Cheap Eats on the Island?

Yes, it seems even Palm Beach can't escape the iron clutch of impending economic doom. Fortunes strip-mined by Bernie Madoff, trendy uber-boutiques slinking off Worth Avenue like mangy dogs, billionaires reduced to poverty-stricken multimillionaires. And now an affordable restaurant is heading for the streets-paved-with-18-carat gold island.Oh, the horror. . ...

By Bill Citara

April 15, 2009

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Yes, it seems even Palm Beach can't escape the iron clutch of impending economic doom. Fortunes strip-mined by Bernie Madoff, trendy uber-boutiques slinking off Worth Avenue like mangy dogs, billionaires reduced to poverty-stricken multimillionaires. And now an affordable restaurant is heading for the streets-paved-with-18-carat gold island.

Oh, the horror. . .

Actually, it's Da Francesco at 251 Palm Beach, a casual, moderately priced Italian eatery that's partnered up with 251, the newly debuted, hipster wannabe next-door lounge. DF's daddy is Frank Cilione, who knows a thing or two about hipster wannabe hangouts, having operated the once chic, now shuttered Tsunami on the wrong side of the Intracoastal in proletarian West Palm Beach.

Set to open at the end of April, DF will dish all the usual Italian culinary suspects -- think lotsa pizza, pasta and the like -- with an emphasis on local and organic-slash-natural. And here's the kicker: no entree will make you fork over more than a $20 bill, which in fatter times the average Islander used to blow her bobbed, shaped, surgically perfected nose. Welcome to the recession, folks.

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