How has your week been? I spent seven hours watching Tuesday’s Palm Beach Town Council meeting because the town hadn’t posted a transcript yet. All to bring you this newsletter.
Here’s what came of it: Robin Birley’s proposed Palm Beach private members’ club received partial approval in a 4–1 vote, while Caviar Russe won unanimous approval to take over the Café Via Flora space on Worth Avenue. Birley still has some hurdles to clear, including questions about tandem parking, building height and an oversized rooftop cooling tower that would obstruct some views from the neighboring Colony hotel. Its owner, Sarah Wetenhall, was not the only one concerned. I have all the details in today’s letter (and if I’m still missing anything after seven hours, we have a problem).
Before getting down to business on Birley’s club, the council seemed determined to establish who had already been to his others. Council President Ted Cooney had visited Maxime’s in New York and 5 Hertford Street in London. Mayor Danielle Moore had, too, and described them as “first-class operations.”
“While I haven’t been a guest of Maxime’s, I have been a guest of these parking garages,” volunteered James Murphy, the town’s assistant director of planning, zoning and building, referring to the parking facilities along Worth Avenue. Given that parking consumed nearly two hours of the hearing (you know I must really love you guys to listen to that), Murphy probably had the more relevant experience.
But parking was hardly the most entertaining part of the proceedings. Anne Fairfax, the architect from Fairfax & Sammons overseeing the redevelopment of the Esplanade, where Birley’s club is planned, presented photographs of the existing building, which she described as “a smorgasbord of hideousness.” Cooney was no kinder to her computer-generated architectural renderings, calling them “total AI slop” and chuckling that “now the Colony is a Mediterranean Revival building from Coral Gables.” (The pink hotel is, in fact, British Colonial).
When Birley’s representative, Andrew West, promised that any miscreants at the club would be shown the door, Moore had what she called a “sort of a tacky question”: “Have you thrown people out before of any of the other clubs?”
West was equally unfazed by the prospect of Palm Beach imposing an extensive list of operating restrictions. “In New York, we entered into what I am told is the longest list of stipulations the community board has ever seen,” he replied, to considerable laughter.
But my favorite contribution came from Cooney during the Caviar Russe hearing, when the council turned its attention to the restaurant’s proposed garbage facilities. “Plus, I could rustle around in there for any caviar left over in the tins because I’m not going to be able to afford this place.”
Those were only a few of the more unmoored exchanges. The meeting also produced considerably more news, including some of the biggest names in finance being cited as supporters of Birley’s club. (Birley himself was there, by the way, but didn’t say a word.) There were also membership figures rarely disclosed to the public. I had no idea Maxime’s already had so many members, with more on the way.
Below, RPS gets into who is backing Birley, why the council didn’t give him everything he wanted and just how few memberships might be available to people who don’t actually live in Palm Beach (it is very, very low so get ready for some sharp-elbowing for those spots). There’s also the matter of when Caviar Russe can move in, which RPS also has for you. And for Palm Beachers, an added bonus: What, exactly, is going on with the padel court at the Peltz residence?
Plus: Mr. Chow’s longtime maître d’ decamps for a members club in a RPS exclusive, two cats get a transatlantic relocation manager, Aman teams up with Novak Djokovic in Miami, Sotheby’s gets into six-figure wine refrigerators, the rich demand more farm chores, Wall Street hires a family-feud referee, AI enters the inheritance-letter business, and more
I’ve got so many exclusives for you in this newsletter, you pretty much can turn your brain off after reading it. Everything after the jump!
