Earlier this summer, on the morning of July 27, dogs and their owners gathered at Anchorage Park for Dog Days of Summer, one of a string of small, recurring events the Village's Parks and Recreation Department has run through the season, alongside Make Your Mark on the Park and a toddler storytime under the pavilion. Nobody bought a membership to attend. Nobody needed a sponsor.
A few miles south in Lake Park, this year has looked different. Nautilus 220, the waterfront tower that got its certificate of occupancy on December 24, 2025, spent January 2026 watching chef David Burke open SeaHawk Prime, his first Florida restaurant, and Birdie Dockside Bar & Grill sold out its Super Bowl party before the second concept had even formally opened. That is the version of northern Palm Beach County that gets written up. North Palm Beach is not chasing it, and understanding why is the whole story of what it is actually like to live here.
The golf course that cost the Village one dollar
The land under the North Palm Beach Country Club has always been built for people with money. In 1926, Palm Beach developer Paris Singer opened an 18-hole course designed by Seth Raynor on the property, and the club was meant to be a destination for prospective real estate investors and Palm Beach socialites who drove to the club or sailed up Lake Worth on their yachts. It changed hands a few times, including a stretch under Sir Harry Oakes, before the Village of North Palm Beach bought the club and golf course in 1962 and reopened it a year later, then sent it through a major renovation that reopened in November 2006.
That 2006 renovation is where the story gets specific. Jack Nicklaus redesigned the entire course, complete with a new irrigation system and total re-grassing, and for the multi-million dollar project, he charged the Village only one dollar. It is now one of only two municipal courses in the country that are Jack Nicklaus Signature courses, upgraded again with new turf throughout in 2019.
Jack Nicklaus redesigned this course for one dollar. Golfweek still calls it the best municipal course in Florida.
The accolades followed the price tag, not the other way around. Golfweek Magazine ranked it No. 1 among municipal courses in Florida and 27th in America, and the Palm Beach Post voted it the No. 1 public course in Palm Beach County. This fall, the Village is turning the course into a race for the 7th year running: the North Palm Beach LINKS 5K Ghost Run on Saturday, October 31, 2026, sends a 3.1-mile route through the newly renovated Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. Runners in costume get to see the front nine the way a $1 renovation left it, on foot, for free.
A calendar built by the parks department, not a homeowners' association
The pattern at Anchorage Park runs the same way all season. In late July alone, the Village's calendar listed Make Your Mark on the Park on July 23 from 10 to 11 a.m., Storytime and Craft at Anchorage Park on July 25 from 10 to 11 a.m., and Dog Days of Summer on July 27 from 8 to 9 a.m., all at the same 603 Anchorage Drive address. None of it required an invitation.
The park's marquee event is older than most of the condo towers going up along the Intracoastal right now. The Anchorage Aweigh Fishing Tournament has run for two decades, with one year lost to Covid, which is why the Village still calls it the 19th annual event even though it is technically the 20th year of the tournament. The mechanics have not changed:
- Inshore anglers put lines in the water at 6 a.m. and fish for trout, sheepshead, and snapper, with weigh-in at the Anchorage Park Marina from noon to 3 p.m.
- Offshore anglers head out for king, dolphin, wahoo, mutton snapper, and grouper on the same clock.
- Everyone regroups for a cookout, entertainment, and an awards celebration that starts at 5 p.m., with raffles for anyone who stuck around.
If you want to throw your own party at Anchorage Park instead of waiting for the Village to throw one, the gazebo rents for $25 an hour for North Palm Beach residents who can show proof of residency. That is not a typo and it is not a members' rate. It is the going price for public space in a village that treats public space as the point.
The marina that doesn't gatekeep
The same logic holds along the Intracoastal at the North Palm Beach Marina, a sheltered, key-hole shaped basin with 107 slips built on hardwood-decked floating docks, accommodating vessels from 45 to 150 feet and open to the public seven days a week. Boaters big enough to need a 150-foot slip and boaters who just want to gas up for the weekend use the same public facility. It is a separate spot from the fishing tournament's weigh station at the Anchorage Park Marina, but it runs on the identical logic: no gate, no membership roster, just a dock.
Dinner is still Frigate's, not a debut
Ask a longtime resident where to eat on a Tuesday and you will not hear about a reservation list. You will hear about Frigate's Waterfront Bar & Grill, a boat-in bar and grill at 400 US-1 in North Palm Beach, tucked beneath the palms with island music and a casual, come-as-you-are feel. You will hear about The Groves Coffee House, where the appeal is sun-drenched tables, locally roasted coffee, and fresh açaí bowls in an airy space. You will hear about Park Ave BBQ, the rib place on US-1 known for its funny bones rib ends and a sweet tea marinated chicken sandwich, about Duffy's Sports Grill for a reliable grilled chicken sandwich and wings on game night, and about Thai Lotus, the small spot where the kitchen keeps a balanced spice rack and turns out a properly charred Pad Thai.
None of that is a knock. It is the point. While Lake Park's newest tenant built a 7,500-square-foot, 221-seat restaurant designed to be a destination, North Palm Beach's restaurant row stayed exactly the size it needed to be for the people who actually eat there on a weeknight. The businesses that get talked about here are the ones that have been there long enough for the staff to remember your order, not the ones with a reservation waitlist and a press release.
What the contrast actually says
None of this means North Palm Beach lacks for quality. The golf course carries a pedigree that most private clubs in the county would envy, and the Village simply decided decades ago that pedigree belonged to everyone who lived there, not to a membership roster. The marina holds superyachts and center consoles on the same public dock. The park calendar runs on volunteers and a $25 gazebo fee instead of gala tickets.
That is the thing worth naming out loud if you already live here and have never quite put words to it. The Village is not under-amenitized compared to its flashier neighbors. It just built its best amenities to be used, not to be talked about, which is exactly why they rarely make the same headlines a $300 million tower with a celebrity chef does.
If you are weighing what a home near this kind of civic infrastructure is actually worth, or you are already here and curious how the North Palm Beach market is moving this season, the team at The Ahee Group knows this stretch of US-1 block by block, tee time by tee time. Reach out to request a concierge consultation whenever you are ready to talk specifics.