Chris Dziuba, who oversaw New York’s bustling bar scene for more than eight years.
Aesthetically, Gallaghers Boca will emulate the style indicative of 1920s with green leather banquets, saddle leather accents, beige and green terrazzo flooring, stucco wall detailing, and pecky-cypress ceilings to bring the classic style of early century days of “Palm Beach” society to life. Covering every wall of the restaurant, guests will find authentic pictures and portraits of everyone from Broadway stars to politicians, sports legends to prize-winning racehorses, silver screens actors to modern-day socialites- most of which were taken within the historic Gallaghers dining room.
The 200-plus seat dining room shares a glass wall with the kitchen, providing guests a nightly visual into their dinner’s fervent preparations, while an expansive horseshoe bar stands in the center of the restaurant. Just off the bar, guests can peruse the glass-enclosed meat locker, which on any given day holds anywhere from 2,800- 3,800 pounds of beef.
Gallaghers Steakhouse will be located at 2006 NW Executive Center Circle off Glades Road in Boca Raton. The restaurant will be open daily for lunch and dinner. Visit GallaghersSteakhouse.com or call 561-559-5800 for more information.
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