After its owner dies, this favorite Kendall sports bar of 32 years closes
Scully’s Tavern became a Kendall favorite over the last 32 years by giving locals everything they wanted in a neighborhood sports bar — and a couple things no one thought to ask for.
Owner Chris Hirsh, who had worked at a Coral Gables French restaurant, thought to fill the menu with surprises that caught the attention of celebrity chef Guy Fieri. Belgian escargot cooked in garlic butter and served in sauteed mushroom caps. Potato-chip-crusted mahi sandwiches. Fried and twice-grilled chicken wings tossed in garlic scampi.
And plenty of televisions where locals could watch South Florida sports behind an old-school polished wood bar.
But after a tragic year for the couple who owned the bar, Scully’s has closed its doors for good.
Hirsh died Sept. 7 after a brief illness and two weeks in the hospital, according to a Gofundme started for the family. His death came exactly a year after his wife and partner in the restaurant, Cass, fell down a flight of stairs at their home in September of 2020 and broke her back, injuring her spine, she told WSVN in October.
“This has been the single most difficult decision I have ever had to make, especially without my beloved Chris by my side,” Cass Hirsh wrote Dec. 28 on Scully’s Facebook page. “I am terribly saddened to have to make this announcement, but since Chris’ passing, and my physical limitations from last year’s accident, I find myself unable to keep it going.”
Scully’s was the epitome of a beloved mom-and-pop local’s favorite. That caught the attention of Fieri, who featured the tavern on his “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives” television show in 2009. He told his wide audience about Cass, the former flight attendant, and Chris, a line cook who later went into carpentry, who put all their savings into Scully’s.
“It didn’t look like much. It’s here in a strip mall, but they had a plan,” Fieri says on the episode. “They weren’t going to do it the standard way.”
Scully’s had everything you’d expect. Rock ‘n’ roll bands playing live on the weekends. Enough televisions for every sport. And a laid-back mom-and-pop feel locals couldn’t get even at a Flanigan’s.
Chris Hirsh took it to another level by dressing his kitchen staff in chef whites and adding layered flavors to standard dishes. That meant parsley-Parmesan to batter the potato-chip fish sandwich, Provencal seasonings for the mussels, and making everything from tartar sauce to salad croutons in house.
And everyone in the area knew about the couple’s commitment to cooking free meals the day before Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve.
But the family-owned restaurant couldn’t withstand back-to-back blows. Cass’s fall and recovery was documented by the television station: She needed 10 months of intense physical therapy and lost feeling in one hand.
Then on the anniversary of her fall, Chris Hirsh died from an unspecified illness. He did not have medical insurance, and Cass was left with mounting debt and funeral bills, according to the Gofundme page where the Cassandra L. Hirsh Irrevocable Trust is listed as the beneficiary. The page has raised more than $10,000 toward a $100,000 goal.
“It’s been quite unbearable without him,” Cass Hirsh wrote on Facebook after a memorial in September. “Each day I struggle to hold it together, but with the outpouring of love, support and kind words, I inch forward.”
For more information on the Gofundme page, search Chris Hirsh at Gofundme.com.
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
