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Chef Anthony de Palma (J. Gwendolynne Berry / Palm Beach Post)
Dolce de Palma, chef Anthony de Palma’s shrine to gourmet peasant food, has closed abruptly, leaving a notable void in West Palm’s dining scene.
“I had to close,” de Palma said, citing a rent dispute with the landlord, “They put me on the street.”
One of the property owners, Howie Bubis of HMB Property Inc., would not address the details of the dispute when reached by The Post, saying only, de Palma “had a lease. He signed it. He knew what he was getting himself into. But I would prefer to have no comment. It’s not the newspaper’s business. He just closed the place.”
De Palma says he grappled with an unbearable situation.
“I had my whole life invested in that place. I put everything I had into it,” said de Palma, a Boston native trained at the prestigious New England Culinary Institute. “I can’t believe this is happening after what I did over there — I absolutely killed it over there.”
“Killed it” — in a good way — he did within the brick-red walls of his paninoteca and wine bar. De Palma spun gold at a dismal location, along the railroad tracks on a slanted, industrial street (Old Okeechobee Road), hidden from main-thoroughfare traffic. Though the menu shifted regularly, its essence remained unpretentious, fresh and inspired.
But despite his emotional — and he says financial — investments into the place he opened in 2007 to critical acclaim, de Palma says he had running battles with the landlord about everything from the soaring rent (which he says started at $2,100 and was raised to nearly $6,000 a month) to the inadequacy of the bathrooms, which were located on the outside of the butterscotch-colored building.
The closing comes at a bad time, says the chef — he’s got a new baby at home.
But, he says, the reaction to word of the closing has been heartening.
“I’ve never had so many job offers in my life,” he says.
De Palma had this message to and about his loyal clientele:
“Without them, their word of mouth and their support, I would not have been able to do what I did there. I just love them. I’m just heartbroken, but I know it won’t be long before I bounce back. I have to bounce back.”
Two of the best restaurants in the Palm Beaches now closed, as Kubo Asiatic Cuisine in North Palm shut its doors last month. Like government, we get the restaurant selection we choose and deserve. Think about where your money is going next time you make the “easy” decision to spend it at another mediocre, corporate chain restaurant. I wish you well, Anthony. I loved your restaurant and wish that enough of us had too – you’d still be open.
Padraig D
I thank you for your understanding the difference of creative cuisine vs mainstream dining. I would only hope that more people would help support the local food scene in South Florida. Thank you for your patronage! See you soon-
anthony
sad to read the news.-we will miss you. let us know where you will be next– we will be there.
paul and judy
Paul & Judy
Thank you so much again and I hope that things come together soon. I will definetly be in touch.
My Best!
Anthony
It never ceases to amaze me at the level of greed among some of these landlords! You have a great tenent with a successful business and then increase the rent so he can’t survive! I don’t believe there will be people beating down his door to occupy that dumpy building. Anthony will come out on top eventually, he’s a winner!
My husband and I enjoyed some of the best meals at Dolce De Palma and look forward to his next venture. Until then good luck to Anthony and his family and congrats on the new baby!
Best Wishes
Steve and Rebecca Flaherty
Steve & Rebecca,
I appreciate all your patronage and for your kind words! Times are tough and I should of know better but cooking good food is something that I will always be focused on. I hope to see you both soon. Thank you for your support-
Anthony will come back stronger, and I hope the landlord fails!!! What a greedy pig.
I am positive that he and his excellent crew will continue grow and prosper.
I am reminded of those who got to experienced another “local boy, done good” chef Thomas Keller. You can always fly to the French Laundry. But, how many can recall eating at the Palm Beach Yacht Club, when Thomas Keller was cooking there in the 30 years ago?
Life is linear. Great experiences are limited. There’s more to come from Anthony. But for those who had the pleasure of dining at this Dolce de Palma, I salute you. You were there.
Chef Charlie Soo
You are a gentleman and a scholar! and I salute you too for fighting the fight to maintain great cuisine! Your comment and comparisons brought joyful light to a tough situation! I only wanted to fullfil a my dream of creating unique cuisine and I know you understand those challenges, but the external situations prevailed, and the importance of what I did really didnt matter! Thank you for your support and I praise you for all that you do- Be well and hope to see you soon
Howie Bubis of MHB Property you should be ashamed of yourself. Greedy is the word and you are the kings of greedy. Anthony DePalma took an unrentible property and turned it into a fabulous establishment and now you want to reap the benefits of his success. Shame on you for being a slum lord property management company. I hope that every client on your list takes note and leaves your organizational inappropriateness of being a rental company. Shame shame shame on you. I know that Anthony will recoup and have a restaurant that is more successful than before and leave you with a property that will stay vacant for a long time. You are the type or rental property managers that give good property managers a bad rap.. I hope that this discrepancy that you made puts you out of business . Anthony will prosper and you will end up being the looser. Greedy pigs end up eating pig slop and rolling in S**t.
