The blood orange margarita at Rocco's Tacos in Palm Beach Gardens. (Taylor Jones / Palm Beach Post)

This week’s bar: Rocco’s Tacos and Tequila Bar

The scene: It’s bigger, its walls are brighter, and it boasts a fire pit and outdoors bar. It’s Rocco’s Tacos, now in north county. The recently opened Palm Beach Gardens restaurant is owner Rocco Mangel’s fourth South Florida location, and has already found a crowd hungry for Mexican food in a lively atmosphere.

The signature cocktail: As a tequila bar, Rocco’s naturally specializes in margaritas. The Blood Orange Margarita ($12.50) is a particularly tart rendering that would stand up to the eatery’s perfectly spiced chips.

Other drinks: The Tequila Mojito ($9.50), in which tequila is substituted for the traditional rum, is surprisingly sweet. Those without a sweet tooth might want to try the Ranch Water ($11) – tequila, soda water and fresh lime juice. A Skinny Señorita ($9.50) – El Mayor Blanco, fresh squeezed lime and a splash of Cointreau – is also available.

Bar bites: The aforementioned chips, plus guacamole made table side, are a must when you visit Rocco’s. The mini crudo tacos (three for $13) are super-yum, and the Queso Fundido con Chorizo ($10) is Mexican comfort food: cheddar cheese, chorizo and peppers melted in a tiny skillet and served with corn tortillas.

Deals: Get $1 off drinks during happy hour, from 4 to 7 p.m. seven days a week. On Taco & Tequila Tuesdays, enjoy all-you-can-eat tacos for $14.99 all day and $5 margaritas and $15 pitchers after 7 p.m.

Info: PGA Commons, 5090 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, (561) 623-0127

Blood Orange Margarita

2 ounces Milagro Barrel Select Reserve Blanco tequila

1/2 ounce Salerno Blood Orange Liqueur

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 ounce grapefruit juice

Splash of blood orange puree

Mix all ingredients together and serve either frozen or on the rocks, with salt or sugar on the rim.

Rare-book dealer Bibi Mohamed of New York City has participated in the American International Fine Art Fair since the event was first held in a tent on Flagler Drive.

Now at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, the fair has survived the ups and downs of the economy.

"But you still find serious clientele walking through," she says.

Jack Welch, former GE chairman, attended the fair this past week, she said. So did the chairman of Sotheby’s.

Dealer Jeff Niquette of Miami agrees. "By far, the most important customers from around the world converge here," he says. "Why chase them?"

Earlier this week, we chatted with a few dealers about what they’re selling, and to whom:

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Michelle Parparian -- who helps run the Retro Indie Market, coming Saturday to Boynton Beach -- in her favorite Palm Beach County thrift shop, The Turnover Shop. (Allen Eyestone / Palm Beach Post)

THE SCENE MAKER: MICHELLE PARPARIAN

WHO SHE IS: The stylish 37-year-old Delray Beach entrepreneur has shared her love of vintage clothing, jewelry and accessories in a continuous stream of new ventures — from bricks-and-mortar shops to online boutiques, from the twice-monthly, open-air Sunday markets that she oversees in Boca and Boynton, to the annual Retro Indie Market. With longtime friend and business partner Amanda Linton, Parparian will play host at this year’s Retro Indie Market on Saturday in Boynton Beach. The market showcases more than 70 local vendors offering vintage finds, quirky handmade crafts and homemade goodies (save room for cupcakes!).

Retro Indie Market, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Boynton Beach Woman’s Club, 1010 S. Federal Hwy. RetroIndieMarket.com. Admission is $5. | Directions, invite a friend

A few of her favorites:

• FAVORITE THRIFT STORE: “The Turnover Shop, an eclectic downtown boutique benefiting St. Paul Episcopal Church. I have found many amazing treasures stashed away in this little vintage cottage. I actually love it so much, I decided to volunteer there once a week. No worries, I am not picking the best stuff for myself. There is plenty to go around.”
The Turnover Shop, 10 NE 5th Ave., Delray Beach, (561) 276-2073
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The White Sangria at The Breakers' Italian Restaurant is called a 'no-guilt cocktail' by Nick Velardo, the hotel's director of food and beverage. (Brandon Kruse / Palm Beach Post)

This week’s bar: The Italian Restaurant at The Breakers

The scene: The Circle Dining Room and the Seafood Bar get all the press, so if you’re unfamiliar with the Italian Restaurant at The Breakers, you’re not alone. "It doesn’t get a lot of attention, and it really should," says Nick Velardo, the Breakers’ director of food and beverage.

Located on the southern end of the historic resort, the Italian Restaurant is part of The Breakers’ Family Entertainment Center, a secure, fully supervised space that’s home to a playroom for toddlers, a big-screen movie room, an arcade, a small basketball court and an arts-and-crafts area.

But the real artistry takes place in the kitchen, where chefs produce brick-oven pizzas, pasta dishes and parmigianas of every stripe. The atmosphere in the main dining room, and in a smaller bar area, is warm and inviting, and guests also can dine outside in a lushly landscaped area.

The signature cocktail: The White Sangria, made with The Breakers’ private-label wine and vodka rather than brandy. "It’s like a no-guilt cocktail," Velardo says. "You almost feel like you’re drinking a really fruity wine."

