The last power lunch at The Palm
The thousand or so hand-painted faces looking down from the buttery walls of the Palm restaurant are full of smiles, for the most part.
The thousand or so hand-painted faces looking down from the buttery walls of the Palm restaurant are full of smiles, for the most part.
Mr. T isn't happy, of course, and it's hard to tell how the collies (Dixie and Pumpkin) feel, but most faces are beaming, from Rob Lowe's brother, Chad, to former Eagles linebacker Dhani Jones and the actor Lorenzo Lamas, who played Lance Cumson on the 1980s TV show Falcon Crest.
Chad who? Falcon what? Isn't Donnie Jones the Eagles' punter?
That's been the problem lately at the Palm.
Many of the celebrity faces have slid down Hollywood's scale of bankability, and hundreds of other politicos, high rollers, and former customers have retired from living large or have died since the restaurant opened in 1989.
The Palm has newer portraits, like Bradley Cooper's, but there's no guarantee anyone's mug will be invited back when Philadelphia's dining room for the power-lunch crowd returns from rehab later this year, or possibly in 2017, with a new look.
That's why Maury Z. Levy, a former editorial director (1970-80) at Philadelphia Magazine, was taking a picture Monday afternoon of his portrait.
"I don't know if I'll be back up there," said Levy, 69.
Changes at the restaurant inside the Bellevue at Broad and Walnut Streets are not just about the portraits, Palm COO Jeff Phillips said. Phillips laid out pictures of the Atlanta location's new look on a high-top in the crowded bar, showing contemporary colors, no ceiling fans, and wall murals of iconic Atlanta locations. There were fewer portraits.
The Palm's bar expanded into the Bellevue's lobby during a previous remodeling, Phillips said, taking its welcome noise out of the dining room. The bar - and its energy - will return to the eating area, he said, while the current lounge will be for private dining.
"We're really excited," said Phillips.
The question that can't be answered until the Palm reopens is whether it retains the clout it once held among movers and shakers. The Palm was close enough to everything that it supplanted private men's clubs and other eateries in the city.
From Day One, it had its own heft.
"The Palm, first off, was the easiest place everyone could get to," said Electricians union leader John J. Dougherty. "We would just have our meetings right there. I guess everyone did the same thing."
Dougherty insists he's a "deli guy," more at home at the Oregon Diner, but his Palm favorites include the chicken parm and hamburgers.
"I'm a hamburger type of guy," he said.
On Wednesday, former New Jersey Gov. James J. Florio stepped into the Palm before noon, and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell stepped out Friday just after 2 p.m., shaking hands while he talked on his phone.
Rendell, whose office is in the Bellevue, eats there a couple times a month, and he's not sure how the lunch crowd will react to the "sexier" Palm that executives are promising.
"It depends on what it looks like when it comes back," he said. "If it's the same look, with some of the same pictures on the wall, it could regain the cachet as the political place to be. If it changes too much, it probably won't."
Longtime customer Marc Brownstein, CEO of the Brownstein Group, has five family portraits on the walls, including his own. He finds the move puzzling.
"From a public relations point of view, they have to look and see how to rebuild that bridge, rebuild the trust and the relationships," Brownstein said.
Chestnut Hill artist Zack Bird has painted portraits at many of the Palm's more than two dozen locations, and he's been involved in several makeovers. In Beverly Hills, Bird said, executives soothed bruised feelings by giving family members cutouts of their loved ones' portraits.
"The restaurant was essentially filled with dead people," Bird said.
Bird isn't privy to all the details of the Palm's updates in Philly, but said portraits of people who have earned their way and have long-established connections will always be there. His mural will include landmarks and icons like the Ben Franklin Bridge and some "sophisticated nods" to the city, including former Mayor Richardson Dilworth and developer Willard Rouse.
Frank Rizzo will be there, too.
"When somebody from Philly, who knows Philly, goes in, they will be entertained and it will give others something to munch on," Bird said.
Dougherty, Rendell, and others spoke about the Palm's service, not the stars on the wall or seated in the booths.
"I have never bumped into a bad waiter, waitress, maitre d' or bartender," Dougherty said.
Most Palm employees will be out of jobs Tuesday. Waitress Lynne Weyler and waiter Dennis Postiglione will head to SugarHouse Casino on Thursday for an open house, unsure if they'll return to the new Palm.
"It feels like a goodbye," said Weyler, 38, while smoking on Broad Street before lunch Monday.
Postiglione, also 38, has been a waiter there since he was 19. The Palm has been a career, he said.
"It's not rocket science," he said. "You remember their names, their families' names, and you remember what they like. You have to have a good personality for this job."
General manager Jim Haney isn't sure whether the updated Palm will feel or look as bustling as it did Monday afternoon during its last hurrah for a while. He's moving on.
The Palm as many Philadelphians have known it was set to close at 10 p.m. Monday. The liquor behind the tall oak and mahogany bar had been running out for a week now.
Once the last customers were done flirting with their desserts or milking their whiskeys, Haney planned to lock the doors and with his people finish off some of those bottles for a bittersweet hour or two.
215-854-5916@jasonnark