New food hall Block 40 headed to Hollywood

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The Great Southern Hotel at Hollywood Boulevard and Young Circle (1900 block).

Joe Cavaretta / Sun Sentinel

The historical Great Southern Hotel at Young Circle in Hollywood is seen, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Hollywood officials are taking the developer-owner, Chip Abele, to a special magistrate court Thursday over numerous code violations. He bought the hotel to replace it with a condo project, but plans have stalled over the long-standing eminent domain case. Meanwhile the building, put up by the city''s founder, is abandoned and decaying.

Walter Michot / Miami Herald

Famed artist Lebo pained a giant mural on a very public building the old Great Southern Hotel on the SW quadrant of Young''s Circle. Last year as part of the city''s push for public art. But the artist painted something different from what was approved. Some officials say the painting looks more like graffiti and doesn''t fit in with the image they were trying to create. Friday May 3, 2013.

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The Great Southern Hotel at Hollywood Boulevard and Young Circle (1900 block).

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By Ben Crandell | bcrandell@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel

UPDATED: April 24, 2023 at 2:30 p.m.

Downtown Hollywood is getting its first food hall, scheduled to open in September on a historic plot of land that was once home to the Great Southern Hotel, overlooking the iconic ArtsPark at Young Circle.

Located on the ground floor of the 1818 Park residential tower, the new Block 40 Food Hall will be operated by Society 8 Hospitality, using a template created at the group’s first food hall, the well-regarded Sistrunk Marketplace & Brewery in Fort Lauderdale. (Society 8 also operates popular spots such as Park & Ocean and Wild Thyme Oceanside Eatery in The Atlantic Hotel & Spa on Fort Lauderdale beach.)

Behind a new facade that simulates the nostalgic Mediterranean Revival warmth of the Great Southern Hotel, Block 40 will include 10 distinct dining kiosks, a large central bar, and a broad sidewalk patio with a view of the park.

Customers seated at tables will be served from the dining kiosks via the efficient order-by-QR-code menu model in place at Sistrunk Marketplace & Brewery. Bar service also will be available using the code.

Block 40 Food Hall is expected to debut in September in downtown Hollywood, on the ground floor of 1818 Park, a residential tower built on land that once was home to the historic Great Southern Hotel. The 18,000-square-foot food hall will sit behind a re-creation of the facade of the old three-story hotel.

In a step up from the typical food hall, Block 40 also will include a traditional restaurant, a combination taqueria and tequila bar with full-service waitstaff.

Society 8 founder Steven D’Apuzzo says he is looking to create a welcoming, food-oriented community hub that will incorporate casual dining and drinking, culinary classes, local artists and live entertainment. He has a metaphor for those ambitions in the distinctive setting of Block 40 — its graceful arches and awnings a relief from the cool, glass-and-steel monotony of modern urban architecture.

“I want it to have that retro feel, and they did a good job. I think it has charm. I think it has character,” D’Apuzzo says.

Steven D'Apuzzo of Society 8 Hospitality inside the 18,000-square-foot space on downtown Hollywood's Young Circle that will house Block 40 Food Hall. — Steven D’Apuzzo of Society 8 Hospitality inside the 18,000-square-foot space on downtown Hollywood’s Young Circle that will house Block 40 Food Hall.

Built 99 years ago by city founder Joseph W. Young, the three-story Great Southern Hotel was torn down in 2020 after sitting empty for nearly three decades on the southwest quadrant of Young Circle. The city and preservationists had attempted to save the facade of the building, but it was deemed structurally unsound.

At the time, Chip Abele, CEO of Gold Coast Florida Regional Center, developers of the 19-story 1818 Park residential project that rose on the site, pledged to “replicate, as best possible, the original west and north-facing facade of the former hotel.”

The Great Southern Hotel in downtown Hollywood in a photograph from around 1925.

D’Apuzzo says Block 40 will have a modern, light-industrial feel inside, but he appreciates the history of the location.

“We’re tying into a focal point for the Circle. It’s always been a place where people came to congregate,” he says. “It’s pretty cool that it was the Great Southern Hotel. It was really always a place of hospitality. It was an anchor then, and it’ll be an anchor now. Instead of rooms, it’s margaritas. Instead of a lobby bar, it’s the craft bar.”

Citing new residential development around downtown Hollywood — he says 1818 Park is nearly sold out — D’Apuzzo believes the nightlife audience in the area is expanding beyond weekend-only visitors.

An entry at Block 40 Food Hall in downtown Hollywood, where a re-creation of the facade includes the original tile signature of the historic Great Southern Hotel, which was torn down in 2020.

Block 40 is located between Hollywood Boulevard and Harrison Street, among the city’s most popular pedestrian thoroughfares, each already lined with restaurants. D’Apuzzo says he’s aiming at a clientele with different habits.

“Those are dining restaurants. If you look at their menu, they are driven on people sitting down and having a dining experience. We’re not that. So I don’t see that being direct competition,” he says.

D’Apuzzo envisions Block 40 as more of a pit stop in a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere that he likens to “the Las Olas stroll, the Delray stroll,” which may include dinner, but may just be about socializing with friends.

“You’re not going just to eat, that’s just part of your night. Maybe you’re going for drinks, and that’s another part of your night. What’s on your stroll?” he says. “Even if you’re somewhere else on the street, you’re going to end up here for that hanging-out thing. That’s what I think Hollywood is missing.”

For more information, visit Block40FoodHall.com.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.

Originally Published: April 18, 2023 at 1:32 p.m.