Dinner in a cave or castle? See 7 of the strangest restaurants in South Florida

Miami Herald

01-04-2025

South Florida has seen some strange restaurants through the years.
If you think eating in a tropical rain forest at a discount mall is bizarre, you have never eaten in bed.
Or been handed a menu with wild boar and kangaroo specials. Or grazed from a salad bar under a hut. Or seen a menu with all prices ending in 2. Or had a waiter place seltzer and chocolate syrup on every table. Or eaten steak in a cave or a castle.
Dominique's, The Ark, Famous, El Cid, Jimbo's, B.E.D. and The Caves are long gone from the local dining scene. But old-timers in South Florida may remember them, and newcomers may enjoy reading about them.
So, let's comb through the Miami Herald archives for a look back at the most bizarre places to have a meal.
A review from Dominique's
Published May 18, 1984
Dominique's, that plushy, much-discussed restaurant in the Alexander Hotel in Miami Beach, may have had its shakedown problems, but its only 'fault' today is its tendency toward overkill. The food today is extraordinarily good and prodigal.
There's a tendency not to take owner Dominique D'Ermo and his cuisine seriously for several reasons. One is his seeming penchant for immodest hype. The front part of his menu - a veritable tome - lauds him and his accomplishments ad nauseum, and there are photographs of him holding up big fish in all too many areas of the hotel. Other pages of the menu are comical and sometimes a turnoff with graphic sketches of rattlesnake, kangaroo and buffalo, calling attention to dishes made with these unfortunate species.
All this gimmickry gives an impression of more showmanship than substance; in fact, there are only a minimum of these dishes. Instead, one finds French cooking at its most complex and wondrous best. Sauces are exceptional. Seasonings are positive and savory. The restaurant, like the hotel in which it is housed, is dazzling. Long wooded and glassed-in walkways, looking out upon terraces and gardens, lead into the restaurant, a marvel of polished, carved woods, Oriental rugs, Louis XV chairs and impeccably appointed tables. The soft pink of the tablecloths is stunningly accented against green-rimmed china.
In the kind of backdrop that breeds pretension, captains and waiters are surprisingly relaxed and friendly; they also are professional and alert. One dines on such sophisticated and opulent appetizers as smoked salmon ravioli (a special on a recent night, $10), which were fat puffs of pasta stuffed with salmon and seasonings. The ravioli were topped with a heavenly lobster sauce, which was scattered with bits of salmon and lobster. Another special, the seviche ($10), combines impeccably fresh seafood in a coriander-scented sauce of lime and oil.
And don't let the notion of buffalo meat turn you off. Though not that commonplace on restaurant menus, buffalo meat tastes much like beef and is available to restaurants specializing in game. Dominique's buffalo sausages ($5.75), served in a superb bordelaise sauce with mushrooms, and garnished with whole baby carrots, broccoli flowers and fresh- cooked spinach, are wondrously coarse in texture, redolent with pungent flavors and infinitely satisfying.
Entrees are equally spellbinding and a bit overwhelming. A special of the evening, for example, was thick veal scallops ($28), cooked to tender pink perfection, topped with generous slices of goose liver, placed over firm fettuccine and enfolded in a creamy peppercorn sauce. It's an inspired and delicious culinary masterwork. Even more complex and skillfully executed was the cailles roties ($17.50), a serving of three roasted quail, each topped with soft fried quail eggs, and placed over a piquant honey and raspberry vinegar sauce liberally scattered with chanterelle mushrooms. Grilled salmon ($18.75) on the other hand, fairly floated with lightness, the fresh meat cooked to creamy perfection, the accompanying watercress and dill sauce airy and aromatic.
Five vegetables accompany each entree, and on this night there were crisp-cooked, tomato-laced string beans, tiny whole carrots, broccoli and cauliflower florets and a pudding-like potato square that layered thin multi-slices of potato with cream and cheese. Now you understand what I mean about excess.
Even the desserts are unremittingly sumptuous. Blackout cake ($4) is at least six inches high, dense and sandwiched with thick, rich chocolate butter cream. It is, without doubt, the best chocolate cake you'll ever taste. Another dessert, which the name-dropping Dominique says in the menu honors his friends Farrah Fawcett and Liz Taylor, combines chocolate-dribbled whipped cream with chocolate truffles ($5.95). Apple tart is layered high with apples and raisins over a rich, thick crust. Dessert portions are abundant.
