By Dan Moffett

    Briny Breezes soon will correct a decades-old oversight when the town formally assumes ownership of Old Ocean Boulevard.
Town Attorney John Skrandel says the Florida Department of Transportation has agreed to sign the road over to Briny Breezes with a quit claim deed, ending more than a half-century of legal ambiguity.
    Skrandel told the Town Council on Jan. 28 that state officials intended to turn Old Ocean over to Briny Breezes in the late 1940s, when it decided to move State Road A1A westward to its current location to protect it from storm surge. It was a simple land swap — Briny was to get the oceanfront road and the state would take the western strip through the town — but the state DOT never got around to recording the deed.
    Skrandel uncovered the oversight last year while doing research to write new golf cart regulations. State officials have told him they want no part of owning the old road and are prepared to sign it over to the town at no charge, through the quit claim deed.
    “It’s their way of saying this should have been done a long time ago, but it wasn’t, so we’re going to do it now,” Skrandel said.
    The only stipulation for the transfer is that the road continues to fulfill a public purpose, meaning it must remain an open thoroughfare that provides access to the north and south. Council members voted unanimously to accept the state’s offer and take control of Old Ocean.
    The advantage of clear ownership is that it gives the town the authority to regulate traffic on the road — and that appears increasingly important as Ocean Ridge contemplates changes to its end of Old Ocean that could send more vehicles south. With the transfer, Briny can write its own road rules, enforce them and also claim a valuable piece of oceanfront real estate.
    The disadvantage of ownership is that the town becomes responsible for maintaining the road and repairing damage inflicted by traffic or storms.
    And there also is a complication. Old Ocean will become the only piece of land in Briny Breezes completely owned by the town, not the corporation. Transferring the road from the town to the corporation could require asking the state Legislature to tweak its land laws to deal with Briny’s unusual corporate-municipal co-op.
    “That can wait,” said Alderman Bobby Jurovaty. “For right now, we just need to move forward.”
    Skrandel said owning Old Ocean is the right move for the town and its residents: “It helps them in their long-term goal to make the road more a part of Briny than it’s ever been.”
In other business:
    • The council unanimously approved hiring Barbara Johnston, who owns Total Bookkeeping Plus of Lake Worth, to take over the town’s billing and accounting. Council President Sue Thaler had been handling the bookkeeping but decided to give it up.
    Thaler and Jurovaty interviewed two other candidates for the job besides Johnston.  “I think Barbara is the right personality fit for us,” Thaler said.
    • The council unanimously approved Kris Kissel-Weir as the District 4 representative to the Planning and Zoning Board.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Lantana has promoted its community planner, Nicole Dritz, to town clerk.
    Dritz, 30, has a bachelor’s degree in urban planning from Florida Atlantic University and has worked for the town for two years.
She has worked on site plan reviews, the community rating system, comprehensive planning, special community events and traffic calming projects.
    “I am a Midwest girl at heart, born and raised in the small town of Ashland, Ohio,” she said. She moved to South Florida in 2004 after meeting her now husband in Fort Lauderdale.
    “As town clerk, I am excited to have my hands in more than just planning. I enjoy seeing more of the inner workings of the town as a whole, as well as working with all the departments, the town manager and the wonderful directors,” she said. “Lantana is headed in a great direction and I am extremely excited to be part of it all.”
    Dritz replaces Crystal Gibson, who had been clerk for seven years and took a position as operations manager for the community services division of the city of Palm Beach Gardens.
    In other Lantana news, the Town Council voted to:
    • Amend the Aura Seaside site plan on the former Cenacle property on Dixie Highway to include four additional residential units. The added units will not change the project’s footprint.
    • Leave in place the installed speed cushions that had been positioned on a six-month trial basis as a traffic calming measure on Hypoluxo Island. The speed humps are on South Atlantic Drive and Southeast Atlantic between Barefoot Lane and Lagoon Lane.
    • Approve a contract with M&M Asphalt Maintenance Inc. not to exceed $44,915 for repaving the west side of Sportsman’s Park parking lot.
    • Raise council member and mayor salaries by 50 percent. Council members currently receive monthly compensation of $400 and the mayor receives $600. The council also voted to double the stipends. Council members currently receive monthly stipends of $100 and the mayor receives $150. The stipend increase will be effective immediately but salaries won’t become effective until March 2017.  Ú

