The 10 South Florida restaurants we’re sad closed in 2025

Let’s not mince words: This has been a harrowing year for South Florida restaurants.

From Lucille’s American Cafe in Weston to Loch Bar in Boca Raton, diners have said goodbye to scores of time-honored eateries, and if you don’t mind us waxing philosophical for a second, these closings reminded us that our dining scene is fragile and fleeting — a poignant wake-up call, even, to enjoy the places we have left.

So consider this lineup of 10 shuttered restaurants of 2025 an exercise in stress therapy. We could name the culprits of the Great Dining Scene Shakeup of 2025 (and already have in a previous article), because we shed dozens of great eateries each year like old snake skins. But let’s instead celebrate why we cherished them in the first place: the rush of nostalgia, the savored last bite, the unforgettable hospitality on your birthday.

Maybe it’s as commenter Pam Charney posted in the Sun Sentinel’s foodie Facebook group, “Let’s Eat, South Florida”: “I came up with a term for this that I use. It’s called restaurant grief. It’s when one of your favorite restaurants closes and you mourn not being able to go there anymore. Can anyone relate?”

Yes, we can relate. We’re feeling restaurant grief. So here are 10 places in Broward and Palm Beach counties that we’ll miss the most.

BROWARD COUNTY

New York Grilled Cheese Co.
2207 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors
Closed: Dec. 1

When the funkiest sandwicherie on Wilton Drive was brand-new, back in 2012, its oddball vibe — cheese-yellow walls, Big Apple skyscraper wallpaper, late weekend hours — beckoned like a comfort food bat-signal for nightlife crowds. Other places might treat grilled cheese as menu-filler, but owner Leor Barak stuffed his crispy, panini-pressed waffle melts with ingredients that made other sandwiches jealous. Take the Meat Packing District, slow-roasted beef with white cheddar, horseradish-chive sauce and caramelized onions enfolded in rivers of mozzarella, Swiss and brie; or the Fifth Avenue, fried chicken tossed in sweet Sriracha, Muenster and pepper jam. We’ll be thinking about those dipping cups of tomato-basil bisque for years to come.

Lucille’s American Cafe
2250 Weston Road, Weston
Closed: Aug. 31

Part 1940s-style cafe and part comfort-food institution, Lucille’s was a welcome wagon for a city in its infancy. The lunch-dinner destination debuted in 1999, back when Weston was a toddler, and grew up alongside the city under longtime owners Paul and Beth Nunez, serving homey fare such as roast turkey dinners, fork-tender baby back ribs, meatloaf in mushroom gravy and chicken pot pie in a dining room that played Great American Songbook tunes round-the-clock. The COVID-19 pandemic hit them hard, as did the sluggish return to in-person dining, Beth Nunez said, until landlord negotiations this summer stalled out and forced them to close. The couple’s Lucille’s outpost in Winter Haven remains open.

Christine Lee’s
801 Silks Run, Hallandale Beach
Closed: Sept. 21

How often did days of betting on the ponies end with evenings of defeat and sake at this Chinese staple, which held court for 18 years at Gulfstream Park, overlooking the track? Too many, we think, and somehow not enough. The 200-plus seater, which closed in September when second-generation owner Mary Lee decided to retire, held many locations over its impressive 55-year run including spots in Sunny Isles Beach and even Tamarac before landing in Hallandale Beach in 2007. The place became renowned for its spare ribs slathered in the chef’s slightly sweet, tangy barbecue sauce, Peking duck and pan-fried noodles in a garlicky sauce.

Swirl Wine Bistro
4976 W. Atlantic Blvd., Margate
Closed: June 27

Overlooked and underappreciated in a sea of Margate menu sameness, this gem from chef Judith Able (winner of the Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games”) and her husband, co-owner Mike Able, was a singular place, delighting adventurous palates with a rich Caribbean-European fusion. That they did so at two nondescript strip-mall locations for five years is impressive in itself, but their rotating menu definitely helped: pumpkin risotto, oxtail ravioli, pan-fried alligator and sausage dumplings, jerked chicken drumettes, poached pear salads, pork-belly tacos with apple coleslaw and Cornish hens — all got punched up with island spice and paired with sumptuous boutique wines and local art on the dining-room walls.

