Stet News🍓 It’s peak strawberry season! For you today, chefs dish on Michelin coming to town, Jupiter candidates speak out on the fire department, homes in West Palm for workers at The Breakers and our country music expert’s picks.
🧑🍳 Top local chefs step out of Miami’s shadow
With Michelin stars now hanging overhead in Palm Beach County, the emerging dining scene is about to become brighter.
Catch up quick: Officials from the internationally recognized Michelin Guide recently announced its expansion into Palm Beach County.
What they’re saying: “It’s very good for Florida,” Daniel Boulud told Stet News’ Jan Norris. His Cafe Boulud Palm Beach has consistently been named a top restaurant since its opening in 2003. “There is a lot of talent in Palm Beach County.”
Why it matters: Restaurants here no longer are playing it safe and deserve attention, a point made by Lindsay Autry, the chef behind Honeybelle at PGA National Resort.
Flashback: “When I came here 16 years ago now, people told me ‘you have to play it a little safe, go kind of simpler.’ I think people used to think of Palm Beach as your grandma’s Florida.”
That “grandma” resort town image with fine-dining, elegant, coat-and-tie restaurants is no longer in play, she said.
Zoom in: Palm Beach County’s Discover the Palm Beaches, its tourism marketing arm, contributed $180,000 to a pool of more than $1 million for two years to encourage the guide to rank restaurants in the tri-county area, according to the chief inspector for the Michelin Guide North America.
- The money goes toward marketing and promoting the guide and the restaurants selected, the inspector said.
Of note: Like all Michelin inspectors, the inspector maintained strict anonymity and communicated anonymously via email.
Michelin will expand statewide next year.
Boulud, who has four Michelin stars, one for each of his New York City restaurants, says it will be interesting to see if newcomers or old standards will be recognized.
Read Jan’s full story about what the guide means to local chefs and what inspectors may be looking for here.
— Jan Norris
🚒 Where they stand: Jupiter fire department
With eight candidates vying for three seats on the Jupiter Town Council, there’s no shortage of opinions about the town’s controversial 2023 decision to start its own fire-rescue service.
Why it’s important: A judge blocked a lawsuit to force a referendum on the issue so the election offers voters the chance to weigh in.
Even candidates who don’t want a town fire department, such as mayoral candidate and firefighter Cameron May, acknowledged at a recent forum that the decision would be hard to unravel.
- Those staunchly backing the decision to break from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue are Mayor Jim Kuretski, District 2 candidate and incumbent Malise Sundstrom and District 1 candidates Phyllis Choy and Andy Weston.
- Questioning the decision or supporting a referendum to let town voters decide: District 1 candidate Teri Grooms, District 2 candidate Linda McDermott and May.
- On the fence: District 2 challenger Willie Puz.
What they’re saying: “Can we unscramble the egg?” Puz asked. “I don’t know.”
More at stake: The development of Suni Sands, the former mobile home court that contains artifacts from indigenous people who lived there 5,000 years ago, is proving equally divisive.
The big picture: Most candidates support negotiating with property owner Charles Modica to buy him out but no one supports paying $100 million, a price Kuretski suggested it may take.
Zoom in: Grooms pointed to the expense of a new fire department to highlight the town’s failure to save the 10-acre site.
- “We hear this all the time, ‘we don’t have the money,’” she said. “But they found $68 million to build a fire department, so that would have gone a long way to save the Suni Sands.”
What’s next: The election is March 11. Vote-by-mail ballots are available here. There is no early voting.
Go deeper: Click here to see what the candidates had to say about Jupiter’s top campaign issues.
— Laurie Mermet and Joel Engelhardt
💡 The Breakers’ answer to the housing crunch
Agents for The Breakers Palm Beach resort are assembling land to build apartments for many of the hotel’s 2,400 employees.
Why it matters: The Breakers Employee Housing Campus could free affordable units to be rented by the public. It would also ease transportation needs for staff housed at the campus, which would be about 4 miles from the 140-acre oceanfront resort.
Under the plan, The VDG Land Co. LLC would buy 1.16 acres of vacant city property at 2410 N. Australian Ave., north of the Uptown 22 apartments and across from Lake Mangonia.
- Tonight, the City Commission will consider declaring the property surplus.
- An affiliated company, led by VDG’s Fritz Van der Grift, paid $4.5 million in January for two neighboring properties amounting to 1.3 acres.
By the numbers: In addition to hundreds of local residents and college students, The Breakers employed 249 people who were in the country under H-2B guest worker visas as of September 2024.
About the city land: The southern third of the property contains underground utilities, a lift station and overhead power lines, which make it a challenge to develop, city officials wrote.
