Story by Alexandra Clough, Palm Beach Post

West Palm Beach’s waterfront is about to get a big boost: The operator of Louie Bossi’s Ristorante and Rocco’s Tacos has inked a deal to build a massive restaurant at the mixed-use complex called Flagler Banyan Square, now under construction.

Big Time Restaurant Group will build a 10,000-square-foot restaurant at 201 N. Flagler Drive.

The building is part of the 435,000-square-foot Flagler Banyan Square, at Flagler Drive and Banyan Boulevard. Other buildings include a 208-room luxury hotel dubbed The Ben, a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel; a 251-unit apartment; plus additional retail space on Olive Avenue and Banyan Boulevard.

Developer Frank Navarro said he needed to fill the restaurant space with an experienced operator who could drive big traffic to the center.

He weighed different options.

National restaurant chains with experience didn’t know the market, Navarro said, and local chefs who knew the market and wanted to start a restaurant didn’t have experience.

In the end, Navarro decided to go with Big Time, a local and savvy operator with headquarters on Clematis Street. “We wanted a group that really understood West Palm Beach and its evolution,” Navarro said.

The as-yet unnamed restaurant will be a blend of concepts from Big Time’s Louie Bossi’s restaurants in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale; and Elisabetta’s, a sister Italian restaurant that opened late last month in downtown Delray Beach, Big Time’s Todd Herbst said.

Read the rest of the Palm Beach Post story at this link.