It is with a heavy heart that I report the Palm restaurant at the Bellevue has closed.

I spoke with someone there today who confirmed the news telling me “we just didn’t make it.”

This New York import was the tenth Palm to open nationwide and has since become a popular destination for diners including local celebrities, business people and locals. Located in the ornamented Bellevue Hotel building, the chic dining room walls are filled with portraits of local and national personalities.

The Palm restaurant at the Bellevue shut down a few years ago in 2016 to undergo a renovation after 27 years in operation. In the renovation they moved the bar from the entrance way and put it in the space of the original dining room, making the dining room smaller but with amble space to seat at least 130 people.

They also built a party room, where recently they hung caricatures of the Phillies Phanatic and Gritty as well as local sports players.

Even my mug is on the wall, right above my beloved Fox 29 family. (Honored even tho I look a little bit like Uncle Fester, maybe that’s my doppelganger.) BTW after they did my mug, the got a new artist with a little color.

My mug was in the original Palm restaurant as well. The Palm will be contacted folks in the coming weeks on what will be happening to your caricature. I have this one on my shelf, so I’m good. The staff was told this morning, and was in shock when I called. Right now they are calling their customers to tell them. There was even a big networking event happening there tonight, and they called them about an hour ago. They were also nice enough to tell me but I knew already. The networking event will be held at Capital Grille now.

I’ll miss so much about the Palm, as it was one of my favorite spots to just jump into for a quick bite alone, or for dinner with the gang as did in January after going to Wonderspaces. I’ll miss the staff, the customers but most of you Chicken Parm, no one made Chicken Parm as good at The Palm. PS I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the rumored plans I mentioned the new owners of the building Nightingale Properties might have especially now that Nicole Miller, Tavern on Broad and nearly every food vendor in the food court has closed. Plus Tiffany’s is moving out of the building. In a blog post last year I mentioned that Nightingale would like the Bellevue to have a grand lobby similar to the original design, as as popular as the Ritz-Carlton fabulous lobby. We shall see. When is the lease up for Williams Sonoma? The Inquirer’s Michael Klein has more on the recent history of the Palm which might interest you.