Goodbye Ta-boo: Palm Beach icon closes after nearly 83 years on Worth Avenue

Much as it was on its opening night nearly 83 years ago on Worth Avenue, Ta-boo was packed Sunday during its final hours in business.

The restaurant, at 221 Worth Ave., enjoyed over the years by such stars as Frank Sinatra and Rod Stewart, was bustling at cocktail hour, with standing-room only at the bar and guests weaving their way through a dense crowd to get to the more modestly filled dining areas in the back.

Amid the din, cocktail-fisted well-wishers at the 5 to 7 p.m. farewell party bid a bittersweet goodbye as the iconic Palm Beach restaurant and watering hole prepared to close.

Owner Franklyn de Marco — clad in a blue blazer, tie and khaki Bermuda-style shorts — sat in his favorite perch at the bar at Stool No. 17, where guests continually stopped by, asking for a word with him.

“Everybody loves Ta-boo, which is an honor,” he said loudly to the Daily News over the roar of loud chatter. “The free booze tonight and hors d’oeuvres doesn’t hurt,” he laughed.

One patron in the crowd at the front of the restaurant gushed about how “wonderful Ta-boo is.”

“You can’t say enough about Franklyn de Marco and what a great host he is greeting everyone the same — like a celebrity,” said longtime Ta-boo regular and Palm Beacher Arlette Gordon, who was wearing a cherry-print white dress.

“I’ve enjoyed Ta-boo for so long I can remember sitting by the (restaurant’s) front picture window and seeing Rose Kennedy shopping on Worth Avenue and thinking how brave she was to go out without the Secret Service,” Gordon said about President John F. Kennedy's mother.

Sunday’s farewell party marked the end of a run that began when Ta-boo debuted Dec. 18, 1941 and quickly became one of the island's fashionable “smart spots.”

But it wasn’t just Sunday that drew fans wanting to say goodbye. Throughout the weekend, many patrons made a point of dining and drinking one last time in the restaurant’s topical-meets-British-colonial décor.

More: Iconic Palm Beach restaurant on Worth Avenue will close within days

More: Palm Beach's Ta-boo celebrates 80 years as a go-to restaurant

On Saturday night, for instance, it was a “last supper” of steak frites and rotisserie duck for local artist and Ta-boo supporter Joel Cohen and his wife, Joyce, who have enjoyed dining there for years.

“Ta-boo is a Palm Beach institution and we love it,” said Cohen, noting they dined Saturday with another couple that also has adored the spot for decades. “What I love is that you can go to Ta-boo year after year and your favorite dishes are there and they’re consistently good.”

De Marco, an astute businessman and restaurateur known for his hospitality and buoyant personality, has owned Ta-boo since 1990 and once joked, “I’ll be here ‘til I die. They’re going to put my ashes behind the bar next to the Crown Royal bottle.”

He said Monday and Tuesday will be spent packing up and emptying the premises, which Ta-boo must vacate by the end of the day Tuesday in accordance with a consent final judgment issued May 23 by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Edward A. Garrison. The owners of Ta-boo received an eviction summons in early March when the building owner charged no rent had been paid for a year.

The judgment ordering possession of the space handed over to the building owner came after the parties involved reached an agreement, closing the eviction case against the restaurant by building-owner 219 Worth Avenue Holdings LLC.

Just a few years ago, Ta-boo was celebrating its 80th anniversary in Palm Beach, marking decades of highballs, hijinks and tasty fare.

When it debuted days after Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, local newspapers lauded Ta-boo as a “gay and glamorous” hotspot with a "unique South Sea Island atmosphere" presided over by then-owner and club impresario Ted Stone.

A retractable roof then rolled open for dancing under the stars.

Since it began, Ta-boo has been a place where dubious — and beloved — legends have been born, including whether about a German submarine commander who came ashore to have drinks at Ta-boo.

Barbara Hutton supposedly asked for a soothing drink after a bender and thus the Bloody Mary was born, and Sinatra supposedly ambled in one night to a Taboo pianist’s belting out the theme from "The Godfather."

In 1955, Stone sold Ta-boo to Jim Peterson, a former Major League Baseball pitcher who owned a restaurant in Philadelphia.

He owned it for 20 years and then Ta-boo underwent various ownership changes and a few hard times until de Marco and a then-business-partner bought, revived and reopened Ta-boo in 1990.

What’s next for Ta-boo’s space?

It’s set to be taken over by Worth Avenue stalwart Greenleaf & Crosby by Betteridge as part of a lease the jeweler entered into with 219 Worth Avenue Holdings more than a year ago.

“Exciting” plans involving a new restaurant are in the works for the premises, Greenleaf & Crosby by Betteridge officials have said.

More: If Ta-boo is evicted, what would replace it? Another restaurant, building owners say

Meanwhile, de Marco told the Daily News on Sunday that after he packs up Ta-boo, he’s going to spend a month in Aspen and enjoy “a little retirement.”

But Ta-boo may not be finished, he said.

“We still have some irons in the fire to see if we can reopen Ta-boo in another location in Palm Beach. We’ll see, but we’re going to try so keep your eyes open.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Goodbye Ta-boo: Palm Beach icon closes after nearly 83 years on Worth Avenue