PUNTA GORDA, Florida – (Feb. 26, 2018) It’s a very exciting time to be a chef. This is especially true if you’re working with a fellow chef you’ve known for many years and with whom you now work in a luxury lifestyle hotel known for its breathtaking rooftop view of Punta Gorda, Fla. and Charlotte Harbor, and if you shop 100 percent organic for the restaurants every week at the nearby 85-acre Worden Farm, a certified organic family farm in Punta Gorda that has been featured by PBS, NBC Nightly News, America’s Heartland, USA Today and Bon Appetit.
Welcome to the world of Wyvern Hotel Executive Chef Josh Booze and Sous Chef Brandon Hause, Punta Gorda’s dynamic duo taking the Farm To Fork concept to a new level of passion and enjoyment for hotel guests and locals who dine at the Wyvern’s 88 Keys Restaurant and Art Deco Piano Bar, the rooftop Perch 360 Restaurant and Bar and room service.
“We pride ourselves in the seemingly lost tradition of buying only fresh products and preparing all of our featured dishes from scratch,” explained Chef Josh. “We talk to our guests. We ask them what they like and what they haven’t tried yet. Our job is to please the palate and educate the guest.”
Popular Farm to Fork entrees on the menu at The Wyvern Hotel include: Grilled Salmon Salad with mustard greens, red leaf and toasted pecans; Naughty Gnocchi Tapas, a roasted garlic infused gnocchi sautéed with Neuske’s bacon, scallions, sundried tomatoes, tossed with “moody blue” crème topped with crispy leeks; Maryland Style Crab Cakes with mustard greens and Winter Harvest Soup with red leaf, green leaf, kale, gorgonzola, crumbled Neuske’s bacon and caramel apple vinaigrette.
Chef Josh, who previously served as Chef de Cuisine at Fin’s Restaurant in Venice, Fla., enjoys sharing his famous tapas and seafood made from all fresh ingredients, plus his specialty in American Fusion and wine pairing. At Worden Farm, he buys Mizuna red leaf lettuce for the restaurants’ salads and other unique vegetables he uses on the menu daily, such as red and yellow cherry tomatoes, red and yellow bell peppers, Romanesco, purple baby bok choy, kohlrabi cabbage turnips and purple cauliflower.
Chef Brandon, his friend from Easton, Maryland, gets very excited when serving up his jicama salad, which he calls the healthier alternative to potato salad. “We go through 15 quarts of it in 2 days,” he exclaimed. “It’s great to teach guests to try new things and gain maximum nutrition value.” He does the same when using mushrooms 50 different ways and soups with coconut milk, roasted pepper, and Romanesco.
For four years, Chef Brandon worked as Sous Chef with the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm, Fla., helping people help themselves through a vegan/organic diet. Paired up with Chef Brandon now at The Wyvern, he is thrilled to add his healthy, creative culinary skills to the equation. Together, the two chefs are making sure it is also a very exciting time to be a hotel and restaurant guest at The Wyvern, too.
The 63-room Wyvern Hotel is a Condé Nast Johansens property located in the beautifully restored historic downtown district of Punta Gorda. The hotel features the 88 Keys Contemporary American Cuisine Restaurant and Art Deco Piano Bar with capacity for 130 people, the rooftop Perch 360 Restaurant and Bar for up to 130 people, offering live entertainment and the best view of Punta Gorda’s bustling avenues and majestic yachts of Charlotte Harbor, and the River Room private function space for up to 50.
Within walking distance and short drives from The Wyvern Hotel are waterside shopping, the Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Garden, The Harborwalk, a 98-slip marina and Fishermen’s Village on Charlotte Harbor. Punta Gorda, easily reached by I-75 along Florida’s South-Central Gulf Coast, just North of Fort Myers and South of Sarasota, is known for its royal palm lined streets, old Florida-era tin-roofed homes wide verandas, brick lanes, street lamps and benches, biking, boating, fishing, shopping, biking and more. For more information and to make restaurant reservations, call (941) 639-7700 or go to www.thewyvernhotel.com.