Alan Herman
Boston, MA
Alan,
Obviously our frustration are shared and it is unfortunate that landlords dont see the goodness in some of us! Although property situations could not stand up to the quality of food we produced I only had a vision for success. But when you dont share similar visions of the future with those your doing business with than something must give. Thank you for caring soo much and I truly appreciate all your support. I will continue to dream and have faith that the next step with be brighter and better! (and you will not have to use an “outhouse” for a bathroom!)
Howard Bubis, nuff said.
Let us know where you are going!
My son brought me to Dolce DePalma, what an awesome place with remarkable gourmet food. Was thinking about going this weekend. Blows my mind that it is gone. How is it possible that a landlord raises rates that drastically? It figures someone makes good and heaven forbid he keeps it going.
I used to go to the sandwich shop that was there before … Namaste … and was there when Anthony first took over the space. I was amazed by his culinary skills and his incredible personality. It didn’t take too long for others to take notice! His following grew and the sandwich shack grew in to a real restaurant! Any ambience to the building was add by Anthony and his crew.
I am personally disappointed at one of my favorite eateries being closed. My hope is that he will stay and find a better space in Palm Beach County! Otherwise, I might have to move!
Stuart,
Thank you for supporting us from the beginning and it was customers like you that helped to spead the word. I appreciate all your support and will be in touch about the next location. Hopefully you wont have to travel that far!
Well, you have to look at it like this. When one door closes, another one opens. From the reviews I have read, I am sure this place will be back soon.
Knowing the Bubis family for many years I would guess that there is another side to this story.
Absolutely our FAVORITE place, this is so sad. We brought friends to Dolce de Palma who went back with their friends and so on. Anthony, you are tops in our book, you must start anew – and, hopefully, in WPB or, along with Stuart, we will have to move! In all of the times eating there, pre and post not eating animals, it was always wonderful, there was never a single complaint – well, other than that bathroom ;-) The vegan meals prepared on the spur of the moment after asking for a “vegan” meal were fantastic. So talented… I’ll be watching for you. Take care.
Lisa
I really enjoyed preparring those special meals for you and I am only certain it wont be long before it happens again. Thank you very much for your support!
anthony depalma, how about telling the truth? from what i was told from a friend close to the situation was the following;
-you had no dispute with the landlord, you were paid up till the end of this month. the landlords were unaware of your closing up to the day you auctioned everything off.
- your inital rent of $2100. was when you first opened and had half the space u currently do, in addition your rent was never over $3700(not $6000!!) after u took the whole blding over.
- your food and service had slowly gone downhill over the last 12-18 months, culminating with weekend sales that were non existance, a friend was there the sat before u closed and they said if there were 8 tables in there you were lucky.
as honorable as you seem to want to make yourself, it’s apparent that the truth is the opposite, why smear a local family who did all they could to help you? you couldn’t cut it, just admit it, your prices went higher and higher, as well as your ego and this is the culmination of it.
Your heresay from a “close friend” has no validity when you yourself hide behind anonymity! Calling someone else out from that behind the curtain is nothing more than a cheap shot. People in glass houses …
Anthony,
We are very sadden by the loss of your amazing food. It was our absolute favorite place to eat, not to say you truly had the best Bolognese! And like Stuart and Lisa said, we too would move just for that!!! You had the best staff and your charm was incredible. You created magic basically from nothing. Your chef tastings were out of this world, especially when you were in the dining room serving your guests. Its an unfortunate loss to your slum-lord and more so to West Palm Beach. As for the comments from “YEAH RIGHT” who seems to know your business better that you.. and might be taking things personally for a good reason… maybe they should read all your reviews that have awarded you for having the “Best Food” around yet always trashed your location!
We all really hope that you stay local and get back on your feet soon & just be happy that your out of that “Cockroach Hotel” along the tracks!
Dear Moving on up!
I love the name… and all i can say is WOW!
the truth always hurts and i don’t see depalma on here refuting it. restaurants in general run in cycles, in the beginning of his run it was a reasonably priced establishment and the food was great. as time went on prices went up dramatically and service wasn’t where it should be. He’s not the first chef to close down a once acclaimed restaurant. wish him nothing but the best in the future but to blatently lie to the press to make himself look better in the publics eye gets zero respect from me. groupies say what you want but it was far from the landlords fault, he had zero to do with depalma’s demise, that was self inflicted.
Dear Yeah Right,
Obviously you have some personal issues and if your this close to anyone who knows me please call me and lets talk about the “TRUTH”. I am not trying to make myself out to look better than anyone else, but obviously there was something good and worth working towards in a humble location and I did it all on my own. I can’t be held responsible for writing the story, its the press. Its unfortunate that building owners / landlords feels its not in their best interest to maintain their own investment after a tenant make such an investment, but obvioulsy my “groupies” as you call them, feel very strongly about the loss. I could go on and on about a good thing gone bad, but I am to busy writing recipes for a new location. Call Me
Dear Anthony,
We will really miss you! You were a neighborhood gem and hope that you will come back stronger soon somewhere else. You quickly became our favorite restaurant and we always made it a point to bring our foodie friends there because we knew that they would not be disappointed. You and your crew always greated us with smiles and made us feel welcome and special. Hopefully we’ll seen your name pop up somewhere else soon.
