Last call for Duffy’s Tavern in Coral Gables?

Duffy’s Tavern in Coral Gables could be ending its 70-year run after the iconic bar’s owners recently sold the property. 

Wayne Russell and James Fabbricatore sold the business at the single-story building at 2108 Southwest 57th Avenue that’s been open since 1955, as well as an adjacent 3,150-square-foot automotive center, according to a press release. A partnership between Daniel Alonso and Marwan and Mahmud Shihadeh, three petroleum distributors based in Doral, paid $4.5 million for the two properties. 

Duffy’s will remain as a tenant for approximately one year, said Trae Kerdyk with Coral Gables-based Kerdyk Real Estate, who brokered the deal. The buyers are also researching various redevelopment options, including possibly a mixed-use project, Kerdyk added. 

Fabbricatore purchased Duffy’s and the adjacent property in 1988 at a bankruptcy auction, but the price is not listed in deed records. In 2009, Russell became Fabbricatore’s partner, corporate records show. Duffy’s, a building with a red-brick facade, was originally built as a residence in 1929. 

A handful of longtime watering holes in Miami-Dade County have shuttered in recent years. Happy’s Stork Lounge moved from its 70-year-old spot in North Bay Village to a new space in the same city last year. The strip mall that housed the old bar was demolished to make way for a mixed-use project with 333 condos and a Publix by Coral Gables-based Shoma Group. 

In 2020, Little Haiti’s Churchill’s Pub, one of the few bars to feature live rock n’ roll acts, shuttered after the operators and then-landlord Mallory Kauderer got into a nasty eviction fight in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Facing multiple foreclosure lawsuits, Kauderer sought to sell Churchill’s and several surrounding properties in 2022. At the time, he listed the pub for $4.6 million.

In April, an entity managed by Phillip Dillon in Miami Beach bought Churchill’s for $100,000, records show.