A Mediterranean-concept restaurant planned for Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach is on target to open this fall.
The 200-seat Tutto Mare, a lakefront restaurant owned by New York-based Tutto Il Giorno restaurant group, should be fully open in early November, Liz Tremblay, the company’s director of operations told the Daily News.
Encompassing 8,300-plus square feet with indoor and outdoor seating, Tutto Mare will be on prime waterfront space formerly occupied for decades by the famed John Volk-designed Celebrity Room restaurant and nightclub.
The restaurant, which has been in the works for two years, received town approvals for operational and design plans in 2023 and 2024.
When finished it will include a 72-seat dining room, a 64-seat lake-flanking alfresco dining terrace and a 64-seat bar and lounge.
As part of historic preservation efforts, the bar and lounge will include the Celebrity Room’s original mural on its ceiling, Tutto Mare said.
The mural depicts 125 actors, celebrities, and well-known locals — from Joan Crawford and Clark Gable to Lilly Pulitzer and Volk.
The restaurant will be one of the few waterfront restaurants in Palm Beach. Others include those associated with the island’s beachfront resort hotels. On the lake, the Flagler Museum’s Railcar 91 Tea Room operates November through April.
Tutto Mare’s founders include Gabby Karan de Felice (daughter of famed designer Donna Karan) and her husband Gianpaolo de Felice. When finished, it will be a sister to three Tutto Il Giorno restaurants in New York.
They include hotspots in Southampton, East Hampton and Sag Harbor.
The new Palm Beach restaurant is expected to draw a variety of patrons to its spacious lakefront location in Royal Poinciana Plaza. It will be next to Glazer Hall, a 24,000-square-foot cultural arts center on track for a partial opening in time for the 2025-2026 season.
The cultural-arts center, with a 400-seat theater, will host performing-arts and other events. It is located where the 2004-shuttered Volk-designed Royal Poinciana Playhouse operated for decades before recent redevelopment by Massachusetts-based WS Development.
Tutto Mare’s opening will be a significant step for Palm Beach, Lori Berg, the plaza’s general manager, told the Daily News.
“We’re adding another moment worth savoring to the elevated experiences our community expects,” Berg said. “Together with the opening of Glazer Hall, a new cultural arts destination, this season marks the next act of a timeless icon at The Royal (Poinciana Plaza).”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Tutto Mare restaurant at Royal Poinciana Plaza on track to meet planned opening
Reporting by M.M. Cloutier / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