As one might suspect, there is not an abundance of modestly priced wines here, but there are a few in the $15 to $20 range. Our choice was an eminently drinkable 1982 Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages, priced at $16. As it stands today, Dominique's is one of South Florida's great restaurants.
The Famous
Published Aug. 7, 2006
'I can't believe I ate the whole thing:' A popular commercial's slogan or the chorus you heard from sated customers lined stuffed belly to rump outside Famous Restaurant on Washington and Sixth for the Miami Beach landmark's 36-year-run, which ended in 1981.
Oy, the food! Famous specialized in Jewish meals, at its peak serving a million kreplach and three million knishes a year. Like North Miami's Rascal House today, Famous filled you up before the entrees arrived with cole slaw, pickles, sour tomatoes and breads, but to all that Famous added a bottle of seltzer and chocolate syrup for each table.
Famous faces filling up there included Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante. But by the '80s, the young were getting into the nascent aerobics craze and balked at overeating. The elderly feared the area's rising crime rate and Famous flung its last plate of pastrami duck. The site, at 671 Washington, will soon be the Gem lounge.
The Ark
Published Aug. 9, 1996
South Florida restaurants are big on themes. You can eat like the Flintstones at The Caves in Fort Lauderdale or grab a grass skirt and go Polynesian at nearby Mai-Kai. Fifties diners, country cookeries, Mexican cantinas - you name it, we've got it.
At The Ark in Davie, for instance, you don't just go out to eat - you have a 'dinner voyage.' The early bird meal is 'Noah's olive branch for early doves.' And the only beasts you'll find here (aside from the animals on print upholstery) are the cuts of meat, from pussycat to lion-size.
But it's not just a playful gimmick that has kept The Ark, at least, afloat (sorry, we couldn't resist) for 18 years. This is a crowd-pleasing family restaurant that takes pride in its food - and the community.
Look around and you'll see little signs posted here and there. Customers pay $100 to put their names on these wooden plaques, and all the money goes directly to the Children's Cancer Caring Center, heavily supported by owner James Kleinrichert. Broward pioneer A. D. Griffin was the first person who wanted a sign above his regular booth. Then came former Davie Mayor Irv Rosenbaum, Cooper City Mayor Suellen Fardelmann and so on.
But the place draws tourists as well. Your Aunt Agnes from Omaha will love it. And this is not a bad thing: When we wanted a restaurant for guests ranging from 8 to 80, it fit the bill. There is a children's menu and classic favorites - prime ribs, steaks, seafood, chicken - along with more sophisticated daily specials.
And the bill won't bust your wallet either. Most entrees range from $9.52 to $14.92 - everything comes in twos, naturally (prices higher for lobster and bigger cuts of meat). Considering that each entree includes the salad and bread bar ($6.92 if ordered alone), and a choice of baked or sweet potato, french fries, linguine, rice or vegetable, this is reasonable for the budget-conscious. Even better, early bird meals also include soup, dessert and nonalcoholic beverage, along with rice, vegetable or whipped potatoes (baked potato or linguine, extra).
The salad bar, which sits under thatched roofs in a room with a jungle motif, features the usual selection of chilled veggies and macaroni and potato salads, notable for their freshness, along with a prepared Caesar with a mild but flavorful dressing, delicious marinated mushrooms and some of the best tomatoes we've had locally.
At the bread bar, scoops of butter are piled high - strawberry (with bits of real berries), herb and cheese, garlic, and regular (choices vary). Slather on sliced rye, white and raisin challah. We most liked the German dinner rolls, crisp to the bite but soft and warm inside. Then load up on sliced melon and big, juicy strawberries. You will have to yank your 7- year-old away from this table.
Save your bread to savor with a cup of soup. The choice this day was barley ($1.92), homemade and hearty, with chunks of beef and lots of veggies, well-seasoned without being too salty. Other choices are clam chowder ($2.22, $2.92), French onion ($2.92).
Dining with the early birders (OK, we can't pass up a good deal), we strayed from that menu of 16 entrees to select a special of filet tips pasta ($14.92). Tender chunks of the filet mignon, succulent shrimp, just-crisp broccoli and sliced mushrooms are tossed with the meat's natural brown gravy on a plateful of angel hair pasta. It's a winner.
Some of us attacked our early bird entrees with less zeal, probably because we were as stuffed as our stuffed sole ($9.92 early bird, $10.52). The light, flaky sole is a nice filet not overly cooked or overly buttered, wrapped around a rich stuffing of pureed seafood including shrimp, lobster and scallops, melded with breadcrumbs. A side item of rice pilaf was fluffy and moist.
