Four new restaurants debuted this past season in Palm Beach. And so did a new gourmet specialty-foods market with a Michelin-starred chef at the helm.
One of the most anticipated restaurant openings came in early January with Tutto Mare, which earned Town Hall approvals in 2023 and 2024.
The patio of the new Tutto Mare restaurant in Palm Beach’s Royal Poinciana Plaza offers wide views of the Intracoastal Waterway and, in the distance, downtown West Palm Beach.
Next door to the new Glazer Hall in Royal Poinciana Plaza and fronting the Intracoastal Waterway, Tutto Mare opened its doors to the public on Jan. 3 after a soft opening at 340 Royal Poinciana Way.
With a 64-seat lakefront terrace, Tutto Mare is a sister of Tutto Il Giorno restaurant group venues in the Hamptons.
The 200-seat restaurant features an interior design executed in part by co-owner Gabby Karan de Felice and her mother, famed fashion-designer Donna Karan.
De Felice co-owns Tutto Mare with her husband, Gianpaolo de Felice. They helm the 2008-founded Tutto Il Giorno restaurant group, which also owns restaurants in Southampton and Sag Harbor, New York.
Gabby Karan de Felice is a co-owner of Tutto Mare in Palm Beach.
Tutto Mare’s menu, overseen by executive chef Agostino Petrosino and chef de cuisine Carmine Nozzolino, features “coastal” Mediterranean cuisine with such dishes as branzino, fritto misto and paccheri con frutti di mare.
The restaurant “is so delightful,” one Palm Beach resident who dined at Tutto Mare during its first weeks told the Palm Beach Daily News.
“It singularly has the best view … with the lights of downtown West Palm Beach, the (Flagler Memorial) Bridge and the boats going by,” Merrie Harris said.
The restaurant space was the former home of the famed Celebrity Room, which closed years ago. The Celebrity Room was designed by the late revered Palm Beach architect John L. Volk, who also designed the landmarked Royal Poinciana Plaza and the old Royal Poinciana Playhouse — now Glazer Hall — in the late 1950s.
The interior of Tutto Mare also was designed in collaboration with Dominic Kozerski and Enrico Bonetti of Bonetti Kozerski Architecture.
In the lounge, a historic 1950s-era trompe l’oeil ceiling mural by New York artist Robert Bushnell has been restored and showcases caricatures of more than 100 actors and celebrities that frequented the Celebrity Room, including Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.
Nacho Figueras at The Polo Room.
The Polo Room scores a hit
In early December, The Polo Room opened on Sunrise Avenue in the former space occupied by PB Catch seafood restaurant.
With a “Palm Beach chic” dress code and a “polo-inspired” ambiance and menu, restaurant at 251 Sunrise Ave. is led by front-man and co-owner Nacho Figueras, an internationally famed polo player.
The new restaurant, which also is backed by investors, is “deeply meaningful to me and my partners from the polo and Palm Beach community,” said Figueras, a fixture on the winter polo scene in Wellington and a sought-after model.
“Polo has introduced me to extraordinary places, people and flavors around the world and this restaurant is a way to bring those inspirations to life,” he said.
The restaurant’s interior includes photos depicting polo scenes and icons of the 1980s and 1990s. The images were curated in partnership with photographer Ricardo Motran, a.k.a “Snoopy.”
Along with cocktails, guests can enjoy such dinner entrees as butternut squash agnolotti and lobster tagliatelle, or caramelized Chilean seabass “Veracruz” and Dover sole meuniere.
Coco’s makes its debut
A new and much-anticipated hotel — The Vineta, formerly home to The Chesterfield — debuted a dining room and 32-seat courtyard for al fresco dining.
Coco’s restaurant inside the Vineta Hotel opened in late February.
Coco’s at The Vineta features Mediterranean cuisine. It debuted Feb. 28, with a bar and an ample wine and Champagne list.
The Vineta, 363 Cocoanut Row, is managed by Germany-based Oetker Hotels and opened following a three-year renovation of the longstanding four-story hospitality property.
