Tony Sindaco left South Florida in July 2015; after trying for 3 years to re-create the magic of the legendary Sunfish Grill. Once the most critically acclaimed chef in Broward County; Tony's journey tells us a lot about the Restaurant scene that has come to be in modern times.
Background
Tony and his then Fiance Erika DiBattista opened the Sunfish Grill back in 1998; a tiny storefront restaurant that is now the Jukebox Diner. Critics raved about Sunfish Grill; getting into the tiny restaurant was difficult. Sindaco told me that Peter Boulukos, now executive chef and partner of The Restaurant People (YOLO, Tarpon Bend, S3) used to go there on his anniversary and marvel at Sindaco's creations.
This was the entirety of their website in 2001.
It 2006, they took the big plunge, moving to Oakland Park Blvd to the location now occupied by Michelle's (previously Bobby Van's Cafe). They had an aggressive seafood menu. Remember these are 2006 prices.
For the first year, they were the hottest restaurant in town. The 2nd year; not so much. Tensions mounted. The couple was divorced in 2008.
There's some controversy as to who owned the restaurant; Sindaco had no money or lawyers, so he gave up the restaurant and agreed to a 3 year non-compete and moved out of the area. While he was gone, he helped open the Hat Tavern in Summit NJ.
Meanwhile, Erika moved Sunfish down the block and struggled to run it until they closed in 2015.
When the 3 years was up, Sindaco returned to South Florida and opened Sea. I met Tony a few months before he opened.
Free Advice
I gave Tony some advice when he first opened. I urged him to change the name of the restaurant before he invested a lot of money in signage. "Sea" doesn't Google well, and "Sea in Lauderdale By the Sea" is a marketing disaster. I suggested that he should name the restaurant "Sindaco's", to help to re-establish his name, and so that when people Googled it, old positive reviews touting him as a top chef would be returned. He paid me no heed. (He laster opened a restaurant in Pennsylvania named Sindaco's).
His strategy needed to be to re-establish his name and then move to a better location. The storefront in LBTS was never going to be suitable. I told him that he needed a bigger sign; a sign that made it clear that the place was a restaurant. He didn't listen. For the first 2 years, he had a little sign that said "Sea". Thousands of cars passed by every day, and you couldn't even tell it was a restaurant. In the end, he put up a bigger sign, but by then it was too late.
Stick to What You Do Best
Tony's passion was Italian food; his grandmother was his inspiration in becoming a chef. But he was a classically trained chef, and you don't have to be a trained chef to make Italian food. He tried to introduce his Italian menu at lunch; he had me in to try his spaghetti and meatballs and eggplant parmesan. Both were good, but not great. I don't need a great chef to make me a meatball. I need someone who doesn't mind slicing garlic and onions to make Italian. His Italian food wasn't worth sitting on uncomfortable chairs, even at a fair price.
Fish is what made Tony famous, along with his soup. But he wanted to make pizza and meatballs.
Lack of Business Sense
Tony simply didn't understand business. But he also didn't understand the restaurant business. He didn't understand why people go out to eat, and why they make the choices that they do. He didn't understand why his original Sunfish Grill was successful. He didn't eat out very much, so he didn't know anything about his competition. He used to tell me that other inferior chefs were 'lucky' that they had financial backers with deep pockets. He didn't understand that you make your own luck, and that his stubbornness and inflexibility were a key reason that nobody wanted to back him.
If you've run a business for any length of time, it's likely that you know that you need to make adjustments over time. You have to know why things aren't as good as they should be. You have to understand why people are deciding to eat in restaurants other than yours. You have to figure out why your original ideas aren't working.
When Sea opened, his signature Tuna Bolognese was $27 for a 3 course meal. At the end, it was $34. for the same 3 course concept. People didn't want it for $27, so Tony's idea was to stick it to his loyal customers by charging them a lot more for it. This is the last mistake that any "restauranteur" makes; he gives up on getting new customers and ratchets up the prices for his regulars.
I was intrigued when Tony came back to South Florida; a real chef in a city of fake chefs. But I didn't really like eating at the restaurant. I didn't like his rotating menus; you never knew which soup or appetizer he'd have on the menu. I wanted to try his Chicken Scarpariello, his blue cheese wedge and his escarole soup, but never knew when he'd be making it. You can't run a restaurant that way in modern times. In the old days, you didn't know any restaurant's menu until you got to the front door. Today, we want to know it before we consider going to a restaurant.
The biggest problem with Sea is that it didn't feel like a real restaurant. And people aren't going to pay $50 just for some food, even if it's really good food. The experience matters.
I asked Tony once about putting together a marketing plan, and he said that he didn't pay for advertising; he said he could just send out an announcement and get it for free. Guess how many businesses go out of business with that idea? A blurb in a newspaper that generates some business for a few days isn't a marketing plan.
Sindaco in Luzerne, PA
So now the man who could cook fish has opened a pizzeria in Luzerne, PA. I've been following him on Facebook a bit. Beet salad and a Pizza? It's kind of a strange place, with exotic soups from a master chef and $8 pizza pies.
