Himmarshee Bar & Grille, a fine-dining anchor of downtown Fort Lauderdale's entertainment district, closed its doors for good Sunday.
That's the bad news. The good news is that it'll reopen Thursday as PL8, a small-plates concept. The new restaurant will feature appetizer-sized portions priced from $6 to $10.
A temporary banner will be hung today, and a permanent sign should be in place before the reopening Thursday. Furniture is supposed to arrive today. It's a tight schedule for a restaurant redo, but owner and managing partner Dave Nicholas said the plans have
been laid to pull it off.
Nicholas said the need to remake
Himmarshee Bar & Grille became clear a couple of years ago, when it
seemed diners were coming mostly for special occasions. That's when they
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noticed many tables ordering appetizers only and sharing, rather than
going for the higher-cost entrées.
"I think people love
appetizers and love to share, so the idea was a menu full of appetizers
that they can pass around," Nicholas said.
The squash purses,
long a favorite of the Himmarshee menu, will remain. The cheese-stuffed
dates are, for now, gone, but Nicholas says that's because dates are out
of season. "They may make a return," he says.
New for the
restaurant is a wood-burning pizza oven that can reach 800 degrees.
Centered in the back of the room, it will be the focal point of the
dining room and churn out pizzas and flatbreads.
Chef Brandon Whitestone
spent weeks refining the menu. The intention was to use high-quality
ingredients without seeming too highfalutin. "It'll be our style of
food, our flavor profile, but very approachable," Nicholas said.
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