The Palm Beach hustle

GETAWAYS • Palm Beach

An FBI agent once told me that, at any given time, grifters make up about 10 percent of the world’s most prestigious zip codes. That sounds about right.

Here is my favorite con artist story. I was standing at the crowded bar at Le Bilboquet in Palm Beach. A man in his mid-50s, dressed in smart looking attire, began chatting me up. He dropped the usual local markers: “I just came from Mar-a-Lago... blah, blah, blah.”

I eventually moved to a bar seat, and the man shifted his attention to a woman standing near me. I was within earshot, so I eavesdropped. He asked her if she had noticed the pristine 1952 MG Roadster in British Racing Green parked out front.

“Of course,” she said. “What a beautiful car.”

He leaned in, confident and casual. He told her he had bought it at a London car show and shipped it to Palm Beach.

It was my car. Born the same year as me.

I left shortly afterwards, fearing that the grifter might have figured out how to sell my classic MG by the time I finished Bilbo’s sumptuous mousse au chocolat.

A Grift of My Own

Almost every morning, I swim in a secluded ocean cove in Palm Beach. It sits across from the late multi-billionaire David Koch’s estate, Villa El Sarmiente, an Addison Mizner-designed Mediterranean Revival masterpiece spanning two parcels on North Ocean Boulevard.

This compound anchors the northern end of Billionaires Row, situated just south of the Estée Lauder family properties. It is known as North End Beach. I’ve dubbed it Trillionaire Beach.

The massive rocks recently installed along the shoreline are part of reinforced revetments and groins designed for coastal protection. This ongoing work, intended to secure the Lauder shoreline and reinforce sea defenses, must have required a sophisticated marine landscaper.

The result is magical. The placement of the stones created a rare little cove on the south side, as you might find along the Mediterranean. In the middle of these enormous rocks, a tiny beach was also formed. It faces the Lauder estate and feels private.

The beauty of public beaches is that they remain public. Shark warnings, threats of parking fines, and non-working key-code gates don’t keep the persistent beachgoer, like me, out. The Koch and Lauder families fund the upkeep and meticulous protection of the beach. Bravo.

A tiny group of people uses the beach. I routinely enjoy the accidental largesse of the super-rich. That is my grift. –Brad Inman