The building at 207 Royal Poinciana Way is landmarked, and its dining room has been dark for more than two seasons. Almond served its last meal there on Mother's Day 2024, and its lease ran out on May 31 of that year. In January 2026, the Palm Beach Daily News reported that Élephante had signed on as the new tenant, and noted that "it will be months before diners are able to sample the fare." Nine months on, as the season opens, it still has no announced date.
That gap is how restaurants open on the island. Before a new dining room serves anyone, it goes through the Town Council, often the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and a negotiated agreement on how it will run. Those steps add up to seasons. So the restaurants you can actually book this winter are the ones that got through Town Hall a year or more ago. The ones approved this fall are most likely next winter's.
The Clock Tutto Mare Set
The clearest example is the restaurant that took the island's best new table last season. Tutto Mare's path to opening ran like this:
- December 20, 2023. Changes to the dining room doors, along with a zoning variance that let the kitchen scrubber exceed the maximum height, went before the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Palm Beach Daily News headline that week said the restaurant was "set to open in late 2024."
- 2023 and 2024. Town approvals came across both years.
- January 2, 2026. The planned opening day. An unforeseen delay pushed it back by one day.
- January 3, 2026. Doors opened at 340 Royal Poinciana Way, in the former Celebrity Room space at the landmarked Royal Poinciana Plaza.
That is about two years from the Landmarks meeting to the first dinner, and more than a full season past the date printed when the approvals came in. The restaurant was also one piece of what the Daily News called a nine-year effort to reopen the Royal Poinciana Playhouse. Today it seats 200, with a 64-seat terrace facing the Intracoastal next to Glazer Hall. Executive chef Agostino Petrosino and chef de cuisine Carmine Nozzolino run the kitchen, and the coastal Mediterranean menu includes branzino, fritto misto and paccheri con frutti di mare.
With that two-year clock in mind, here is where every new project on the island stood by mid-October 2026.
Restaurant | Address | Last reported town milestone | Status, mid-October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
Élephante | 207 Royal Poinciana Way | Council approved declaration-of-use and valet plan, February 2026 | "Coming this season," no date |
George x Avenue 31 | 380 S. County Road | Council approved site plans, reported October 7, 2026 | No date |
Church Mouse coffee counter | 378 S. County Road | Plan reported July 2026 | No date |
Room Service, Stephen Starr | 151 Worth Avenue | Conditional Council approval, September 9, 2026 | As early as December 2027 |
Élephante Is Closest, and Parking Was the Sticking Point
Élephante comes from Wish You Were Here Group, founded by Nick Mathers. The Los Angeles-born Mediterranean restaurant, with locations in Santa Monica and Scottsdale, will make its Florida debut here. Plans call for 284 seats indoors and out, valet service and live music. A companion market and bakery selling coffee, grab-and-go food and retail items is planned behind it at 208–210 Sunset Avenue.
At Town Hall, the issue was cars. In February, the Town Council approved the declaration-of-use agreement that sets the restaurant's day-to-day operating rules. Under that plan, valets may park along the street and use several nearby lots. As the Palm Beach Daily News reported, some council members worried that diners could take up much of the parking on the street that anchors the Royal Poinciana Way commercial district. By late April, the paper reported that the project appeared to have cleared its remaining hurdles.
That timeline is shorter than Tutto Mare's: approvals in February and April, then fit-out. Haute Living's October 16 roundup still lists it as "coming this season" with no confirmed opening date. If it does open this winter, it will be the first table on this list to make it from approval to opening within the same calendar year.
Two Doors on South County Road
Two Midtown projects sit side by side, a few steps north of Worth Avenue. Neither has a date yet, and they are at very different stages.
At 380 S. County Road, the two-story building that held Le Bar à Vin is slated to become George x Avenue 31. The concept brings the Monte Carlo restaurant brand, founded on Avenue Princesse Grace in Monaco, to the island for the first time. Haute Living describes the menu as Italian-Mediterranean, with dishes like veal piccata, tagliolini with langoustines and miso black cod, plus a lounge and nightclub running alongside the dining room on both floors. On October 7, the Palm Beach Daily News reported that the Town Council had approved the site plans, which the paper called a major municipal hurdle. Tutto Mare's timeline suggests that an October site-plan approval points to an opening late this season at the earliest.
Next door at 378 S. County Road, The Church Mouse has a much smaller project. The shop, owned by Bethesda-by-the-Sea, plans to add a to-go coffee counter using beans from Pumphouse Coffee Roasters, with no food or seating, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. A counter with no dining room is the kind of project that could move faster than its neighbor, but no opening date has been announced.
Worth Avenue's Longer Wait
The biggest restaurant news for the ocean block of Worth Avenue is also the furthest away. The former Neiman Marcus building at 151 Worth Avenue has been empty since the store closed in 2020. On September 9, 2026, the Town Council conditionally approved a 165-seat restaurant there from Stephen Starr, with 126 indoor seats, seven at the bar and 32 on a balcony over Worth Avenue. Town staff confirmed it is a standalone concept created for Palm Beach. Starr has described it as a neighborhood restaurant with a steakhouse influence, and the working name is Room Service.
As the Palm Beach Daily News reported in October, the restaurant is part of a larger plan to turn the building into a shopping and dining destination. It still needs more town approvals, and the developer has said it could open as early as December 2027. That puts its approval and its earliest opening about 15 months apart, close to the gap Tutto Mare went through, and nearly eight years after the building last had a tenant.
The Tables That Already Made It Through
The new or returning restaurants with confirmed dates are:
- Tutto Mare, 340 Royal Poinciana Way. Open since January 3, 2026, and going into its first full season. The island's only restaurant directly on the lakefront.
- Amalfi at the Tideline. This Italian restaurant debuted at the resort in December 2025.
- Coco's at The Vineta, Cocoanut Row. Open since February 28, 2026, and run by Oetker. Executive chef Brian Rodriguez leads a menu developed with the chefs of Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, per Palmer. The Purist reported that Coco's and the Pool House had been near capacity since opening day, with a line on opening night.
- Acqua Café, 2875 S. Ocean Blvd. The South End restaurant, a sibling to Renato's, closed this summer for the first time since it opened in 2020. It plans to reopen in early November. Managing partner and co-owner Jose-Luis Duran told the Palm Beach Daily News that the team planned to "refresh the interior and hopefully add a few new touches we've wanted to do."
Acqua Café's reopening is the one new date on the island this season that depends on no approval at all, just finishing an interior refresh in an existing dining room. Élephante is the only newly approved project that might open this winter. George x Avenue 31 and the Church Mouse counter have no announced dates. Room Service is scheduled no earlier than December 2027.
If you'd like a discreet read on how town review and landmark status could affect a property you own or are considering, The Jack Elkins Team would be glad to talk it through. Request a private consultation.
