BOCA ARTS FESTIVAL

It may not yet have the storied appeal of Tanglewood, the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony. Or the crossover star power of a Three Tenors concert.

But when the Festival of the Arts BOCA kicks off its public ceremonies this Friday at Mizner Park, it will certainly be a big deal in Palm Beach County.

The 10-day festival, run under the auspices of the Centre for the Arts at Mizner Park on a budget of nearly $2 million, will feature some of the top names in the arts: violinist Itzhak Perlman, flutist James Galway, opera star Dmitri Hvorostovsky, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, playwright Edward Albee, author Anna Quindlen.

It also will come with significant public backing, including $200,000-plus in cash and services from the Boca Raton City Council and $200,000 from the Palm Beach County Commission. Organizers say the event could draw as many as 15,000 patrons, who will pay as much as $100 a ticket.

So elaborate are the preparations that the festival's staff is taking the unusual step of tenting the amphitheater, normally home to rock and pop concerts and a children's series, so that attendees will be shielded from wind or rain.

Put it all together and the festival is the most serious attempt in the last 15 years -- namely, since the demise of the Palm Beach Festival -- to create an annual world-class showcase for the arts locally.

"Our commitment is to make it a success and have a legacy that goes on for decades," says Charlie Siemon, who chairs the festival's steering committee.

It's a commitment that started with a vision that harkens back to the earliest days of Mizner Park, adds Siemon, an attorney, urban planner and Centre for the Arts board member who played a key role in the creation of the outdoor plaza. The idea: to bring people together in the name of culture and community.

But such an idea hasn't always clicked. Despite ambitious plans to build both an amphitheater and concert hall at Mizner, the Centre has succeeded only in the former. And the local performing arts scene has witnessed the demise in the past decade of two key institutions -- the Boca Pops and Florida Philharmonic -- with strong ties to Boca Raton.

Which is why the development of a festival was seen as a crucial step to reignite the cultural flames and to boost the city's and county's image. The possibility of the event being a tourist draw was another important factor: Organizers are quick to note that in the event's first year, it's already drawing patrons from outside South Florida.

"Somebody is coming from Toronto," says Centre for the Arts Chair Wendy Larsen, a partner in Siemon's legal and urban planning firm and longtime Boca booster.

County and cultural officials are unequivocal in their support.
"I think a large, high-quality arts festival is a logical program for a community of our size," says Palm Beach County Cultural Council President Rena Blades, who sat on a county panel that recommended funding.

Adds Boca City Councilman and festival contributor and steering committee member Peter Baronoff: "Our city needed a signature cultural event."

But making such an event happen, particularly given that the Centre still does relatively little programming of its own at the amphitheater (the rock and pop concerts are presented by an outside promoter), was a special challenge. Festival officials sought out IMG Artists, a renowned manager of classical artists and presenter of similarly styled festivals in Italy (Tuscan Sun) and California (Festival del Sole Napa), to put together a plan.

IMG Senior Vice President Elizabeth Sobol, who's based in Miami, says the Mizner location in downtown Boca was a particular draw to her company.

"Everything is walkable," she says, noting that finding a similar outdoor location in sprawling, car-oriented South Florida would be tough.

Artists were chosen with an eye on "names that were recognizable, but brought a certain gravitas" to the programming, Sobol explains. (In other words, no lightweight quasi-classical headliners of the Josh Groban sort.) Another key: Having a prominent orchestra -- in this case, the Russian National Orchestra -- anchor the programming. (Most of the classical artists will perform as soloists with the ensemble or the Boca Philharmonic Symphonia.)

But the festival is about more than just classical music: Organizers have worked in everything from the lectures by literary greats (Albee, Quindlen and others) to a film series at Mizner Park's Sunrise Cinemas. Another key component: the Boca Bacchanal, a popular annual culinary event that has now been folded into the festival.

