Senor Frogs

Local investors paid $10 million for an Art Deco-style restaurant facility on South Beach. E.D.Y. Inc., controlled by Elijah Levy, Doron Malinasky, and Josef Lipkin in Miami Beach, purchased the 12,868-square-foot restaurant facility at 1450 Collins Ave. from a trust named Zori Hayon. The purchasers received a $7.5 million mortgage from American Century Bank in Coral Gables. The price per square foot was $777. The building once housed a Senor Frogs restaurant, which has since closed.

The structure was constructed in 1940 on a 10,411-square-foot lot. According to the Miami Design Preservation League, it was designed by Henry Hohauser and opened as Hoffman's Cafeteria in 1912. It served typical Eastern European Jewish meals until the 1970s. It was turned into a senior dancing venue named the Warsaw Ballroom in 1975. Then, in 1986, it reopened as the Ovo in the Warsaw Ballroom as a supper club, but it only lasted a year before it became the China Club, serving Chinese food with shark tank decor. It resumed the moniker Warsaw Ballroom in 1988, although it appealed to a younger party scene.

By the year 2000, the site was home to Jerry's Famous Deli, which featured European Jewish cuisine. Senor Frogs took its place in 2015, but the Mexican-themed eatery shuttered shortly after the COVID-19 epidemic began. The next chapter for this famous Art Deco home will be written by a new ownership group.

Google rating: 4.1/5

Phone: +1 305-397-8628

Address: 1450 Collins Avenue
Architect: Henry Hohauser