Golden fried shrimp ($10.52; $12.92) are in a tempura light batter, tufts crisp and airy, not greasy, shrimp cooked with care. The same was true of the scampi ($14.52 any time). A half- dozen shrimp (still partially in their shells) retain their delicate flavor and thankfully are not too buttery. Accompanying linguine, however, was a bit overcooked.
The same was true of chicken breast almondine ($10.52). A big portion, the chicken was just a little overfried, but we liked the nut crust, as well as the side of homemade, skins-on, real-lump whipped potatoes.
If you possibly have room for dessert, there are choices like Black Forest cake and chocolate mint mousse. We had the bread pudding (all desserts $3.92) and it was scrumptious, warm and rich, with icing creamy but not cloyingly sweet. One of the early-bird picks, strawberry shortcake, comes in a parfait glass and is light and refreshing.
When you leave The Ark, you'll feel like you've eaten like a pig. Make that 2 pigs.
The Caves
Published Oct. 27, 1995
A place where the waiters and waitresses are dressed in faux fur outfits a la The Flintstones is bound to appeal to the kids, right? But Fort Lauderdale's The Caves, where diners hunker down in sculpted, cavelike alcoves, draws as many adults as it does the junior set, including romantic couples who like the privacy, plush cushions, dim lighting and the ability to control the volume of piped-in music.
Yes, some of us might be overgrown kids who get a kick out of the unapologetically funky atmosphere. When we ask about the faux stone tablets that used to serve as menus, now replaced by standard laminated paper menus, our waitress waxes nostalgic. The gimmicky menus helped customers get into the lighthearted spirit of the place, she says. Spoken like a true cave woman. And our waitress, like other servers we have had at The Caves, is a cut above those at most restaurants because she cares about her customers.
The food - good, substantial fare - is a constant as well.
We choose from an appetizer list that includes shrimp cocktail ($7.50), escargot ($6.95), fried mozzarella ($4.95) and a combination of items that range from $4.95 to $6.95 if ordered separately: bay shrimp, grilled mushrooms, fried zucchini and baby back ribs. We try this sampler, which costs $16.95 and would easily satisfy a party triple the size of our twosome -- the platter boasts at least a half-dozen of each item. The fried mushrooms and zucchini are particularly tasty with a crunchy, parchment-thin coat of golden-fried, rice-flour batter; the ribs are meaty and not at all greasy; the mushrooms are huge and juicy.
Entrees are about evenly divided between classic meat and seafood dishes. Steaks are a staple at The Caves, with nine cuts, ranging from a baby filet with mushrooms for $14.95 to a large filet mignon called the 'Cave Man' for $21.95, to a luxe steak Diane, cooked tableside for $23.95. Chicken comes in many styles, too, from marsala ($13.95) to tempura served with a brandied plum sauce ($14.95). Nine seafood dishes are also offered, including salmon ($14.95), dolphin ($14.95), shrimp tempura ($17.95) and baked stuffed shrimp ($19.95). The fish dishes can be order cooked in a variety of ways, from broiled to Francaise.
I opt for a lobster tail (market price this day of $24.95) and a baked potato. The tail is so plump and succulent I have room for but a bite or two of the handsome potato. The lobster is served with drawn butter in a candle-lit warmer.
Meantime, my dining companion makes short work of the Cave Man filet, a delicious behemoth served with grilled onions and a mound of fluffy white rice, garnished with chicory and orange and lemon wedges.
All dinners include a trip to the soup-and-salad bar plus rice or potatoes. The salad bar is one of the better ones we've seen, with sweet homemade Bahamian bread and cream of broccoli soup plus plenty of fresh, raw greens and vegetables. The iceberg tossed with baby greens and fresh-cooked and chilled peas and radishes also excels.
Desserts include carrot cake ($3.95), chocolate beast ($5.25) key lime mousse pie ($3.95), cheesecake with raspberry sauce (4.95) and ice cream ($2.95). Despite some reservations, we try the key lime mousse pie. When the pretty piece of fluff was placed in front of us, we were still skeptical that any altering of the Florida classic was tempting disaster. But it was love at first bite. The properly pale filler is light and tart; the crust is a sensational blend of graham crackers and coconut. Topping off the treat is a buttermint garnish.
We do not miss the 'stone carving' menus with unsightly Band-aids taped over -- or dangling at half-mast from -- items the kitchen was out of. Even Bedrock can benefit from a little modernity. But kids (of all ages) will still find plenty to enjoy at this place that calls chicken chunks for the kids 'fried pterodactyl' and fried bay shrimp 'sea monsters.' As for us, throw another shrimp on the barbie, Barney.
