{"id":376018,"date":"2026-08-19T23:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T23:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376018\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T23:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T23:02:10","slug":"black-jacks-rum-bar-grille-shuts-fort-lauderdale-davie-taverns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376018\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Jack\u2019s Rum Bar & Grille shuts Fort Lauderdale, Davie taverns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two locations of the Caribbean-themed pirate tavern Black Jack\u2019s Rum Bar & Grille abruptly closed Wednesday amid financial woes stemming from slow summer sales, the owner has confirmed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, four upset workers contacted the Sun Sentinel saying they had not received paychecks since Aug. 1 and that business has been sluggish for months.<\/p>\n

However, owner Deanne Crosby insisted that Black Jack\u2019s hasn\u2019t permanently closed, that she\u2019s \u201ctrying to get everyone paid today\u201d and that she hopes to reopen this weekend, but did not elaborate on how or when. The locations in Fort Lauderdale and Davie employed 53 workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on some financial issues that need to be fixed,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cI\u2019ve been crying all day and I was up until 2 a.m. this morning. While the staff doesn\u2019t believe me, I was very upset about having to close. They\u2019re angry, they\u2019re lashing out, and that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s been a long day.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admitted that the biweekly \u201cpayday was this past Saturday and I am late\u201d in a text to the Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n

Black Jack\u2019s debuted in the Flagler Village neighborhood on Jan. 26<\/a>, while the Davie flagship opened in January 2025. Both locations, which feature ship riggings, ocean-blue floors and other buccaneer-chic theming, offer a gastropub menu of burgers, salads, prime-rib sandwiches and a rum wall stocked with hundreds of rare bottles.<\/p>\n

Crosby\u2019s father, Fort Lauderdale restaurateur Ted Sabarese, originally signed a 10-year lease in 2023 for the freestanding building on Northeast Third Avenue, across the street from Peter Feldman Park. Sabarese, now 86, is semi-retired and leaves the day-to-day operation of Black Jack\u2019s to Crosby and general manager Russ Twining.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone, Twining repeatedly declined to comment on the status of Black Jack\u2019s and referred questions to Crosby.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a Four Roses bourbon truck driver who showed up at the Fort Lauderdale tavern for a 1:30 p.m. delivery peered through the locked doors of an empty dining room and said aloud, \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on,\u201d before driving off.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Phillip Valys \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n

A Four Roses bourbon truck driver showed up at Black Jack’s Rum Bar & Grille’s Fort Lauderdale location on Wednesday afternoon but promptly left after discovering the doors were locked. (Phillip Valys\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Jay Tilyn, a server for three months, said she \u201cand a lot of my coworkers are upset right now\u201d about the unpaid wages, adding that Crosby on Saturday had tried to reassure staff that this didn\u2019t mean the closing of both locations. However, on Wednesday they were notified of the closures via a group text from Crosby.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo just drop this closing on us after a week of not getting paid is crazy and disrespectful,\u201d Tilyn said.<\/p>\n

Chef Jermaine Taylor, who works shifts at both Black Jack\u2019s locations, said he\u2019s already looking for a new job.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Phillip Valys \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n

The Fort Lauderdale location of Black Jack’s Rum Bar & Grille was closed on Wednesday afternoon, and its doors were locked. (Phillip Valys\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bills are due now,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have a job and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crosby confirmed the tavern was open Monday and Tuesday but that\u00a0several employees didn\u2019t show up for work. She said both locations enjoyed strong business during the monthlong FIFA soccer World Cup but suffered from poor sales over the past month, which \u201ccontributed to my financial issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil I regroup, they closed,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cBut I most certainly am trying to not have this be permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sun Sentinel senior features writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com<\/a> or X\/Twitter @philvalys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Phillip Valys \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n

The interior of the Fort Lauderdale location of Black Jack’s Rum Bar & Grille. (Phillip Valys\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two locations of the Caribbean-themed pirate tavern Black Jack\u2019s Rum Bar & Grille abruptly closed Wednesday amid financial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1593,506,19412,104,28,688,249,251,250,114,687,109,685,106],"class_list":["post-376018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-bars","tag-broward-county","tag-davie","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-food-and-drink","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-restaurants","tag-social","tag-the-eat-beat","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}