Fort Lauderdale pitches itself as the “Venice of America.”And now a group of businessmen is looking to create a touch of Mediterranean ambiance in Hollywood’s much-maligned beach area.
Giorgios Mediterranean Village is scheduled to open Wednesday in a building at 606 Ocean Drive that formerly housed a restaurant allegedly patronized by mobsters beginning in the 1940s.
Restaurant developer Giorgios Bakatsias, a native of Greece, said he and partner Peter Tsialiamanis are spending $6 million to create a village that could be the harbinger of a long-needed revitalization along Hollywood’s beach.
“We are delighted. This is kind of the opening act in a play that’s going to run here on Ocean Drive for a long time,” said Chuck D’Aprix, executive director of the Hollywood Economic Growth Corp., the private group trying to attract developers to the beach.
The property that the new village sits on is owned by Gus Boulis, who founded the Miami Subs chain in the 1980s and who now operates the SunCruz casino cruise line out of an office in Dania. Boulis, who has also developed several hotels in the Keys, has put in a bid to develop a hotel at Hollywood’s Casino site at Johnson Street.
Bakatsias, 40, operates several restaurants in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina and was introduced to Boulis by a mutual friend. He said he intends to build on the history left behind by Joe Sonken’s Gold Coast Restaurant & Lounge, a beach landmark until its namesake died in 1990.
“I always like to build on history and this place had roots. It makes it exciting. And once I saw this site, I fell in love with it. There’s a lot of locations for restaurants but not many where so many pieces come together,” he said.
On the walls of Giorgios Grill, the 300-seat restaurant that will be the first piece of the village to open, hang black-and-white photographs from the 1920s and old advertisements for investments in “Hollywood-by-the-Sea” printed by city founder Joseph W. Young. Bakatsias said he found the items when he first looked at the building and decided to frame and hang them in the new restaurant.
The restaurant’s entire west wall is glass, giving diners a spectacular view of the wide Intracoastal Waterway and its boat traffic.
Just north of the restaurant, the team is building a bakery and coffeehouse. It is connected to Giorgios Grill by the wooden boardwalk that runs the entire length of the property.
Just to the south, a garden area is being created around a Mediterranean “taverna,” where customers can sip drinks and order appetizers, or “small plates,” while taking in the view. Bakatsias said he plans to offer entertainment. There is also space along the boardwalk to dock boats.
