In the mid-1980s, a young couple who had spent a year working in Breckenridge restaurants to pay for their skiing came to Florida to open a place of their own. They looked for a waterfront spot in Jupiter and didn't find one. They found an abandoned house in Jensen Beach instead. "It was in pretty bad shape and down a dirt road, but we liked it," Mike Perrin told TCPalm in 2017, as recounted in the paper's history of 11 Maple Street.
Mike, his wife Margie and his mother Nita opened 11 Maple Street in 1985 in that 1905 Florida cracker house at 3224 NE Maple Ave., starting with eight tables in one room. This fall the restaurant was supposed to change hands. The sale fell apart. As a result, downtown Jensen Beach is set to have two small chef-run dining rooms this season instead of one.
The Handoff That Was Planned for October 8
The plan was simple, and it was public. TCPalm reported that Perrin would serve his last dinner on Sept. 26 and sell the restaurant to Mark Jones, an Irish chef who said he would reopen a "reimagined" 11 Maple Street on Oct. 8. He planned to keep the name, make only slight changes to the decor and add some tributes to the founders. A Sept. 28 TCPalm headline put the ambition plainly: the new owners were aiming for a Michelin star in 2027.
That would have been a one-for-one swap: one house, one dining room, a new chef at the stove. Here is how it went instead:
- Sept. 26: 11 Maple Street closes after dinner service.
- Sept. 28: TCPalm reports a reopening on Oct. 8 under new owners and a new fine-dining menu.
- Oct. 8: TCPalm reports that the sale has been canceled and that 11 Maple Street will reopen by the end of October under founding chef-owner Mike Perrin.
- Oct. 9: TCPalm reports that Jones plans to open a restaurant called GRÁ in the former Broth space downtown.
The chef who meant to take over a 41-year-old institution is opening his own room, and the founder is going back to his kitchen. Neither restaurant is going away.
What Comes Back on NE Maple Avenue
11 Maple Street's reputation is older than a lot of what's on the Treasure Coast dining scene. In 2009 the Zagat Survey rated it 28 out of 30 and called it one of the top three restaurants on Florida's east coast. It is in Florida Trend's Golden Spoon Hall of Fame and has appeared many times on the magazine's "500 Best Places to Dine" list. In 2016, Emeril Lagasse featured it in the "Hidden Gems" episode of his Cooking Channel show "Emeril's Florida."
What has kept it going is the cooking. Perrin was a former marine biologist who taught himself to cook, inspired by Alice Waters. TCPalm describes his ever-changing menu as built around organic, locally sourced ingredients, farm-raised meat and wild-caught seafood, and credits him with bringing small plates to the Treasure Coast after he first saw them on a trip to California. In 2009, Florida Trend described the style this way, as quoted in TCPalm's retrospective:
"Quaintly Victorian. The cooking is quite modern, even wild. Fish run from Caicos conch to Tasmanian salmon, with elk and fine steaks in an ocean of herbs and fresh vegetables. Terrific small plates."
The house itself is part of the meal. Opening it took a year of building a kitchen and stripping paint to uncover the original Dade County pine. Nita decorated the dining room to blend elegant France with Old Florida. The 1994 addition and steady growth brought it to about 18 tables. Margie hosted the dining room for more than 30 years.
The restaurant's own site still shows a menu with walnut sourdough, focaccia, seafood starters, short ribs, salmon, bluefin tuna, elk tenderloin and desserts made in-house. It lists dinner Thursday through Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., limited seating and a recommendation to reserve. Those listings were posted before the September closure, and Perrin's stated target was the end of October. Before driving over, call (772) 334-7714 to confirm the reopening date and current hours.
What Opens in the Former Broth Space
GRÁ takes over 1939 NE Jensen Beach Blvd., Unit 2. The address will be familiar to anyone who tried Broth Handcrafted Soups, etc. TCPalm reported that it opened on May 21, 2025, serving rotating scratch-made soups, sides, desserts and homemade biscuits. Hometown News placed Broth at the same street number.
The new room is built for a different kind of night. GRÁ's OpenTable listing says the name, pronounced "graw," is the Irish word for love. It describes a chef's table with a single set menu that changes with the seasons and uses local Florida ingredients through a refined European lens. According to the listing, Jones grew up in Dublin and cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens across Europe. He owns the restaurant with his wife, Shayla, a Florida native, and the listing calls it a love letter to the town where they met. The local Sunland News newsletter, summarizing TCPalm's report on Oct. 12, described a smaller, more intimate setup with a set menu and only a few seatings each night, with the opening "coming soon."
A few details from the listing show the scale:
- Seats: 23 in total, including a five-seat chef's counter facing the kitchen, plus tables and a booth
- Walls: work by local artists
- Price tier: listed as "$50 and over"
- Posted hours: Sunday 2 to 8 p.m. and dinner Wednesday through Saturday 5 to 11 p.m.
As of late October, the listing had no diner reviews yet, and TCPalm's Oct. 9 report gave no opening date. Check the reservation calendar for open dates first; that's the most reliable sign of when service starts.
Two Rooms, Two Kinds of Evening
The sale was meant to merge two styles of cooking under one roof. With the deal canceled, they each have their own room. 11 Maple Street is a 1905 house with about 18 tables and a menu built around a long list of small plates and mains. GRÁ has 23 seats, a counter facing the kitchen, and one set menu cooked a few steps from the guests.
Their posted schedules overlap Thursday through Saturday, when both list dinner. GRÁ's listing also includes Wednesday dinner and a Sunday afternoon, which 11 Maple Street's site does not. If both hold to those hours once open, the downtown chef-driven dinner covers more nights of the week than it did when 11 Maple Street was the only one, and a visiting friend who wants something special has two different rooms to pick from.
For Island Club residents, both addresses sit across the Jensen Beach Causeway, on the same side of the Indian River Lagoon. Anyone who has worked out which evenings on South Hutchinson Island stay close to home knows that crossing the river is a deliberate choice. This season, the crossing leads to more than one room worth booking.
The Drive Over Through Early December
Two things affect the trip right now. First, the Florida Department of Transportation is resurfacing NE Ocean Boulevard from NE Shore Village Terrace to just south of the Jensen Beach Causeway. The project page allows single-lane closures as needed seven days a week, sets a 35 mph work-zone speed limit and expects pedestrian detours. The project page lists completion in December 2027, while FDOT's Oct. 9 Treasure Coast weekly traffic report says spring 2027. Either way, the work zone will be there all season, so allow a few extra minutes before a fixed seating time.
Second, Martin County has flagged king tide periods through Nov. 12 and again Nov. 22 to 29, with possible high water and coastal flooding in low-lying areas. If you've booked dinner on one of those evenings, check the tide timing before you leave.
Both of these rooms are small, with about 18 tables on NE Maple Avenue and 23 seats at GRÁ. If you'd like a hand with plans from your Island Club place this season, whether that's a dinner for out-of-town guests or a recommendation for the evening, Janyne Kenworthy is happy to share what she's learned. Let's connect.
