By Coral Gables Gazette staff
The clock was ticking on approval of renowned FIFA World Cup watch parties at famed Coral Gables restaurant Fritz and Franz Bierhaus. And now, full time has been called.
Owner Harald Neuweg told the Miami Herald that he sent Mayor Vince Lago an email Tuesday evening after the meeting in which commissioners, led by the mayor, once again deferred approval of a special permit which would allow the watch parties, telling him that, “As of Tuesday evening, the Bierhaus is on sale.”
Neuweg, 67, told the Herald he has officially withdrawn his application to use the public plaza outside the restaurant for World Cup watch parties and now intends to relocate the longtime business out of Coral Gables entirely, possibly to Miami or Coconut Grove.
“I do not want to be in the city,” Neuweg told the Herald. “I’m furious. I’m dead serious, I’ve had enough.”
The decision marks a dramatic escalation in an increasingly bitter standoff between the city and the owner of the popular German restaurant, which for more than two decades has become synonymous with international soccer tournaments in South Florida.
As previously reported by the Coral Gables Gazette, commissioners on Tuesday again delayed voting on a proposal that would have allowed Fritz and Franz to transform the adjacent plaza into an outdoor viewing area for select World Cup matches through July 19. Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara cited concerns over public safety, staffing demands on police and fire personnel, traffic and noise.
Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez opposed the delay, arguing the city was missing an opportunity to embrace the World Cup as a community event.
Under the revised plan negotiated with city staff, Fritz and Franz had agreed to reduce the size of the activation, hire off-duty police officers, provide cleanup crews and pay roughly $70,000 in city-related costs. Neuweg also reportedly spent $1,000 securing a FIFA public viewing license.
But Neuweg told the Herald he believed the repeated delays and shifting negotiations had become untenable, describing the May 5 commission meeting as “more a trial with cross examination of me.”
In recent social media posts, Neuweg also lamented what he described as the loss of longtime Coral Gables traditions tied to the restaurant, including Bluesfest and Oktoberfest, while accusing city leaders of trying to “kill the best World Cup, Euro and Copa America watch party in South Florida.”
Despite abandoning the outdoor plaza plans, Fritz and Franz will still show World Cup matches inside the restaurant and on its covered patio. Neuweg told the Herald he expects crowds may still spill into the plaza area during major matches, though he said management will now focus only on operations within the restaurant itself.
This Post Has 23 Comments
Awesome news that Fritz and Franz is leaving Coral Gables. I am sure that the City has better use for the property that is being rent subsidized to Fritz and Franz. It is a great location for an Art Gallery.
Is your post a joke?
As a resident in close proximity, I personally think this is very good news, and wish the owner good luck relocating to another area more suitable.
This is another clear example of how this commission lacks the vision necessary to position our city in a positive way to compete with other communities. South Floridians have many options of where to go and spend their time and money. Coconut Grove, Brickell, Midtown, Miami’s beach , South Miami, etc…
Take a look at downtown Coral Gables and see how many businesses and restaurants have closed down recently. There are numerous locations for lease and many restaurants have close down due to lack of traffic and high rents.
The World Cup would’ve been a great opportunity to showcase the downtown gables as a great place to visit and enjoy!
This is a missed opportunity and they will regret it sooner or later.
Thank you little Vinnie with the big ego. This would be the 2nd soccer watching location pushed out of the Gables – home of FIFA. Well done, numb nuts!
What a missed opportunity. Worried about safety, noise and traffic? Stop so much development, that’s really ruining Coral Gables. And yes, Miracle Mile has so many businesses closed! It’s constant!
I agree totally! Very sad day. Lago is in bed with condo developers!
I’m not a sports fan but have enjoyed watching soccer on the plaza. The event is well done and the energy is fantastic. There are a couple of lame city sponsored events that could be canceled BEFORE this World Cup event. Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara please embrace this popular event. Also, I thought we were trying to help businesses, not hurt them.
I’m not a sports fan but have enjoyed watching soccer on the plaza. The event is well done and the energy is fantastic. There are a couple of lame city sponsored events that could be canceled BEFORE this World Cup event. Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara please embrace this popular event. Also, I thought we were trying to help businesses, not hurt them.
Vote them ALL out!!
Gables should be pro “local” business “and” pro residents. Fritz & Franz bring local flavor, not another chain operation to the Gables with reasonable prices for families to enjoy the outdoors wide open spaces. Not sure why the city is even charging the restaurant $ fees to host the event when taxpayers (residents and businesses are already paying plenty of taxes). Does Gables charge Giralda businesses to use the outdoors? Selective enforcement? We love and support the out door cafes and restaurants. Too much red tape, makes it harder and harder to stay in business…rising taxes, legal, insurance costs, labor, food, etc. etc.
Great, I look forward to seeing yet another beautiful empty storefront in Downtown Coral Gables. Many thanks to our ever-petty Mayor, his two sycophants, and the spineless Chamber.
