Buddy Foy Jr., owner of Chateau on the Lake, gives an update on his business after getting fed up with the restrictions in New York and opening a new restaurant in Florida.
Two weeks ago, when the thermometer under 20 diving and dining inside the city was still off limits, intrepid New Yorkers continued to cling to remnants of their social lives.
In the 60th Street of the East, patrons in the once bustling Le Bilboquet were crammed into outdoor bars, wearing hats and scarves as they clipped to Cajun chicken and sipped Bordeaux. One block up, ten tables at clubby La Goulue struggled to share four heaters, while guests grabbed bowls of onion soup for extra warmth.
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But just a short flight away – in Palm Beach, Florida, where La Goulue recently opened an outpost that is a mirror image of his Manhattan mothership – everything inside tables and seats at the bar is full. Visitors laugh and live it out, seemingly unaware of the dangers of brotherhood during a pandemic.
“I escaped New York!”, Declares bistro owner Jean Denoyer. “We take everyone’s temperature when they arrive and keep the doors and windows open so that fresh air circulates.”
Le Bilboquet’s owner, Philippe Delgrange, is also in Palm Beach, where he premiered his famous brother’s southern sister this week.
‘[Palm Beach] ‘really working with you, not trying to put wood in your wheels,’ ‘he said. He no doubt referred to how New York City restaurants are now, after two months of closure, allowed to put indoor eateries at 25 percent. ‘I’ve seen so many friends of mine, I can not believe it. And all our staff in New York are asking to come here to work. ‘
Denoyer and Delgrange are one of the hordes of New Yorkers now enjoying life in Palm Beach County, where the influx of energy is palpable. Although masks are needed within commercial establishments throughout the province, people are naturally allowed to remove them while eating or drinking, and there are no specific arrangements for spacing – so it is not uncommon to see pubs full of maskless protectors.
Some northerners feel as if they have ended up in a parallel universe, with old friends and favorite gathering places being transported to a sunnier environment.
Cider Joe Wagner (Upper East Sider), 63, arrived in South Florida in late January with plans to stay two weeks, but decided to stay until March. He enjoys dinner indoors in La Goulue. “Sometimes I feel a little insecure. In New York, I was housebound. But it seems like so many people here are more relaxed because they already had COVID, ” the property developer told The Post. They say, ‘Do not worry, I have the antibodies,’ and I say, ‘That’s great, but can you back me up a little? ‘”
Indeed, Palm Beach County’s COVID infection rates rose to 7.57 percent this week. In New York, it dropped to 5.08 percent from a high of more than 7 percent.
New York restaurants may finally welcome indoor dining with a 25 percent capacity on Feb. 12, but Palm Beach businesses are in full swing.
Café Boulud in New York is closed until the end of 2021, but with his brother or sister from Palm Beach, the meals mix in the lush courtyard. New York restaurants Bice, Sant Ambroeus and Almond all have places on the island. Even the dilapidated Upper East Side waterhole Swifty’s was raised in Palm Beach.
As legendary New York venues like 21 and Cipriani close, a chic Monkey Bar premiered this week at the new Opal Grand Hotel in Palm Beach County, and New York restaurant group Host (Campagnola, Bill’s Townhouse) unveils a new Delray Beach, Fla., steakhouse, Avalon, at the end of the month.
It’s hard to find an empty seat at any of the hot restaurants in the area. “I can not believe the incredible amount of people here – it’s like a prison sentence!” says John Lehmann, 59, who lives on the island and runs a sports marketing firm.
“I feel alive again. I could move here for the rest of my life, ” said Erica Holzer, 47, a Long Island homemaker, at the Opal Grand, where she and her husband stay for eight weeks. ‘They take precautions, but are not absurd. We went to the Monkey Bar and had a fantastic time. It’s just as free to be here. ‘
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The feeling of freedom also goes beyond just restaurants. Fitness addicts can only take masked turn sessions with a virtual instructor at gyms in New York, but SoulCycle now holds al-fresco classes on the green of the Royal Poinciana Plaza on the island. It’s next to an outpost of the Paul Labrecque salon in New York, where customers catch rays in the courtyard while their color solidifies and their nails dry.
Lincoln Center, Broadway and Carnegie Hall are dark, but live jazz performances have just been announced for later this month at the Kravis Center in West Palm.
‘It’s a relief to be here. It feels like we can finally breathe, ‘says Greenwich, Conn., Event consultant Boo Huth, 60, who visited South Florida for nine days.
While the majority of those who flock from the New York area to the area are undoubtedly privileged, cheap rates and hotel accommodation offer a wider range of visitors.
“The irony is that living in Florida is actually a third cheaper than living in New York – and younger people are realizing it,” said 70-year-old Gene Pressman, a former Manhattanite whose family founded Barney’s. who now lives in Palm Beach.
‘Palm Beach used to be full in the city [Manhattan] people, but now the people in the city center are here, ‘added Pressman’s wife, Christine (48).
And after the closure of New York, the social scene of Palm Beach – and the lack of social distance in some places – could cause culture shock for new arrivals.
“People say it’s like the Wild West here,” says Todd Herbst, owner of the popular Palm Beach restaurant Elisabetta’s. “They are amazed at how open everything is here. It is as if COVID does not exist, but we require that all staff wear masks and that we do not allow parties of more than ten people. ”
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“I arrived here last week and it feels like another world,” said Charles Rosenberg, a resident of Soho, who works in commercial real estate. The 30-year-old plans to stay in Palm Beach for a few weeks. “But I think when spring comes, New York will feel that way again.”
Sider Joe Wagner of Upper East is not ready to head north anytime soon. ” A friend of mine sent a photo of him in La Goulue, New York, wearing a hat and two scarves, saying his fingers were turning blue, ” Wagner said. “I sent him back a picture of my pool.”