Palm Beach panic over Starbucks
The town council of Palm Beach, Fla., has voted unanimously to ban "formula" restaurants like McDonald's and Subway, according to a story in the trade publication Nation's Restaurant News. The most interesting part of the story to me was this quote:
“I don’t think that Ruth’s Chris Steak House or P.F. Chang’s is an issue,” said council member Leslie Shaw in hearing documents. “The general public controls what succeeds and what doesn’t succeed and the reason we were adamant about not seeing a McDonald’s, a Starbucks or a Subway and some of these others come in is we were concerned who they were going to cater to and how it was going to impact the residents as a whole.”
In other words, they want to keep out the riffraff who frequent such places.
So then I went to the Palm Beach Post for its take on the story: ...
The ban is an effort to "lock the barn before any more horses get out," as William Guttman, chairman of the planning and zoning board, said in December.
The horse that got out is Starbucks, which operates a 25-seat shop at 150 Worth Ave. The coffee giant opened in March amid worries of the flip-flop-wearing crowd it would attract.
The council's definition of "formula" is three or more of a chain with similar names or trademarks. But here's the scary thing that I learned from the story: A chain could still sneak in, as a Houston's did in 1999 by "tweaking its menu and changing its name in town to the Palm Beach Grill."
It's tough to be a Palm Beach resident.
(Photo courtesy of the Breakers Resort)
Comments
As you imply, it's just a ploy to keep us Brownberry-loving West Palm beachers off of their snooty little island. I guess the folks Cafe l'Europe felt threatened by the thought of an Applebee's invading their Homeland.
Posted by: David | February 19, 2008 9:06 AM
As an Marylander who happens to live in Palm Beach County.....This whole area is a joke.....I can't wait to move home!!!!!
BTW, take heart Maryland. Palm Beach County's property values have dropped as much as 30% over the last couple of years.....and we have 40 months of inventory....
Posted by: michael | February 19, 2008 9:18 AM
Palm Beach feels like Columbia sans chains.
Posted by: Eric | February 21, 2008 2:20 PM
Eric, have another look at that photo. Where can I find that in Columbia?
Posted by: Dahlink | February 21, 2008 5:00 PM
Dahlink: True, and may I add that a lobby as beautiful as pictured can be found in any grand old hotel in any great city, that also (*gasp*) has chain restaurants. Not sure if the Breakers Hotel is the only thing that Palm Beach has to offer, since the city council is preventing any chain restaurants to set foot in town, presumably outside that gorgeous lobby. Of course I can lock myself up in the resort and have a grand old time but I can't say that I have immersed myself into the real "Palm Beach-ness" just by being at the hotel. Having said that, I was referring with my previous post on the overall feel of the town that the council is working hard to maintain - which I find very, very interesting, and can be related to another local town that wants to maintain and control whatever character it would like to be. That's all.
Posted by: Eric | February 25, 2008 7:55 PM