Cap's Place

The barge was stripped to provide a base for a one-story wood-framed building with a gabled roof. The interior and exterior wall of this portion are constructed of thick horizontal pine planks. The windows and doors are symmetrically placed and original wood casings and surrounds remain. The main entrance is on the east side and is flanked by multiple pane windows with wood sashing. The south side is covered with plywood for protection from water damage but windows are visible from the interior. This portion forms the east–west portion of the extant L-shape.[2]

The restaurant addition is a long rectangular building sitting on concrete block piers and has wood floors and a horizontal board exterior. Built of Dade County pine, this building has a low-pitched asphalt shingle roof. The main entrance is on the north side, with another entrance on the east side. While aluminium windows have been installed on east and west sides, the original window woodwork remains intact.[2] This addition had red carpet and became known as the "Poinsettia Room" or the "Poinciana Room".[2][10] It was joined to the original building by a foyer in 1954.[2] The Poinsettia Room was the principal site of gambling.[2][10] The original building was divided into dining rooms, one of which was painted yellow and separated by 3/4 height walls, and a kitchen in the northwest portion of the building. Between the "yellow room" and other dining rooms there was a hallway lined with six nooks where slot machines were located. These nooks remain intact in size and shape but shelving has been added.[2] A money counting room at the south end of the Poinsettia Room had a private exit to the east.[9]

The bar located to the north of the restaurant is connected to it by decking with picnic tables. It is a rectangular building with windows that match those of the restaurant, and has a south facing door. Patrons in the deck area are served through a wood-shuttered opening east of the door. There is an additional door and a small projecting storage room on the west side. The interior decoration of the bar is distinct; a large bar of everglades bamboo topped with old ship decking and accentuated by a mirror is the dominant feature of the room.[2] It is decorated with objects found washed up on the shore while the building was built.[2] The floor and roof are Dade County pine while the ceiling beams and walls are pecky cypress.[2] During the time there was gambling at Cap's Place, there was a Wheel of Fortune and curtained alcoves. The alcoves have since been boarded up but the outlines remain visible on the walls.[2][11] The bar and restaurant are decorated throughout with flotsam and jetsam and memorabilia.[2]

Soon after the initial construction a fish house was built on pilings over the water. This small rectangular building was used for fish cleaning and dish washing; dirty water and fish scraps were dumped into the water. Over time the shoreline has silted in, and this structure is now used for storage. The pilings that had elevated it above the water remain visible. The buildings of Cap's Place are connected by a series of decks, piers and docks. While the shoreline has changed, these structures remain intact. A boat house where the owners lived on the site has been extensively repaired and reconstructed, and is not considered historic because of this. A six-room bunkhouse built to provide housing for restaurant workers no longer exists.[2]

Eugene "Cap" Knight was born in or near the Canaveral lighthouse, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1871.[2] His father, his grandfather and later his brother worked as lighthouse keepers in Florida.[19] Knight was one of the earliest settlers in the Hillsboro Beach area.[14] From a seafaring family, he left home at 13 to join the merchant marine.[2] He started as mess boy on a lighthouse tender and left the service 35 years later in 1919 as a Master of Morgan Line Steamers, sailing between New Orleans and New York.[2]

In 1916 Knight married his second wife, Lola Saunders, a schoolteacher for the children of lighthouse employees and fishermen of Hillsboro Inlet.[12] Knight's previous marriage, to Bertha Lydia Armour, produced three children and ended in divorce before 1914.[9] Lola Saunders, the daughter of a circuit riding Methodist preacher, was born in a log cabin near Cross Creek in an area now part of the Ocala National Forest.[12]

When Prohibition started in 1920, the couple got involved in rum-running.[12] The Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse guided Eugene Knight as he returned from Bimini with burlap sacks full of illegal liquor called "hams".[11] It has been suggested that his brother Tom the lighthouse keeper may have signaled him when "the coast was clear".[10] The sacks of liquor would be tied to buoys and sunk, to be hauled up later.[18] Knight's boat was faster than those of the Coast Guard, and he was never caught.[18][20]

Another brother, Burnham Gray Knight, has been called the founder of charter fishing.[9]

Historian Wesley Stout called Eugene Knight an "outstanding character of Broward County."[20] Author Carmen McGarry wrote, "Cap was truly a legend of his time."[9]

Lola Knight later recalled, "many a night hauling those sacks of liquor up the beach" and making runs to deliver to their customers.[12] When asked if she was scared, she replied, "Scared? We were never scared. I'm not afraid of the devil himself, and neither was Cap."[12] She slept with a loaded pistol under her pillow and often worked as hostess for the restaurant wearing a cotton dress, diamond necklace and no shoes.[15][12] A story she often told was of Henry Flagler eating a favorite dish at Cap's Place, fresh pompano, then later writing the word "pompano" on one of his railroad maps; the location became Pompano Beach, Florida.[12]

The barge Cap's Place was built on was previously owned by Flagler and he had used it in constructing his Overseas Railroad.[21][22] She also related that Meyer Lansky would stop by weekly to pick up 10 to 12 percent of the gambling profits (Hasis also mentioned Lansky's involvement).[12][23] Lola Knight said, "We paid off everybody."[12] Illegal gambling casinos were to become a substantial part of the fabric of south Florida, with 52 of them operating openly in Broward County by 1950.[24] The couple had other business interests including a fleet of fishing boats, a wholesale fish market and a fishing camp in the everglades.[2] The building on stilts above the water now known as the boat house was their home for thirty years.[2] Eugene Knight died in 1964 and Lola Knight died in 1989. They are buried beside each other in the Pompano Beach Cemetery.[12]

