Adventures in Palm Beach Land-Breaking and Entering at the Breakers

Escaping New York during the winter is imperative and this year I visited the Palm Beach area with a good friend of mine Nikki (party planner extrodinaire of bon-vivantllc.com). Nikki being the social butterfly and hooked up in many ways had the whole weekend mapped out for us. I lean more towards the introverted side so I get a kick out of spending time with her. I also like to play the game 1 degree of separation to Nikki. All weekend long we ran into people she knew-at the Avis car rental was her mentor, at the airport another friend.
Friday night we attended the Wellington winter equestrian jumping festival. We had amazing front row seats, ate quesadillas, and partied with some Argentinean polo players. Saturday Night we hit local Palm Beach eatery Bice for dinner. At the bar upon enterring I was in total shock. I had never seen so much plastic surgery in one room. Not only were the women sliced, diced, pulled, and injected, they were decked to the nines. There was no time timid fashion statements. Tight, colorful, short, designery garb meant for 20 year olds, full on matching jewelry and photoshoot worthy makeup was de rigeur for this 40 plus crowd. At one point Nikki asked me if I was ok (i guess my expression was close to aghast) I stammered…”I’ve just never seen anything like this” We ran into my new New Jersey bff who I met getting on our jetblue flight (toting louis vuitton rolling bag, gucci shoulder bag, ricci sunglasses, ysl high heel sandals, and Baso fur coat) with her boyfriend of the moment. Later at our table I made friends with a lovely German woman whose dachshund dog had his own seat at the table. Nothing shy about this crowd!
After dinner we headed to local hotspot Cucina. Turns out Palm Beach is an early night town and Cucina is the only joing open after 11 or so. So I am thinking based on the buzz Cucina is really exclusive and chic. But it turns out to be the second shocker of the night- a total melting pot. Kinda like that college bar but with a disco ball and peppering of waspy preps in blue blazers. Young and old locals, Argentinean polo players, thirsty tourists, and cougars mix together fueled by tacky blasting music. Think Cavalli, H&M, Brooks Brothers, Tommy Bahama, and Forever 21 under one roof.
Nikki picks up a single guy ‘K’ because he came to the bar solo and in her books ‘that takes a lot of guts.’ Turns out he’s in Palm Beach for a hedge fund convention and staying at the Breakers. Do we want to go back to the Breakers? (a hotel with strict visitation rules that unless you are staying there or are a guest of a guest) YES PLEASE. Truth be told I was ready to get out of Cucina the minute I stepped in it. So off we went in our White Crysler convertible (a rental) with Breakers guest (folded up like a beach chair) in the back seat for a 4 block drive. Once in the Breakers I have to say I was impressed by it’s opulence. We heard the bar may be on last call but we headed over anyways. It was actually too late for them to serve us but they let us sit and chat with the other Breakers renegades who at 12:30 am did not want to go to sleep. We ran into ‘Joe the lobbyist’ who Nikki and I had met earlier by the pool at our hotel. (note to self this is a small town!) ‘K’ being an gentleman had a plan in creation/motion. After speaking frankly with the bartender he went to the phone in the hall and ordered a bottle of champagne from room service to be delivered to the hallway plant near the elevator. Our/my hero! After the champs arrived we took our small party outside to admire the view and check out the pools. Despite pool area being closed at dusk we toe dipped in the hot tub for over an hour un noticed.
The only clothing that was removed was my nylons (under the privacy of a full bush-pun not intended) but friendships were forged and fun had by all.