Food

Is this tiny wine and tapas spot one of Broward’s best kept secrets?

By Connie Ogle

Updated June 18, 2026 7:13 AM

Stephen Eisel, left, and Ysee Gaudel-Eisel, right, enjoy a glass of wine while greeting locals outside their wine bar, Champagne Shack, in Hollywood, Florida, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. Champagne Shack is a small, independently owned wine bar that draws local residents with its casual atmosphere. The bar regularly features food vendors on weekends, pop-up events with area restaurants, yoga sessions, a wine club, and live music or DJ performances in its courtyard on Fridays and Saturdays. — Stephen Eisel and Ysee Gaudel-Eisel enjoy a drink at their wine bar Champagne Shack in Hollywood. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com

When you walk into Champagne Shack, you never know exactly what you’ll find.

Obviously, you are likely to find people drinking wine. It might be bubbly, or it might not. The tiny wine bar, across the street from the railroad tracks on Dixie Highway in Hollywood and across the parking lot from American Legion Post 92, is first and foremost focused on pouring and expounding on the beauty of natural wines from around the world.

But Champagne Shack, owned and operated by industry veterans and Hollywood residents Stephen Eisel and Ysee Gaudel-Eisel, is more than a wine bar. It’s a community gathering place and French tapas spot with no Wi-Fi or TV screens. The point is to drink, eat and connect with your neighbors.

You might stumble into a crowd of pizza lovers waiting for a local pop-up to deliver some of the best pie in Broward or mildly hungry sippers indulging in oysters, salmon rillette or an expertly curated cheese plate. This isn’t a restaurant, but tapas pair nicely with wine, and local pop-ups show up on the weekends.

A painting session might be in progress. Or a tarot card reading. A book club gathering (bring a book on Wednesdays and drink happy hour prices all night). A sake tasting. A high-end omakase dinner with beverage pairings. An impromptu DJ session or live music in the garden. If it’s Friday the 13th, expect Goth sounds and a lot of people wearing black. Then again, if it’s not Friday the 13th, the performers might be playing ukuleles. If it’s Bastille Day, prepare to hear quite a bit of “Vive la France!”

And that’s the beauty of the Shack: Every night is different, but every night, it feels like a place you want to be.

“I loved it from the moment I walked in,” said Hollywood resident and nurse Bobbie-Jo Horton, who was lured in by the outdoor sign on New Year’s Eve and was immediately delighted. “They were so welcoming and inviting. It felt like they were expecting me, and they didn’t even know me.”

‘A little jewel’

Stephen Eisel, center, spreads cheese on locally made bread as locals arrive for a glass of wine at the Champagne Shack on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Hollywood, Florida. The Champagne Shack is a small, independently owned wine bar located in Hollywood, Florida. Popular with local residents, it offers a relaxed atmosphere and regularly features food vendors on weekends, pop-up events with area restaurants, yoga sessions, a wine club, and live music or DJ performances in its intimate courtyard on Fridays and Saturdays. — Stephen Eisel, center, spreads cheese on locally made bread as his wife Ysee Gaudel-Eisel and other locals share cheese and bread at Champagne Shack in Hollywood. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com

At a time when people are feeling isolated and disconnected, disenchanted with rising prices, hidden costs and corporate carelessness, having a comfortable place to hang out besides your living room can feel like a godsend. Gaudel-Eisel and Eisel — she’s from the Brittany region of France and a sommelier; he was born in Ohio but grew up in west Broward and is a certified cheese master — understand this.

Gaudel-Eisel, who works closely with winemakers from around the world, said the intimacy of the Shack is part of its appeal. Unraveling the mysteries of low-intervention and rare natural wines — created by winemakers with as little human or chemical intervention as possible — is much easier when your guide has time for you.

“I’ve always loved small spaces,” she said. “I told Stephen: ‘If we open something, it has to be small.’ Small is more of a little jewel where you can show off everything. And it gives us the opportunity to talk with everyone and to share everything.”

The small space guarantees you’ll bump into someone interesting, Eisel said.

“You have no choice,” he said. “I’ve seen it. A lot of friendships have started here, and that’s a cool thing to witness.”

The couple opened Champagne Shack in January 2025, in the far southern corner of a complex that longtime Broward residents will remember as Hemingway’s. The rest of the building is home to Mr. Tarzan Show Club, a cabaret where the motto is “Enter if you dare.”

After a long day, nurse and artist Bobbie-Jo Horton takes a moment to relax at Champagne Shack in Hollywood, Florida, on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. Patrons often gather late at the independently owned wine bar, known for its relaxed atmosphere and community feel. Champagne Shack is a small, independently owned wine bar that draws local residents with its casual atmosphere. The bar regularly features food vendors on weekends, pop-up events with area restaurants, yoga sessions, a wine club, and live music or DJ performances in its courtyard on Fridays and Saturdays. — After a long day, nurse and artist Bobbie-Jo Horton relaxes with a glass of natural rosé at Champagne Shack in Hollywood. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com

Happily, walking into Champagne Shack does not require summoning courage. In one corner is a retail shop with bottles to go, most from outside the U.S. You can also buy a bottle to drink at the Shack or order by the glass.

