Critic's Review
Bad ideas don't last long; they blame the failure on the building being sold; but Broward County bought the building (probably as an extension to the convention center and Port Everglades), but Market 17 is still inexplicably open, serving their 24 ingredient dishes to foodie wannabes.
Review 9/1/16
A quick update on this place. Hard to believe it's been open a year already; the place has changed substantially. They're still open in the morning, but they've essentially dropped their breakfast menu. They've cut hours and staff; they only serve pastries as "food" before 11am and after 3pm. They now close at 5pm. They've raised their prices by about 1/3. They now have grain bowls, and they've KO'd their charcuterie operation.
So the entire point of this "restaurant" seems to have failed, but like Market 17; an idea whose day has come and gone; they continue to sell the same weird stuff at even higher prices.
After eating lunch nearby, I stopped in to try their Cold Brew coffee. Their web site has 2 prices $4 and $5.50. I asked for a small Cold Brew to go. The useless counterperson proceeded to ring up $5.50 (I didn't notice at the time) and then you get to choose No Tip and sign with your finger (still no stylus). She gives me a cup with ice, and at this point I'm totally perplexed. She points to a refrigerator; oh, it's in a bottle. Terrific. I didn't see 2 sizes. Nothing was explained.
I poured myself and cup and headed home. No WiFi in this place; let's open up a coffee house and not provide any wifi. They only had whole milk and half and half (as well as almond and soy milk of course), so I had to settle for half and half.
They sell Panther Cold Brew; I didn't like it at all.
I'm used to drinking cold brew with a splash of heavy cream, so when I got home I dumped the cup and poured another with some heavy cream. I still didn't like it.
Conclusion
So the original idea here was supposedly to showcase charcuterie and meat making skills; the problem was that the meat wasn't very good. Now it's just a wildly overpriced sandwich shop. Why is this coffee $5.50? Nobody is going to buy it twice. I suggest you don't even buy it once.
Review 7/29/15
There isn't much new going on in Fort Lauderdale in the summer, so as I was driving around deciding where to go I remembered this place. It's the daytime version of Market 17, brought to us by the brother and sister team that clings to a complicated Farm To Market concept in a sliders and flatbread kind of town. When your father literally discovers a Gold Mine, you don't have to be as concerned about profits as some other business owners.
Their idea this time: Specialty meats and sandwiches. I'm actually not sure about the concept. The Graubergers seem to have a lot of cash but they don't know much about marketing. This place has been a mystery since the day I heard about it, and even after seeing a menu I didn't quite know what they were doing. On their facebook page they had photos of salami and espresso machines. None of it really fit together.
Breakfast was out; $8.50 for bacon and eggs isn't getting me in. And you never order the "chef's choice" anything; it's whatever they have that isn't selling. $7.95 for a breakfast sandwich. #NoThanks.
From the outside, the place looks like a travel agency office. You know, those small, narrow offices. I thought maybe they had a counter where you could order coffee or a sandwich.
Parking is limited. The big lots are on the east and west sides of the building, and this place is about in the middle. A pretty long walk to get a coffee if you have to park there. Luckily there was one spot right out in front. You only have 30 minutes to eat your sandwich.
When I walked inside, I was totally surprised. It was a much larger space than I expected. It felt kind of like those coffeeshop/workplaces that are opening up, like Warsaw Coffee Company. I half expect to see a Grauberger behind the counter, but the place is manned with young people.
Like Market 17, most of the recipes here don't appeal to me. Too many ingredients in everything. I ordered a Cuban, because that's a "known". They tout their meat preparation here, and good pork is the key to a good Cubano. I asked what kind of meat was in the Buenos Aires; the menu fails to mention it. The counter person didn't know. "It's beef", he said. "What KIND of beef", I countered. It was finally determined that it was brisket. Interesting. I ordered it also, despite the $9.75 price.
They have one of those swivel POS systems where you sign with your finger; I'll be eating with my hands so do I HAVE to touch your screen? How about getting a stylus? You also have to press the No Tip button, which is annoying. I hate fast casual. I don't want to tip someone to bring a bag to a table. I can get up and get it.
