The team behind Mary Lou's, one of Palm Beach's hottest venues, has just unveiled that its opening a nightly performance salon in the buzing new Nora District this December — just one month after Lillys, the same group's new rooftop restaurant, bar, and pool at The Nora Hotel. Both original concepts, they take Mama Hospitality from one West Palm Beach venue to three by the end of the year, in the market where it first established itself with Mary Lou's.
Mary Lou's built its reputation on bringing world-class DJs, artists, and performers into a room designed for only a few hundred guests, and that formula has since traveled to seasonal residences in Montauk and Miami and to activations around Formula 1, Coachella, and Art Basel.
Macs 44 will bring an intentionally programmed live production every night, combining music, vocal performance, choreography, and theatrical entertainment, with the show changing as the evening moves on. "We wanted to create a room where the entertainment isn't simply an addition to the evening - it's the main event," said Alex Melillo, co-founder of Mama Hospitality. "Every night will be intentionally programmed, from the music and choreography to the way the energy of the room evolves throughout the evening. It's intimate, theatrical and rooted in incredible hospitality, but ultimately it's about putting artistry back at the center of a night out."
Guests will enter through a corridor of repeating backlit bronze arches over a glossy black floor that leads to a planted bar. The salon beyond puts a curtained, arched stage at the physical and creative center of the room, ringed by curved banquettes, fringed chairs in tiger and leopard print, fringed table lamps, and a mural, all beneath a sunburst ceiling of angled brass blades. The design reinterprets the glamour, intimacy, and showmanship of a bygone era of nightlife through a contemporary lens.
The beverage program will take center stage, backed by a tightly edited food menu of five to six dishes: caviar service, small raw plates, luxury bar snacks, and late-night classics. A liquor locker program will let regulars keep their favorite bottles on property. The name follows the Mary Lou's playbook of borrowing from a real person. Michael "Mr. Mac" McEvoy, grandfather of Mama Hospitality co-founders Topher and Dottie Grubb, rose from Mobile, Alabama, to lead Sea-Land and R.J. Reynolds Industries. Outside the boardroom he was a trained opera singer and a consummate host whose love of music and entertaining was as central to who he was as his career in business.
Lillys comes first, in November, on the roof of The Nora Hotel, as three experiences under one name. Lillys Pool anchors the daytime, with poolside dining and service for hotel guests. Bar Lilly is an aperitif lounge built around cocktails and sunset, and Cafe Lilly, a full-service restaurant developed in collaboration with Starr Restaurants, is the rooftop's culinary centerpiece. Programming will run through all of it, with live music, poolside sets, performances, and collaborations that cross music, fashion, art, and food.
The Nora District is the former industrial corridor NDT Development and its partners have turned into a $1 billion mixed-use neighborhood of dining, retail, hospitality, and lifestyle.
"From the beginning, our vision for Nora has been to create a district that brings together best-in-class operators and gives people a reason to stay, explore, and return throughout the day and into the evening," said Ned Grace, Co-Founder & Managing Director of NDT Development. "Mama Hospitality has already demonstrated its ability to create concepts that resonate in West Palm Beach, and Macs 44 brings something entirely new to the district. Its combination of hospitality, live performance and late-night energy adds another dimension to Nora and to the continued evolution of this part of the city."
The salon opens in December 2026 and will run Tuesday through Sunday, from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.