It's a brave businessman, wearing balls of steel, who opens a restaurant in West Palm's CityPlace. It helps, of course, to have done it at least once before, and Lirim Jacobi has done the deed twice. He owns Taverna Opa and City Pizza, and now he's giving it another go with Wild Ginger Asian Bistro, hoping to do what no man has done before. We've seen several upscale and mid-priced Asian restaurants come and go at CityPlace (Thai Jo just opened, in fact) but perhaps Jacobi has the golden ticket.
His partner in this venture is Dixon Li. I have a soft spot for Li because his Chinese restaurant on Lake Worth Road was my late-Dad's favorite place to hang. I almost drowned in Dixon's parking lot one time during a hurricane, which I'd idiotically decided to drive out into in search of an egg roll. Li's, needless to say, was the only restaurant brave enough to stay open in that deluge. Based on that, I'd say old Dixon has the necessary equipment to face CityPlace.
Looks like Chinese comfort food: General Tao, Moo shu, noodles. Along with those loaded "tempura rolls" that Americans routinely confuse with sushi. Call 561-832-8883 for the locale; it's somewhere on Hibiscus.
Also Smoothie King is open at that kiosk in the center square, one of 580 locations worldwide (including Korea). Entrepeneur Mag has named Smoothie King number one juice bar franchise in the country every year since 1989. They offer 50 flavors of smoothie -- how is that possible? I thought smoothies were so five years ago, but there's one called Muscle Punch that I'm jonesing to try. I'm thinking maybe if I drink enough of those babies, even blogging from bed 14 hours a day, I can keep my biceps toned. There's also one called The Gladiator; I like the sound of that. "I will have my vengeance!" 650 S. Rosemary Ave, WPB. 561-822-9921