The cuisine at Coco’s features a handful of signature dishes that hail from a famed French Riviera hotel also under the Oetker banner — Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes.
Coco’s chef Brian Rodriguez at The Vineta leads a team that offers signature dishes from a French Riviera hotel.
“There are so many places to dine in Palm Beach now, but Coco’s offers something distinctly different as part of Oetker Hotels’ portfolio,” Coco’s executive chef Brian Rodriguez told the Palm Beach Daily News.
Dishes that debuted include free-range chicken “supreme” with potato puree, black-olive powder, confit artichoke and sauce diable ($43); and steak Diane ($85) — an 8-ounce Australian Wagyu ribeye with Dijon mustard, Cognac and brown butter.
To start a dinner meal, patrons can choose from such appetizers as golden tomato gazpacho ($23); and Morel mushrooms ($34) with spinach, soft potato gnocchi and parmesan jus.
Amalfi bows at the Tideline
Across town, a new Italian restaurant opened in November at the Tideline Palm Beach Ocean Resort, 2842 S. Ocean Blvd.
The concept to feature cuisine from southern Italy stemmed from the hotel’s billionaire-owner Jeff Greene, a real-estate investor-developer.
Amalfi restaurant, located in a space at Tideline Palm Beach Ocean Resort formerly occupied by a “coastal cuisine” eatery called Brandon’s, is helmed by a chef who hails from Italy and most recently led the kitchen at an upscale Italian restaurant in Connecticut.
Greene, who lives in Palm Beach, has owned Tideline since 2011, when he bought the property that was then under a different name.
“I knew I wanted to open a restaurant with food from the Amalfi Coast, and when I found the right chef, we could do it,” he said.
Chef Emiliano Migliano of Almalfi restaurant focuses on a dinner menu that includes misto, with lightly fried calamari and other seafood, and steak.
Chef Emiliano Miglionico most recently led the culinary team at Case Me in Westport, Connecticut.
The interior of Tideline’s Amalfi is similar to what it was under the Brandon’s banner.
The dinner menu is chef Miglionico’s forte, Tideline officials said, with dishes that include fritto misto ($25, with lightly fried calamari and other seafood). Steak-lovers might wish to order a Prime-grade New York strip ($70) served with French fries and salmoriglio.
Le Bilbouquet Market offers treats
Chef Francois Payard leads Le Bilboquet Market, which opened in October on Peruvian Avenue in Palm Beach.
A block from Worth Avenue, Le Bilboquet Market made its debut in late October at 353 Peruvian Ave.
A sibling of Le Bilboquet restaurant on Worth Avenue, the specialty market features fare by culinary director and Michelin-starred pastry chef Francois Payard
The market offers savory and sweet treats, including classic European pastries. There’s also a selection of quiches, salads, sandwiches and other meals-to-go.
Customers also have been enjoying the convenience of finding upscale grocery items and a variety of coffee-based drinks and teas.
Élephante planned for Royal Poinciana Way
A rendering depicts the streetside facade of the planned Élephante at 207 Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach.
Elsewhere in town, another new restaurant is set to open, although an opening date has not been set.
Élephante restaurant is expected to debut in the coming months at a landmarked building at 207 Royal Poinciana Way.
The Town Council this season voted unanimously to approve the new declaration-of-use agreement outlining rules for how day-to-day operations, including valet service, would be conducted at Élephante.
The agreement involves the town, property owner Flagler System Management Inc. — a Breakers resort-affiliated corporation — and Elephante Palm Beach LLC.
Élephante would have the same number of seats, with 284, as former eateries in the space. No more than 40 would be outdoors.
All restaurant employees would be required to park off-island, the agreement says.
The space on Palm Beach’s historic Main Street where Élephante will open has seen a number of restaurants through the years.
Before Almond, the most recent that closed in May of 2024, the site also was the original home of longtime and popular Chuck & Harold’s before a nine-year run as Nick & Johnnie’s.
Élephante is part of the Wish You Were Here Group, a hospitality company based in California with restaurants in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City and Scottsdale, according to its website.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: The Palm Beach season brought new restaurants with signature cuisine
Dining and Cooking