Palm Beach council OKs French restaurant's planned food market with takeout service

Editor's note: This story was updated July 17, 2024 to clarify that the market would have takeout service, not a café.

The Palm Beach Town C ouncil approved a proposal for a new food market in Midtown after a lively discussion over the differences between a specialty food retailer and a restaurant.

During its June 10 meeting, council members voted 4-1, with Councilwoman Julie Araskog casting the nay vote, to approve — with conditions — the site plan and a special exception tied to the operations of Le Bilboquet Market, a luxury food market with takeout service proposed at a historically significant building at 353 Peruvian Ave.

The project’s attorney, Maura Ziska, said the market would only sell and prep food, save for the croissants that would be baked on site. Beyond pastries and coffee, the market also will feature kitchen accessories and grocery products including honeys, prosciutto, foie gras , tea and chocolates.

To combat traffic, Ziska said deliveries will be unloaded at Le Bilboquet restaurant, located down the street at 245A Worth Ave., and transported to the market.

According to the site plan, the market would have a 277-square-foot storage space at the building's northernmost bay; a 1,597-square-foot front-of-house with a pastry counter wrapping along its north wall; and a circular island display table centering the market space at the northeast corner of Peruvian Avenue and Cocoanut Row.

The property, built in 1955, is considered a historically significant building. It owned by Lifestyle Holdings, a Florida limited liability company linked to Palm Beach retailer Letty Biggins and real estate investor John "Jay" Biggins. They bought the property in 2022 for a recorded $8.8 million.

The location neighbors several residential buildings, including three condominiums to the north, west, and southeast of the property, and a single-family home to the property’s east.

Residents call project a restaurant in disguise

Philippe Delgrange, founder-owner of Le Bilboquet , told council members he chose the location because it would be a convenient stop for Midtown residents looking to pick up a quick treat without having to travel far from home.

He said he hoped the market also would be an affordable option for anyone working for the town or a town business by offering them a 40% discount, so long as they show proof of employment. The discount would allow the market to keep its standard prices high enough to deter business from beachgoing visitors, he noted.

While council members swooned over the market's design, Araskog and Councilwoman Bridget Moran said they did not consider the market to be a food retailer, instead viewing it as a restaurant.

They weren’t alone, as the council received multiple letters of concern from residents including former Architectural Commissioner John David Corey and Ryan O’Rourke, board president of the Island House Condominium at 354 Chilean Ave.

Residents said the new market would increase traffic to the surrounding area, and that the market's waste would increase the likelihood of pest animals coming into the area. Some pointed to the market's six seats and two tables as justification for classifying the market as a café-style restaurant.

"You either have seats, or you don't have seats," Moran said, noting that indoor seating is the difference between a restaurant and food retailer.

Ziska said the town had already set a precedent for what constitutes a restaurant when it approved Café Via Flora's 2012 expansion from a takeout-only café to a 50-seat restaurant, under the same special exception use that Le Bilboquet Market is seeking. In that ruling, she said the key distinction between the two was that a restaurant offered table service.

The argument did little to sway Moran.

Araskog noted that the street is already home to multiple restaurants that bring in traffic, namely, Bice and Renato's. She also said that there are already multiple other takeout locations in Palm Beach. "This is a residential area, and I just feel that we are saturated there," she said.

She asked Delgrange if he was willing to replace the tables and seats with another counter. Delgrange said that was possible, but asked if he could take the tables out and keep some seats just in case there is a customer who doesn't feel well, or if there is a senior who'd like a seat.

That argument, as well as Delgrange's clarification that the project was utilizing coffee tables as opposed to dining tables, got Moran's support for the project.

Council President Bobbie Lindsay praised the market as a fitting new addition to Midtown.

"I think this is exactly what Palm Beach needs, and this is the exactly the right neighborhood for this, because this is an area of town where there are a lot of pedestrians," she said.

Council Members Lew Crampton and Ted Cooney concurred.

The council voted 4-1 to approve the site plan and special exception use for specialty-food retail on the condition that the project blocks off windows peering into the storage room and employee area. The project's approval also was conditioned on representatives returning to the council with a declaration-of-use agreement that includes the detailed delivery policy; a limit on the hours of operation from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and details regarding the off-island parking policy for employees.

Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News , part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach council OKs French restaurant's planned food market with takeout service