Two weeks ago, when the thermometer dropped below 20 and indoor eating was still prohibited in the city, intrepid New Yorkers clung to the remnants of their social life.
On East 60th Street, customers of once bustling Le Bilboquet huddled in open-air maps, wearing hats and scarves, nibbling Cajun chicken and drinking Bordeaux. One block higher, 10 tables at La Goulue’s club struggled to share four stoves, while guests grabbed bowls of onion soup for extra warmth.
But just a short flight away – in Tony Palm Beach, Florida, where La Goulue recently opened an outpost that is a mirror image of his mothership in Manhattan – all the tables and chairs at the bar are full. Patrons laugh and live it, seemingly oblivious to the dangers of fraternization during a pandemic.
“I escaped from New York!” Stated the owner of the bistro, Jean Denoyer. “We take everyone’s temperature upon arrival and keep the doors and windows open to allow fresh air to circulate.”
Le Bilboquet’s owner, Philippe Delgrange, is also located in Palm Beach, where he premiered the southern sister of his famous boîte this week.
[Palm Beach] really works with you, not to put wood in your wheels, ” he said, no doubt referring to how New York City restaurants are now allowed to dine indoors at 25 percent capacity after two months of closure. “I’ve seen so many friends of mine, I can’t believe it. And ask all our employees in New York to come and work here. ”
Denoyer and Delgrange are among the hordes of New Yorkers now enjoying life in Palm Beach County, where the influx of energy can be felt. While masks are mandatory in commercial establishments across the country, people are of course allowed to remove them while eating or drinking, and there are no specific spacing rules – so it’s not uncommon to see bars full of densely packed maskless patrons.
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Some Northerners feel as if they have entered a parallel universe, with old friends and favorite hangouts transported to sunnier surroundings.
Upper East Sider Joe Wagner, 63, arrived in South Florida in late January with plans to stay for two weeks, but decided to stay until March. He ate inside La Goulue. “Sometimes I feel a bit unsafe. In New York I was housebound. But it seems so many people here are more relaxed because they already had COVID, ” the real estate developer told The Post. “They say, ‘Don’t worry, I have the antibodies’, and I say, ‘That’s great, but can you go back a little bit?’
Palm Beach County’s COVID infection rates have risen to 7.57 percent this week. In New York, it has fallen to 5.08 percent from a high of more than 7 percent.
Since February 12, New York restaurants have finally been allowed to welcome indoor diners with a 25 percent capacity, but the Palm Beach establishments are running at full speed.
New York’s Café Boulud will be closed until the end of 2021, but its Palm Beach sibling will mingle with diners in the lushly landscaped courtyard. The Bice, Sant Ambroeus and Almond restaurants in New York all have locations on the island. Even the defunct watering hole on Swifty’s Upper East Side has been resurrected in Palm Beach.
While legendary spots in New York like 21 and Cipriani are formwork, this week a chic Monkey Bar premiered at the new Opal Grand hotel in Palm Beach County, and New York restaurant group Host (Campagnola, Bill’s Townhouse) unveiled a new Delray Beach , Fla., Steakhouse, Avalon, at the end of the month.
It’s hard to find an empty seat in one of the hot restaurants around. “I can’t believe the amazing number of people here this year – it’s like a jailbreak!” said John Lehmann, 59, who lives on the island and runs a sports marketing company.
‘I feel alive again. I could move here for the rest of my life, ” said Erica Holzer, 47, the 47-year-old housewife from Long Island, oceanfront at Opal Grand, where she and her husband stay for eight weeks. “They take precautions, but they are not absurd. We went to the Monkey Bar and had a fantastic time. It’s just so free to be here. ”
That feeling of freedom extends beyond restaurants. Fitness addicts can only do masked spin sessions with a virtual instructor in New York gyms, but SoulCycle now runs al-fresco classes on the green of the island’s Royal Poinciana Plaza. It’s next to an outpost of New York’s Paul Labrecque salon, where patrons catch rays of the sun in the courtyard as their color sets and their nails dry.
Lincoln Center, Broadway, and Carnegie Hall are all murky, 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 was in South Florida for nine days.
While the majority of those coming to the area from the New York area are undoubtedly privileged, discount airfare and hotel stays offer a wider spectrum of visitors.
“The irony is that living in Florida is actually a third cheaper than living in New York – and younger people are realizing that,” said 70-year-old Gene Pressman, a former Manhattan man whose family founded Barney’s and who now lives. in Palm Beach.
‘Palm Beach used to be full of upper town [Manhattan] people, but now the downtown people are here, ” added Pressman’s wife, Christine, 48.
And after New York’s shutdown, Palm Beach’s social scene – and the lack of social distance in places – could be causing a culture shock among newcomers.
“People say it’s like the Wild West here,” said Todd Herbst, owner of the popular new Palm Beach restaurant Elisabetta’s. “They are amazed how open everything is here. It’s as if COVID doesn’t exist, but we require all staff to wear masks and we don’t allow parties of more than 10 people. “
“I arrived here last week and it feels like a different world,” said Charles Rosenberg, a Soho resident 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 like that again.”
Still, Upper East Sider Joe Wagner isn’t ready to head north anytime soon. “A friend of mine sent me a photo of himself in La Goulue, New York wearing a hat and two scarves and said his fingers were turning blue,” Wagner said. “I sent him a picture of my pool.”