Naked Crab Seafood slips into a new menu

Naked Crab Seafood Kitchen and Cocktail Bar

1140 Seabreeze Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-727-7090, BhotelsandResorts.com/ b-ocean/ page/naked-crab

A new executive chef for B Ocean Resort has replaced celebrity chef Ralph Pagano after he suffered third-degree burns in a Bahamas kitchen fire last year.

Ecuador native David Morales, who worked with celebrity chefs Ferran Adria and Michelle Bernstein, has overhauled the menu.

“The menu has adapted a new profile, including influences from my Latin heritage, creating more Mediterranean-inspired dishes, but still emphasizing fresh seafood and prime meats,” Morales says.

His charred Spanish octopus ($24) and ceviche with flounder and a fried soft-shell crab ($17) evoke nostalgic memories for him.

“In my country, we eat ceviche almost every day,” he says. “There was plenty of shrimp, octopus and fish. When I was young, I used to go diving and get fresh octopus out of the sea. They would have little cooking houses. All you would have to do is bring the food. That is why I love seafood so much.”

Other highlights, which are also available in the hotel’s iconic Wreck Bar, are Wagyu tartare with roasted bone marrow ($23), Moroccan lamb with merguez sausage ($34), four-seafood bouillabaisse pot pie ($40), dry-aged bone-in rib-eye ($64). For dessert, there’s lemongrass crème brûlée and coconut panna cotta with roasted blueberries (both $10).

Eight new cocktails ($12-$14) include grapefruit mojito and spicy mango mule.

Three meals a day are served amid neon signs, vintage black-and-white photographs and foodthemed chalkboard artworks over taupe banquettes.

Up next: The restaurant will update its patio.

B HOTELS & RESORTS/COURTESY Naked Crab Seafood Kitchen and Cocktail Bar in Fort Lauderdale chars Spanish octopus and presents it on a hot stone with chorizo powder and purple olive sauce.