El Cid
Published July 8, 1999
Like victorious barbarians in a war between the present and the past, bulldozers this week tore into the towers and walls of a Miami castle that once housed El Cid restaurant. As the demolition progressed, few details about the future of the lot at 117 NW 42nd Ave. were revealed.
'We cannot release any information about the property,' said Stacey Barker, an administrative assistant for the Coral Gables law firm Bared & Associates. Public records show the Le Jeune Road castle deed was purchased for $1.8 million in 1996 by the Fleece Group. Bared & Associates represents Fleece Group.
The eccentric, medieval-mimicking structure had presided over Little Havana for as long as the memories of many of its residents stretch back.
'It must have been built 40 or 50 years ago,' said Felipe A. Valls Sr., the Little Havana restaurant mogul who co-owned El Cid for many years. 'I came in 1960 and it was already there. The actual building was done by an artist named Jose de la Guerra.'
The building housed an Italian restaurant called the Red Diamond when Valls bought it in the mid-1970s. He and a partner, Juan Garrido, remodeled the 19,000-square foot castle to look more medieval and reopened it as the Spanish restaurant El Cid. It would become a landmark in Little Havana.
'I never really liked the place on the inside,' said Valls, who sold his stake in the restaurant several years ago. 'The atmosphere was very cold. It felt like being inside a dungeon. But outside it was a unique place.'
Not all restaurant lovers in Miami agreed. In 1988, former Herald food critic Lucy Cooper described its interior with relish:
'This place will overwhelm you,' Cooper wrote. 'I'm hardly an authority on medieval castles, but with its curved, cavelike ceilings and walls made of stone, wrought iron gates and grillwork, stained-glass windows, rough wood-hewn chairs and tables set with brocade cloths, well, it certainly seems real. Simulated pewter water goblets and heavy earthenware plates clinch the mood.'
In 1992, El Cid Campeador paid $2 million to acquire the property from Jugarri Investments.
In 1996, the doors to the restaurant closed and it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means the property was liquidated. Valls offered $1.3 million just for the real estate under the castle, but that was rejected by federal Bankruptcy Trustee Jim Feltman as too low to pay off its debts.
Feltman eventually sold the entire property, including the building's contents and its liquor license, to Fleece Group for $1.8 million, and the new owners remodeled the facility and briefly opened the short-lived discotheque known as Excalibur.
Valls, whose family also owns Versailles and La Carreta restaurants, acknowledged that he was saddened to see the building demolished.
'It's always that way when you had a place before,' he said.
Dinner in B.E.D.
Published March 23, 2008
Talk about having fun in bed.
The youngest and newest club owners in South Beach are using their 20-something insight as a means to attract both the younger and older demographic.
Last year, Miami Beach native Lance Tinkler, 24, and Boston-born Lee Lyon, 25, acquired B.E.D., one of SoBe's most popular nightclub destinations. The first-time club owners and lifelong friends talk about what it takes to survive the SoBe entertainment and hospitality industry.
The restaurant and nightclub business is very competitive. Has this venture proved tougher than you ever imagined?
Lyon: 'It is tough. It's a business that starts in the morning and ends 20 hours later. You learn not to sleep anymore. It is back-to-back meetings with people [promoters, vendors, distributors, media]. Some people think that because we are young they can take advantage of us. Not so. Age is just a number, but our age gives us an advantage in knowing what people our age want. In SoBe you earn your respect by working hard every single day. You have to be two or three steps ahead of everyone else.'
Ocean Drive magazine photographed you with some hot models. Do you guys really live large like Hef?
Tinkler: 'We would be lying if we said we lived that lifestyle. We wish! The first month was a good party; then it became a business where every day involved planning and more planning. We are already charting out what we plan to offer Memorial Day weekend.'
What makes your version of B.E.D. better?
Both: We make it an one-stop shopping experience. Where else can you begin your night with a gourmet dinner, and then watch the entire mood change to an amazing party all from your private bed? We offer theme nights such as our staple Monday night Secret Society, which attracts the hip-hop crowd, celebrities and athletes. Tuesday is an open format party, usually featuring a fashion show. Thursday caters to the house music crowd, which are mostly European. And Friday and Saturday nights are live acts and rock and roll.'
When you are not working, what are your favorite things to do in South Florida?
Lyon: 'We are both huge sports fans. Going to a Heat game is our idea of fun.'
