New restaurant coming to West Palm Beach: An all-day café with Australian inspirations
A New York City hospitality group has chosen West Palm Beach’s emerging Warehouse District as the location for its first Florida restaurant, an all-day café called Isla & Co.
The 100-seat café will serve daily brunch, globally inspired plates, coffees and cocktails.
“It’s a slightly elevated, really approachable dining destination that goes from brunch to specialty coffee to nighttime,” says Tom Rowse, business development and marketing manager for Parched Hospitality Group.
The group is planning to open the new café this spring next to the district’s Grandview Public Market food hall.
“Our original goal was February, but that has been pushed back,” says Rowse, who cites supply chain issues for the delay. “We’re now expecting to open in March or April.”
The Parched group was born in 2014 with the New York City opening of Hole in the Wall, a small boutique coffee shop inspired by the Parched founders’ Australian roots. The group now has four Hole in the Wall locations, plus concepts that include Isla brasserie and Daintree rooftop bar, both in Midtown New York, the Sentry bar and a private rooftop club in the Flatiron neighborhood, plus a ghost kitchen called Ghost Burger.
Dressed up avocado toast at Isla & Co. cafe, slated to open in West Palm Beach this spring. Parched Hospitality
The Isla & Co. café brand is new to the group, which plans to open locations in Brooklyn and Miami Beach in addition to the West Palm Beach eatery.
“This concept in West Palm Beach is really an evolution of the Hole in the Wall concept,” says Rowse.
What to expect, menu-wise? Think seasonal, local and diverse with classic undertones, and some dishes with Australian inspiration, says the group’s executive chef Matt Foley.
“We operate on two menus: an all-day brunch that transitions to a dinner menu,” says Foley, who has planned a menu with plenty of breakfast-y and egg options, burgers, pasta and salads. “We’re really into building on flavors. We like to focus on what is available in season, like local produce. We’re really looking forward to getting into the area.”
Pubby fare at Isla & Co. cafe, coming this spring to West Palm Beach. Parched Hospitality
Despite its Warehouse District location, the café will offer an oasis kind of vibe with greenery and strategic lighting, says Rowse.
“A big focus for us is creating spaces that give an outdoor feel, even inside. All of our spaces have an outdoor area as well,” he says. At Isla & Co., there’s “this great little patio area” for al fresco seating, he says.
The decision to open the café in West Palm Beach came after some South Florida exploration, says Rowse.
“We went all throughout Miami, to Brickell and South Beach and places like that, and then went to West Palm Beach and fell in love with the area,” says Rowse. “It’s really a great community with a lot of local feel to it. It’s a great emerging market as well.”
Rowse says West Palm Beach reminded him of some of the more trendy suburbs in Melbourne, Australia, where he grew up. Visiting West Palm, he says, “was like coming back home.”
Mimosas are on the drink menu at Isla & Co. cafe in West Palm Beach, where a daily brunch will be served. Parched Hospitality