It’s been three years in the unmaking.
The Yard, a bohemian collection of eateries and small businesses nestled away in an oh-is-that-still-there enclave in Wilton Manors, is slated for demolition.
Again.
Three years ago, developer Kaplan Residential announced plans to build an apartment complex — to be called Generation Wilton Manors — in the location with retail-restaurant space. At the time, Kaplan Residential president Morris Kaplan told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that three restaurants — The Alchemist Café, La Mexicana Taco Bar and Voo La Voo Cafe — had been invited to reopen in the new buildings.
Then came a long delay. And another developer, Waypoint Residential, purchased the site this past spring.
Out of nowhere, the remaining restaurateurs (Voo La Voo Cafe had already moved to New Smyrna Beach) received emails saying they had to vacate the outdoor plaza.
The deconstruction, apparently, is back on.
On Sept. 10, The Alchemist Café received an emailed order to vacate by Nov. 10. A matching notice was sent to La Mexicana Taco Bar the same day.
The Sun Sentinel’s repeated attempts to reach developers Kaplan Residential and Waypoint Residential have been unsuccessful. However, Aimee Adler Cooke, spokesperson for the City of Wilton Manors, confirmed what the ownership of both restaurants said about the receipt of notification.
“The city is aware that Waypoint Residential, the new owners of the property, sent notices to the tenants,” she said. “The city did not receive a copy of the notice, as it is a tenant-landlord matter.”
She added, “The property owner submitted a demolition permit application on Sept. 17, 2026. The development process proceeding is in accordance with city requirements to date.”
Diva Name, the owner of La Mexicana Taco Bar, said she felt blindsided.
“We knew that this was going to happen, that this was going to come to an end. But we were always told that they were going to let us know at least with 60 to 90 days, you know, in advance, and it did not happen,” she said.
Lucia Nunez, who co-owns The Alchemist Café with her husband, Bruce Brill, and her sister, Elaine Potes, said they had a similar experience, finding out that “we need to be out Nov. 10,” just four weeks before that deadline.
“It happened suddenly — so fast, so fast — so that’s why everybody’s in shock,” Nunez said. “We understood we would have three months. So we were relaxed. Then we got the letter. We have people crying. I really don’t know what happened behind the curtain.”
Still, Brill chooses to focus on the leeway the developer granted them rather than the sting of the eviction.
“We still want to be friends with them. They let us go month by month,” Brill said.
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar has received notice it must vacate its space at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors honors victims of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Half Time Sports Bar was a trial activation by The Alchemist Cafe next door. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Half Time Sports Bar was a trial activation by The Alchemist Cafe next door. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
La Mexicana Taco Bar at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Alchemist Cafe at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
(left to right) From The Alchemist Cafe at The Yard in Wilton Manors: Juan Manuel Berkley (manager), Bruce Brill (co-owner), Elaine Potes (co-owner/managing partner), Lucia Nunez (co-owner) and Carlos Martinez (friend and longtime customer) with his dog, Tucker. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
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The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
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A new start … in a new place
Both restaurants have plans for new locations.
The Alchemist Café closed on Oct. 12, but its website announced a rebirth in a yet-to-be-announced venue: “We’re taking a brief pause right now to prepare for something truly special: our brand new location. We can’t wait to welcome you back soon in an even more beautiful space where we can continue serving you the same great food and hospitality you know and love.”
Added Nunez: “We’re sad, but at the same time it’s a new beginning, a new chapter. We’re going to refresh our brand.”
As for La Mexicana Taco Bar, Name would like to stay through year’s end.
“You’re telling me that I waited the whole slow season that is summer and … now you’re not going to let us be in the high season … when we make our money?” she said. “You could have told me this at the beginning of the year, that we needed to leave, you know, after summer and then at least I would have had a plan, right? But you did not. I’m very mad about it. I have a lawyer involved because I’m asking [to stay] until the end of December.”
She already has a new home, though. Back when the initial closing announcement was made three years ago, Name found a backup location in Fort Lauderdale and closed the deal. The new address: 925 N. Andrews Ave.
