This week on "Check, Please!

South Florida," an Italian favorite in Coconut Creek.

The place was like a nice family ambience.

I really liked that place.

[Michelle] A contemporary American menu in Wilton Manors.

Very cozy and fun, a lot of locals go there.

[Michelle] And a Salvadorian Gem in Pembroke Pines.

I mean, it's very unassuming when you arrive and it's in a strip mall, but then you go in, and it's really busy.

[Narrator] Cultural, culinary secrets and global flavors.

We have a passion for blending ingredients and seasonings from around the world.

[Announcer] Additional funding for "Check, Please!

South Florida" is provided by the Friends of South Florida PBS.

We were just really in heaven.

That was the best red curry I've ever had.

It was snapper.

It tasted so fresh.

I was going in between each dish.

The home fries were out of this world.

It was just perfect.

Hello, I'm Michelle Bernstein, and welcome to "Check, Please!

South Florida," The show where regular people from all over South Florida recommend and review their favorite restaurant.

So this is how the show works.

Every week, we have three guests.

Each recommends his or her favorite spot, and then the other two go to check them out and see what they think.

Today we're back at Hullabaloo Restaurant in beautiful Downtown West Palm Beach.

Thank you, Hullabaloo for hosting us today.

This week, culinary student, Zudina Hidrobo is ready to give us a taste of the Pembroke Pine spot serving food from the heart.

Retired flight attendant, Shari Sawran, wants us to enjoy the warm hospitality and bold flavors of her Wilton Manors Pick, but first dessert factory manager, Farrell Antecol invites us to a seat at the table at his family's favorite spot.

Serving chef-driven Italian classics, he says, "This place is where you wanna be."

It's located in Coconut Creek, and it's called Sette Mezzo Ristorante.

Hi, I'm Chef Franco, chef and owner of Sette Mezzo.

Hi, I'm Rita Filippone, co-owner of Sette Mezzo.

[Franco] We live in the neighborhood.

Rita, my wife, thought it would be a great idea to open up a restaurant close to home, and Coconut Creek definitely needed an Italian restaurant.

That was seven and a half years ago.

[Rita] My role here in Setto Mezzo is manager.

I oversee the front of the restaurant, the bar, [Franco] You know, everyone says it, authentic Italian.

Well, I'm from Sicily.

My dad was a chef from Sicily, came here when I was a little boy.

My dad was always in the business, so we really grew up around food.

That's what it was all about, right?

Being Italian, it's all about food.

Our menu is our classic Italian American menu.

Our specials is where we shine, you know, through my travels in Italy and other places, things that that I've really liked and really wanted to emphasize brought back, and I wanted to make it my own.

Support from community has been huge here in Coconut Creek.

Coconut Creek's not that big, but it's a great place to live and work.

Very diverse culture here.

Sette Mezzo is a very friendly family atmosphere where you can come and enjoy a great meal with whoever you bring.

So Farrell, you have been going to this place a really, really long time, right?

Franco, the chef and his family, well, they owned Sette Bello and Sette Mazzo, and then during COVID, he had the close Sette Bello.

So he left Sette Mezzo open, we'd been going there since Franco opened.

I think he opened in 2017.

Wow.

Shari, first thoughts?

When we walked in, it was very nice.

The lighting, I enjoyed that.

We got seated right away.

I had four other people with us, and everybody came over right away.

We didn't have any problem with waiting, so it was very pleasant.

Nice, Zudina?

I really like that place, especially because they had gluten-free options available.

I mean, I usually never go for Italian, because I don't, yeah.

It's hard.

If you don't eat gluten, and you're a pasta lover, Yeah.

It's really hard.

exactly.

Good, okay, Farrell, so what did you have this last time you went?

[Farrell] So my wife had what she always gets, the arancini with tomato sauce, it's homemade tomato sauce.

We shared Caesar salads, and both my boys wanted the Fritto Misto, or calamari, but Franco does a Fritto Misto, very light.

Main course?

I had the veal chop, I always get his veal chop.

He serves it pounded out, I just get it grilled.

Gorgonzola and mushroom, Madeira sauce on top.

That sounds delicious.

It's phenomenal, it's phenomenal.

Oh, you made me hungry.

Okay, Shari, what did you have?

Oh, we started with the Margherita pizza, which was done very nicely, crispy, the sauce was really tasty.

We also had the Fritto Miso, which I thought was very nice.

Once again, the sauce has really impressed me, the flavor.

And I had the pasta fra diavolo with the lobster, and it was very flavorful.

So was it spicy?

Not too spicy.

I like spicy, so I didn't find it to be that spicy, but it was very good.

Okay, and did you find a gluten-free dish for yourself?

Yes, they actually had a special, so the waitress was explaining it to us with a lot of details.

She made me feel very welcome in how to order and everything.

So I had the lobster pasta, which had white truffle sauce.

It had porcini mushrooms, and it had pistachio.

It was so delicious, yeah.

Wow.

Was the pasta gluten-free?

Yes, yeah, it was gluten-free.

So they do have gluten-free pasta for those people that Yeah, they do.

Yeah.

That's great.

He makes his own pasta inhouse, so.

Wow, does he make gluten-free pasta as well?

I'm not sure he makes the gluten-free, but he makes his own pasta.

Okay, but still, as long as he has it, that's awesome.

Yeah, yeah.

That's good to know.

And he makes his own mozzarella cheese and everything, so it's very impressive.

Wow, sounds delicious.

Yes.

Did you have anything else?

Yes, as an appetizer, I had the grilled calamari steak.

That was very nice, too.

It came with white beans and spinach, and in a garlic sauce, salt and pepper, very nice, and I really liked the service as well.