Around 1926 Knight met and befriended the 16 year old Albert Hasis from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[10] Hassis had also left home at the age of 13.[9] The friendship and partnership they developed lasted the remainder of their lives.[10] Together they built and ran Club Unique.[2] Hasis built the distinctive bar featuring a large carved bowsprit salvaged from the sunken wreck of a 200 year old Spanish galleon.[25] The bar is built from bamboo and polished wood from ship's decks; an oil portrait of Knight hangs over the bar.[22][26] Hasis met and married Patricia "Pat" McBride in 1945.[10] Knight had never bought the land the restaurant was built on, Patricia Hasis borrowed $5,000 and bought the 1,000 feet of land on the Intracoastal Waterway.[10] Albert and Patricia Hasis died in 1982 and are buried in the Deerfield Beach Cemetery.[10]

In 1940 Sylvester Love came to work at the Club Unique, starting as a dishwasher, he advanced to chef.[2] The son of a sharecropper, he left home in Georgia at 12.[13][18] Love was chef at the restaurant for 48 years until 1985.[13] He always wore a white chef's coat, starched apron and high white chef's hat even when the kitchen was 100 degrees, according to Hasis' daughter, Talle Hasis.[13] In contrast "Cap" Knight wore bib overalls and Lola Knight was known for going barefoot.[12][22] He described Knight as a tough "but good man (who) took me in.[13] He recalled coming to work one morning finding a woman sitting on the dock who had lost $48,000 on the wheel saying, "Oh there were some big spenders...Those were the days.[13] He said of his time at the restaurant, "You know it's hard work, but I've enjoyed every minute of it. No regrets at all."[13] Love was a guest on the television show Good Morning America about 1987 discussing his experiences working at the restaurant.[13] After retiring as chef he continued to work at the restaurant, preparing it for opening and overseeing the daily fresh fish deliveries until his death in 1990.[13][27]

Since the 1970s the restaurant has been run by the Hasis' three children, Talle, Ted and Tom.[10] As a child, Talle Hasis would sit outside the restaurant with her tea service, selling little cups of water to the patrons and collecting five dollar tips.[18] She is named after the state capital.[18] On August 10, 1990 Cap's Place was added to the US National Register of Historic Places.[1] There was some local objection to this listing.[3][14][34] Neighbors complained the place was unsightly and characterized the attempt to have it listed as a tax dodge.[30] The nomination was prepared by Research Atlantica for the Hasis siblings.[8][30] In 1991 the City of Lighthouse point designated Cap's Place as a historic structure, the first such designation by the city.[35] An important impact of this designation is based on a law passed earlier that year Cap's Place would be able to rebuild after a catastrophe.[36] Prior to the passage of the law and subsequent designation the restaurant would have been prohibited from rebuilding as it is located in a residential zone.[35][36] These actions were met with opposition in the community and were controversial because Tom Hasis was a city commissioner.[35][36] The former mayor of Lighthouse Point, Leo Bentz, raised concerns about commercialization of the area, that the establishment could be expanded and that with no controls over Cap's Place the bar could stay open until 2AM.[37] Hasis abstained in both votes and both measures passed 4-0.[35][36] He continues to be active in local politics.[38]

In the early 1990s a road was built on the peninsula known as Cap's Island and luxury homes were built to the north and south of the restaurant.[39] Lot prices were close to $1.5 million.[39] A menu from Cap's Place was included in a time capsule by the Broward League of Cities in 2000.[40] Cap's Place was featured in a 2012 public television documentary, Prohibition and the South Florida Connection.[41] In 2012 it was also used a filming location for the television show The Glades.[42]

As of 2009 the Hasis siblings were joint owners.[16] A 2017 newspaper article identifies Tom Hasis as "one of the owners of Cap's Place".[43] His wife, Maureen Hasis, is also involved in running the restaurant.[18] When asked about the future in 2013, Talle Hasis noted none of the siblings have children and said, "I guess when they take us out horizontally, which is the only way we'll be leaving, that will be it."[32] She has also said, when asked about retirng, "That word's not in my vocabulary, if anything, I'll be sitting out there in Cap's rocking chair, barking orders."[18] As of 2017 the establishment continues to operate as a restaurant, shuttling guests from a dock near the parking area to the restaurant's dock, and is being considered for a stop on the Fort Lauderdale water taxi route.[43][44]

The approach through narrow winding residential streets in Lighthouse Point, followed by a boat ride to the restaurant coupled with the rustic setting and decor create a unique dining experience.[32][45] The ceilings are low and the floors crooked but Talle Hasis tells those who complain, "Just duck your head down. My father built a strong place, low on the land."[18] The menu includes all types of fresh fish, crabs, lobster and grouper chowder.[2] It has been updated from the past and now includes appetizers and even key lime pie for dessert.[18] In the past green turtle steaks and turtle egg pancakes with guava jelly were also featured.[2][46] In 1963 Knight was arrested for possession of illegal turtle eggs, of an endangered species.[2] Knight had been known to keep thousands of turtle eggs frozen.[9] Very fresh seafood is a hallmark of the restaurant.[13][24][47] In 2005 they were still buying their fish fresh daily from Captain Murphy a local fisherman as they had for decades.[18] All meals are cooked to order.[25] A house specialty, hearts of palm salad is made with sabal palm from the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee.[2][25] The hearts of palm have been supplied by the same Seminole family since the restaurant opened.[25] Meals come with hot rolls and homemade Sea Grape jelly.[2] Cap's Place has been positively reviewed from the 1980s to the present.[27][32][45][48][49][50][51] Prices are moderately expensive.[18][45] The restaurant relies mostly on word of mouth and doesn't advertise much.[25] It has been called one of south Florida's most colorful landmarks.[22][52]