Tropical Acres Steakhouse -- a Dania Beach restaurant that served as a dining time machine to postwar Florida -- erupted in an early morning blaze today.
See the slideshow of the damage here.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue units found the restaurant engulfed in flames when they arrived at 3:51 a.m. The restaurant was closed at the time of the fire, and no injures were reported, according to BSO. Homes nearby
were evacuated and Griffin Road closed.
Since 1949, Tropical
Acres has stood as a relic of an era in Florida where men wore jackets
to dine and the Everglades started just west of the Florida East Coast Railway train tracks.
The restaurant was as known for the simple steaks and fried shrimp it
served up as it was for its neon sign pointing tourists west from Federal
Highway.
In 2008, New Times named it the Best Place to Dine with Gramps and offered this:
"Let those newfangled joints open with their fusion this and raw that;
Tropical Acres will outlast them all. And it'll do it in a way that
makes Gramps proud, with recession-proof prices and refinement."
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