Jimbo's
Published July 1, 2016
James 'Jimbo' Luznar, who founded the famous fish shack Jimbo's Place on Virginia Key - where mayors and the destitute sat side-by-side for house-smoked fish and beer - died Wednesday night of Alzheimer's disease complications, his daughter said. He was 89.
Luznar, born in Eckhart Mines, Maryland, in 1927 had famously operated the shack on public park property since the 1950s without a lease or legal agreement - only a handshake until he handed it back to the city in 2012. Over the decades, the city looked the other way as it became a popular television and movie backdrop, a setting for model shoots, and a long-running dive bar where smoked fish and beer brought everyone from drifters to movie stars such as Jack Nicholson for a pint and a cigar.
But Luznar was the heart of Jimbo's, the city's custodian for the land, the one Nicholson drank with, who models posed with (and ended up in a Lucky Brand Jeans billboard ad over Paris), who threw a party every year around his April 6 birthday that brought thousands.
'He led a full life, a colorful life,' daughter Marilyn Fujarczyk said.
A former Merchant Marine, Luznar came to Florida in the late 1940s to work on shrimp boats from Oakhurst to Daytona Beach. He started his own shrimping business in South Florida with an uncle and ran it out of a bayside dock near the MacArthur Causeway and the site of the former Miami Herald building.
To make way for development, the city came to a handshake agreement to let Luznar move his shrimping business to public land on a picturesque cove in Virginia Key near the city's sewage treatment facility at no cost and with no formal lease.
There Luznar raised his five children, who remember playing in and around the Australian pine woods, boys and girls alike learning to be handy, Fujarczyk said. She remembers him teaching her, a real estate agent, how to fix a leaky sprinkler pump with an improvised gasket made out of a Frosted Flakes box.
'He raised the girls like he raised the boys,' she said. 'He taught us the right way to use a screwdriver and a hammer.'
He worked the shrimping boat with two of his sons, James Jr. and Bobby, fishing mostly for bait. His children rode all over Miami with their father as he sold the bait to local fishing and tackle shops.
Local workers ferried from his inlet spot on Virginia Key to help build nearby Fisher Island into a luxury area, a once-virgin land where Luznar's family used to go camping.
Luznar loved to tell the story of how Florida banker and businessman Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo, who developed Fisher Island with former President Richard Nixon, approached him about selling beer, said Robert Burr, 60, a longtime friend of Luznar's. That way, the workers would hang out at Jimbo's after work instead. But Jimbo's application for a license was denied.
'The story, as Jimbo told it, was that Bebe Rebozo then called his friend Richard Nixon, who pulled a few strings,' Burr said. 'Next thing you know, Jimbo had a liquor license and could sell beer. And he's buying beer by the truckload and his little shack became a hangout.'
Beer license taken care of, the spot quickly drew all walks of life.
And with its lush setting, Jimbo's Place soon caught the attention of film and television crews. It became a backdrop starting in the 1950s for shows from Flipper and Gentle Ben to Miami Vice,Dexter and the Arnold Schwarzenegger film True Lies, among others.
Every time a new production built a set, they left behind parts of facades that only added to Jimbo's charm: old shacks, a broken-down Volkswagen bus. There was even the time Hollywood stuntmen blew the roof of the shack for a Porky's movie.
Luznar was the cog that held Jimbo's together. He had small speaking parts in films, rubbed elbows with everyone from Nicholson to Mariah Carey and was pictured with a model in a Lucky Brand Jeans ad that ran in Details and on that billboard in Paris. Luznar's youngest son David, who died several years ago, called from Paris when he saw his father's smiling face next to the model.
Luznar continued running Jimbo's well into his 80s, throwing an annual party around his birthday that thousands attended.
Even after the jerry-rigged (and totally illegal) electrical setup caused a fire that burned down part of the building in 2009, Luznar rebuilt and went on with gas-powered generators for three more years until his health failed. In March 2012, the family handed control of the land back to the city and the building was razed.
Wynwood's Gramps took over hosting Luznar's annual party. While he wasn't healthy enough to attend the last two, old friends and customers still did, sharing drinks and memories and posing with a life-size cutout of Luznar, hands outstretched with a cigar between his fingers.
On July 17, Gramps will host another party in Luznar's memory.
'Jimbo the guy, and Jimbo the place are sort of intertwined,' said Gramps owner Adam Gersten.
Luznar's health took a final downward turn in February when surgery left him unable to come home. He died at Hollywood's Kindred Hospital with his family by his side.