And even those who don't have a ticket to a festival event will be able to participate in a sense: Organizers hope that the event will transform Mizner Park into the true European-style social gathering place it was envisioned as. Restaurants within the complex are planning special festival discounts.

None of this comes cheaply. Though organizers anticipate that ticket sales will cover as much as 25 percent of the budget, the nonprofit festival was conceived as an event that would require serious private fund raising. Siemon says the response has been strong, with festival "founders" -- those who contributed at least $10,000 -- signing on up until these final days before the event.

There's also been corporate support: Woolbright Development, a Boca Raton-based developer of shopping centers, is the presenting sponsor. Woolbright executive Mike Fimiani says his company signed on when it became apparent the festival would show that Boca is ready for prime time on the cultural stage, making the city all the more attractive to companies looking to relocate.  "This draws attention to what the leaders in this town can do," he says.

And they'll need to do it again: Festival organizers are already working on the 2008 edition of the festival, even as they try to sell tickets for this one. Advance sales haven't been overly strong, organizers say, but they're expecting things to pick up in the coming days. And they anticipate next year's sales being even better.  Says Siemon: "I have no doubt that every year we have this festival, it will gain momentum."

Festival of the Arts BOCA, running Friday to March 11, is billed as a 'celebration of music, literature, film, art, food and wine.'

Among the performers are violinist Itzhak Perlman (March 10).
jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (March 11).
Other events include lectures by Edward Albee (Saturday).
Anna Quindlen (March 5).

FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS BOCA
The festival, run under the auspices of the Centre for the Arts at Mizner Park on a budget of nearly $2 million, will feature some of the top names in the arts.

KEY EVENTS:

CONCERTS
Russian National Orchestra with soloists baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Friday),
Yefim Bronfman (March 4),
Pianist Helene Grimaud (March 7)
Violinist Itzhak Perlman (March 10
Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia with flutist James Galway (March 6)
Jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (March 11).

Other events include lectures by Edward Albee (Saturday) 
Anna Quindlen (March 5), a concert by the
Yellowjackets jazz ensemble (March 8), a film series and the Boca Bacchanal culinary event.
A private event kicks off the festival on Thursday.

Where: Mizner Park, Boca Raton
Tickets: Start at $25 for the concerts and lectures.
Reservations and other information:  (866) 571-ARTS(2787)

PETE'S RESTAURANT               

Pete's, a new fine-dining restaurant in Boca Raton, Fla., that doubles as a late-evening lounge and nightclub uses the eye-catching appeal of exhibition cooking and food display cases as integral elements of the design.

Robert Pacifico, Jeff Brown and Paul Stanier, Robert Pacifico Associates, Sunrise, Fla., developed the food facility design.

Staff prepares all of the buns and popover rolls in a small, open bakery, just inside the entrance. Display cases full of baked goods are meant to make an instant impression.

In keeping with the use of food as a design element, refrigerated cases display dessert selections for customers walking toward the seating section.

Further inside the 308-seat restaurant is the exhibition cooking line, divided into five organized stations: saute, fryers, broilers, pasta and hot appetizers and a live lobster/raw bar area. The open lobster station lets customers choose a lobster from a tank in the middle of the counter and then watch as it is cooked, finished and served.

The wait staff picks up food from the serving line, which runs along the entire length of the display kitchen.

Also open to the customer is the exhibition garde-manger, where salads, desserts, and cold appetizers and soups are prepared and picked up.

Because the restaurant's menu had not been finalized during the design stage, the kitchen was planned to be very flexible. For example, the chef's table was prewired into a load center to accommodate future equipment requirements.

Pete's also features four separate bar areas--including an octagonal, three-station main bar and a two-station lounge bar--for seating an additional 150 customers.

Owner: Restaurant Associates, Ltd.
Restaurant type: Fine Dining.
Target audience: Executive and affluent residential population.
Seating: 458.
Kitchen and storage space: 3,050 square feet.
Cost of foodservice equipment: $400,000.