The Bucc is back.
\nThe Buccaneer Waterfront Bar & Grill \u2014 perched right on the Intracoastal waters of Palm Beach Shores \u2014 has reopened after almost 20 years spent sea-shuttered.
\nAnd it has a bona fide celebrity executive chef at the helm: Paul Niedermann, who won Gordon Ramsay\u2019s TV cooking competition \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d in 2011.<\/p>\n
Known by longtime locals as \u201cThe Bucc,\u201d the dining destination opened in 1956, enjoying highly favored status (authors Ernest Hemingway and Frederick Exley were known to visit) for decades before eventually falling out of fashion and closing in the early 2000s. Now, after a seven-year makeover, the restaurant reopened on March 18 to a packed house of gastronomes, local political leaders and other VIPs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call it a resurrection, restoration and renovation of The Bucc, because it\u2019s been a staple on the waterfront for so long,\u201d says Ryan Steely, executive VP and chief marketing officer of Sharfi Holdings Inc., which purchased the property 10 years ago and initiated the major makeover. The other partners\/owners are Ben Sharfi (CEO) and Joshua Miron (president and general counsel).<\/p>\n
The restaurant sits in the middle of a waterfront property called Buccaneer Marina & Resort with recently rebuilt docks and a marina scheduled to open May 1. By year\u2019s end, developers say 18 remodeled, two-story condominiums should be ready.
\n\u201cThe town of Palm Beach Shores has been absolutely crucial and amazing in helping us get this thing going,\u201d Steely says.<\/p>\n
Opening week was a triumph, he adds, due in large part to Niedermann and to the Palm Beach Shores\/Singer Island\/Riviera Beach area.
\n\u201cEverything was fantastic. We were completely sold out the first week,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s a credit to not only the heritage that the Buccaneer has, and the lore that surrounds the Buccaneer, but [also] to chef Paul Niedermann and his crew \u2026
\n\u201cHis reputation is really catapulting us very quickly into success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niedermann says his culinary direction is \u201ca simplistic yet refined approach to waterfront dining,\u201d adding: \u201cI took a lot of my travels and put it in the menu.\u201d
\nSome of the menu options include Floridian Style Crab Cake with grain mustard aioli; Lamb Lollipops with roasted garlic hummus, and a Center Cut Filet with fingerling potato, applewood smoked bacon, tomato concasse and red wine jus.
\nAlissa Dragun
\nPan Roasted Local Mahi with charred broccolini, romesco sauce and lemon at the Buccaneer Waterfront Bar & Grill. (Alissa Dragun\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Niedermann lives in Boca Raton and admits, despite being a boater, that he hadn\u2019t spent much time in the specific coastal area surrounding the Buccaneer, just a little north of the Palm Beach\/Lake Worth Inlet.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t really know a lot about Palm Beach Shores or a lot about Singer Island,\u201d the avid fisherman says. \u201cBut when I joined on and \u2026 everybody told me the stories of how this was an iconic place back in the day \u2026 and all the passion behind it. I couldn\u2019t help but get excited. And then I saw the space, and I was like, \u2018Yeah, I could definitely deal with this.\u2019 \u201d
\nAlissa Dragun
\nChef Paul Niedermann in the kitchen at the Buccaneer Waterfront Bar & Grill in Palm Beach Shores. (Alissa Dragun\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Niedermann \u2014 who is also corporate executive chef for Sharfi Holdings \u2014 has fed famous faces such as Hilary Duff, Tyra Banks, Danny McBride and Rob Dyrdek.
\nThe Johnson & Wales University graduate, who grew up in Davie, returned for \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d appearances in seasons 11, 12 and 15. Since his foodie fame, Niedermann has had SoFlo stints cooking up the cuisine at The Jupiter Grill, Salt7 in Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach, The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort, The Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale, as well as at the long-closed Hudson at Waterway East in Delray Beach.<\/p>\n
Niedermann: Because of the passion that everybody had in talking about this place. I\u2019ve traveled a lot, and I\u2019ve worked for a lot of different ownership groups. This is the first group I\u2019ve ever met where their passion about the project and the passion about the community is intoxicating. I couldn\u2019t think of a better fit for me because of how driven and passionate I am about what I do, and then having somebody behind me with the passion to drive it to the stratosphere that I could never even fathom is why I chose this project.
