Welcome to this edition of The Palm Beach Weekender. In today’s newsletter I’ll be featuring a weekend events preview, Weekly Scoops, a Local Spotlight, and a brand new section called Beyond The Palm Beaches. Enjoy!

In today’s TPBW edition:

• 🥩 Wagyu & Truffle 101

• 🔦 Local Spotlight: an 100 year old theater

• 🌴 Beyond The Palm Beaches: travel back in time to medieval Spain

Weekend Event Preview

🐊 Subtropic Film Festival
🇮🇹 Italian Festival 
🔥 Bonfires & Night Market
🎨 Creative Market
🎭️ Kravis Center Block Party

Did someone forward this to you? If you like what you see, you can sign up here

Weekly Scoop

🧑‍💻 PBSC proposes a new Quantum Center
Palm Beach State College is planning to transform its historic downtown West Palm Beach building into a state of the art AI and Quantum Innovation Center. The new facility will serve as a collaborative hub where students, researchers, and startups can work together to explore the next frontier of technology. 

🏈 The new social sports lounge opening at Nora
Garret’s Sports & Rec Bar, a new modern elevated sports bar, is set to make its debut at Nora early 2026. The sports bar will feature immersive viewing technology, elevated dishes and cocktails, and a wide range of games to play. It looks amazing! I'll let you know when they officially open.

🥩Palm Beach Meats: Wagyu & Truffle 101
Michelin Bib Gourmand winner Palm Beach Meats is hosting a Wagyu & Truffle 101 experience on Wednesday, November 19, from 7 to 9 PM. Guests will learn how to taste, pair and cook premium Wagyu and luxurious truffles from Tartufo Prestige. Only 20 spots are available, so be sure to reserve yours quickly, this event will likely sell out fast.

🏨 A new hotel could be coming to downtown WPB
It sounds like downtown WPB is in need of more hotels. Developer Related Ross has filed a brand new proposal to build another convention center hotel near downtown West Palm. The plan is for a 401 room Curio by Hilton to be built on the surface parking lot right behind CityPlace South Tower, a few hundred feet from the WPB Hilton. 

🥂 Downtown Lake Worth has a new restaurant
Off The Clock is a new restaurant that brings together food, cocktails, music and art for a unique elevated experience. Expect DJs spinning vinyl behind the bar, delicious French Caribbean inspired dishes and cocktails, and a beautifully decorated space that feels like you’ve stepped into a New Orleans speakeasy. Take a look for yourself. They opened their doors this weekend, check them out at 921 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth Beach.

This Week’s Local Gem

Lake Worth Playhouse

📍Lake Worth Playhouse, 713 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth Beach
🎭️See full calendar here

If you’ve ever walked down Lake Ave in downtown Lake Worth, I’m pretty sure you've passed by one of the most unique hidden gems in the county. From the outside, it might look like just another building on the avenue, but once you step inside, you’re transported back to the 1920s.

The space originally opened in 1924 as the Oakley Theatre, built by two brothers Clarence and Lucien Oakley who came to South Florida dreaming of a movie palace and vaudeville house.

Four years later, in 1928, one of Florida's deadliest hurricanes, the Okeechobee hurricane, came through and pretty much flattened the theater, destroying its beautiful front. But the brothers quickly rebuilt and reopened the theater four months later, and has looked pretty much the same ever since. 

Sadly, the brothers lost ownership of the theater when the weight of the Great Depression fell onto South Florida. Over the years, the theatre struggled, and changed names and ownership many times, until it was finally shut down. 

Then in 1975, the building was purchased by the Lake Worth Playhouse who carried out extensive renovations and opened what we now know as the Lake Worth Playhouse Theatre.

Today, the theatre hosts live community productions, musicals, operas, comedies and dramas on its main stage, as well as independent films in the Stonzek Studio Theatre right next door. Inside, the theatre still has that 1920s feel to it, with its wooden ceiling and brick walls. If you look closely at the ceiling, you can see the letters O and T painted on the beams, representing Oakley Theatre.

If you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend checking it out.

Beyond The Palm Beaches

The Ancient Spanish Monastery

📍Ancient Spanish Monastery, 16711 W Dixie Hwy, North Miami Beach
🎟️ Free - $10
🕞 See hours here

If you drive about an hour south to North Miami Beach, you can visit an ancient 12th century monastery that will transport you back to medieval Spain. It’s a place not many know about, even though it’s the oldest building in the Western Hemisphere. 

The monastery was originally built in 1133 AD in Sacramenia, near Segovia in northern Spain, and completed around 1141. For nearly 700 years, it was home to Cistercian monks until it was seized and sold after a social revolution in the 1830s. 

Then in 1925, newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst illegally purchased structures of the original monastery with the help of Arthur Byne. The cloister, chapter house, and other outbuildings were carefully dismantled stone by stone, and shipped to the U.S. in more than 11,000 wooden crates. 

The crates sat in a New York warehouse for more than 20 years after Hearst’s finances had taken a beating and couldn’t afford to reassemble the structures. Then in the 1940s two entrepreneurs, Rayond Moss and William Edgemon, made Hearst an offer to purchase the dismantled remains but he refused their offers. 

But after Hearst passed away, his estate was willing to sell them to the pair and in 1952, they brought the purchased remains to Florida and painstakingly reassembled the monastery structures to serve as a tourist attraction in Miami.

Today, the space functions as a church and a tourist attraction where you can visit and walk through the beautiful stone arches, see historic Spanish artifacts and even pieces of armor worn during the Crusades. It is honestly one of the most unique places you can visit in South Florida.

📖 Want to know more about the monastery, check out this article

Thanks!
Thank you for reading! If you want to share any feedback or want to just reach out, email me here → [email protected]