Friday, May 18, 2012

The Bonfire Restaurant Story

  
                                              The Bonfire Restaurant Story
                                                               1965
                     A true story, the Mafia, and my friend Ritchie’s Lobster business
                                      Written 2010 Re-written 04/26/2016
                                                       Howard Yasgar


This true story about the Mafia owned Bonfire Restaurant that was told to me by my good friend Ritchie.
Ritchie, in 1965, had reopened the once closed restaurant.
Most of the first part of my story was common knowledge to people that were living in Miami at the time. The rest of the story was told to me by Ritchie himself.
In 1965, I had been living in South Florida for over two years, my wife and I had arrived in Miami in November of 1963.
At the time, whenever we listened to the evening news on TV, there was a particular restaurant that always seemed to be mentioned.
It was called the “Bonfire” and it was touted as being one of the best barbecued rib restaurants in all of South Florida.
It seemed as though every time a celebrity came to Miami they were followed by the news media and interviewed at the Bonfire Restaurant.
It seemed strange to me that the Bonfire Restaurant was given so much free publicity.
It was like the news media was  promoting the place.
Eventually it got to the point that  had heard the name of the Bonfire Restaurant so often, I no longer paid attention to it.
I always thought the restaurant was located somewhere on Miami Beach.
But whenever we drove around the Miami area, I always kept an eye out for the Bonfire but I never seemed to find it.
Then one day while my wife and I were driving to Miami Beach by the way of NW 79 Street causeway, we passed through a small town called “Sunny Isles”, and that’s when I spotted the Bonfire Restaurant.  
Sunny Isles was just a small town that attaches Miami Beach to the mainland of Miami.
It had several large restaurants, located on 79 Street and it had lots of  condominiums.
Sunny Isles was kind of famous for such a small town, it was constantly in the news because of corruption or scandals of one kind or another.  
At one time, the town of Sunny Isles hit the headlines because there was a Mafia style killing that happened in a restaurant right on 79th Street.
The restaurant was called “The Place for Steak”.
A hit man walked into the bar and shot a another gangster that was sitting there having a drink.
The hit happened right in front of everyone and the killer just walked away.
The news media played the killing up big, inferring that Sunny Isles was overrun by organized crime.
So as we drove through Sunny Isles, I was looking at all the different restaurant signs when I saw a strip mall on my right, and there it was, I had finally found the Bonfire Restaurant.
Now that I knew where the famous restaurant was, I thought it would be a good idea to take my family there for supper one evening.
I wanted to see what all the hype was about, after all they said it was the best barbecue place in Miami, and I like barbecue.
I also thought, you never knew, we might get lucky and spot a celebrity there.
The colorful neon sign over the front of the place was depicting a bonfire and some barbecue ribs cooking over it, what could be better.
So one night we went there.
As you entered the restaurant, to your left there was a long liquor bar, and to the right were tables and seating for perhaps 200 people.
That’s when the menu came, that’s when the disappointment came.
Nowhere on the menu did it mention barbecue.
As a matter of fact the menu was no different than any other ordinary restaurant, there was nothing on it that couldn’t be found at any other mediocre restaurant in Miami.
So the Bonfire Restaurant turned out to be a real let down, there wasn’t anything special to be had there.
It was obvious to me that the Bonfire had something going on, especially with the news media that give them so much hype and free advertising they were getting.
After that experience, we put the Bonfire Restaurant on the “Never go back again list”.
Several months passed, and one evening I was watching the local evening news, it was just bursting with a tremendous story about the Bonfire Restaurant.
It appears the restaurant had been raided by a police task force that included the FBI.
The restaurant was closed down and boarded up.
The headlines said that the Bonfire was being run by the head Mafia finance man in Miami, Meyer Lansky.
They said that the restaurant was involved in the numbers rackets, prostitution, extortion, money laundering and a whole list of other crimes including bookmaking and loan sharking.
I knew all about Meyer Lansky, as he was the head organized crime finance man who once ran the mob’s casinos in Cuba.
Meyer Lansky was always in the news, and I knew that he had been indicted several times.
I remember watching on television when Meyer attempted to leave the United States and go to Israel. I saw him as he was returned to Miami, Israel would not let him in.
Then I heard that Meyer who was living on Miami Beach had died of a heart condition.
After Meyer’s passing, I never heard anyone ever mention again anything about the Bonfire Restaurant.
Over the next several years, as I drove by it,  I saw that the Bonfire was still all boarded up, and I soon forgot all about it.
Now, comes the story from my good friend Ritchie.
I had met Richie because he was involved in a similar Automotive and marine parts business as I was, and once we met we became good friends.
One day, while Ritchie and I were talking, he mentioned the Bonfire Restaurant.
I was really very curious as to what he knew about it, so I asked him, and he told me the following story:
As a young man, Ritchie started shipping in live Maine lobsters from Maine to Florida and selling them wholesale, to restaurants.
Ritchie, also had a grandfather who was living in Miami.
Ritchie’s grandfather, who was about eighty years old, had formerly worked as the chauffeur for the Mafia mobster Meyer Lansky.
His grandfather still wore his pistol strapped to his ankle just like he did in the old days, when he drove Meyer around.
Ritchie’s grandfather told him that Meyer Lansky had entrusted him with the keys and leases to the old Bonfire Restaurant, and he still had them.
His grandfather suggested that he and Ritchie open up the old Bonfire restaurant.
His grandfather said that because Richard was already in the live lobsters business they could make the old bonfire restaurant into a lobster restaurant.
He suggested that Ritchie renovate the Bonfire Restaurant and set up for business.
His grandfather made it all sound simple, all they needed was Ritchie’s money and his lobsters.
Ritchie never questioned his grandfather as to how or why he ended up with the restaurant, but he really did  have the keys.
So they both went to look at the restaurant.
By the time they went, the Bonfire had been shuttered for several years and the interior needed a complete renovation.
Now my friend Ritchie, had no experience in the restaurant business, so everything about opening up a restaurant was new to him.
There were contracts to be signed, furniture and supplies to be bought, and because the building had been neglected for so long, just about everything needed to be replaced.
Not only that but the giant liquor bar that also needed to be restocked.
Because his grandfather was a convicted felon, his name couldn’t appear on any of the leases and contracts, so Ritchie signed them all personally.
They eventually opened up the Bonfire Restaurant again and customers started coming in, but it wasn’t long before Ritchie’s money started running out.
Running his lobster business, and also running the Bonfire Restaurant was endless work for Ritchie, he was working all day and all night.
On many evenings some of the local Miami drug dealers would come in and throw big lobster parties, and those parties lasted into the early morning hours.
Richard was working with little sleep.
Every day new supplies and food needed to be ordered, and Ritchie soon found he no longer had any time left for his family.
Then, Ritchie noticed there was never enough money in the cash register to pay all the bills.
Ritchie noticed that whenever there was a few hundred dollar bills in the cash register, his grandfather would remove some of them and stick them in his stocking.
Every day his grandfather, would go to the liquor bar with a ruler, and he would measure all the whiskey bottles to make everyone think he knew how much booze they had sold, his grandfather said it would keep the bartenders and waitresses honest.
But when Ritchie started checking the bar receipts, things just didn’t add up, so Ritchie started watching everything closer.
Every day the head bartender would show up for work early and put on a big show of cleaning and prepping the bar, Richard said the guy even brown bagged his own lunch.
What Ritchie didn’t know, was that the bartenders brown bag contained a large bottle of Vodka that he was serving from and pocketing the money for himself.
Next Ritchie started watching the waitresses, and he found that some of them had actually copied the restaurant receipt books.
Whenever a customer was going to pay for a big meal in cash, the waitress would write up a phony receipt for pie and coffee and turn that receipt in, pocketing the customers cash.
Everyone was stealing from Ritchie and the problems were becoming too great for him to handle.
It was just about that time that Ritchie’s wife divorced him, and when that happened, he thought that he was at the end of his rope, he was considering giving it all up.
One evening Richard was laying on the floor in the kitchen, fixing a leaking hose under the dishwashing machine.
As he loosened the old hose, the dirty water and garbage came flooding out all over his face and chest.
Just as that happened, a waitress came in the kitchen and told Richard that there was a drunk loudmouth customer in the restaurant that wanted to see the owner.
So Richard slid out from under the machine and wiped the garbage and water off his face with a towel.
As he walked out into the dining area, he was worrying as to how he was going to handle a drunk and complaining customer, his heart was pounding.
As Ritchie reached the customers table, the drunk asked if Richard was the owner.
Ritchie replied that he was his heart was pounding even more. The drunk then extended his hand to Richard, and said, “Best lobster dinner we ever had”.
Ritchie returned to the kitchen, and at that point he knew he had enough.
Ritchie had lost all his money, lost his wife, and he was in debt up to his ears.
The Bonfire Restaurant was then officially closed for good.



