Hemingway-inspired restaurant still on track for Palm Beach; new partner joins venture

A Hemingway-inspired restaurant the Town Council greenlighted in July is still on track to make its debut in The Esplanade, but its team and opening date have changed.

Cojimar, named after a Cuban fishing village Hemingway frequented, now is set to make a winter debut after kitchen and other equipment-delivery delays nixed an autumn opening, principal Joseph Hernandez told the Daily News Wednesday.

The 151-seat restaurant, with a seafood-focused menu influenced by Mediterranean and Cuban cuisines, could open as early as mid-December, said Hernandez, who characterized Cojimar as “chic” and “ocean-inspired.”

The biotech entrepreneur’s original consultant on the project, well-known New York restaurateur Charles Masson, no longer is associated with the venture after an amicable parting of the ways, the two men said.

In the wake of that, a new partner has come on board — Luis Pous, a longtime Miami-based chef and restaurant consultant who Hernandez said “shares with me a long appreciation for Hemingway’s love of life and the sea and wanting to articulate that through a restaurant and a culinary story.”

Cojimar received the town’s OK on July 14 at a development review meeting, during which a special exception request also was granted for the 5,200-square-foot restaurant.

The approval entailed conditions set for the previous restaurant in the second-level Esplanade berth, including the 151-person capacity assigned to Chinese-American eatery Hai House, which operated for 14 months until February 2020.

At that July meeting, both Hernandez and Masson explained their affinity for Hemingway’s “joie de vivre” and how the Cuban village of Cojimar inspired the literary giant’s “The Old Man and the Sea.”

The two men this week told the Daily News that Masson’s amicable departure from the project came after equipment delays during the late summer hampered the restaurant’s design progress.

Businesses nationwide have wrestled with delivery issues driven in part by seaport congestion and labor and trucking shortages caused by the pandemic.

Masson, who for 40 years helmed his family’s venerated New York French restaurant La Grenouille, has turned to other priorities, including family and artistic pursuits, he said. “My consulting work on Cojimar was complete,” he said.

“Charles was an amazing contributor to the project,” Hernandez said.

Pous said he has been working with Hernandez since at least September; he is a 30-year executive chef and restaurateur who spent many years with restaurant brand Asia de Cuba.

Pous, who was born in Cuba and lives in Miami, has partnered on several restaurants. In his early career, he was executive chef at Little Palm Island & Spa in the Florida Keys and Plaza Hotel Athenee in New York.

“I am completely excited about Cojimar,” Pous told the Daily News by phone from Bogota, Colombia, where he opened a restaurant this past summer. “I never partner on a restaurant unless my heart is in it 100%.”

Cojimar also now has a general manager in place: Christopher Werley, who led the 2020 opening team of Le Bar a Vin on South County Road.

Under Pous, Cojimar’s menu is set to feature such dishes as bass ceviche, grilled pompano with thyme and lemon, tuna salad Niçoise and sea urchin risotto.

Curried chicken with mango chutney and slow-stewed Cuban ropa vieja are among other planned dishes.

In addition to serving dinner nightly, Cojimar will feature oyster and full-service bars pouring Hemingway-esque daiquiris, Cuban mojitos and dry martinis. A temperature-controlled wine room can store 2,000 bottles, Hernandez said.

While Cojimar undergoes finishing touches, its floor-to-ceiling windows are papered over.

Restaurants that previously operated in the pace have flourished or fizzled. Among them: Hai House (Chinese), Costa (Mediterranean), Cha Cha’s Latin Fresh Kitchen & Tequila Bar (pan-Latin) and Gigi’s Tap & Table (American).

Esplanade officials said they’re looking forward to Cojimar opening.

Francis X. Scire, senior vice president of leasing, told the Daily News, “We remain excited about Mr. Hernandez’s Cojimar and welcome the chef-partner (Pous) and can’t wait to see what his new menu will be.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Opening of Hemingway-inspired Palm Beach restaurant now set for December