\nSteely: There are many, many, many stories that go along with it. There are a lot of folks that \u2026 tell the stories about being at the Buccaneer with either their grandparents, father, mother \u2014 it\u2019s a very community-driven marina. They would have fishing competitions off the docks for the kids.
\nAlissa Dragun
\nA mural at \u201cThe Bucc,\u201d which reopened to the public in March 2025. (Alissa Dragun\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Steely: Ben [Sharfi] is an Israeli, so Paul comes in and he says, \u201cLet me make you guys something.\u201d I wasn\u2019t there. I wish I would have been so I could see Ben\u2019s face. He made an Israeli dish for Ben \u2026 these lamb chops \u2026 and homemade hummus. Ben appreciated the fact that Paul had enough guts to serve an Israeli an Israeli dish and just absolutely knocked it out of the park. So we love that he\u2019s got no reservations about trying new stuff or really pushing boundaries.<\/p>\n
Niedermann: The menu itself is simplistic. Take my crab cake. I make a great crab cake that fits up here \u2026 where we\u2019re seafood-driven. I love Lombardi\u2019s clam pie in Manhattan, it\u2019s my favorite thing in the world. Nobody around here can make it. So I made my version of it (Cherry Stone Clams pizza).
\nAlissa Dragun
\nCenter Cut Filet with fingerling potato, applewood smoked bacon, tomato concasse and red wine jus. (Alissa Dragun\/Courtesy)
\nLiving in California, the trips I would take to San Francisco, I fell in love with Cioppino. I think it\u2019s probably one of the best dishes you can have. It pairs with everything, and it can make anyone happy who\u2019s a seafood lover. You don\u2019t like the shrimp, great \u2014 I\u2019ll give you more fish. You don\u2019t like the fish, great \u2014 I\u2019ll give you more shrimp. Everyone\u2019s happy. [Our Local Grouper Cioppino] is a big bowl of happiness.
\nI think that classic desserts are making a comeback, and I think that there\u2019s a lot of things that people like that they don\u2019t realize they like because they don\u2019t want to make it at home. Bread pudding is one of those things. Everybody\u2019s like, \u2018I love bread pudding and I will never make it at my house.\u2019 So stuff like that is where I pull the inspiration [of using] Fruity Pebbles. We\u2019re in Florida. We\u2019re very fruity-driven around here, between the citrus, between the berries, between everything we grow. I thought it would be a nice, fun, playful thing \u2014 Fruity Pebble Bread Pudding. And I like the nostalgia. Nostalgia nowadays carries a lot more clout than ingenuity. I want to invoke a memory. I want to invoke when you\u2019re a little kid on Saturday morning, eating Fruity Pebbles, watching TV, watching the cartoons. I think that\u2019s fun.
\nAlissa Dragun
\nThe dining room at The Buccaneer Waterfront Bar & Grill. (Alissa Dragun\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Niedermann: My life has come full circle from a 16-year-old working at Luv\u2019n Oven [Pizza & Pasta] in Cooper City, making pizzas, to coming back to making pizzas on the waterfront. Again, I want to be very different than everything around here. \u2026
\nI spent a lot of time in Key West with my wife. There\u2019s this little food truck that does this street corn pizza. And it\u2019s pretty much the only reason why we go down there. I took the idea of that, I tweaked it into my own take, Mexican street corn pizza with lobster (elote).
\nAlissa Dragun
\nThe entrance of The Buccaneer Waterfront Bar & Grill. (Alissa Dragun\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Steely: The bar at the Buccaneer was iconic. You talk to people and it was always the bar at the Buccaneer. I\u2019ve heard many, many stories about it, and we knew that with the bar there was something special. So when we tore down the old bar, we wanted to build a new one that was reminiscent of the old bar. We<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Get Bucc’d with ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ winner chef Paul Niedermann The Bucc is back. The Buccaneer Waterfront Bar & Grill \u2014 perched right on the Intracoastal waters of Palm Beach Shores \u2014 has reopened after almost 20 years spent sea-shuttered. And it has a bona fide celebrity executive chef at the helm: Paul Niedermann, who won […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/TFL-L-Buccaneer-Restaurant-Chef-Paul-Niedermann-kitchen-window-DSC09760.jpg?w=1400px&strip=all&w=1400&resize=1400,926&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12026,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12024\/revisions\/12026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}