Coral Gables has been waiting for this restaurant to reopen. Here’s what’s happening at Christy’s
Four months after Christy’s announced it planned to reopen, the windows remain dark at the restaurant that has stood on Ponce De Leon Boulevard for 42 years. That’s about to change. The restaurant signed a new lease Thursday with its longtime managing partner now as the owner, and he plans to reopen Jan. 15.
“The vaccine is out, people are starting to feel more comfortable, so I think it’s better timing,” said owner Chris Klaic, who had worked at the restaurant for 25 years.
For a while Christy’s future was uncertain. The building in which the restaurant resides was sold earlier this year, but Klaic bought the name from founder Charles Hauser and spoke to the new landlords about signing a new lease.
He was a week away from signing, he said, when restaurant dining rooms were ordered closed a second time in July to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Klaic held off on signing the deal.
“Thank goodness I didn’t do it,” he said.
Klaic spent the next several months waiting for the COVID-19 numbers to lower, while also looking for backup locations. But he decided moving Christy’s to a new spot was a bad idea.
“It’s so difficult to recreate Christy’s. It’s like Joe’s (Stone Crab) or The Forge. I had almost given up,” he said.
But Klaic said the new building owners offered him a favorable lease, which he signed Dec. 17. The staff will spend the next few weeks painting and making minor repairs, with the goal of reopening the second week of 2021. And when it does reopen, Christy’s will have the same longtime general manager, Juliana Parada, and menu, prepared by the same chef, Haitian-American Morales Francois, who has run the kitchen since 1994.
“Why change it if it’s working for all these years?” Klaic said.
3101 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables