Catching Up With PB’s Next Generation March 11, 2008 – Posted in: Press

By JOYCE REINGOLD
Published: March 11, 2008
Palm Beach Daily News

OK, so on my way back from Starbucks this morning I really dated myself by telling a young mother that her daughter looked like a “Breck Girl.” She smiled politely but clearly had no idea what I was talking about.

I have to stop doing things like that. What’s next — cracking Jack Benny jokes?

The Palm Beach demographic is definitely getting younger, with one sign all the Next Gen members active in the professional arena. Like estate and tax attorney Cater Randolph, son of the town’s legal eagle Skip Randolph and wife Leslie.

Or Nick Coniglio, son of restaurateurs Frank and Gail, at the helm of the wildly popular Cucina Dell’Arte. And attorney Lisa Small, who’s a partner with father Michael in Small & Small.

While in Chicago I stopped in at House of Kahn Estate Jewelers on East Walton Street to catch up with one of PB’s farther-flung Next Gen success stories — Tobina Kahn, daughter of founders Edward and Adele. Her folks launched the business in the early 1950s and run the Palm Beach branch, though Edward travels to Chicago to visit his daughter, the vice president.

The salon was just opening when my friend Robin and I popped in, and within minutes the place was bustling: young couples looking at glittering engagement rings; a man picking up a bracelet; fresh-faced employees offering champagne and bottled water.

Tobina dropped what she was doing and gave us a tour of her almost 12,000 square feet of space and, more importantly, of the dazzling jewelry cases filled with gems like this flower-shaped brooch with just shy of 74 carats of invisibly set rubies — oh, and .95 carats of diamonds.

“Everything big comes from Palm Beach,” she said, but also proudly pointed out that prices generally range between “$100 and $100,000.”

Our visit was timely — gold had just closed at 972.70 the day before — and Tobina explained that the fluctuating price of this precious metal is an estate jeweler’s advantage. While sellers receive the current gold price for their jewelry, the jeweler doesn’t raise estate-piece selling prices when gold skyrockets.

Running a business takes “a whole lot of dedication and real commitment,” she said. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she is at work 7 days a week.

We get ready to leave and notice a vintage photo of her parents on a table. Tobina is a ringer for her mother. And come to think of it, she could have been a Breck Girl, too.

P.S. Following is a Breck Girl ad, courtesy of www.americanartarchives.com. This one is way, way older than me. Really.