"Palm Beach County has no Culture"? Reealllly? (Miami: organic, live in)

[Rhino127]

South Florida has it's OWN culture.

Huntin for wild boar, four weelin out west, drinkin and bar hoppin/clubin, surfin (on two foot waves), did I mention drinkin?

Seriously though, if you want true high culture you go to New York or Paris. There are some places that just don't offer the kind of "culture" that exists in New York and the large cities of Europe.

I love France as many do but I'm sure that there are people sitting on the balcony of a beautiful house in the middle of Provence France who are saying (in French) "Provence has no culture, I hate it so much". Provence is a place to get away from all the museums, theatre and other social mechanisms, much like Florida used to be. Now the pseudo-culture establishments are popping up all over the South East of Florida in an attempt to emulate those in large truly cultured cities.

South Florida has it's own tropical culture but with high rises and grouchy old northerners taking over, it's formerly distinctive tropical culture being diluted more and more every day.

[TheLuckoftheDraw]

Originally Posted by KoZmiC NinJa

you walk out into a few distinctly different neighborhoods and historic
districts and get some Thai food, hit a coffee shop than a used
book store for a anarchist or lesbian poetry slam or maybe hear a
musician.

Basically, you're looking for a specific kind of hipster scene. I don't know if Palm Beach County has that any longer, though I'd suspect it does. It did when I last lived there. I'd be surprised if it went away as the city grew and that kind of hipster culture became so widespread again.

However, that's definitely not all that "culture" would refer to.

[Rhino127]

Mayor Frankel made sure that all of the cool clubs and bars went away in West Palm Beach. Delray Beach is the place to be, last time I checked.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Mayor Frankel made sure that all of the cool clubs and bars went away in West Palm Beach. Delray Beach is the place to be, last time I checked.

Nah, there are more options downtown for later-night entertainment these days than there have been in years:

Rooney's Pub
Roxy's Pub
Sky Rooftop Lounge
The Lounge
Fun House
Respectables
Off the Hookah
Dr. Feelgoods
Mystique
Bradleys

In Cityplace there's Blue Martini, and believe it or not, Taverna Opa, that draw good crowds, as well as the Improv Comedy Club.

[Rhino127]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

Nah, there are more options downtown for later-night entertainment these days than there have been in years:

Rooney's Pub
Roxy's Pub
Sky Rooftop Lounge
The Lounge
Fun House
Respectables
Off the Hookah
Dr. Feelgoods
Mystique
Bradleys

In Cityplace there's Blue Martini, and believe it or not, Taverna Opa, that draw good crowds, as well as the Improv Comedy Club.

Rooneys was great up until Frankel passed a law not allowing under 21 in clubs at all. THEN they closed up and moved out west.

Roxys is 50 thirty year old males wrapped around the bar looking at the same young female bartender. (slightly exaggerated)

Sky Rooftop makes you dress up to go and then makes you climb 4 floors of steps and serves drinks in plastic cups.

The lounge is filled with the dregs of the area

Respectables (very young crowd) is downhill ever since Frankels law (c'mon, don't deny)

Off the Hookah........ too new to know

Feelgoods.............. no complaints. I ALWAYS have a good time there.

Mystique........ first month they were open there was a shootout in front of the club.

Bradley's......... haha really ? Saturday night after midnight. Other than that it's a sad place much like Roxy's.( I still go when I'm in town though because I can smoke cigars there)

Cityplace is chock full of wannabe gang-bangers and parking is a nightmare. But I like Blue Martini. Opa ..... I've heard good things from patrons and very BAD things from Opa employees.

I would like to check out B.B. Kings if I can get down there before they close up shop.

Give me the Blues Room in Lake Worth any day.


P.S. You forgot about Rocco's Tacos.... this place is the BEST in West Palm Beach.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Rooneys was great up until Frankel passed a law not allowing under 21 in clubs at all. THEN they closed up and moved out west.

I actually meant O'Shea's....

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Roxys is 50 thirty year old males wrapped around the bar looking at the same young female bartender. (slightly exaggerated)

Lol, even 50 year olds have to have a good time.

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Sky Rooftop makes you dress up to go and then makes you climb 4 floors of steps and serves drinks in plastic cups.

Take the elevator! They have a good lunch, btw

Originally Posted by Rhino127

The lounge is filled with the dregs of the area

It's the "gay" club

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Respectables (very young crowd) is downhill ever since Frankels law (c'mon, don't deny)

Never been there actually

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Off the Hookah........ too new to know

Friends of mine have given it good reviews.

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Mystique........ first month they were open there was a shootout in front of the club.

Well, it IS a "hip hop" club, no?

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Bradley's......... haha really ? Saturday night after midnight. Other than that it's a sad place much like Roxy's.( I still go when I'm in town though because I can smoke cigars there)

Tough critic!

Originally Posted by Rhino127

Cityplace is chock full of wannabe gang-bangers and parking is a nightmare. But I like Blue Martini. Opa ..... I've heard good things from patrons and very BAD things from Opa employees.

Cityplace? You're crazy. There are three parking garages, a surface lot, metered parking and valet. And wannabe thugs? Pffft. I NEVER feel unsafe in Cityplace.

Originally Posted by Rhino127

I would like to check out B.B. Kings if I can get down there before they close up shop.

They seem to do pretty well. You may not have to rush.

Originally Posted by Rhino127

P.S. You forgot about Rocco's Tacos.... this place is the BEST in West Palm Beach.

