Carlos & Pepe’s, the revered Mexican cantina, has permanently closed after 45 years on Fort Lauderdale’s 17th Street Causeway.
The upscale restaurant, under new ownership since June 2023, made no announcement on social media, nor through its website. Instead, a North Palm Beach-based Sunshine Auction Services on Tuesday announced plans for a next-day sale to liquidate the restaurant’s “complete contents,” 203 lots in all. The auction website, which mentions Carlos & Pepe’s name and address, lists everything from ceiling chandeliers and flatscreen TVs to back-of-house dinner plates and stainless-steel prep tables.
“Short notice sale! Short notice sale! Added at last minute, we are selling the complete contents of this upscale, like-new Mexican restaurant located in the heart of the causeway!” the company posted on Facebook. The auction is scheduled for noon Wednesday online and in person at the restaurant, 1302 SE 17th St.
Carlo’s & Pepe’s has been shut since July 1, after initially posting a “Closed for HVAC maintenance” sign on its front door along with a note describing the shutdown as temporary.
“We will be closing … until further notice,” the message read, adding that a Carlos & Pepe’s food truck would offer to-go orders “as an alternative option.”
Asked last week about the restaurant’s status, co-owner Paula Ehmke told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that Carlos & Pepe’s was “temporarily closed.”
“Right now the restaurant is temporarily closed (that’s the notice that we have posted right now) as we are trying to get our HVAC system resolved,” Ehmke said.
Multiple follow-up phone calls and texts to Ehmke’s cellphone went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.
The closing falls one year after Ehmke and her husband, Richard, took ownership of the iconic restaurant in June 2023 from longtime employee Roberto Martinez, who retired after 44 years, and locals John and Sandy Benz.
Ehmke, a California and Fort Lauderdale restaurateur (Café Maxx, Bistro Mezzaluna and Valentina Cucina Italiana), at the time told the Sun Sentinel she’d signed a 10-year lease and planned to “bring this restaurant back to its luster” with a refreshed decor and menu, adding that they’d get “rid of what’s not selling.”
Menu changes last summer prompted near-instant backlash and negative reviews from customers who complained about new food items, inconsistent quality and wobbly service. Others complained about the removal of classic Carlos & Pepe’s items, including its brown sauce. In response, the Ehmkes posted a mea culpa on Facebook, promising to earn “back [customers’] trust.”
“We took our shots online,” Richard Ehmke said in December 2023. “There were some that were BS, but others were well-deserved. I get it, you go to your restaurant and there’s something you like and all of a sudden they take it off the menu. That sucks. I’ve been there. I said, ‘Listen, you have my word, give me a minute, we’ll get it right.’ ”
Dave Alderman, a restaurateur and surfer from California, founded the cantina with restaurateurs Burt Rapoport and Dennis Max in 1979. Rapoport and Max left the partnership after a few months, but Alderman remained until 2017, when he sold Carlos & Pepe’s to Martinez.