Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House, a Sunny Isles Beach landmark known for more than 50 years for its kitschy sign, its striped orange and teal awning and its too-big-to-handle sandwiches, is slated to become the latest casualty of the small city's building boom.
''Things change,'' said Sunny Isles Beach Mayor Norman Edelcup. ``We are creating a new, luxurious Sunny Isles Beach.
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The City Commission this month gave the restaurant's owners, Jerry's Famous Deli Inc., the go-ahead to level the existing one-story restaurant at 17190 Collins Ave. and build a 15-story mixed-use project that will include an Epicure market, office space and residential units.
Epicure, owned by the same company, is known for its gourmet foods, an element Edelcup encourages in the new glamorous Sunny Isles Beach.
''We have come a long way from the two-story motels and corner diners of the past,'' Edelcup said.
There is no closing date scheduled, but the developers have two years to start construction.
''The owners will have to decide when they want to get it done,'' said Stephen Helfman, the attorney representing Jerry's Famous Deli.
For some of its 20,000 residents, this latest step in the city's drastic change from motel row to high-rise heaven means saying goodbye to a place that defines the small coastal city.
Robbie Moore, who had eaten the roast turkey platter with all the fixings at the Rascal House right before the announcement of its planned demise, said he couldn't ``imagine the city without it.
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''It saddens me terribly to see that place go,'' said Moore, who often visits South Florida from New York.
Replaced by a towering skyline are old motels like Castaways, Dunes and Colonial Inn.
The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau is setting up shop down the street from where Rascal House now sits to promote the city's brand-name hotels such as Acqualina, a Rosewood resort; LeMeridien, and Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort.
The restaurant that Wolfie Cohen built in 1954 hasn't changed much over the years. The red Rascal devil holding a pitchfork greets patrons as they walk to the entrance. If its walls could talk, Rascal House's would share the secrets of Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn and gangster Meyer Lansky.
But gone are the days when lines of hungry diners wrapped around the building.
Golden Beach resident Sydell Herrick said she and her husband Alfred have been going to the restaurant since it opened. When they're in town -- they live half the year in New York -- they go to the restaurant every Monday so Alfred can get the pea soup.
Sydell said her favorite is the stuffed cabbage.
''There really is no other place like it around,'' she said.
New York-style delicatessens have virtually disappeared from South Florida's landscape.
With the recent closure of longtime favorite Corky's, which started in North Miami Beach and later moved to Pembroke Pines, diners are finding it hard to get a bowl of matzo ball soup.
Joe Bardinella, who had been a regular at Corky's in North Miami Beach, had switched to Rascal House for his oversize sandwiches and pickles on the table.
''I hate to see it go.
It is the only lasting old-world deli in the area,'' he said.
The Nevels took over in 1984, buying it from Ed Lassman, who had owned it for 36 years. Jerry's Famous Deli's father-and-son owners, Isaac and Jason Starkman, now run Rascal House.
Attorney Helfman said the owners want to fit into the new Sunny Isles Beach, and Epicure will steer it in that direction.
For Ellen Wynne, who has lived in Sunny Isles Beach since 1952 and has been going to the restaurant since it opened, the shiny new skyline is no match for her memories of the Rascal House's sweet rolls.
''Rascal House is a part of our family,'' she said.
``We are losing everything that is Sunny Isles and that has been Sunny Isles. We don't have anything left.
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