Char-Hut
12221 Taft St., Pembroke Pines
Closed: May 24 

Back in 1976, a multigenerational family weary of New York winters led by patriarch Joe Cammisa morphed a Royal Castle on Miami Gardens Drive into a mecca for juicy, smoky charbroiled burgers. So began the legend of this burger icon — beloved by Burger Beast blogger Sef Gonzalez and many others — which has grown and shrunk over its near-50 years of existence, then shrank further with the May closing of its 30-year-old Pembroke Pines location when the building was sold to new owners. Two Char-Huts remain (in Davie and Tamarac, run by Joe’s sons Michael and Tony Cammisa) and both still have chuck- and brisket-blended burgers on soft, poppy-seeded Kaiser rolls, chili dogs and seriously crunchy onion rings. Yes, many competitors abound, but Char-Hut’s simple flavors are such a testament to its longevity that we hope it survives another half-century.

PALM BEACH COUNTY

Konro
424 Park Place, Suite 101, West Palm Beach
Closed: June 2

First, the elephant in the room: Chef and co-founder Jacob Bickelhaupt currently awaits trial on charges that include attempted second-degree murder, for which he has pleaded not guilty. Which makes it especially hard to disentangle the man, his stated redemption arc or his alleged crimes from the lofty ambitions of his 10-seat chef’s counter. Konro briefly earned Palm Beach County’s first-ever Michelin star in April before it was stripped in August, after his arrest. During Konro’s 18-month existence, the counter presented a ballet of Japanese A5 Wagyu, dry-ice smoke, alluring oddities like drumstick cones of crackling chicken skin stuffed with foie gras and cloudberry jam, delicate bouquets of microgreens and other surprising morsels paired with exotic, small-producer wines from his partner, sommelier Nadia Bickelhaupt. If nothing else, the Konro litmus test proved, however briefly, that Palm Beach County deserved to snatch the culinary limelight, and can do so again.

The Butcher and The Bar
510 E. Ocean Ave., Unit 101, Boynton Beach
Closed: Nov. 9

At this sandwich shop and whole-animal butchery, the porchetta sandwich was worth the price of admission alone: pork saddles that co-owner Eric Anderson rubbed with lemon zest, parsley, shaved fennel and garlic, roasted for four hours, piled onto fresh ciabatta and smeared with gremolata and extra pork skin for added crunch. Or consider its New York-style dogs, made with chuck that chef Logan Gates butchered from the cow, stuffed into a casing and doused in mustard and sauerkraut on a soft split-top bun. Such were the ambitious aims of this downtown spot that scratch-made just about everything. (Ever eat bread-and-butter pickles brined from local cucumbers? You could here.) The eatery shut after a five-year run that even attracted chef Guy Fieri, who featured the eatery on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” in a segment that finished with Fieri downing a whole hot dog on camera. (We’re guessing he liked it.)

Loch Bar
346 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Closed: Aug. 31

A righteous whisky menu, live music that drifted across Mizner Park, briny oysters on the half-shell and jumbo crab cakes were reasons alone to frequent (and lament the demise of) this Maryland-spun mini-chain. But we’ll especially miss its fried chicken: Free-range, coated in house batter and pressure-cooked to yield all crunch and little grease, this bird was a sleeper hit, especially when accompanied by comfy garlic mashed potatoes. The raw bar quiet-closed in late summer, but continues to operate outposts in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Houston, per its website.

Racks Fish House and Oyster Bar
5 SE Second Ave., Delray Beach
Closed: Aug. 16

Northeast snowbirds and transplants flocked to Gary Rack’s highly trafficked perch off Atlantic Avenue for a dozen years, lured by bold, New England-y flavors: white wine-soaked clams, Old Bay-doused lobster rolls, chargrilled octopus and Maryland fries. That strategy worked right up until it didn’t. Premium seafood costs shot up this year and customers visited less often this summer, prompting Rack, staring down a lease renewal with higher rent, to close his seafood shack for good. “I can’t just keep pricing fish higher and higher until no one wants to pay it,” Rack told the Sun Sentinel.

HONORABLE MENTION

Tom Jenkins’ Bar-B-Q
1236 S. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale
Closing: Dec. 21

We’d be remiss if this roundup of bygone eateries didn’t include this institution, even though it’s not closed yet. Harry Harrell and Gary Torrence’s mighty Southern pit-stop, closing after 36 years, presided over the Federal Highway drag with a staff in perpetual motion: flipping slow-cooked brisket, chicken and St. Louis-style ribs on the 6-by-10-foot pit, chopping juicy pork in the kitchen, ladling mac ‘n’ cheese for the masses. After starting its life as a food trailer across the street slinging barbecue and sweet sauces, the longtime friends said the 40-seat Tom Jenkins’ will close because of higher meat costs and because it’s time to retire. Its imminent closing, as with the other nine restaurants on this list, will leave a void in our local culinary scene.