Cojimar principal pulls plug on Hemingway-themed restaurant at The Esplanade in Palm Beach

The proprietor of a proposed Hemingway-inspired restaurant slated for the second level of The Esplanade is pulling the plug on the project.

In a statement e-mailed Friday to a reporter for the Daily News about his plans to scrap the 151-seat Cojimar Palm Beach, Joseph Hernandez alluded to his concern that his requests to the town for outdoor seating have gone nowhere.

“It is with great sadness that we have decided to terminate the Cojimar project in Palm Beach,” Hernandez’s statement reads. “Our position has always been that we will not be successful without outside seating. We don’t see how we can navigate this opposition and must therefore terminate the project. We want to thank our lawyers, architects and landlord and all those who supported us through the process. We will look to launch Cojimar in London and New York next.”

The statement follows a Town Council development review meeting on Wednesday when the council — which has the final word on outdoor restaurant seating — was set to take up Cojimar’s outdoor seating request.

But Hernandez put on the brakes on that. Last week, he was granted a deferral, a procedural punt he has characterized as “costly” when such delays for his project have been issued by other town boards.

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On Friday, Hernandez would not elaborate about the deferral, texting he was unavailable to discuss Cojimar matters because he was in Mexico City. Nor would he respond to e-mailed questions about claims from people alleging he owes them money in connection with Cojimar.

“All vendors who are owed anything will get paid as we wind the project down,” Hernandez e-mailed, noting that was his final word on the matter.

Cojimar chef-partner Luis Pous said Friday he was unaware of Hernandez’s decision to abort Cojimar Palm Beach. Reached by phone while he said he was overseeing one of his other restaurant projects in Bogota, Colombia, Pous added he was not surprised.

“We have had trouble” getting approvals for outdoor seating, he said, “which Joe has needed for this project.”

Cojimar, named after a Cuban fishing village Hemingway frequented, had been slated for a second-level Esplanade space where eateries have fizzled in recent years. Plans called for the restaurant to serve a seafood-focused menu influenced by Mediterranean and Cuban cuisines.

Renowned New York restaurateur Charles Masson initially was involved as a consultant, but he and Hernandez “amicably” parted ways, both men have said.

Hernandez, a biotech entrepreneur and first-time restaurateur, has maintained Cojimar’s viability hinged on outdoor seating. In addition to proposing four two-seat tables on The Esplanade’s second level, he wanted to situate 20 of Cojimar’s 151 seats around seven tables along the shopping center’s ground-floor courtyard.

Since December, the issue of Cojimar’s al fresco dining plans has been deferred twice by the Architectural Commission.

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Marc S. Reiner, a West Palm Beach attorney representing a former Cojimar general manager hired this past summer to help get the restaurant off the ground, said Hernandez is using the outdoor-seating issue as “a smoke screen.

“He owes people money,” Reiner said. “Work has been done. He has not paid.”

Reiner said his client, Christopher Werley, who in 2020 was instrumental in orchestrating the debut of Le Bar a Vin on South County Road, is owed for, among other things, three and a half months of consulting and management work for Cojimar, including overseeing hiring and managing contractors’ and subcontractors’ work on the project.

He said he has “more than enough materially sufficient facts” to support a lawsuit, “but ideally a reasonable settlement will be made.”

Owners of drywall, kitchen supply and commercial kitchen-hood-cleaning companies told the Daily News they also are owed money by Cojimar. Others who have provided services for Cojimar, including an architect and a law firm, declined to comment.

Officials at The Esplanade, who have previously voiced excitement and support for the project last summer and fall, declined to comment Friday.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Cojimar Palm Beach restaurant at The Esplanade no longer happening