There is no wine menu. Don’t look to the chalkboard on the wall behind the bar; that’s for the day’s aspirations. Instead, one of the proprietors will ask what you’re in the mood for or what your preferences are. Don’t say “Kendall Jackson Chardonnay.” You will not find mass-produced wine here. Instead, explain what you like and have faith. Gaudel-Eisel will take you on a journey, allowing you to try a few wines until you find something you like.

If you don’t like any? They will happily suggest you try The Vintage on Harrison, a neighboring bar a few blocks away. It’s all for one, one for all in Hollywood.

Eisel, who also acts as DJ some nights, said they opened Champagne Shack out of a need for the sort of place they enjoy hanging out.

“We lived in the MiMo district in Miami for 15 years or so, and then we bought the house in Hollywood about seven years ago,” he said. “We enjoyed the quaintness of Hollywood, but there weren’t a lot of places to go. You had Sardelli’s, and then eventually Carmela’s opened up. But there was a whole lot of Buffalo wings and Miller Lite and no natural wine. So we wanted to create a place where we wanted to hang out and bring a little piece of Paris with us.”

Helping locals find their passions

Stephen Eisel checks and cleans a wine glass among wine bottles as patrons gather at the bar for a pour on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Hollywood, Florida. Champagne Shack is a small, independently owned wine bar located in Hollywood, Florida. Popular with local residents, it offers a relaxed atmosphere and regularly features food vendors on weekends, pop-up events with area restaurants, yoga sessions, a wine club, and live music or DJ performances in its intimate courtyard on Fridays and Saturdays. — Stephen Eisel checks and cleans a wine glass among wine bottles as patrons gather at the Champagne Shack bar. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com

Though its patrons come from beyond Hollywood — Miami Shores, North Miami, Miramar, Fort Lauderdale, even Boca Raton — Champagne Shack is all about the locals. Gaudel-Eisel estimates 65 percent of the folks crossing the threshold live in Hollywood. Highlighting the gifts of the neighborhood are important to Gaudel-Eisel and Eisel, and when they discover a guest has a special talent, they celebrate them.

Horton, the artist who led the most recent painting session and has some artworks on display at the bar, told Gaudel-Eisel and Eisel she was also a DJ specializing in classic disco vinyl DJ (you can find her at @boogiebooger).

“They said, ‘Great! Come next week!’ ” Horton recalled. “They’re so good about having social programming and celebrating and encouraging people to contribute.”

Jasmine Fonseca, another Hollywood resident, started coming to Champagne Shack with her husband Arturo and once brought a sourdough baguette she had made as a gift for the owners.

“Ysee kept telling me, ‘We will buy this from you. We want to be able to offer this here,’ ” she said. “It’s important to them to promote local products and work with people in the community.”

Now, order a cheese plate and Fonseca’s sourdough accompanies it, a hobby turned side hustle. Customers can order loaves or baguettes and pick them up every Thursday. The plan has been successful enough she has added cookies and other seasonal baked goods to her menu.

“It’s a really nice symbiotic relationship,” she said.

‘This is what we believe in’

Jasmine Fonseca, left, and husband Arturo Fonseca, right, are regulars who enjoy wine and company at Champagne Shack in Hollywood, Florida, on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. Patrons often gather late at the independently owned wine bar, known for its relaxed atmosphere and community feel. Champagne Shack is a small, independently owned wine bar that draws local residents with its casual atmosphere. The bar regularly features food vendors on weekends, pop-up events with area restaurants, yoga sessions, a wine club, and live music or DJ performances in its courtyard on Fridays and Saturdays. — Regular Jasmine Fonseca, here with her husband Arturo Fonseca, provides the sourdough bread for Champagne Shack tapas. Owners Ysee Gaudel-Eisel and Stephen Eisel encouraged her to start selling bread to them and to any customers who want to order it. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com

Tim Aleman, whose Penelope’s Pizza pop up serves pies at the Shack most Fridays and Saturdays, closed Kay Rico Coffee, the Hollywood Boulevard coffee shop he opened with his brother, in order to start a pizza business. Customers and friends alike told him he was making a mistake, but Gaudel-Eisel and Eisel, Kay Rico customers, immediately offered him space to get started on their outdoor patio.

“A lot of people tried to talk me out of it,” Aleman said. “I could count on one hand the people who were encouraging, who said, ‘You can do this,’ and Steve and Ysee were two of those people. They completely believed it would work before anybody else. I needed that so much.”

Gaudel-Eisel and Eisel have plans to grow, too. They’re always adding tapas to the small menu, everything from a Mediterranean plate to $3 hot dogs (not French but crazy popular). They are looking to add a jazz singer and bluegrass performers to the musical roster. They want to start a community supported agriculture program, a model in which members pay upfront for a farm share package every month, maybe in conjunction with local artisans who sell vintage clothes, flowers or food.

This is the ethos of Champagne Shack: Whether you want to grow produce for the market or teach yoga sessions on Sunday morning (with waffles afterward) or bring a smoker to the patio and serve up your very best brisket, Gaudel-Eisel and Eisel are more than ready to welcome your contributions.

“This is what we believe in,” Gaudel-Eisel said. “If we can raise awareness of the community of people who live around here, who are talented and can bring everyone joy, why not? It’s all about sharing. They can share their own goodness, and being able to share goodness in the world is rare.”