She was very nice, and made me feel very welcome, because sometimes when you order something gluten-free, people can get a little, you know, but she was very open and so welcoming, I really liked it.

That's great, anybody have dessert?

I try desserts everywhere, so.

So that's a silly question for you?

[Farrell] He does a really nice homemade tiramisu.

It was like a giant cube.

It's not like a slice, it's just this giant cube.

Very soft, moist.

It's really a traditional tiramisu.

[Michelle] And I think your wife and Shari had the same dessert.

Shari, why don't you tell me That apple fold, About it?

Oh my gosh.

And I'm not a sweet-eater, but I, you know, I wanted to try everything just [Michelle] Is an apple fold a traditional pastry?

I've never heard of that name before.

Is that a thing?

He just puts baked apples in puff pastry, and then puts it in his woodfire oven, and serves it with And then they have it with a gelato, oh gosh.

Cinnamon caramel swirl gelato.

It was so good.

It was very nice.

And you?

I had the orange sorbet which came in a rind.

It had a very cute presentation, so it was a nice way to end the meal.

I really liked it, too.

That's lovely.

So how did you find the service, Shari?

I found the service to be very nice.

The person that took care of us, Reza, was wonderful, and it was very bustling that night, it was very busy.

We went on a Saturday, so he was a little apologetic, 'cause it was leisurely, but that was okay.

You know, when you're with friends, you enjoy talking Sure.

And catching up, so.

Enjoy each other.

Yeah, it was very nice, and it looked like a lot of locals going there that I noticed, so.

Yeah.

Okay, how about the neighborhood and parking?

So he's in, like, the dead center of a strip plaza, so parking there's never a problem, it's right there.

He has outdoor parking that you can pretty much park near, right next to it.

Yeah, I didn't find a problem.

Yeah, it's easy park there.

Did you find value in the food?

Yes, absolutely.

I mean, what I had had lobster in it, so the prices were a little bit more upscale, but it was totally worth it That makes sense.

For that pasta, absolutely.

Okay, well, Farrell, Sette Mezzo was your pick, sum it up for us, please.

Traditional Italian restaurant, family-friendly, date nights, business meetings, it's just a really great place to go.

Shari?

A great pick, nice people, good service, and delicious food.

Zudina?

Wholesome Italian restaurant, excellent service, delicious food.

A family-friendly atmosphere and Italian comfort food are waiting at Setto Mezzo Ristorante located at 6370 North State Road 7 in Coconut Creek.

Open for dinner Tuesday to Sunday, reservations are accepted, where the average price for dinner without drinks is about $65.

I am very excited today, because we are making so many people's favorite dessert.

It's something I don't make enough of, and now that I made one for you, I'm just gonna keep doing it.

This is tiramisu.

So these are a few things we've done already.

This is a beautiful sabayon.

Sabayon, which is a very traditional, classic, I guess you can call it kind of like a sauce?

Anyway, it's taking egg yolks and sugar, and a little bit of Marsala wine, and you cook it over a bainmarie, which means a hot water bath, and you keep whisking it in a bowl until it gets really beautifully thick like this one.

Check this out.

It is just gorgeous, you see this?

This is sabayon.

Here in front of me is mascarpone cheese with a little touch of vanilla paste.

You can use extract if you can't find any paste, but they do sell it in a lot of markets.

Basically, you just make sure you combine that paste really well, and soften the mascarpone either with a mixer, or like I'm doing by hand, using a rubber spatula.

So the next thing we're gonna do is add the sabayon to the mascarpone.

And mascarpone is a cheese, it's very thick and rich and delicious, but it doesn't have any saltiness or sweetness to it, so I use it sometimes in pasta sauces, but also in desserts.

Equally beneficial.

Next, we're gonna fold this together.

Make sure that's combined well, and the thicker your sabayon is, and by the way, whisk away as much as you possibly can until you have a beautiful sabayon.

And then you take some unsweetened whipped cream, and the reasons why it's unsweetened is because there's so much sugar already in your sabayon, see, it's a good amount, that you don't need any more sweetness.

So all we're gonna do is fold in whipped cream.

If you wanna add more vanilla to this, you can, but remember, your vanilla's already in your mascarpone, so go ahead and fold that together.

Now, let's make the tiramisu.

So in here, we have a lot of espresso, probably more than we need, but we love coffee here, so make as much as you want.

To that espresso, I'm gonna add some Marsala wine.

We already have some of it in here, and the rest of it is in here.

Take whatever type of receptacle or container that you feel like using.

You can use a glass trifle mold, you can use a loaf pan, totally up to you.

We don't care, we just want you to be happy.

So take your ladyfingers, these are the crispy ladyfingers.

It's up to you what kind of cracker, cookie.

Ladyfingers obviously are traditional.

Don't soak them for very long, because they will get soft very quickly, right?

So you'll wanna start, because they become malleable and very soft.

Check that out.

It very quickly forms into whatever you want it to form into.

So I'm just gonna keep going and quickly do one full layer.

So now, we've reached our first base, and then we're gonna pour the sabayon, whipped cream, mascarpone mixture, and when you're done with that, this is what it looks like.

This is my finished tiramisu.

Now, you always want them to be in your fridge for at least eight to 12 hours to really set, and you always wanna dust it with a little bit of cocoa powder.

This is the traditional way.

[Crew Member] Good.

To take a scoop.

I don't think there's really a perfect way to do it, but let's look at all the beautiful layers.

Might not be the prettiest you've ever seen, but it is probably one of the most delicious.

You guys have got to try it.

Now, retired flight attendant, Shari Sawran, is ready to take us to a modern American restaurant with an international flare.

It's located in Wilton Manors, and it's called Union Kitchen and Bar.

Hi, my name is Christie Tenaud, I'm the chef and owner here at Union Kitchen and Bar.