Gregory & MJ
Thank you for all that you have done for us! It was guest like you that help me build my business and I look forward to a new future soon. Please stay in touch!
Ciao-Chow for now!
Dear Anthony: I was very surprised to find out that you had to close, we loved your food and the service. My kids favorite was the Madeline cookies and the sorbet. My husband and I know how it feels to have an enemy as a landlord, in these difficult times the sales are being affected and the landlords are not willing to adjust rent, something has to hapen soon or many businesses will be forced to close.
We invested a lot of money and our savings on a business that my husband had a passion for, but the rent is 29,000 and people are loosing their jobs. We were forced to close too, because we were late making the payment. It was not because we wanted to be late, the Sales are not the same and the money is not coming in as the original rent was based on.
I wish you and you wife the best and I hope to read in the Palm Beach Post where you will be working in the near future. The best! Suzzette
Anthony,
You introduced yourself to me at dinner a week before you closed….we were instant friends….my wife and I were so excited about meeting you and feasting on your amazing food…. We looked forward to a long gastronomic relationship and were just blind sided by the empty restaurant and subsequently our empty hearts for your plight….. Rest assured …… What comes around …… Goes around…… Good for you ….. Bad for the slumlord…….
Got back in town to hear the sad news; a dark day indeed,for me and all of South Florida. Such creative menue’s with wonderful melding of flavors and textures, espcially the “Chef’s Whim” whenever you had it. Truly more than just a fantastic dining adventure every time.
It was a fun place too, watching you, your wife, and kitchen and wait staff energetically pulling it all together. A treasure to see such a dedicated effort on everyone’s part.
Please, please keep us posted of where to follow you next…
d
I only had the pleasure of dining at Dolce De Palma one time, but it was amazing and I would love to know about Anthony’s future plans. I agree that West Palm doesn’t have enough great dining options.
Anthony,
My husband and I recently ate there and we absolutely loved the food and the service. Even the ambiance that you & your sister created was just wonderful in a building or location that truly did nothing anything to compliment your business. Whether the rent was low or high, the place was not worth it especially with the lavatories being such an inconvenience. Good that you started up and got yourself established but time to move on to better places!
We’d like to submit your name to some people that may be interested in your talent. I personally think that someone like Chef Ramsey would be interested in your story but that takes too long. Let me know if you are interested in finding another location or finding somewhere else to hang your hat.
We can communicate initially through Tim Burke at the PB Post.
I will get in touch with him and leave it for you.
We look forward to dining with you again.
Ciao for now!
Oops, my error Anthony, not Tim but Liz…
I’m absolutely astonished that this place closed down, especially since I purchased a $99 LIVINGSOCIAL deal merely 2 months ago! If the place sold the livingsocial deal, knowing it would close down, then that is WRONG WRONG WRONG!
Anthony – have been a huge fan of your restaurant since you opened; always took my business meetings and favorite dates there; there is no substitute! You should look into Delray Beach – we love our restaurants here; there are also subsidies in place to keep the best restaurants here – look into the vicinity of 2nd avenue and 2nd street. This is the place you should relocate Dolce!
Anthony:
You should look into opening a restaurant in Northwood Village…there are great incentives, monthly events, and a great mix of local business/restaurant owners.
Darren
Hey, Anthony…
Just sent an email to The Grandview, who first introduced us to you about 3 years ago, and looked you up next to make reservations for later on this fall…very sorry to hear the sad news!
You and your staff have given us great recommendations for new restaurants each year, on our way back to Berkeley, CA via Boston, but most of all, your dinners were delicious !!!
Not only is Thomas Keller here, but Alice Waters’ Berkeley Chez Panisse just turned 40 years old and her “offsprings” are all over the Bay Area…come on out…no hurricanes…just earthquakes.
Keep this link going so we know where to find you !
Soooooooooo Sorry to see the place closed! I only found out after recommending it to a friend. Soon there will be a McDonalds on every corner of the country. Maybe than people will realize what a shame it is to see local eateries closed down.
What’s the door going to be produced of and how will it swing is among the most important choices one ought to examine first. If it swings out is there most likely to be sufficient space, and can it easily fit in where it’s wanted, or will shower curtains suit you perfectly for now, until a design can be discovered that will. Wood is extremely popular, but it is not very flexible and lastly develops mould and mildew causing a potential health hazard.
It’s one thing to write a reporting piece, another to write an opinion piece. This appears to be an opinion piece disguised as a reporting when you wrote “Dr. Dahlan have been able to appreciate the deeper political import and avant-garde nature of the resignations.” I, for one, disagree with his view and your opinion.
Hi Anthony,
I know that we would be happy to have you open a restaurant in one of our properties. I represent one of the largest property owners in East Boca Raton, with a large concentration in the downtown area. Please contact me if I can be of assistance in getting you up and running again so your fans can continue to experience your wonderful cuisine. Denise 561-392-8920 ext. 361