Lately, there have been so many new and exciting openings in the West Palm Beach area. Maybe it’s the “season,” the new year, or that we are finally catching up to the trends of major cities. Whatever it may be, I’m thrilled about it! Keep reading for my first impressions of my top three new openings.
On a few different occasions, my friends and I ventured to downtown West Palm Beach in attempts to try these new spots before our friends, colleagues and the rest of the town did. Sometimes if you wait too long, they become crowded or overly judged and less appealing. Most of us grew up here and loved the idea of being about to support the local businesses.
West Palm Beach Brewery & Wine Vault
The brewery scene in South Florida has grown tremendously in the past five years. When I was in college, none of these places existed when I would come home to visit. West Palm Beach Brewery & Wine Vault is located a few blocks from Clematis on Evernia Street. At first glance, they did an amazing job with the design and neon signage! Once you walk in, it has a very open and airy atmosphere that feels welcoming and comforting. A place to meet up with friends, see old colleagues, and to hang out for hours. I think this is one of their strongest attributes over some of their surrounding “competitors” that are housed in dark, small and/or crowded spaces. They have TVs all around, plenty of table seating, a long bar and a few hi-tops by the wine bar. Something for everyone.
Moving on to the most important part of this review – the food and drinks! They have a section dedicated to wine, but honestly, I am more likely to go here for beer. I doubt I’m alone in that – it’s clearly the main attraction. However, it’s nice to have the option for anyone who doesn’t like beer as they do not serve liquor. The craft beers change regularly, but based on the few I tried, I’m confident they are all great. They also offer Guest Beers – about half are Florida beers and half are from out-of-state. I love when places do this. It’s also ideal for them in case they run out of house beers at the same time or have delays, etc. Always plenty to choose from! Their food was very good too. They have a brick oven for woodfire pizza in the back of the room, and who doesn’t crave pizza while/after drinking beer?! Also worth mentioning, their dough and mozzarella are hand-made – yum. I look forward to going back here again and again.
Grandview Public Market
Grandview Public Market is a brand new opening (literally 2-3 days ago) and discovery for me. It’s a chef-driven public market that is unlike anything I know of in this area, but that I love we now have. I’ve been to many public markets across the country, from Pike Place Market to East End Market to Quincy Market, and I think they are so fun – especially the more modern ones like this!
Upon arriving, it looks like they could use more parking lots. We lucked out with a spot in their lot, but I saw people parking on the street quite a way down the road. We walked through the market to see everything first. Then we walked it again, looking closer at the menus and what we might like to order for dinner. I chose the Korean Fried Chicken Sandwich from Clare’s, which wasn’t as saucy or spicy as I expected, but was still flavorful and delicious. My friends got the Poke Fire Pokerrito from Poké Lab Eatery, which is a poke bowl wrapped like a burrito and rolled in spicy cheetos (can you say wowza?!). We also tried the Cinnamon Toast Cold Brew and Thin Mint Cold Brew Coffees from Rabbit Coffee. The Thin Mint was my personal favorite (anything that reminds me of Girl Scout cookies…).
They have indoor seating in the beautifully designed “living room” (pictured above) as well as outdoor seating, where there was live music. There’s one bar, which was quite crowded, but I’m sure that is something they will add more of as they continue to expand within the warehouse block space. Surprisingly, it’s a full bar! They also had a cute gift shop, called Quinn, that sells home goods, stationary, books, candles, etc. Overall, for being so incredibly new, I thought it was super impressive. They have some quirks to work out in the meantime, but I still can’t wait until my next visit. Will it be for tacos, ramen, pizza or rolled ice cream…? Oh, the options!
Restoration Hardware
A 10-minute walk away from West Palm Beach Brewery & Wine Vault is the enormous and gorgeous Restoration Hardware. It was built in the median of Okeechobee Blvd, which still amazes me to this day. It’s inspired by the Restoration Hardware in Chicago. The four-story gallery showcases RH, RH Modern, RH Teen, RH Child & Baby collections, although you cannot walk out of the store with a purchase. There is simply no room for people to be loading large furniture into their cars! What you see in the picture on the bottom left is valet, which is a nice option to have. Otherwise, there is the Hibiscus Parking Garage across the street.
Beyond exploring the extravagant displays on each floor, there are three areas of outdoor lounging – patio seating on the ground floor, second floor balcony lounge areas and the fourth floor rooftop. The rooftop is the main attraction, as it is primarily encompassed of a restaurant, wine bar, coffee bar and seating. I have been once with a girlfriend for a glass of wine, and another time with this group of friends aforementioned during the day where we walked around and snacked on an out-of-this-world pistachio donut while sipping on iced chai tea lattes. There’s something for everyone, for any occasion. It’s the epitome of chic from top to bottom, and a fun spot to chill, celebrate or meet others. It is somewhere I have added to my list of “places to take visitors,” which I’ll cover in more detail soon.
I look forward to covering more of my favorite local spots at home. In the meantime, make sure to check out these three awesome new additions!
We want to see Grandview! Maybe next month after we head back north from Miami
Yes, that would be fun! It’s pretty close off I-95 too.