By Mary Thurwachter

    Council members asked Town Attorney R. Max Lohman to draft an ordinance to address one of Lantana’s parking concerns — lawn maintenance and construction vehicles parked on both sides of roads.
    Mayor Dave Stewart said he has heard many complaints about parking problems from drivers who have to zigzag around parked trucks. The town also heard from Fire Marshal Matthew Gaffney, who said he is worried about “parking by service vehicles and contractors on narrow roads that make it impossible to maneuver the fire rescue vehicles down such roads, especially when they are parked on both sides of the street.”
    Negotiating around large vehicles parked on both sides of the road is a recipe for disaster, one resident said.
    The ordinance would require cars to follow an odd/even rule. On odd-numbered days, vehicles would park on the odd-numbered side of the street. On even-numbered days, they would park on the even-numbered side.
    Stewart, who discussed the matter at the council’s Jan. 25 meeting, said the problem needed to be addressed in some way. Tweaks to the proposed ordinance are likely.
    Dave Thatcher, director of development services, said signs would need to be bought and put up so that drivers would be aware of the new ordinance.
    “I encountered this in Chicago,” Thatcher said, “and they had signs up everywhere.”
    In other action at the Jan. 25 meeting, the town:
    • Received a check from Palm Beach County for $50,000. It is the remainder of the money left over from the $300,000 grant for the boat docks at Sportsman’s Park. Lantana used only $252,480 to build the docks, so the town requested the remainder of the funds not used ($47,520) to be used for other improvements at the park.  The county approved the request and rounded the number up to $50,000.
    • Approved an ordinance changing the landscaping code to allow the installation of artificial turf. Newer artificial turf provides better drainage and has water-saving properties, Stewart said. Council member Lynn Moorhouse said the turf, while expensive, looks good, too. “It’s a win-win,” he said.

The space that’s Doc’s All American could house a couple dozen residential units, as well as offices or retail.

Photo provided

By Christine Davis

    The corner location of Doc’s All American, 10 N. Swinton Ave., is up for sale, as is 37 W. Atlantic, the site of Dunkin’ Donuts. Listing agent Cecelia Boone, with Southdale Properties, is representing the sellers, Cecilia Egan and her family.
    “The entire property was listed just before the end of 2015. We were waiting for the Dunkin’ Donuts and Doc’s Ice Cream leases to expire,” Boone said. “We are not selling them as income properties, but rather as a development opportunity.”
    Zoned Old School Square Historic District as well as commercial business district and comprising 0.77 acres, “it’s on the best hard-control corner and the entrance to the downtown core,” Boone said. “It could work for a mixed-used project, with an allowable height of 54 feet and a density of 30 units per acre, plus retail. It will probably get 23 or 24 units, plus retail or office.”
    Philip Vultaggio, Egan’s father, bought the property years ago, Boone said. “Her family has a famous place in Massapequa, Long Island, the All American Burger and Marshall’s Ice Cream Bar next door. People wait outside in line, even in winter.”
    In an email, Egan shared a bit of her family’s history. “Actually, we did reopen Doc’s after it sat vacant for decades, with a couple of friends. My parents purchased the block knowing that it was going to be a good location ‘down the road.’ ”
    At that point, with no interest from prospective tenants, they got it up and running and then sold the operation, she wrote.
    Her family’s Long Island businesses are still operating. Egan, who lives in Wisconsin and Royal Palm Beach, says she salivates just thinking about the ice cream. Her father started Marshall’s in 1952, and “for 50 years, it was Carvel (ice cream) and the No. 1 store on Long Island.” In 1963, he opened All American Hamburger, a popular Long Island landmark.
    “When my father died in 2013, sympathy notes arrived from all over the world — from former employees who were part of the original crews in the ’50s and ’60s to customers who grew up eating at Carvel/Marshall’s and All American. They wrote notes of their fond memories of working for Phil, the value of honest work along with many other lifelong lessons,” Egan wrote.
    “Customers recounted stories of how he always had a big smile when handing them an ice cream cone, and needless to say, we four kids always had the best school parties because our parents supplied the burgers, fries and ice cream.”
    For information, call Boone at 302-8978.
                                   
