NORA District comes alive: See all the new restaurants, cafes open at $1 billion megashopping complex

From the bones of century-old warehouses, the $1 billion NORA District has finally opened its first wave of restaurants, retailers and fitness centers north of downtown West Palm Beach.

In past months, the area around NORA — named for its main thoroughfare North Railroad Avenue — has bustled with construction cranes, urbanites in athleisure and young professionals. Gone are industrial stonecutters and boarded-up motorbike shops spanning North Quadrille to Palm Beach Lakes boulevards, replaced by a hip corridor surfaced in cobblestone that stretches past retailers Warby Parker and ZenHippo and car-centric cafe Sunday Motor Co.

A dining scene is beginning to blossom in this trendy complex, with hot slices from Brooklyn export Juliana’s Pizza beside sweet scoops from Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. Shoppers luxuriate on sidewalk patios, sipping turmeric shots from Celis Juice Bar and noshing on bacon-egg-cheese sandwiches from newly opened H&H Bagels.

And soon, South Floridians will even be able to live here. Scheduled to open in November 2026, the 201-room Nora Hotel by Richard Born and Ira Drukier of BD Hotels will feature Big Apple-based, French brasserie Pastis, plus a rooftop bar with panoramic views of the Intracoastal Waterway to the east and Lake Mangonia to the west.

And that’s just Phase 1. The second phase, expected to break ground early next year, includes an 11-story, 350-unit apartment complex along 10th Street at North Railroad Avenue with 52 workforce spaces; and an 11-story condominium at 1105 N. Dixie Highway.

If this scratch-built project invites comparisons to CityPlace farther south or even Miami-Dade County’s Wynwood in its infancy, co-developer Joe Furst is quick to insist that NORA is its own thing. And he would know: He cut his teeth as a managing partner for Wynwood pioneer Tony Goldman, and was responsible for transforming that district into a thriving retail paradise.

“NORA has its own unique identity with very intentional areas for live, work and play,” says Furst, founder of Place Projects, which spent seven years creating NORA alongside NDT Development and Wheelock Street Capital. “Wynwood evolved from an arts-focused place into an entertainment district. But with NORA, we own the majority of real estate, so we’re very surgical about where buildings are placed to create this main-street destination.”

In 2018, Furst and investors began snapping up nine aging warehouses on North Railroad Avenue along the FEC tracks, then more land and properties east to North Dixie Highway. The project gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic following a mass exodus of companies and residents from the Northeast to South Florida — especially West Palm Beach.

Now, all told, the 40-acre NORA District marks the city’s biggest planned downtown redevelopment since CityPlace debuted in 2000, Furst says.

Jay Rushin, CEO of H&H Bagels, remembers driving past NORA’s warehouses in late 2022 amid the big “Wall Street South” migration, enchanted by the city’s growth spurt.

“It just made a lot of sense,” says Rushin, whose bagel shop debuted at NORA on Thursday, three years after signing the lease. “Lots of offices and cool commercial spaces, condos. Good brands drive a great surge in traffic, and here we are next to Juliana’s and Van Leeuwen and Pastis. How do you beat that vision?”

Juliana’s Pizza owner Matthew Grogan says the NORA District, rising in a rougher section of the city, reminds him of Brooklyn’s “sketchy” Dumbo neighborhood back in 1990. Bringing the first Juliana’s outside of New York will appeal to South Florida’s snowbirds and “transplants craving a taste of back home,” he says.

“This is when everyone flies to Florida to escape the brutal New York winters,” Grogan says. “Between that and the migrations, the timing is perfect for us.”

Below, meet the new NORA class of restaurants, bars and cafes now open or expected to arrive over the next 12 months. Furst, NORA’s co-developer, says four more restaurant-bar concepts will be announced in spring.

NOW OPEN

H&H Bagels
890 N. Railroad Ave.; HHBagels.com

This vaunted New York icon (as seen on “Seinfeld,” “Sex and the City,” “The Office”) un-loxed its West Palm Beach doors on Nov. 20 with bagels made from NYC filtered tap water. A Queens commissary proofs and kettle-boils every H&H bagel before they’re flash-frozen and shipped to Florida, where they’re thawed on-site and baked to chewy-crunchy consistency, owner Jay Rushin says. The menu also features schmears (lox, cream cheese, tuna and chicken salads), alongside top-selling breakfast sandwiches packed with eggs, cheese, bacon, sausage, roasted turkey and top-round roast beef. As Kramer might say, “Let’s bagel.”

Celis Juice Bar
895 N. Railroad Ave.; 561-725-4077; CelisJuiceBar.com

This health-conscious brand (check out their running club) from cofounder and West Palm native Alex Celis opened its fourth location in September, joining three more outposts from Delray Beach to Palm Beach. Find acai bowls and fresh-pressed juices, nutrition shots, fruit smoothies, salads, coffees, scrambled egg and confit tomato sandwiches, avocado toast and breakfast burritos.

