This Italian-American restaurant is a Broward favorite. It’s closing for renovations
The airplane-themed restaurant Anthony’s Runway 84 is getting its seat upgraded.
The Fort Lauderdale restaurant, beloved in Broward for Italian-American classics served in a windowless dining room since 1982, will close for renovations, its owners wrote on Facebook. The restaurant will close May 12 and expects to reopen the first week of October.
Runway 84 was founded by the late Andy Bruno, and his son, Anthony, who later went on to open the Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza chain from a single location. The chain was sold several times, most recently to BurgerFi for more than a reported $160 million.
At Runway 84, New York and New Jersey Italian-American classics made it a favorite with locals and transplants. Tart broccoli rabe, mussels marinara and sauce-covered chicken parm are served amid Sinatra classics. The shell of an airplane and faux windows made to look like the view from inside the aircraft complete the theme.
“Anthony’s plays on its proximity to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, featuring huge cutouts of Alitalia jets in the dining room and a bar that resembles the inside of a plane. Peer out fake windows and it looks like you’re coming in for a landing,” a Miami Herald dining reviewer wrote.
The restaurant also got dragged into the spotlight when disbarred lawyer Scott Rothstein, who admitted to a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, testified in 2014 that he had secret meetings with mobsters in the dark restaurant, where wandering eyes couldn’t look in through the windows.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 11:59 AM.
