By RICHARD DAVID CHAMBERLAIN
As the song lyric goes, you never lose affection for people and things that went before. And you hope that in some instances, that affection grows with time and experiences. That is what springs to mind after a recent Sunday brunch at the new Tropics on Wilton Drive, now owned and operated by Tony Dee and Charlie Mielke, the same successful entrepreneur-restaurateurs who captained the long-unparalleled Chardee’s on Wilton Drive.
To observe the omnipresent Dee and Mielke in their new venture, the signature Drive bistro, Tropics, is to see two men who have been eager to drop the word “semi” from the phrase semi-retired. Individually and in-tandem, they are more akin in energy and élan to a pair of newly-minted tavernières than the successful team who helmed Wilton Manors long-reigning jewel, Chardee’s, which opened in 1990.
While Dee greets guests and presses the flesh with friends new and old at the restaurant’s front tables, Mielke takes a moment to adjust his chef’s smock and explain without irony what the secret is to their success this time around.
“I say this with all humility,” Mielke noted while he ascertained if my boyfriend was enjoying the red velvet cake–his second piece, “that in over 50 years of being in business, I have never worked with a team like the one we inherited. They are truly what is meant by the phrase ‘cooking with the right ingredients.’”
That team was in rare form on that Sunday morning of Super Bowl. When we arrived just after 11 a.m., the dining room was already a-buzz, with guests enjoying conversation along with a generous side of coffee, mimosas, bloody Marys, and screwdrivers. The restaurant’s signature Sunday brunch ($16.95) includes your choice of two free adult cocktails. However, we were feeling that the calories were best invested at the buffet tables, and so I nursed one vodka-OJ while he managed his caffeine intake. Both of us did avail ourselves of Sunday-Morning-Hydration, and our ever-present server, Paulo, was always ready with a refill on the H2O.
After navigating our way through the breakfast lasagna and baked French toast, which both warranted multiple trips, we each returned, bounty in hand. Our plates included equal measures of spinach quiche, biscuits and gravy, Eggs Benedict, roast beef (freshly sliced from the neighboring carving station), link sausages, fruit cups, bacon strips, and omelets the size of footballs and prepared to-order (then delivered to you, on top of that).
As we ate our way through a variety of great twists on old faves (French toast that comes deliciously disguised in the consistency of bread pudding!), my bf pointed out the room looked brighter and more welcoming. Dee slid in to join us, and added that the restaurant is open for business during alterations, and that his decorating crews have enhanced the room with brighter, lighter colors, and by letting in the natural lighting. In addition, they have added weekly specials to reward their existing guests and to welcome those who want to see what Tropics looks like with a little shade of Dee and Mielke magic thrown in.
As regular patron John Ellis and his partner came over to say hello to Dee and us, my boyfriend mumbled something about overindulging his “inner Kristie Alley.”
Meanwhile, Dee insisted I enjoy another piece of red velvet cake—and I do mean insisted. One doesn’t say no to the Dean of the Drive. We will be coming back.