“It used to be a Cuban place (925 Nuevos Cubanos) very dear to the community. And these three years has been for literally construction and permitting,” she said.
She maintains it won’t be an easy transition. “Just to move my hood system to the other property is $30,000,” Name said. She has started a GoFundMe page “in the hopes we can keep the team employed during this transition.”
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel
La Mexicana Taco Bar owner Diva Name holds her dog, Coco, in front of her restaurant at The Yard at Wilton Manors on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The early plans
Evan Anthony, who started The Yard in 2003 (initially called Eucalyptus Garden), recalls conversations he had with Kaplan Residential about infusing the Generation Wilton Manors apartment buildings with the property’s signature unplugged/offbeat/artsy vibe.
“They were going to keep the essence of The Yard … marrying it into a new development. There were no promises, but that was what the negotiations were about,” said Anthony, who now lives in Connecticut.
Anthony added that he also asked the developer to try and incorporate a mural at the back end of The Yard that commemorates the victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School: “I want you to see if you can keep this mural … out of respect for those kids that got killed at Parkland.”
He added, “We were able to use that as a sanctuary for the kids [over] the last five years to come and pay tribute to their fellow students. We were not using it to promote business there at all because it was never announced. It was just there for them. The Rock Garden was there for them. They came and repainted every year to have a place of reflection.”
There may still be hope for the MSD mural.
“As part of the city’s development approval on this project, some existing art elements will be preserved and reinstalled on the property upon project completion,” Wilton Manors’ Adler Cooke said. “In addition, all new development projects are subject to the city’s public art requirements.”
Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel
At The Alchemist Café in Wilton Manors are, from left, manager Juan Manuel Berkley, co-owners Bruce Brill, Elaine Potes and Lucia Nunez, and longtime customer Carlos Martinez, with his dog, Tucker. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A one-of-a-kind urban oasis
In its heyday, The Yard was a garden of not only restaurants but retail as well, an incubator for emerging businesses.
Among the painted trees, in addition to the cafes and bistros, there were artist pop-up spaces, a clothing boutique in an Airstream trailer, an antique shop, live music on restaurant patios and a palm reader. Just before you wandered along the pathway to the murals emblazoned onto the walls of a roofless building — there was Lola’s Market.
“Lola’s Market was giving women … a place to sell their goods, do their trade — jewelry, clothing, whatever their trade was,” said Anthony, The Yard’s founder. “It was a way for us to participate in supporting women in business. And if you look at the actual restaurants, the three of them were women-owned. There was Elaine and Lucia from Alchemist. There was Diva from La Mexicana. And there was Sylvie [Le Nouail] from Voo La Voo Cafe. So there were all women in business there.”
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Signage for The Alchemist Café and La Mexicana Taco Bar in front of The Yard at Wilton Manors on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Yard was created out of what was a plant nursery. Anthony purchased the property in 2003 after opening an antique shop in Wilton Manors in the 1990s (he was also a former mayor of the Village of Lazy Lake). Around 2009, he acquired a neighboring lumber yard, expanding the complex and changing the name to The Yard.
“It grew organically through the tenants,” Anthony said.
But throughout the morphing process, the unique vibe remained, Name said.
Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel
A mural at The Yard in Wilton Manors honors victims of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack. (Rod Stafford Hagwood/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
“There is nothing else that can replace the energy that this place has … people describe it as an escape. When you enter this property, you feel completely disconnected from whatever is going on because the calmness that the nature and the environment gives you is super unique.
“I remember when I was opening this place and … of course money was an issue. People from the community would bring me chairs, they would bring me decorations to hang. Our logo is the Guadalupe Virgin and that was a gift from a customer. That is the one that we have inside. I’m leaving grateful because for 12 years I have had a community that supported me.”
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Yard at Wilton Manors on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel
La Mexicana Taco Bar owner Diva Name said she believed they’d get more advance notice to vacate their spot at The Yard in Wilton Manors. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel
La Mexicana Taco Bar remains at The Yard at Wilton Manors. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)