Clematis Street Had a Year of Last Calls. Here's What's Taking Their Place.

The grand-opening sign at Mystic Table was still up in mid-August. The restaurant had opened in February 2026 with a Magic Bar and big plans for evenings out. By Aug. 14, the Palm Beach Post reported it was listed as permanently closed on OpenTable, with a thank-you note from ownership.

That sign sums up 2026 downtown. Concepts built mainly for big nights have had a hard year. The tenants who are signing leases are planning around lunch, around the people who now work in the towers on Olive Avenue and Flagler Drive, and around a street the Post now describes as having more restaurants than bars.

The Year on the Street, in Order

1. March 26. West Palm Cowboy Club opens as a two-level venue mixing Nashville soul, classic barbecue and Florida cowboy style at the corner of Clematis Street and Narcissus Avenue. Brian Swanson, founder of Experience Hospitality, and several partners created it, per the Palm Beach Post.
2. March. Tropical BBQ Market, a fast-casual spot on Olive Avenue, closes, according to the Post's running list of 2026 county restaurant closings.
3. July 17. Grease Burger Bar closes on Clematis Street, per the same Post list.
4. By Aug. 14. Mystic Table goes dark six months after opening.
5. Aug. 27. The Post reports that the owners of Tacos del Cartel are bringing two new concepts to Clematis.
6. Sept. 19. Camelot, at 114 S. Narcissus Ave., holds its official closing party after 12 years.
7. Sept. 26. The Starbucks at 226 Clematis St. closes after more than 20 years.

Two of those closings had nothing to do with Clematis itself. Palm Beach Now attributed the Starbucks closing to a nationwide restructuring and pointed out that the CityPlace, South Dixie Highway and Worth Avenue locations are still open. Starbucks closed about 250 locations across North America that week, according to the Post, so 226 Clematis was one store in a chainwide cut, not a sign of a slow block. In the same roundup, Palm Beach Now reported that True Food Kitchen's parent company filed for Chapter 11 in October and closed 12 restaurants nationwide. The CityPlace location at 700 S. Rosemary Ave. remains open.

So the closings that are actually about Clematis are Grease, Mystic Table and Camelot. Mystic Table and Camelot were built around evenings out.

The Corner Where It All Started

The Clematis and Narcissus corner has been the center of this story since 1894. That year, West Palm Beach's first grocery store and post office opened in a tent at that intersection, the Post noted in its September look at the street's history. That makes it one of the city's oldest commercial addresses. In 2026 it gained a barbecue-and-country venue in March and, a block south on Narcissus, lost a 12-year-old lounge in September.

Camelot had a specific identity. CBS12 quoted its owner, SubCulture Group, describing it as a "semi-private, upscale bar, lounge, and club" aimed at "the type of patrons that would hang out with the Kennedys back when they used to frequent Palm Beach." No replacement tenant has been announced for 114 S. Narcissus or for the former Starbucks at 226 Clematis.

The nightlife core is still there. In the same CBS12 report, SubCulture Group was identified as the owner of Hullabaloo, Respectable Street, Lost Weekend and Man Ray, some of the best-known stops on any Clematis bar crawl.

The Office Towers Changed the Customer

The new leases follow the new crowd. The Post traces the change to the post-2020 years, when West Palm Beach picked up the "Wall Street South" label along with Class-A office towers and luxury residential development. Kelly Smallridge, president of the Business Development Board, told the paper that more than 250 financial services firms have opened offices in Palm Beach County since the 2020 pandemic.

Much of that growth sits in the CityPlace and Flagler Drive towers. Some firms have picked the smaller Banyan & Olive complex on the north edge of Clematis instead. It pairs a modern tower with a restored, 90-year-old Art Moderne building. The Post lists the tenants:

• Dycom Industries, the telecom services company, which moved its headquarters there from Palm Beach Gardens
• Alvarez & Marsal, the global consulting firm, which expanded to West Palm Beach to serve high-net-worth clients and companies
• Taft, the national law firm, which took space after merging with longtime boutique litigation firm Mrachek Law
• Edward Jones, which occupies a full floor at 111 Olive next door

Every one of those offices sends people onto Clematis at noon. That's why the next opening matters.

Tacos at Ground Level, a Speakeasy Behind Them

Taquerías Carnalito is taking the former Nico's Pizza space at 301 Clematis St., inside the Banyan & Olive complex. Tragos Amargos, a speakeasy, will operate inside it. The Post's opening window is "late 2026 or in the first quarter of 2027," so it's an estimate, not a firm date.

The owners are Danny and Vilexis Cruz. They opened Tacos del Cartel at 533 Clematis St. in mid-2025, their first franchise location outside Louisiana. In a statement published by the Post, the couple said, "We chose West Palm Beach because we believe in the city's future."

Andrew Dance, managing partner of Brand Atlantic Real Estate Partners and one of the property's owners, described the two concepts to the Post:

"Carnalito addresses the growing need for high-quality fast-casual food in downtown. And Tragos Amargo introduces a proper, upscale cocktail lounge with a beautiful design and great vibe in an intimate speakeasy setting."

The space is set up for the day the street now has. A counter serves the office lunch crowd, and a small cocktail room behind it serves the evening crowd. Camelot was a big, semi-private room that depended on late nights. Carnalito is the reverse: built for daytime traffic, with a smaller evening offering behind it.

Thursday Is Still the Street's Night

For all the change in tenants, one weekly fixture is unchanged. Clematis by Night runs Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m. on the Great Lawn at the foot of the street. Here is the city's schedule from Oct. 29 through Thanksgiving week:

The City of West Palm Beach event page has updates. The waterfront holiday tree lighting falls on Thursday, Dec. 3, from 6 to 10 p.m.

Walking from the Great Lawn up to Olive this fall takes you past most of this year's changes. You pass the former Starbucks at 226, the Cowboy Club on the corner at 200, and Camelot's dark door around the corner on Narcissus. Then comes 301, where Carnalito is headed, and further west, Tacos del Cartel at 533.

If you own a condo within walking distance of Clematis, the street's turn toward daytime traffic is part of what you're selling. Branham Properties follows these blocks lease by lease and can show you how downtown buyers are weighing them right now. Request a Free Home Valuation and find out what your address is worth today.