I sat down and waited. Surprisingly, they don't have wiFi. While it looks like a place to do some work, you'll be using up your LTE quota. They have some interesting decorations. Kitchen tools I think.
It was taking a long time to make the sandwiches. Over 10 minutes. I'd assumed that all of this stuff was pre-made.
On the East side of the room there's a display with cured meats and cheeses. No prices. So it's not clear if they're just showing off their work, of if you can buy the stuff. I snap a picture and the dude brings me my bag. Sorry, no tip with my $19 worth of sandwiches.
As i was getting in the car, I was thinking that this place had potential. With some wifi and better marketing, this place could be a big deal.
When I got home, I opened the packages.
First the "Miami Cuban". I'm not sure if that's a warning or what. It looked like it had a lot of pork, which was a good thing. My last couple of Cubanos tasted like ham sandwiches.
The "Buenos Aires" looked pretty froofy at first glance; the dreaded Arugula that seems as pervasive as Long Island crabgrass these days. And radishes. Radishes are interesting, but they don't really go with anything except course salt. Some bad looking onions; I was hoping for sauteed or pickled onions.
I was excited to bite into the Cuban. But as I chewed, disappointment set in. It was bland. A Cuban should pop: Mustard, Pickles, Ham, Savory Pork. Nothing here. Another bite or 2 and the flavors were a bit different. Opening it up explained the problems.
There was a curious combination of sliced and "pulled" meat; the sliced meat was very smokey, which doesn't really work on a cuban. And it was only on part of the sandwich.The pulled pork had no flavor. There was only a bit of ham on part of the sandwich, and it didn't really taste like ham (ham is salty). They use cucumbers with dill dressing rather than dill pickles. Mustard? If there was any mustard on the sandwich, I couldn't find it. So just about all of the flavors for a Cubano were missing or wrong. And they weren't spread out evenly over the sandwich.
The Buenos aires was equally disappointing. The meat had no flavor. It wasn't dried out, like brisket can be, but wasn't flavored with spice, brine or fat. I tasted the pork and the brisket together, and frankly I couldn't tell them apart. That's not a good thing.
There was a light spread of chimichurri on the bread, which wasn't enough to save it. In fact, it wasn't enough to taste it. I can't really tell you if their chimichurri is good or not. The plain onions, arugula and radishes just made the sandwich difficult to eat, without adding anything to the recipe. Tomatoes on a brisket sandwich? That's a new one.
This sandwich could be great with more savory meat, pickled red onions and a generous lathering of chimichurri, which is what I expected. This sandwich didn't remind me of South America in any way.
Conclusion
I was very excited about this place until I took my first bite of the Cuban sandwich; the concept has great potential but they have to get their recipes together. A $9-10 sandwich has to be better than what I got here; they have to stop with the sodium police act and properly season their meats, and to use fat properly.
The concept here is confusing. Is this place a show place for the owners culinary prowess? The recipes are weird, and the results fall flat. What is the idea here?
What we have here is a mish-mosh of ideas that result in a poorly executed finished product. The sandwiches don't have the proper proportions of ingredients; it's as if nobody has actually tasted the finished product. I find it impossible to believe that someone tasted the Buenos Aires and said "THAT is just what I was going for". There's just no way.
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to a member function getUser() on null in /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php:267 Stack trace: #0 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(75): threadedComments->formatComment(Object(stdClass)) #1 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(77): threadedComments->printParent(Array, 1) #2 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(100): threadedComments->printParent(Array) #3 /usr/local/www/insideftl/comments.php(74): threadedComments->printComments(Array) #4 /usr/local/www/insideftl/single-post.php(208): require_once('/usr/local/www/...') #5 /usr/local/www/insideftl/post.php(22): include('/usr/local/www/...') #6 /usr/local/www/insideftl/index.php(172): include('/usr/local/www/...') #7 {main} thrown in /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php on line 267