TENKA Leads Three Restaurants Coming to Avenir Town Center

Avenir's next chapter is taking shape around the table

Avenir Town Center is opening in phases along Northlake Boulevard, and its restaurant lineup is beginning to give Palm Beach Gardens diners a clearer picture of what this new neighborhood hub will feel like after dark. The center's grocery and pharmacy anchors are already serving the community while additional storefronts continue their buildouts. Among the dining names on the way, three offer especially different reasons to visit: modern Asian cooking at TENKA, globally minded comfort food at Smoke & Maple Gastropub, and the relaxed New York pizzeria spirit of Seppe Pizza Bar.

Together, they point to a town center designed for more than errands. Avenir describes a walkable, day-to-night setting with more than 200,000 square feet of approved retail and commercial space. TENKA is the headliner here, bringing the most fully articulated new dining room of the trio and a concept built around the energy of its kitchen.

TENKA puts the kitchen at center stage

TENKA is preparing to open at 12465 Northlake Boulevard, Suite 100, with its website announcing a December arrival. The modern Asian restaurant comes from three friends and hospitality veterans—Bill, David and Jim—who relocated from New York City to Florida in 2020. Drawing on more than 25 years of combined New York restaurant experience, they spent five years developing a menu shaped by Japanese kappo traditions and flavors associated with Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

The 4,000-square-foot restaurant is designed around a 270-degree open kitchen, making the chefs' work part of the room rather than something hidden behind it. Premium fish flown directly from Japan will support the sushi side of the menu, while the layout includes a 14-seat sushi bar, a 12-seat full bar and an outdoor patio accommodating as many as 50 guests. That combination gives TENKA room to move between a focused sushi experience, drinks at the bar and a more relaxed outdoor meal.

TENKA's planned lunch, happy-hour and dinner service also suggests a restaurant meant to shift personalities through the day. The open kitchen and broad Asian frame make it the most ambitious dining-room debut in this group—and a natural focal point for Avenir's emerging restaurant scene.

Smoke & Maple brings a Palm Beach County point of view

Smoke & Maple Gastropub is planned for 12325 Northlake Boulevard, Suite 130. This will be the locally owned concept's first location, led by Palm Beach Gardens residents and restaurant veterans who describe the food as “rustic refined.” Chef Dave Schroeder's announced menu will pair high-end technique with familiar comfort, including daily rotating oysters, a Smoke & Maple smash burger and dishes built around locally sourced seasonal ingredients.

The 167-seat restaurant is being designed with an indoor-outdoor bar and bifold windows that can serve guests on both sides. Inside, rustic and lightly industrial details will meet an Old Florida sensibility, with references to the Everglades, local history and the area's golf culture. It sounds calibrated for several kinds of visits at once: a quick happy hour, a burger at the bar or a longer dinner supported by cocktails, local beer and wine.

An earlier announcement targeted late spring, but the restaurant has not published a reliable updated opening date. For now, Smoke & Maple remains part of the Town Center's active restaurant buildout.

Seppe Pizza Bar adds New York neighborhood energy

Seppe Pizza Bar will bring a different kind of familiarity to Avenir. The brand currently operates in Staten Island and Lower Manhattan, and its original restaurant describes itself as a modern, family-friendly take on a neighborhood pizzeria: laid-back, welcoming and centered on high-quality food without formal frills. The Staten Island location has also been recommended by the Michelin Guide for five consecutive years, from 2021 through 2025.

Pizza is the anchor, but Seppe's existing identity stretches into a fuller Italian meal, with salads, pastas, shareable starters and entrees alongside the pies. That range should make the Palm Beach Gardens location flexible enough for a family dinner, a casual date night or a table that wants to order across the menu. Avenir lists Seppe among its confirmed shops and restaurants, although a specific local opening date and street address have not yet been announced.

Three openings, three distinct reasons to return

The strongest part of this trio is the contrast. TENKA is building a polished modern Asian destination around an open kitchen and imported seafood. Smoke & Maple is taking a locally rooted gastropub idea into a large indoor-outdoor room. Seppe Pizza Bar is bringing the easy rhythm of a New York neighborhood pizzeria to South Florida.

As construction and tenant buildouts continue, exact debut dates may move. What is already clear is that Avenir Town Center is assembling a dining mix with enough variety to serve both its immediate community and diners coming west on Northlake Boulevard. TENKA leads that next wave, but Smoke & Maple Gastropub and Seppe Pizza Bar give Palm Beach Gardens two more openings worth following as the Town Center fills in.