It’s a warm Friday evening in Palm Beach. I’m dining at Le Bilboquet with Mira Fain, Lilly Pulitzer’s creative director and executive vice president of design. The French restaurant is a short walk from Lilly Pulitzer’s flagship store on Worth Avenue. I asked for her recommendation over a glass of wine. “You have to try le poulet cajun. It’s one of their best dishes, “Fain revealed. She was right. This chicken dish is tender and juicy, with a spicy crispy crust and French fries.
After moving to South Florida in 2015, Fein was familiar with Palm Beach. The designer came across the Lily Pulitzer brand during a Google search for “happy dress” and subsequently joined the company, where she led the design for 18 years. Since then, the brand’s offerings have ballooned to include everything you need for a vacation: swimsuits, sandals, smocks, and signature sheath shift dress.
In its 65th anniversary year, the brand is moving closer to the bold print style that has made it a Florida fixture while embracing eco-friendly initiatives such as sustainable and recyclable fabrics. During the tour, I visited the design studio. I learned that every print was hand-painted and that the design team’s travels inspired palm leaves, shells, and tigers. Also, if you look closely, you’ll see the designer’s name hidden in every pattern – a nod to the founder’s whimsical nature.
The Lilly Pulitzer brand has evolved over the years, as has Palm Beach, adding new restaurants and updating the island’s famous hotels. As the holiday season begins, Fain shares her favorite places on the island that you can discover (or rediscover) on your next visit.
Where to live
Brazil Palace Hotel
Set on an unremarkable street framed by hedges, the nearly century-old hotel is a favorite of Palm Beach regulars. Book in one of the 80 classic-style rooms or stop by the hotel’s restaurant, cafe Bruder, Floral Martini, Fane’s favorite. The hotel is also a favorite of Lilly Pulitzer employees – just a few blocks from the brand’s design studio and steps from the dining and shopping centers on Worth Avenue.
Breakers Palm Beach
Boxpalm Beach stretches 140 miles along the Atlantic Ocean, and this Italian Renaissance-style resort has been in business for more than a century. The 500-room resort was the brainchild of business mogul Henry Flagler, who wanted to provide a glamorous retreat for American high society, and it remains one of Palm Beach’s crown jewels. “Lily is a regular at The Breakers, where we had our 50th-anniversary party and painted all the outdoor fountains pink,” Fein told me. Visitors can splurge overnight or opt for the hotel’s famous Sunday brunch at the Circle, Florentine-style restaurant, where dishes range from Belgian waffles to sushi and lamb chops.
Colonial hotel
If The Breakers represent Palm Beach’s affluence, The Colony Hotel symbolizes the island’s playful, quirky side. Located on Worth Avenue, the Boutique hotel opened in 1947, and recently redesigned rooms feature “Palm Beach Chic” soft walls, wicker furniture, and tropical textiles. Book a night in the newly opened Goop Suite, which is a collaboration with Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand and has a bathroom hand-painted by one of Lilly Pulitzer’s designers. The hotel has a charming poolside restaurant, and a beach butler escorts guests to the beach and sets up beach chairs and pink fringed umbrellas.
Where to shop
Worth Avenue
While the Lilly Pulitzer store is now more prominent, the brand started in a small shop on Worth Avenue, where tailors would pick fabrics for customers on the spot. The chic avenue is just four blocks long. It has designer boutiques such as Chanel, Gucci, and Bottega Veneta. Set aside an afternoon to stroll through the passageways leading to the quiet courtyard and charming shops and eat a glass of lemon cello ice cream at Piccolo Gelato. Fein often walks down the street, stepping into Tory Burch and Saks, taking inspiration from Badgley Mischka and Pucci. Another designer favorite is the Hive lifestyle store because the brand “embodies Lilly’s ethos of vacation living as a lifestyle.”
Royal Ponciana Square
Built in the late 1950s and revitalized in 2020, Royal Poinciana Plaza hosts high-end retail outlets such as Hermes and Saint Laurent, as well as specialty stores such as Assouline; the latter produces the famous “Palm Beach” coffee table book, artfully placed in local hotels and cafes. If you want to buy something for a teenager, check out the preppy accessories store on Stoney Clover Lane, which two sisters in Palm Beach founded. Fiennes says she likes to hang out here, grab a cold-pressed juice from Celis Juice Bar, or stop by Sant Ambroeus for a feta and watermelon salad with truffle fries, following Lilly Pulitzer’s sage advice to “always eat fries.”
Where to eat
Surfside Restaurant
Palm Beach’s restaurants are an eclectic mix that locals and visitors alike have come to cherish. Surfside Diner is an unfussy restaurant that locals flock to for a family-style American breakfast and lunch. Finn is usually a toasted muffin and a latte or a slice of coconut cake to supplement the sugar.
Via Flora Cafe
Tucked away in the sunny courtyard of Vos Avenue, Cafe Via Flora is an Italian restaurant with a whole seafood and pasta menu, ideal for a long lunch. The gazpacho is incredibly refreshing, pan-fried snapper with lemon from Key West. Fein likes it because it’s right behind the Lilly store, and she can “sit there and watch the customers come and go.”
And go round and round in circles
Seafood is a South Florida specialty, and for “the best sushi on the island,” Fein said she would head to iMOTO. James Beard award-winning chef James Conley presides over the restaurant, which, in addition to sushi, features tasty side dishes such as kung pao cauliflower and Peking duck tacos.
Renato
Renato’s, which has been in business since 1987 and sits on Via Mizner on Worth Avenue, is adjacent to Pulitzer’s original location, earning it a place among Pulitzer’s favorite restaurants. Fein is also a fan. The restaurant serves traditional Italian food (homemade saffron pasta is famous), and tables line the Ibogaine sidewalk. Renato is a quiet and romantic restaurant, and a night here might make you fall in love with Palm Beach.
