Palm Beach Bans Chain Restaurants, Fun
All right, so they're not really banning fun. But the city council is considering a zoning ordinance that would ban televisions and recorded or live background music in restaurants after 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10:45 p.m. every other night. Which fits in nicely with the moneyed fuddy-duddy image we have of Palm Beach.
The council also unanimously voted yesterday to ban any restaurant with more than three locations and a standardized menu:
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.BEWARE THE FLIP-FLOPS, PEOPLE. Especially those flip-flop wearers who can afford $4 lattes. They're really dangerous, especially when they flip-flop their way over from the beach, which we should mention is approximately 600 feet away.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 move to preserve the town's character would have prevented the upscale Italian eatery Grotto Ristorante from opening on Royal Poinciana Way last year.Perhaps Burger King can tweak its menu and open a "Burger Kingdom" franchise on the island. Just think of the riff-raff that would attract!The restaurant is one of at least four of the same name operated by Dallas-based Landry's Restaurants.
The change in the zoning code that the council approved defines "formula" restaurants as three or more of a chain with either similar names and trademarks; standardized menus and food; or similar architecture, interior design or uniforms.
Still, a chain operation could move into town in disguise, as Houston's did in 1999 by tweaking its menu and changing its name in town to the Palm Beach Grill.
The ban must be approved by two votes on an ordinance in April and May.
Palm Beach moves to bar chain eateries to protect character [Palm Beach Post]
Comments
If so many chains want to open in Palm Beach it must mean that there's demand for them. Instead of banning the chain restaurants, why doesn't Palm Beach ban its citizens with the bad taste that eat at these restaurants?
Posted by: L2M | February 12, 2008 03:46 PM