                

5 comments:

  1. I ate at the Bonfire when Radio Weiner was running it. Interesting decor, all guns. Office? Full of guns. Knockoffs, I found out, most of them. I was just about 16, met Radio etc. Always wondered about the place. Thanks for writing.

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  2. Nice story but truth is, tge Bonfire was located in North Bay Village...not Sunny Isles.

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    1. Exactly! When this nonsense kept being repeated about "Sunny Isles", I knew this story would be of questionable value.

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  3. My family used to love the Bonfire. Not sure if we went to the Bonfire before or after the renovation you describe. We spent six months in Miami Beach in 1964; then we were there for a shorter period of time in 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1972. We thought the ribs were great, and I think a rack of ribs went for five dollars at that time. Do you know what is located at that spot today? I am very curious. Thank you!

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  4. In 1953 and 1954, I went to the Bonfire when it was run by Radio Weiner and his business partner, my uncle Sparky Nissenbaum, who was also a long time bookie in Miami. To the right was the Pinto Lounge, the bar area where the stools were covered in pinto horsehide! My mother, Sparky’s sister, was given 4 salad bowls, for some unknown reason, of which there is one remaining today. Sparky loved to entertain there, singing at the bar. He had an “office” in Sunny Isles, the walls covered with autographed photos of entertainers. Eventually things got too “hot” for him in Miami and he moved to Las Vegas!!!

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