"The nights really fill up," Council Member Ted Cooney said in February. He lives near Royal Poinciana Way, and the Town Council had just spent part of its Feb. 11 development review meeting deciding where a 284-seat restaurant's valets would park cars. The restaurant was Élephante, and it had not served a single plate. The Council approved its operating agreement unanimously that day, the Palm Beach Daily News reported in a story republished by Blue Water Healthy Living.
Three restaurants are coming to the island: Élephante on Royal Poinciana Way, George x Avenue 31 on South County Road and Stephen Starr's Room Service on Worth Avenue. Each one is going through the same Palm Beach step before it opens, a contract with the town called a declaration of use. Before the doors open, that contract sets how the restaurant will run on a Thursday night: the closing time, how many valets are on duty, where staff park and whether music is amplified.
What a Declaration of Use Actually Fixes
Élephante shows most fully what one of these agreements contains, because its agreement is finished. The parties are the town, the property owner Flagler System Management Inc., a corporation affiliated with The Breakers, and Elephante Palm Beach LLC. Here is what the agreement approved on Feb. 11 sets:
- Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday
- The market at 208 and 210 Sunset Avenue may open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily
- Seats: 284, with no more than 40 outdoors
- Valet: required from 6 p.m. to close and optional from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with at least four valets Thursday through Sunday and three Monday through Wednesday
- Where the cars go: street parking on Royal Poinciana Way or Breakers-owned lots nearby, including the underground garage at Via Flagler
- Staff parking: all restaurant employees park off-island
- Follow-up: a return visit to the Council after six months of operation
The Feb. 11 Council minutes add conditions from the motion itself. Deliveries must arrive before 10 a.m. The Council kept the right to change valet operations at the six-month review or after a verified complaint, and trash pickup is to be coordinated with Public Works.
Most of the Council's discussion was about parking, not food. As the Daily News reported, Council President Bobbie Lindsay said the restaurant's cars "will displace a lot of people who are coming to that neighborhood now, because they just won't be able to find (parking)." Council Member Julie Araskog floated the idea of a residents-only parking area along the street. Land-use attorney James Crowley of Gunster said that with several Breakers lots nearby, "We're fortunate here that we have these options."
Almond's Seats, Inherited Under New Terms
The building at 207 Royal Poinciana Way is landmarked. It last served dinner as Almond, which closed after its Mother's Day service in May 2024 when its lease ran out at the end of that month. Co-owner Eric Lemonides told the Palm Beach Daily News that the terms of a new lease did not fit the partners' vision.
Élephante will have the same 284 seats Almond had. The concept comes from Nick Mathers's Wish You Were Here Group, with locations in Santa Monica and Scottsdale, and this will be its first restaurant in Florida. Haute Living reported on Oct. 16 that it is still coming "this season" with no confirmed opening date. The town took about four weeks to grant approvals: special exceptions and a variance on Jan. 14, exterior changes approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Jan. 21, and the operating agreement on Feb. 11.
Music is the one open question. On April 27, a Palm Beach Daily News headline said the restaurant would offer valet and live music, and the paper described the project as "all systems are now go" for a space that had been empty about two years. The agreement approved in February does not allow amplified live music, even though council members heard in January that earlier tenants had hosted live performances in the space.
At 380 South County, the Council Counted Seats
At Élephante, the town signed off on a known layout. At the former Le Bar à Vin, the Council approved a smaller first step. Town staff records show the wine bar opened on Dec. 4, 2020. At the Sept. 9 Council meeting, owner George Norcross described taking control of the property, closing it temporarily, bringing in an experienced restaurant partner and renovating heavily. His stated goal was "an upscale restaurant and lounge rather than a traditional nightclub."
The new name is George x Avenue 31. It brings the Monaco dining brand Avenue 31 to the island, with Italian-Mediterranean cooking and a lounge on both floors of the building. The September request was small: let the existing second-floor nightclub use expand into a 236-square-foot office next door, with no new licensed seats. Attorney Jamie Gavigan explained that the extra space would let the restaurant operate this season while the owners prepare a second application for the rest of the second floor.