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This week we pair Drew Barrymore's new movie 'Big Miracle' with food at Darbster.

The film: Big Miracle, opening Friday, in which a small-town Alaska TV reporter recruits his ex-girlfriend — a Greenpeace volunteer — to help save a family of gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle. | Showtimes, theaters

The food: Save the whales — or at least animals that typically wind up on dinner plates — when you dine at Darbster, a vegan bistro with a dog-friendly deck. The restaurant donates a portion of its profits to local animal rescue groups. And the chow’s not bad, either.

Darbster, 8020 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach, (561) 586-2622, Darbster.com | Directions, invite a friend

The film: The Grey, opening Friday, in which Liam Neeson and a small group of men try to survive the Alaskan wilderness after their plane crashes. The title refers to the color of their enemy: wolves. | Showtimes, theaters

The food: Game is on the menu at the rustic Tall Tales Restaurant in the Gander Mountain outdoors equipment store. Entree options include blackened elk loin, wild game meatloaf, bison strip, pheasant ravioli, roasted duck and cedar plank salmon.

Tall Tales Restaurant (inside Gander Mountain), 100 Gander Way, Palm Beach Gardens, (561) 627-5642 | Directions, invite a friend

John Cleveland, Ph. D., a professor and founding chairman with the Department of Cancer Biology at the Scripps Institute, is an avid outdoorsman. (Damon Higgins / Palm Beach Post)

Professor John Cleveland, 54

WHO HE IS: Chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology at Scripps Florida. The Jupiter resident is also an avid outdoorsman, arts supporter and self-professed foodie.

A few of his favorites:
Favorite kayaking spots: “Several. MacArthur Park, Loxahatchee River at Riverbend Park, the Intracoastal around Jupiter, the ocean and Peck Lake up at Hobe Sound. They are all beautiful.”

Favorite snorkeling destination: “Blowing Rocks — when it’s calm, it’s fantastic! Always see turtles and large fish (and have caught some scary large ones there too, while fishing…).”
Blowing Rocks Preserve, on Jupiter Island at the southernmost tip of the Indian River Lagoon, (561) 744-6668 | Directions, invite a friend
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Factory regular Ultra Violet with artist Andy Warhol at a 1968 film premiere. (AP)

They met at an afternoon tea at the St. Regis hotel in 1963.

She initially mistook the slight young man with the strange voice for a woman.

He thought she resembled a young Vivien Leigh.

She recalls, "He said, ‘You’re so beautiful, let’s do a movie together.’ I said, ‘Fine, when?’ He said, ‘Tomorrow.’ "So the next day I went to the Factory, and we did our first movie."

He, of course, was Andy Warhol, and she was soon-to-be Warhol "superstar" Ultra Violet (and that afternoon tea was hosted by, of all people, Salvador Dali).

On Sunday at ArtPalmBeach, the four-day art fair that opens to the public Friday at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, Ultra Violet, a lively 76-year-old working artist, will participate in a 1:30 p.m. discussion titled "Life With Warhol: Then and Now."

Directions, invite a friend

There’s plenty to say about Warhol 25 years after his death, she says.

"You will see it at the art fair," says Ultra Violet. "So much is influenced by Warhol – pop images, silk screens, multiples. He came from the commercial world, and he knew the power of advertisements.

"And so we are today still committed to commerce and publicity. … You have to take what’s in the news and what’s in people’s minds, and they recognize it and understand it and like it."

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The film: House of Pleasures, opening Friday at Lake Park’s Mos’ Art Theatre, in which director Bertrand Bonello focuses on the lives of beautiful young women working in a Parisian bordello at the beginning of the 20th century. Say cheesecake! | Find showtimes

The food: The Cheesecake Factory cranks out the cheesecakes – and several pages of appetizers, salads, sandwiches and entrees – and reels in customers willing to wait for a sugar fix. And way too many of the cheesecake flavors are tempting: Godiva, banana cream, white chocolate caramel macadamia nut, tiramisu, Key lime, Oreo and on and on.

The Cheesecake Factory has locations in CityPlace, Downtown at the Gardens and near Town Center at Boca Raton.

The Palm Beach County Cultural Council's new headquarters, the revamped former Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art. (J. Gwendolynne Berry / Palm Beach Post)

The building on the downtown Lake Worth corner began life as a first-run movie house in the 1940s. But as cinemas fled to the suburbs, the theater was shuttered, only to flicker to life again in the 1970s as a disco, a pizza parlor and, later, as a succession of three different art museums.

Now that structure, three stories of stark white, Streamline Moderne sleekness, has been updated, renovated, made ADA-compliant and given a dose of green, in the eco-friendly sense.

And today, for the first time since 2005, it’s open to the public in its latest guise: home of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, which had rented offices on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard for many years.

"We were very invisible," says Rena Blades, the chief executive officer of the 33-year-old agency, which serves the county’s nonprofit cultural organizations and professional artists. "Serving the artistic community fully was not possible."

The council’s new address was christened the Robert M. Montgomery Jr. Building in 2010, when the Montgomery family donated it to the council. Montgomery, who died in 2008, was a prominent Palm Beach attorney and arts philanthropist.

Renovations cost $1.5 million – $700,000 courtesy of the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency and the rest from private donors – and involved expanding what had been the movie theater’s balcony to create offices, training rooms and meeting spaces.

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