The Palm, a popular see-and-be-seen restaurant and watering hole at the Westin Denver Downtown, is undergoing a makeover that will refresh the room’s decor and expand the bar.
Yes, the caricatures on the wall will remain — at least some of them.
“July is our 20th anniversary and the room just needed to be refreshed and remodeled,” said Cathy Cooney-Green, the Palm’s general manager.
The restaurant served its last meal Feb. 20, before closing for the remodel. The target date for reopening is April 21.
Regulars will return to a remodeled bar. While the bartop configuration stays the same, the area will now hold booths and high-tops, making for a real expansion of the seating.
The private dining room in the middle of the restaurant will join the common dining area. The remodeled will have three private dining rooms that can be combined into a single large one seating 100 guests.
But the biggest news for most patrons will be the fate of the 894 caricatures of .
Those images are now glued onto the walls. They will be replaced by caricatures hand-painted onto the walls. Cooney-Green is searching for a local artist to perform that task; the current caricatures are created a Las Vegas artist.
“We won’t be able to return all 894 images to the wall,” she said. “We’ll have to go with what the remodel can realistically hold, which is maybe a little over 100.”
So some decisions will be made on who makes the cut.
The menu will likely get a few tweaks, but its core — steaks, salads and lobster — will return.
“We’re excited,” Cooney-Green said. “We’ve been waiting a long time to do this and now it’s underway.”
William Porter: 303-954-1877, wporter@denverpost.com or @williamporterdp