The Sept. 9 minutes show where the Council focused. Several members worried that open floor space could eventually become an event or nightclub area, and they wanted a specific seating plan written into the declaration of use. The motion passed 4–1, with Araskog dissenting. It requires an approved agreement, caps the restaurant at 108 seats and requires at least 24 of those seats to be on the second floor. Requiring seats upstairs keeps the second floor working as a dining room and limits how much of it can become open floor. The Palm Beach Daily News reported the approval on Oct. 7, and the restaurant's own site still says only "Opening 2026."
On Worth Avenue, Dinner's Closing Time Is Still Blank
The same Sept. 9 meeting took up the biggest of the three projects. The former Neiman Marcus building at 151 Worth Avenue has been empty since the store closed in 2020. Stephen Starr plans to open a restaurant there, tentatively called Room Service, and told the Council it would be a steakhouse with a broader comfort-food menu meant for residents and regulars. The site plan and special exceptions passed 5–0. A variance letting the building provide less on-site parking than required passed 4–1, with Araskog dissenting.
The neighbors' concern was the location of the outdoor seating. Attorney Maura Ziska told the Council the outdoor tables would be on the second floor along Worth Avenue, not in the park area on Peruvian Avenue, and that the neighbors she had contacted were satisfied. Eric Czerniejewski of the Corradino Group said his main concern was keeping valet cars from backing up onto Worth Avenue, and he recommended a review once the restaurant is open. Council members discussed keeping the Peruvian Avenue area a quiet, passive space.
The draft declaration of use, posted with the Council's Oct. 14 development review agenda, already sets much of how the restaurant will run:
- 165 seats: 133 indoors and 32 on the balcony
- At least four valets on duty
- Employees park off-island or in the building's garage
- Western driveway loading zone used only before 10 a.m.
- Lunch weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and weekend brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The draft leaves dinner closing times blank, and it makes an approved agreement a condition of the certificate of occupancy. Under the September application, the third-floor addition goes to the Architectural Commission for design review. TZ Capital told the Palm Beach Daily News that it could open as early as December 2027, about fourteen months away. The 380 South County draft was on the same Oct. 14 agenda.
Three Agreements, One Template in the Making
| Élephante | George x Avenue 31 | Room Service | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 207 Royal Poinciana Way | 380 S. County Road | 151 Worth Avenue |
| Previous use | Almond | Le Bar à Vin | Neiman Marcus |
| Seats | 284, up to 40 outdoors | Capped at 108, at least 24 upstairs | 165 in draft, 32 on balcony |
| Staff parking | Off-island | Not yet set | Off-island or garage |
| Agreement status | Approved Feb. 11, 2026 | Interim draft, Sept. 24 | Draft, Sept. 29 |
| Opening | "This season," no date | "Opening 2026" | As early as December 2027 |
Before voting on Starr's application, the Council stepped back to talk about these agreements in general. Members discussed the need for more consistency in declarations of use for restaurants and suggested a standard format covering seating, garbage collection, music, deliveries, parking and valet, with room for conditions specific to each site. They also asked whether a proposed restaurant would mainly serve the town or draw from the wider region. The rows in the table are an early version of that format. A standard template would apply these questions to every new restaurant, not just these three.
What Opens Sooner
While these three restaurants work through Town Hall, other openings are closer. The Palm Beach Post reported on Oct. 2 that Mira Mikati will open its first U.S. boutique at Royal Poinciana Plaza this fall. The plaza also lists Zimmermann as coming soon. Down the street at 70 Royal Poinciana Way, Glazer Hall's second season includes Cheyenne Jackson on Friday, Nov. 6 and The Hot Sardines' "Holiday Stomp" on Thursday, Dec. 3. When Élephante opens a few doors from Glazer Hall, valets on duty from 6 p.m. will be parking cars on Royal Poinciana Way on show nights, and the Council has scheduled a review of how that works after six months.
A landmarked building with a valet plan and an agreed seat count is worth something specific in Palm Beach. If you own a property near one of these corridors and want to know how changes like these could affect its value, Jennifer Kilpatrick FL is glad to talk it through. Request a Private Home Valuation, handled with the same discretion as every engagement on the island.