- It is zoned open recreational.
- City staff recommended The Breakers plan as the best value to the city for the land.
Between the lines: Van der Grift, a 2010 graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic University, was an assistant to Florida CFO Jeff Atwater for two years before moving on to Morgan Stanley and later Merrill Lynch and starting his own company in 2022, according to his LinkedIn page. He did not return a call or email for comment.
What’s next: The commission meeting is at 5 tonight. If the land is declared as surplus, the city plans to begin negotiations on a price.
– Carolyn DiPaolo
🍊 The Juice
⬇️ Condo sales dropped last year in South Florida even as the median price rose 3%, the Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors said. The number of condos and townhomes sold dipped by 17% between 2023 and 2024 while the total dollar volume of sales for existing units plummeted by $1 billion. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
- And a price drop is likely, real estate analyst Peter Zalewski said. He predicts price drops of 38% over the next couple of years to 2019 price levels. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🏗️ In Boca Raton, Palm Beach-based Frisbie Group and Miami-based Terra Group have been selected to build 1,129 residential units, a 150-room hotel, 250,000 square feet of office and 156,690 square feet of retail near the Boca Brightline station. The joint venture bested three other bidders, including Related Ross. The City Council, which controls the land, made the decision. (WLRN and South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🌇 In Wellington, Related Ross won the bidding war for K-Park with plans for 500 to 600 residences, a 180-room hotel, 250,000 square feet of stores, 82,000 square feet of restaurants and a private school on 66 acres. The site is on State Road 7 south of the Wellington mall. Related, headed by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, and the school will pay the village more than $40 million. (The Palm Beach Post, South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🚫 In Miami, after years of planning and construction of a station, Amtrak decided it won’t run trains to Miami International Airport. Analysis showed the service to the airport’s $1.7 billion transportation center would cost Amtrak more than it would bring in. (WLRN)
🏡 What we’re watching: A video tour of designer Jonathan Adler and author Simon Doonan’s Maurice Fazio “doll house” on the north end of Palm Beach. Adler quote: There’s something about Florida that nothing can be bold enough. The color, the light. I just want more.” And, “It is tradwife o’clock.” (Homeworthy)
561NSIDER: 🤠 5 country acts to see this year
Stet News’ Janis Fontaine is known for her comprehensive and accurate lists of things to do, which she has created for years for Palm Beach County readers.
Janis is also a country music fan and today she shares five South Florida picks for 2025.
1. The Tortuga Music Festival on Fort Lauderdale Beach where bikini tops and cowboy boots and bandanas and boardshorts are standard attire.
This three-day event April 4-6 has a lineup dominated by the biggest male stars in country music: Keith Urban, Luke Combs and Jelly Roll are at the top of the ticket. You’ll have to look a little harder for a woman in the lineup, but you’ll find this year’s it girl (and my new favorite), the unapologetically blond Megan Moroney.
Of course, these days the only way you would find me at Tortuga is if I agreed to fork over about $2,500 for the Super VIP treatment, where guests get air-conditioning, free food, a private bar, a deck with a clear view of the stage and cocktail wait service. Did I mention the private, air-conditioned restrooms?
2. Kelsea Ballerini — Feb. 23, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood. The bubbly songbird who burst onto the scene with super-sweet hits like “Dibs” and “Peter Pan” has grown up. Her 2022 album “Subject to Change” and her latest album, “Patterns,” are full of heartbreak and healing and dealing with the issues and angst facing successful women in their 30s.
3. Joe Nichols — March 22, Torry Island Barbecue Festival at the Torry Island Campground, Belle Glade. For my money, Joe Nichols is still one of the best vocalists in country music. His nearly 30-year career boasts 10 studio albums, and he’s left a mark on country music with songs like “The Impossible” from 2002 and 2013’s “Sunny and 75.” And seeing him in this country setting away from the glare of city lights seems like it would be a romantic adventure.
4. Billy Currington and Kip Moore — June 28, Mizner Park Amphitheater, Boca Raton. Teaming up in Boca for a crooners-only night, heartthrob Billy Currington and boy-next-door Kip Moore hit the stage.
5. Alison Krauss — Sept. 28, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood. This fiddle-playing marvel is considered more bluegrass than country, but she joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1993 when she was just 21 and she’s won more than a dozen country music industry awards. Krauss has won 27 Grammy Awards across the genres from country to bluegrass to folk to Americana to pop, for her vocal and instrumental skills. For her musicianship alone, I’d get off the couch.
Have we listed your favorite artist? Janis offers her full 2025 live country music list here.
