Palm Beach diners enjoy traditional as well as gourmet fare for breakfast

Palm Beach has always been a brunch kind of town — noontime Sunday eggs Benedict with a mimosa or Bloody Mary — but breakfast?

Wake up and smell the berry smoothies and avocado toast. Breakfast has blossomed on the island, with an audience as varied as the fare.  

Longtime a.m. haunts continue to beckon, with early risers enjoying eggs, coffee and the newspaper at Green’s Pharmacy Luncheonette, for instance.

But breakfast offerings have expanded. 

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They’ve gone beyond fine-dining hotel restaurants, which still remain in vogue with patrons streaming into, say, Café Boulud at The Brazilian Court for French toast ($19) with house-made brioche and eggs Benedict ($21) with house-made Canadian bacon.  

Breakfast has been added this season at Le Bilboquet, which joins other spots drawing smoothie-guzzling fitness buffs, breakfast-burrito lovers, and business and social types chatting over smoked salmon. 

“Breakfast in Palm Beach is like breakfast in no other city — it’s chic, lovely and delicious,” Le Bilboquet managing partner Dobi Trendafilova said. “We are even getting reservations for breakfast.”

From a ham-and-cheese omelet ($26) to oat milk-based chia pudding ($17) and the “Emerald Elixir” ($12) — fresh-pressed juice made with cucumber, kale and ginger —breakfast at Le Bilboquet offers a variety.

“The menu includes everything I love about breakfast — from homey egg dishes to healthy choices like acai bowls,” executive chef Adabis Castro said. 

Le Bilboquet’s new breakfast service comes a year after the restaurant debuted with dinner and then added lunch and weekend brunch. Other morning items include almond croissants ($6) and pain au chocolat ($6).  

At Al Fresco restaurant in the Key West-style clubhouse at the Par 3 golf course, breakfast guests are treated to egg dishes, French toast ($12) and even a breakfast flatbread ($14) topped with mozzarella, scrambled eggs, diced tomato and bacon. 

Items start at $3 for a bagel or croissant. 

In Royal Poinciana Plaza, breakfast is busier now at Sant Ambroeus than when the restaurant first opened in 2016, according to Adil Avunduk, Sant Ambroeus Hospitality’s director of Florida operations.

“As more people move to Palm Beach full time and are working from here, we are seeing more people starting their day earlier and coming for breakfast for both leisure and business purposes,” he said.

With items priced from around $4 to $27, Sant Ambroeus’ breakfast menu offers pastries (including Italy’s cornetti), egg dishes, smoked salmon, avocado toast, yogurt, fresh fruit and more.

“Coffee and cornetti are a big part of Italian culture so it was only natural for us to open for breakfast,” Avunduk said. 

Meanwhile, breakfast has been an all-day affair at Surfside Diner since 2020. 

That’s when owner Dan Ponton realized that like him, “some people would like a delicious omelet or French toast at noon or one o’clock” instead of an item from Surfside’s lunch roster of salads, burgers, soups and sandwiches. As elsewhere, poached eggs-topped avocado toast ($13.95) is popular for breakfast at Surfside, as well as a breakfast burrito ($11.95) filled scrambled eggs, black beans and Mexican cheese and served with salsa and sour cream.