Juliana’s Pizza
875 N. Railroad Ave.; 561-766-6200; JulianasPizza.com

Straight out of Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood comes the first Florida location of this slice of Big Apple royalty, which opened Nov. 22. But this is no ordinary pie shop: It is descended from late restaurateur Patsy Grimaldi, nephew of by-the-slice inventor Patsy Lancieri (of Patsy’s Pizzeria fame), who opened Juliana’s with ex-Wall Street executive Matthew Grogan in 2012. Juliana’s, which has topped best-pizzeria lists from TripAdvisor and USA Today to Cosmopolitan, offers coal-fried pies with thin, crackerlike crusts, plus egg creams, salads, meatballs and seltzer.

Sunday Motor Co.
805 N. Railroad Ave.; 561-805-1025; SundayMotorCo.com

Husband-and-wife owners Nick Vorderman and Renee Mee, both car aficionados with a shared love of java fuel, opened this cafe on Aug. 29, joining their flagship in Madison, New Jersey. The dining room percolates with auto-themed merch and decor — and caffeine in many forms, from iced strawberry matchas to maple-turmeric lattes. Food options include shakshuka with ciabatta, birria chilaquiles, curried chickpea wraps and PLTs (pesto, lettuce, tomato, stracciatella and rosemary on focaccia). Don’t forget the every-Sunday cars-and-coffee meetups in the parking lot, known for drawing legions of Porsche, Ferrari and BMW gearheads.

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
870 N. Railroad Ave.; VanLeeuwenIceCream.com

French-style, made-from-scratch dairy and vegan ice cream distinguishes this new dessert destination, which opened in early September as part of a bigger South Florida push. If the name sounds familiar, this brand from cofounders Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O’Neill can already be found in Whole Foods, Target and Sprouts Farmers Market. The scoop shop touts novel flavors such as coffee affogato, marionberry cheesecake, Sicilian pistachio, praline butter cake, mango sticky rice, banana bread pudding and honeycomb.

COMING SOON

Loco Taqueria & Oyster Bar
840 N. Railroad Ave.; LocoTacoShops.com

This funky, South Boston-born neighborhood staple specializing in Baja-style tacos, oysters and tequila is expected to debut here in early 2026, the first out-of-state spot from cofounders Michael Shaw, Eric Aulenback and Michael Conlon. Loco hasn’t unveiled its NORA menu yet, but if its Boston taquerias are any indication, picture diver scallop ceviche on shaved ice, pineapple and bacon-flecked guacamole, housemade salsas (smoked tomatillo, mango habanero), a daily oyster raw bar and a heap of tacos (braised short rib, beer-battered cod, maple-bourbon pork belly, roasted cauliflowers).

Del Mar
1015 N. Railroad Ave.; DelMarMediterranean.com

When it opens in mid-2026, this Mediterranean coastal cuisine mini-chain will offer “an elevated dining experience where modern elegance meets vibrant flavors,” per a statement from David Miller, president and COO of Ohio-based hospitality group Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. What that means for its menu is unclear; it has three locations in Fort Lauderdale (opened Nov. 25), Naples and Columbus, Ohio, so far. If the Fort Lauderdale sitdown is any indication, you’ll find spicy lamb sausage Turkish flatbreads, tomato salads and loaded hummus starters, as well as lobster spaghetti, veal chops, swordfish and 16-ounce ribeyes as entrees.

Indaco Italian Food & Wine
905 N. Railroad Ave.; IndacoRestaurant.com

Southern ingredients with Italian accents is one way to describe this rustic sitdown chain with a mighty presence in the southeastern United States (seven locations and growing), which is heading to West Palm Beach in early 2026, NORA developers say. The restaurant from The Indigo Road Hospitality Group (“Indaco” is indigo in Italian) and founder Steve Palmer is known for tailoring menus to each city, but all locations include Polpette (Angus beef-heritage pork meatball blend), wood-fired pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, Tagliatelle with pork tesa (Italian-cured pork belly), Bucatini, Hanger steak and a three-course chef’s choice menu, which the restaurant calls “family style.” Also available: Italian varietals and signature cocktails.

Pastis
1021 N. Railroad Ave.; PastisNYC.com

This French brasserie and touristy icon from New York’s Meatpacking District will become the ground-floor anchor of The Nora Hotel opening in November 2026, developers say. And the vibe? As with its Wynwood, Nashville and D.C. clones, you’ll find a crowd-pleasing array of bistro classics against a stylish backdrop of white-tiled walls that evoke a Parisian metro station. The menu features Escargots in butter, Chicken Paillard under a blanket of chopped almonds, cheesy French onion soup, Salade Niçoise (confit tuna, dijon vinaigrette), Steak Frites in Béarnaise sauce and, if you must insist on keeping it American, the double-patty Cheeseburger à l’Américaine.