I am not sure that many people care … am quite sure something else will follow there … probably better
Oh dear. This is such a heavy tine for our friends in Coral Gables. It truly saddens me to see such a vibrant, forward-thinking community make decisions that feel… well, less than optimal for the very businesses that make it special. On one hand, we cheerfully close roads for the charming little farmers market—bless their hearts, sweating out there in the sun—and on the other, we allow FP&L to artistically redecorate the sidewalks for months on end. But when Fritz and Franz, that true bastion of Coral Gables, that warm little slice of excellence, asks for just a few select days to celebrate what they bring to the table… suddenly the rulebook gets awfully strict. Even when the financial burden rests squarely on their own shoulders. That’s not just inconsistent. It’s almost playful, in a rather disappointing way. And to the individual who suggested the space would make a “great art gallery”—well, bless. That is quite literally the last thing this town needs right now. The restaurant family is already facing such a challenging season. Times are tender. These are good people doing beautiful, difficult work. To watch the city treat them with such short-sightedness… it’s the kind of thing that makes one tilt their head and wonder if we’ve all remembered who actually keeps the lights on and the tables full. Fritz and Franz isn’t just a restaurant. It’s part of the fabric.
I fully agree with Rob’s comment. Mr. Santos – the rent subsidized tenant to which you are referring is SRA Martinez who pays 66% of the rent that Fritz & Franz pays. And Mayor Lago refused to renegotiate with SRA Martinez after it defaulted for failing to open per its deadline. Lago does not care about affordable restaurant options in Coral Gables – that is not his idea of “World Class”! And he does not care about any sports or soccer bar in Coral Gables. He has turned Coral Gables into whatever he and his real estate developer allies want which then turns into dark space when the doors close. In the last 6 weeks, Lago changed our 100-year history of voting in April with Coral Gables as the only ballot issue and closed a local gathering place that we have had for over 3 decades. He knows he needs uninformed voters in November to be reelected!
Harald, have your CPA calculate how much the city gained in taxes over the years.
Money is the only language that us understood in the US.
FIFA + Fritz & Franz would’ve been a golden opportunity for Coral Gables to have worldwide recognition and publicity to boost business here and help the half-vacant Miracle Mile. Such heartbreaking news to see a cultural longterm gem being chased off. No doubt the loss of this well established Downtown Coral Gables anchor business will impact its neighboring businesses. So tragic that Coral Gables has a mayor who enjoys sabotaging his own city.
Best wishes Harold/Fritz & Franz team and thanks for the 25 years of happy memories!
Fritz & Franz is an icon to the Gables!
More empty storefronts, retirement homes, and continuation of driving the young generation of consumers out of the city.
Perfect recipe for disaster. Bring Fritz & Franz back!
Sad to see this happening. This is what small cities need. Very reminiscent of Europe. The City will now lose another business that has provided many great memories. They have a problem with the World Cup that happens every four years!! There is plenty of time to plan. They don’t seem to have a problem with the 4th of July, which is a nightmare for local traffic, or every time they close Miracle Mile for the annual Carnival On The Mile. Which if you’ve been to one it’s more than enough! They have been harassing this restaurant long enough. But hey let’s build 20 more buildings! That has zero impact on the quality of life of our small city. Let’s plant more mahogany trees that destroy our cars. Let’s spend more money adding traffic circles on streets that barely fit two cars. The commissioners are useless!
Face facts. This is a shaft to Fritz and Frantz, the soccer community, and the traveling soccer community that would travel from Broward to watch a game. Soccer fans have a passion and that passion has dollars behind it. Ancillary businesses benefit from the arriving, departing, and any over flow crowds. They just don’t spend money in Coral Gables they spend it on the way in and on the way out. FIFA sitting silently on the sideline as mayor Lago and his two commissioners gut an over 20 year ongoing love affair is beyond deplorable. More people will attend a World Cup game at Fritz and Frantz then actually voted to put this vendetta obsessed mayor in office. The city of Coral Gables gets what it deserves with its apathetic voters allowing this singular mayor to pompously act like a dictator.
Voting is our only recourse! Corruption in Coral Gables!
Mayor Lago & Commissioners closed down Miracle Mile for years, deleted 79 user-convenient, diagonal parking spaces and wasted millions to widen the sidewalk with cobblestones for people to walk past boarded up storefronts. They ran off the world class Miami Jazz venue around the corner from Fritz & Franz and now they are running off
a charming, local-owned German restaurant. The net effect of their micro-management is to make downtown sterile and uninteresting.
From bad to worse, to deplorable. It was bad enough that Lago was continuing his vendetta against Fritz & Franz, but absolutely unimaginable that with a World Cup on our doorstep, and FIFA in Coral Gables, the wonderful institution which soccer fans flock to would be so poorly treated by Lago, backed up by Anderson and Lara. Yes, as stated above, what a debacle, the city will regret this.
As to future use of the property (if Harald can’t be persuaded to stay, and I do hope he does) maybe it’s the perfect place for a dog park, instead of in homeowners’ backyards.