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PALM BEACH | CHEF PROFILES

David Burke Comes to Palm Beach, With a Waterfront Steakhouse and a Golf Bar Next Door

SEAHAWK PRIME | MAP | INSTAGRAM

By Eric Barton | Jan. 30, 2026

AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.

David Burke’s career reads like a long string of openings, reinventions, and high-wire walks where he somehow keeps landing on his feet. He is a chef people cite when they want to give an example of somebody who can cook and also manage the books. And his next chapter is unusually straightforward: He has finally put a flag in Florida.

SeaHawk Prime is a marina-front steak-and-seafood restaurant at Nautilus 220 in Lake Park. A second concept next door called Birdie Dockside Bar & Grill, a livelier bar-and-grill idea with sports simulator bays. It reads like a developer’s dream pairing—date night and game night, both wearing a blazer—and Burke sounds like someone who plans to stick around long enough to learn the shortcuts. Talking to Burke today about this move, he sounds like a man who very much hasn’t stopped never slowing down.

Chef David Burke

Burke was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Hazlet, New Jersey, and when he describes it, it sounds like a local kid’s mixtape of American backgrounds. “Childhood was good: sports, beach, NYC, woods, lakes. Normal Jersey upbringing,” he told me. The food story, at home, was not the usual chef origin myth where somebody’s grandmother is rolling pasta at sunrise. “Food, my family is not a food family,” Burke said. “My dad only allowed healthy food in the house. No sugar, no soda, no processed meats, no junk food. He was a runner, so he kept our diets healthy and lean.”

He remembers the household rules as the main pressure point. “My father was too strict. Strong expectations,” he said. “My dad was demanding with rules, chores, school, etc.” Burke describes it with the unsentimental tone of someone who does not want sympathy, just accuracy. “Back then we just did what was expected. It was challenging because we were not allowed to be lazy.”

Chef David Burke Seahawk Prime Restaurant Lake Park Palm Beach Florida Sea scallops

The first kitchen job came as a teenager at the Holiday Inn on Route 35 in Hazlet, starting as a dishwasher and then moving to the line, making club sandwiches and staring at things most people never notice. “Presentation, butchery, and pastry making. Soups, sauces. I was fascinated by sauces,” he said. “I think it is because of the size of the pots. You don't see them that size. it was amazing to me.” It’s a very Burke detail: the romance of volume, the idea that ambition can be measured in cookware.

Scallop and shrimp risotto

After the Culinary Institute of America and training in France, Burke landed in serious New York kitchens: La Crémaillère with Waldy Malouf; The River Café with Charlie Palmer; and with Daniel Boulud, perhaps the first modern New York chef to come to Palm Beach. “Discipline, fundamentals, classic food, high energy, good work ethic,” he said. He became executive chef at 26 and earned three stars from The New York Times, the kind of milestone that becomes a permanent subtitle to any discussion of a cook.

Crispy prawn spring rolls

Prime steaks

The Florida move, though, is not framed as a victory lap. It is framed as a partnership. Asked what convinced him, Burke did not talk about palm trees or market research. “The developer,” he said. “I liked and trusted his vision. This location was best.”

He sees the two Lake Park concepts as siblings with different personalities. “Seahawk Prime is fine dining, high expectations, elegant,” Burke told me. “The Birdie has the same finesse but a lively feel and a simple bar and grill menu that is more social.” The point, in other words, is not to duplicate the same restaurant twice. The point is to build a small ecosystem where Burke’s version of hospitality can cover a big, marina-front footprint.

Angry twin lobster tails

When he talks about success, he talks about time and roots, not applause. “I think this will lead to another with the same developer. Hopefully we continue for 15 years together,” he said. “I am looking for more personal time in Florida. I want to plant some roots for our company in Florida. I look forward to that.”

If his father’s rules were a lesson in discipline, Florida is the part where he gets to decide what the routine looks like—and how long he wants to stay.