Roccos IS good.... I bet a lot of other restaurants what what the "it" factor is that Roccos has that they do not...

[Rhino127]

"Tough critic!" (E.R. Bradley's)

Yes, only because I watched it go from the greatest place in West Palm to a dead zone. There is so much potential for that place but the owners are so cheap they refuse to hire bands (speaking of culture) and other promotions. I hear that they even discontinued the free buffet at happy hour. When they were on the island in the eighties and nineties I ate there every day.

(drank my share too)

[SFLforlife]

It kind of depends on what you're looking for. It definitely helps if you know what you're looking for, so it might not be that easy for new pbc-ers to find the culture here. I can't argue about the location issue, though; you most definitely have to drive to get to places and that does suck. There's little to do within safe walking distance (depending, of course, where you live).

To be a little biased (as I was born and raised here), my personal favorite area is, of course, Lake Worth. I never lack things to do here, but I do love the beach. I think downtown LW has enough history and culture to satisfy me. Some really great/fun restaurants and bars that are well-established. You can definitely find the best Mexican food here (Taco Lady downtown, and Tacos al Carbon are awesome). Downtown WPB is a fun place thursday-sunday. Lots of bars/restaurants for singles. I wouldn't look to CityPlace for a lot of culture, but the WPB/Palm Beach area has some "high culture" if that's what you're looking for.

Other than this, if you know where to look, you can definitely find pockets of culture. Plenty of caribbean restaurants to be found, as well as West-Indies/Trinidadian cuisine. I've had some of the best Indian food I've eaten in WPB. There's a few really great Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurants. Some great Hatian and Jamaican places. Plenty of Italian to be experienced, and lots of good Greek =]. And of course, there's no shortage of South/Latin American -particularly Central American -influence. [Edit: forgot to mention some of the great Chinese and Thai in the area! Surely there's some Nigerian as well..]

Clubs, hookah, bars, restaurants can all be found here no problem, it's just a matter of knowing where to look. There are plenty of incredible places that you'd never expect based on location/appearances. It's just a matter of stepping in and finding out. I make sure to hit all of the great festivals (such as India Fest, Irish Fest, Greek Fest) in WPB, and that's a great place to start. Many of the vendors there have shops and restaurants in the area that you'd just never hear of otherwise. My personal favorite "fest" is Asian Food Fair held every March in Delray...there's absolutely NO shortage of culture there.

I love living in such close to proximity to many great cultural shops and markets. There are decent clubs that offer a latin or a country flavor. I know of great Central and South American, Jewish, Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern supermarkets in the area that certainly offer some culture. Sorry my comments are a little food-centric. That's what popped into my mind when I thought of culture. I never lack culture here, but I have a very diverse group of friends, so a great deal of it is just joining in on their activities. And for anyone who is a native South Floridian, you can probably agree that SFL has a culture of its very own. You just have to know where to look, or know who to ask. And I'm probably not alone when I say that I'd trade a Chinatown or Little Italy for the sunny beach any day.

[exmbdude]

As others have pointed out, the issues are that "culture" is spread out over distance as well as time. Not all the cultural events are taking place within a sustained span of time and within a certain area. Live music (non-DJ) struggles here, and orchestras barely stay alive and have protracted programs. The cultural "season" is also very short and geared toward the retiree demographic that lives here. The support of the arts - both high brow and low brow - in general is sorely lacking. The patronage to support the arts community really isn't present in PBC. It might have been a different story in the 70's & 80's when the money flowed from Palm Beach but it's a sad state of affairs now. If you have an artistic inclination this is not the region for you.

[Van Greco]

First off, comparing Palm Beach County to a place like NYC is beyond stupid. NYC has a population of 8.4 million people in an area of about 300 square miles. PBC has 1.3 million in an area of about 2,000 square miles. It's larger than the state of Rhode Island by a considerable margin. WPB only has 100,000 people in it in an area of about 50 sq. miles and almost half of that is the Grassy Waters Preserve where noone is allowed to live. Of course you're not going to find everything you find in an old established city. It took hundreds of years for those big cities to become what they are today. PBC is simply not that old.

Secondly, there is plenty of culture here. There are sizable populations of many different latin denominations each with a distinct culture/food etc. There are Caribbean peoples here that are all different. There are sizable Jewish communities in the southern part of the county. There is rural/equestrian culture in the western part of the county. I can find everything from high tea on Palm Beach to grungy local rock bands in downtown Lake Worth in a matter of minutes. (There is a fantastically diverse local independent music scene happening in LW right now)

The real problem in PBC is not lack of culture, but lack of public transportation and an inefficient pattern of development. We have too much sprawl. We have too many gated communities miles away from the city centers with too many people in them that complain about "the problem with down here". The problem is them. If you move out into the suburbs, then it stands to reason that you should be looking for a suburban lifestyle. If not then you chose the wrong place for you. Until the population density increases in the urban centers of the county you will not see high concentrations of arts and other cultural amenities and no transportation to take you there. It takes density to support those things.

Lastly, if there is some sort of culture that you love that you can't find in your neighborhood, start it. We are all too often guilty of sitting idly by waiting for things to come to us. If past generations did that in places like NY and Paris then they would not the vibrant places they are today. Your world and your city is what you make of it. There are many ways to encourage whatever culture it is you are looking for. Many of them require little or no resources. Get out there and take part.