Juliana’s Pizza and more: West Palm Beach’s NORA district unveils newly planned restaurants

NORA, West Palm Beach’s soon-to-be $1 billion mixed-use district, announced its second round of tenants on Wednesday, introducing more food offerings to the development.

The neighborhood, named after North Railroad Avenue, and likened to the Wynwood district in Miami, will house more than 150,000 square feet of public parks, restaurants, office space, lifestyle retail and a social club, all south of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard by the railroad tracks and Dixie Highway.

Around the beginning of 2025, NORA will usher in three more dining options: New York City natives, Juliana’s Pizza, named by TripAdvisor in 2015 as the No. 1 pizzeria in the United States, and the Garret Group, an elevated sports bar, along with a “lovable local,” West Palm Beach’s very own Celis Juice Bar and Cafe.

These three spots tack onto the first round of tenants — H&H Bagels, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Loco Taqueria & Oyster Bar, [solidcore] and Rumble Boxing — announced about four months ago and adding to what Francis X. Scire, NORA’s head of leasing, said is a carefully curated selection process.

The goal is to create an atmosphere where the consumer receives “a little bit of everything,” Scire said.

“We want to make sure we only have one Mexican restaurant, and we only have one pizza place and we only have one Asian restaurant,” he said. “You want make sure that you’re not creating competition for your retailers and your restaurants, but you also want make sure you’re not overdoing it, oversaturating the area.”

So why these specific tenants?

Juliana’s Pizza, an award-winning pizza establishment, will be opening its first location outside of its home base in Brooklyn, New York. A pizza joint was deemed an essential facet to NORA because, as Scire put it: “Everybody loves pizza. It’s America’s favorite food.”

Matthew Grogan, a Juliana’s co-founder, said in a statement the company is excited to add more pies to its menu once situated in NORA.

“There are so many pizza lovers out there — and so many styles to choose from,” Grogan said.

In Scire’s vision, families may enjoy dinner at Juliana’s and then look across the plaza and grab dessert at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, one of the tenants announced last September.

The next tenant, The Garret Group, a hospitality group offering food, entertainment and sports games, is also traveling outside of its New York City bounds to set up a new site in West Palm Beach. The elevated sports bar drew Scire’s attention because West Palm Beach currently lacks “an excellent place to watch a game,” he said.

“There’s no place to hang out, there’s no cool sports bar,” he said. “That place is going to be where everybody’s at when they’re watching the game.”

The Garret Group and Juliana’s Pizza will not be the only places hailing from New York City into the NORA district. H&H Bagels and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, were also persuaded to migrate from the city that never sleeps.

“As a leasing person, you always have to look to the major cities for best in-class operators,” Scire said. “Palm Beach County in general has really transitioned from sort of a sleepy little town back in 2015, 16, 17, to a major metropolis.”

This transformation spurred an influx of Northeasterners, creating a goal for Scire to craft a district serving not only conventional Florida customers but also customers who may have moved to the state and expect to see (or eat) something they grew up with.

The third Florida-based tenant, Celis Juice Bar and Cafe, already has two locations, one opened in 2015 in West Palm Beach along Dixie Highway and another opened three years later in Palm Beach.

Celis’ goal, according to its website, is to make people’s lives easier by providing healthier choices by way of juices, smoothies, acai bowls, breakfast and lunch meals.

Celis will complement NORA’s fitness offerings, such as [solidcore] and Rumble Boxing, Scire said.

“What do people want when they finish a fitness class? They want a smoothie,” he said.

Scire and the rest of the NORA team are now working on filling spots available for retail and office space as well as generating future announcements for more restaurants, an entertainment venue and a collection of retailers, which people may expect within the next few months.