LAKE WORTH BEACH — The city has dropped more than $20,000 in fines that were pending against one of the town’s most popular bars, Harry’s Banana Farm, over a dinosaur statue that code enforcement deemed illegal.
The bar’s general manager, Lou De Stout, heard the good news on June 24, standing before Special Magistrate B. Douglas MacGibbon at a hearing at City Hall. Code enforcement officer Carlos Domingo told MacGibbon the city wanted to drop the case.
“Granted,” MacGibbon said, before telling De Stout with a smile, “You just won. Go away,” eliciting grins and chuckles from De Stout and some of the code enforcement officers in attendance.
How a $21K code dispute at Harry’s Banana Farm started in the first place
Code enforcement cited Harry’s Banana Farm on April 11, 2025, for perching a velociraptor statue on its roof without a permit.
As time wore on, and De Stout grew more frustrated with the process of getting a permit, the city stacked fines daily on the longtime establishment on Dixie Highway and 20th Avenue North, totaling $21,252 by the time the case was dropped.
About a year later, De Stout had the velociraptor brought down to the sidewalk to stop the daily fines. He placed the dinosaur under the big sign bearing the regularly updated jokes and snark the bar is known for. This time, De Stout left one message up for months: “Like extinction wasn’t enough, code enforcement kills me again.”
Yet the fines kept coming. So De Stout walked into code enforcement’s office on Second Avenue North, just west of Interstate 95, to vent his frustration and confusion. He did what was asked, so why was he still being fined?
The director of code enforcement, Yolanda Bryant, told De Stout the continued fines were not from the dinosaur-related violation, but the mural on the side of his bar depicting a Betty Page-like woman, lips parted, one eyebrow raised, wearing a pink low-cut sleeveless dress, holding a banana.
The woman had no permit, code enforcement told De Stout. He was stunned. The painted woman had gazed at patrons for more than a decade without running afoul of local law.
But with code enforcement officers’ help, De Stout said, he applied for the proper permits. The mural’s permit has since been approved, a city spokesperson said, while the dinosaur awaits a final official sign-off.
Harry’s Banana Farm’s dispute with Lake Worth Beach ends happily, even for code-enforcement officers
Once approved, the velociraptor will return to the rooftop, De Stout said, where it had overlooked Dixie Highway for two years. He originally found the velociraptor thrown out near the Cox Science Center. The faded banana-holding woman will also be repainted fresh.
At the magistrate hearing, after his case was dropped, De Stout told MacGibbon he wanted to praised Bryant and her team. “To take a crusty old saloonkeeper, who’s short on patience and diplomacy, and pretty much take him by the hand, and walk him through the process, it was very good to see,” he said.
Bryant replied, “Since you put that on the record, can you take that sign down about code enforcement?”
De Stout smiled and pointed at her, nodding.
De Stout drove back to his bar, climbed a ladder up to the bar’s sign and started removing the letters.
By noon, the big sign read, “A big sloppy wet kiss to Yolanda & her code commanders.”
Email news tips and ideas to Chris Persaud at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Harry’s Banana Farm spared from $21K in fines over dinosaur statue
Reporting by Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
