Olio

The Restaurant

Olio sits one block south of Atlantic Avenue on SE 2nd Avenue, inside a renovated 1920s historic building that the restaurant has occupied since 2002. The space is split between a polished bar room — twelve high stools, a serious cocktail mise, and the kind of regular crowd that walks in three nights a week without a reservation — and a quieter main dining room of about sixty covers under low-hung Edison bulbs.

The kitchen runs as contemporary American with eclectic influences: a daily-changing tartare, wood-fired pizzas, a pan-roasted local snapper, a slow-braised short rib that has stayed on the menu for over a decade, and a small list of seasonal tapas-style small plates designed for solo or two-person sharing. The local-and-organic sourcing language is real — the kitchen has long-standing relationships with three Palm Beach County farms — but the menu never lectures the diner about it. The wine list is shorter than Tramonti's (about 120 bottles) but smartly chosen, with a particularly strong by-the-glass programme.

The bar is the secret. The cocktail list runs about fifteen — sharper than most Delray bars, with a barrel-aged Negroni and a smoked Old Fashioned worth ordering — and the bar menu is the full menu. For solo travellers, the high stools at the bar give access to chef-driven cooking in a room where eating alone is genuinely comfortable. For couples, the dining room is intimate without being precious.