For the first time in years, the most talked about tables on the island are not the ones that have been there for decades. Cocoanut Row has a new anchor, the Royal Poinciana Plaza has a summer identity, and the Intracoastal finally has a dinner reservation attached to it. If you live here, the practical implication is simple: you can spend a full summer weekend without crossing a bridge and still see something you have not seen before.
The through line worth understanding is not that Palm Beach got busier. It is that the island's social geometry shifted north, away from the familiar Worth Avenue axis and toward the block between Cocoanut Row and Royal Poinciana Way.
Cocoanut Row Has a New Center of Gravity
The Vineta Hotel reopened on March 2, 2026 at 363 Cocoanut Row, two blocks from Worth Avenue, after a renovation that took most of three years. It is the same building longtime residents knew as The Chesterfield, and before that as the original Vineta, but the ownership and management are new. The Vineta reopened as the first U.S. property for Oetker Hotels, the European luxury group behind such properties as Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on the French Riviera, after Reuben Brothers acquired the Mediterranean revival building in 2022 and undertook a renovation to restore its original character while introducing contemporary updates.
The rooms are worth noting only because they explain why the ground floor feels different. The renovation reduced the room count from 53 to 41 to increase space, with standard rooms averaging about 340 square feet. That is on the small side compared to other hotels of this caliber, but this is a Palm Beach take on the urban boutique. Five rooms have balconies. The property does not include a spa or fitness center. Fewer keys means the public rooms carry more of the program, which is why residents will feel the change more than overnight guests will.
"Every detail carries the particular lightness and ease that is authentic to Palm Beach. It is a combination that feels both singular and entirely of its place." — Timo Gruenert, CEO of Oetker Hotels, on the interiors by Paris designer Tino Zervudachi
The three venues on the ground floor are calibrated for different nights:
- Coco's is the signature restaurant. Executive Chef Brian Rodriguez offers a menu that bridges Palm Beach ease with Riviera refinement, the interiors nod playfully to the building's past life with a concealed leopard motif recalling the storied Leopard Lounge, and a jasmine-scented courtyard provides an al fresco counterpoint, with 96 seats total — 64 in the dining room and 32 in the courtyard. Signature dishes such as the Eden Roc sea bass with fennel puree and a classic Steak Diane made with Australian Wagyu ribeye pay homage to Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, with lighter daytime offerings including homemade pizzas, New England lobster rolls and salads.
- The Bar is the small room next door. The adjacent cocktail lounge, The Bar, is intimate by design and eschews the usual Palm Beach scene in favor of controlled exclusivity, with seating capped at 36. A line of Palm Beach locals is frequently waiting outside the hotel for entry to the bar, and hotel guests are given priority access. Plan accordingly.
- The Pool House is off limits to non-guests. Only hotel guests are permitted to dine poolside in order to make the pool area as private as possible. If you were curious, that is the answer.
One piece of context that matters for anyone who lives within a few blocks: the lengthy permitting process and the 172-seat restaurant variance that drew attention at town hall have been a reminder that boutique revivals can ripple into traffic, parking and noise debates on a compact island street grid. The Cocoanut Row corner is going to be busier than it was when The Chesterfield was operating at its old cadence. That is a fact worth planning around, not a complaint.
The Intracoastal Finally Has a Dinner Reservation
The other landmark shift is at The Royal Poinciana Plaza. Tutto Mare is situated on the Intracoastal within Royal Poinciana Plaza, has one of the prettiest dining spots on Palm Beach Island, and is the vision of Gabby Karan de Felice, daughter of designer Donna Karan. The reason it registered as a genuine event rather than another opening is geographic: Palm Beach proper gained its only restaurant directly on the Intracoastal. For a town defined by water, that gap had been conspicuous.
Tutto Mare is a sibling of the Hamptons restaurant Tutto il Giorno, which explains both the crowd it pulls in season and the way it will likely settle into a summer pattern. If you have friends visiting from Long Island in August, they have probably already made the reservation.
The Polo Room and the Island's New Social Center
Down the plaza, the Polo Room has done what few new island restaurants manage in their first year, which is to become a scheduling constant rather than a novelty. Nacho Figueras, the international polo star, is a co-owner of the equestrian-themed island spot that has caught on like wildfire, where the menu leans on caviar bumps, crab and avocado salad, lobster frites or the wagyu beef French dip, and key lime pie with brûléed Italian meringue.
The reason to mention it in a summer piece is that between Tutto Mare, the Polo Room, and the Vineta a few blocks south, three of the island's most reservation-heavy rooms now sit within a fifteen minute walk of each other. That was not true a year ago, and it is why summer 2026 feels less like the slow season and more like a rearranged version of season itself.
A Summer Calendar Worth Putting in Your Phone
The Royal Poinciana Plaza built a program around the shift. The Royal Riviera is the Plaza's property-wide summer platform, running July through September 2026, and is not a single event or a one-off promotion but a unified identity that connects everything happening across The Royal.
Underneath that identity, the plaza's weekly programming is the practical bit. A few standing dates to build a week around:
| When | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday evenings | Coyo Taco | Karaoke night, half price on select tacos |
| Wednesday, 7–10 pm | Sant Ambroeus | Live jazz, half price on select menu items |
| Daily, 4–6 pm | Sant Ambroeus lounge | Summer aperitivo with half price on select wines and appetizers |
| First Thursday of the month | Collective | Locals' night, 20% off with Florida ID |
| Thursday, 8–11 pm | Coyo Taco | Ladies' night with complimentary draft beer, house margaritas and rosé |
| Sunday, 11 am–5 pm, June–August | Plaza lawn | Sunday Social Series, lawn games and treats from plaza restaurants |
Sources for the standing programming: Sant Ambroeus Summer Aperitivo runs daily from 4 pm to 6 pm in the lounge and bar, with half off select wines, drinks and appetizers during the summer. The Sunday Social Series runs every Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm June through August, is for all ages, and features lawn games and treats from plaza restaurants. Locals' Night at Collective runs the first Thursday of every month through November, when all Florida residents are treated to complimentary drinks and 20% off all merchandise, and live jazz music plays at Sant Ambroeus every Wednesday from 7 to 10 pm.
If you have out-of-town guests coming for a long weekend, the sequence that works well now is a Wednesday jazz dinner at Sant Ambroeus, a Thursday cocktail at The Bar on Cocoanut Row if the line is manageable, a Friday reservation at Tutto Mare, and a Sunday afternoon on the plaza lawn. That itinerary did not exist last summer.
Why This Matters Beyond the Reservation Book
For a resident, the shift is quality of life. For a homeowner thinking about what the block will look like five years from now, it is worth noticing that the island is quietly becoming denser in walkable, high-end programming, and that the density is clustering in the North End rather than spreading evenly. On the island, The Vineta drops into an ongoing wave of boutique hotel investment and is expected to nudge some dining and after-hours traffic toward Midtown's Worth Avenue corridor. The gravitational pull works in both directions. Worth Avenue is not going anywhere. It just no longer has the block to itself.
If you live on the island and have not yet walked the Cocoanut Row block since March, or set foot in the plaza since the Royal Riviera signage went up, that is the summer errand worth running before the season crowd arrives and the reservation calendar tightens again.
When you are ready to talk about how the island's changing geography maps onto specific streets, buildings, and price points, Nest Seekers Palm Beach is at 150 Worth Avenue and happy to walk it with you. Contact us to start the conversation.