In Dec, 2016 he closed his small restaurant in Luzerne to take the executive chef position at GlenMaura National Golf Course. It's the perfect venue for him; a fixed customer base of people who will appreciate what he can do in the kitchen. He can just focus on the food. And since restaurants in Golf Clubs are generally loss leaders, he doesn't have to worry about a business partner picking his pocket.
New Owner, Higher Prices, No Sindaco
The new owner tried to parley Tony's food for awhile and ran the restaurant as "Sea", but eventually changed it to "Frenchy's". I haven't been there since.
Food isn't as Important as it Once Was
The world has changed in the last 20 years, and the public availability of quality food and ingredients has changed the dining out experience. Today, eating out is more of a convenience than an adventure. In 1998, when Sindaco's Sunfish grill was wowing critics, the competition was Flannigan's and Bobby Rubino's and Roadhouse Grill. His fancy presentation was unique back then; now it's commonplace. You need more than pictures to sell food in 2014; and food isn't the entirety of the experience. People want comfort and convenience.
Most people around here can't distinguish between decent and great food; as they say, you can't sell good champagne to winos.
Special Occasion Food in a Fast Casual World
The problem with Sindaco's restaurant was that it was special occasion food in a fast food restaurant setting. People don't want to eat in a noisy storefront space on uncomfortable chairs with no privacy. He needed to get out of there, but he didn't do what was necessary to rebuild his image.
Tony Sindaco is Back
Originally Published July 5, 2011
Divorce is difficult enough; it's worse when you lose your business in the process. In 1998, after bouncing around in South Beach and at the Floribbean Bistro in Boca, Tony Sindaco and his then-fiancee acquired El Alma, a 30 seat ex-luncheonette with Tex-Mex decor near the bridge on East Atlantic in Pompano Beach. Without the funds for a build-out or even significant redecoration, much of the decor remained. The Sunfish Grill was born.
The rest is a bit of Fort Lauderdale history; the restaurant immediately got raving reviews from local critics. Sindaco had always been widely considered a "hired gun", and critics were wary of reviewing restaurants he opened; there's nothing that ticks off a critic more than giving a place a good review and then having the chef blow out of town. I was nowhere near Fort Lauderdale at that time, but I dug up some old reviews. They're all about the same; snotty critics with mixed biases of Sindaco the man; who all left the restaurant unable to hide their awe of Sindaco, the chef.
In 2008, the couple was divorced, and Sindaco was forced out of the business.
So why has someone with that kind of talent been unable to land a good job for 3 years in South Florida? Biased press favoring his ex didn't help; there isn't much truth in the media down here. But in a town where "named chefs" seem to be anyone who worked with Mark Militello; you'd think someone would take a chance. Most recently, Sindaco returned to his northern roots to help a friend retool a stuffy hotel restaurant into a bustling Hamburger and Ale house. The HAT tavern, located in the Grand Summit Hotel, features gourmet burgers and tapas. But ultimately, his heart was in South Florida.
So now, 13 years after transforming that tiny tex-mex storefront into one of the most critically acclaimed restaurants in the area; he's taken a 25 seat storefront that was built-out to be an italian cafe in sleepy Lauderdale-By-The-Sea. Abandoned before it opened, the tiny space has 10 small tables and a 5 seat bar. The bar has glass tiles that you wouldn't expect to find in a seafood restaurant; italian marble adorns the bathrooms. The tables and chairs also cry out more for espresso and a cannolli than a perfectly grilled sea bass.
The modest kitchen sports an adult-sized propane grill, one of the few items that Sindaco purchased for the place. You can't make great food on a toy stove. Unlike the original Sunfish Grill, where the kitchen and the dining room were difficult to distinguish, the pickup area is a cutout in a rear hallway, so service won't be nearly as chaotic. The bar is a bit awkward, with stools that aren't quite the right height.
Good, creative food trumps decor, they say, and if Sindaco can re-create some of the old Sunfish magic it's going to be tough to get a table here. Sindaco plans on a multi-tiered fixed price menu; with a budget price point as well as some higher-end fare. Seafood will be a central theme; the name of the restaurant isn't random. But you'll also have carnivore choices such as Filet Mignon or Top Sirloin. The way the menu will work is that you'll get a choice of appetizer or salad, pasta choices and a dessert. The entree will set the price for the meal, with choices ranging from $25 to $40+. The entrees won't be huge, but you'll get plenty of food, and a complete dining experience. Wines by the glass will be $6 to $9 mostly. No gouging here.
Sindaco scoffed at my suggestion that perhaps people's habits have changed; that they no longer eat salad and dessert with their meals. "They don't eat dessert because they don't want to pay $10 for a piece of cake", he says. Good point, I thought, but what about people who just don't eat sweets? "They can choose something else if they don't want dessert. The small plate pastas will be at the same price point".
The 3 years off has mellowed Sindaco and he believes he's ready to do it all again. "I've learned to be more flexible", he says. While he still doesn't buy into the mentality that the customer is always right; he understands that giving a growingly finicky customer base the options they need to leave fully satisfied with the experience and the pricing is important; particularly in difficult times.
Last week, Sea opened it's doors. Tony Sindaco is back.
NOTE: The Small Plate Pastas he referred to never materialized.
