With more businesses and billionaires flocking to Florida, culinary hotspots are springing up to meet their expensive tastes in West Palm Beach, which has gained the nickname “Wall Street South.”
London’s Los Mochis — a Mexican-Japanese fusion favorite of Stella McCartney, Drew Barrymore and more — is launching at Phillips Point, a two-story office complex next fall, Side Dish can reveal exclusively.
Los Mochis will also be part of the city’s first food festival, Taste of West Palm Beach, which will be held Oct. 16 at CityPlace.
Other new spots on their way to West Palm Beach include restaurateur Keith McNally’s beloved Pastis, and, Side Dish can reveal exclusively, Tutto — from Gianpaolo de Felice and Gabby Karan de Felice. The duo are known for popular Hamptons eateries Tutto il Giorno and Tutto Mare.
Chef Harold Moore, of Upper East Side favorite Café Commerce, is also opening a West Palm Beach winter pop-up, and there are whispers that top chefs like Michael White, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi may be considering outposts, too.
Popular Hamptons froyo spot BuddhaBerry just opened its first location outside the East End in West Palm Beach in late September.
Ela Curry & Cocktails, a modern Indian restaurant, will open in CityPlace this fall, and Little Ruby’s Café, which has locations in Soho, the East Village and the West Village, is slated to open at CityPlace in 2027.
The food festival will be held at CityPlace with more than 30 local restaurants participating, including Estiatorio Milos, Harry’s, Felice, Malka, Eataly, Moody Tongue Sushi, Moxies West Palm Beach and PopUp Bagels.
When Los Mochis launches, it will be in an 11,500-square-foot space that seats 280 people and also includes a 2,000-square-foot terrace.
“West Palm Beach is emerging as a premier culinary capital, backed by record Michelin recognition and major brands expanding into the market,” said Related Ross President Kenneth Himmel, who spearheaded the drive to bring chefs like Per Se’s Thomas Keller and Porter House’s Chef Michael Lomonaco to the Shops at Columbus Circle and Hudson Yards.
“The biggest objective is to drive people from the region to our destinations, and nothing does that better than great restaurants and great chefs,” he added.
Stephen Ross, the 86-year-old billionaire developer and Miami Dolphins owner, founded the Related Companies in 1972. It’s now one of the largest privately owned real estate firms in the US and his projects, including the Deutsche Bank Center at Columbus Circle and Hudson Yards, helped reshape New York. In 2024, when he stepped down from Related, he launched Related Ross. (“I can’t stay retired,” he said in August.)
When Ross launched CityPlace, a 72-acre open-air mall, in 1999, it was considered ahead of its time. He’s since built office towers to support a new finance and tech hub with luxury residences. There’s all the infrastructure needed to support incoming residents, from health care to schools, entertainment — and restaurants.
West Palm Beach now hosts offices for finance giants including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Private Bank, BlackRock, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of America Private Bank, Elliott Management and Point72. Vanderbilt University is slated to open a graduate campus in downtown West Palm Beach in 2029, according to reports.
“West Palm Beach is going through an extraordinary transformation and Phillips Point gives us an exceptional waterfront stage,” said Markus Thesleff, CEO and founder of London-based Thesleff Group, which is bringing Los Mochis to West Palm Beach.
It plans to open an outpost in Los Angeles, at the luxury tower One Beverly Hills, following the West Palm Beach debut.
Los Mochis’ decision to select West Palm Beach for their US debut “speaks to the kind of globally recognized hospitality coming to the region,” Himmel said.
Tutto will open to the public in South Flagler House, a new luxury tower, where former Apple CEO John Sculley is in contract to buy a $40 million penthouse.
The 3,500-square-foot space will be designed by Gabby Karan de Felice in collaboration with New York City-based Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture.
“Our family is spending more time in Florida, and we’ve watched many of the same friends and guests we know from the Hamptons make the same journey,” said Gianpaolo de Felice.
“We wanted to create the kind of café we would want to spend time in ourselves, and South Flagler House felt like a natural fit — beautiful surroundings, a strong sense of community and people who care about true, everyday quality.”