    Popbar Handcrafted Gelato on a Stick, the maker of customizable, all natural, gluten-free popGelato, popSorbetto, and YogurtPops, opened a Delray Beach location at 411 E. Atlantic Ave., Suite B, Delray Beach, in November.  Hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
                                   
    Samar Hospitality, a Jericho, N.Y., hotel developer, has approval for the 122-room Aloft hotel, 202 SE Fifth Ave., Delray Beach. The hotel is part of a mixed-use project that includes 35 condos, 6,280 square feet of retail space and parking.
                                       
    Jessica Rosato, luxury residential specialist with Nestler Poletto Sotheby’s International Realty, Delray Beach, was recently installed as the 2016 president for the Greater Palm Beach County Women’s Council of Realtors.
                                   
    For consecutive years since 2008, Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa has received the 2016 AAA Five Diamond designation, and through March, locals can experience the AAA Five Diamond property for themselves. With valid Florida identification upon check-in, they are eligible for a 15 percent discount.
    To book the resort’s “Florida Resident Winter Escape,” call 533-6000 or visit www.eaupalmbeach.com.
    Five other South Florida resorts, including Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, received the rating.
                                   
    Florida Realtors’ December figures show that Palm Beach County’s median sale price for single-family homes has reached $305,000, the highest median price activity since June 2015. Year over year, median days on market has dropped 32.1 percent, from 56 to 38 days, with the greatest number of closed sales falling between $200,000 to $600,000.
                                   
    Rosemurgy Properties sold three student-housing communities in Boca Raton for a combined $105.25 million. Palm Beach County records show the Deerfield Beach-based commercial real-estate firm sold University Park, University View and University Square to the Bahrain asset manager Investcorp.  
    An affiliate of Investcorp paid $70 million for University Park, an 11-acre complex at 135 NW 20th St., which has eight buildings with 159 units. Investcorp also purchased University View, a 55-unit townhome community at 2190 NW Fourth Court,  for $20.25 million.
    Also, a 90-unit apartment complex, at 200 NE 20th St., sold for $15 million.
                                   
    Jack Elkins, an agent with the Fite Group Luxury Homes, now offers prospective buyers online tours offering 3-D technology. To see an example, visit http://3dimaginggroup.com/3d-model/1920-s-ocean-blvd/.
                                   
    Christel Silver, owner of Silver International Realty in Delray Beach, recently received the Global Realtor of the Year Award from the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. She also received the Global Achievement Platinum Award from the National Association of Realtors.
                                   
    Jameson Olsen, director of marketing and business development for All My Sons Moving & Storage, was recently named affiliate member of the year for Palm Beach County by the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. Olsen sat on the association’s Young Professional Network committee and will have an active role in 2016 on the Realtors Political Action Committee, the Young Professional Network Committee for Palm Beach County and St. Lucie County, as well as the Community Outreach Committee.
    Olsen’s community involvement includes her commitment to the American Red Cross as a South Palm Beach County Gala committee member, the annual Steve Weagle ride to benefit the American Red Cross, and sponsor for Toys for Tots toy drive efforts.
                                   
    In December, Vi at Lakeside Village hosted a grand reopening of its Private Memory Support Unit, which has undergone a $1.5 million renovation, the first phase of an ongoing expansion that will include additional resident units, as well as redesigning and expanding the rehab treatment rooms, kitchen and other utility support areas.
    A luxury continuing care retirement community, Vi offers levels of care that include villa homes, independent living, assisted living and memory support apartments, as well as skilled nursing and rehab services. Vi is at 2792 Donnelly Drive, Lantana. Call 434-5334.
                                   
    In December, Boca Raton Regional Hospital was named a 2015/2016 Consumer Choice Award recipient by the National Research Corp.
                                   
    Palm Beach Travel was selected as an official American Express Travel Insider for Dubai. This is the second American Express Travel Insider designation given to Palm Beach Travel, which also oversees travel arrangements for the British Virgin Islands.
    In addition, the agency was selected agent of record for The Residence luxury travel experience, delivered by Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi, which offers travelers an onboard three-room suite.
    Visit www.mypalmbeachtravel.com or call 585-5885.
                                   
    The Naoma Donnelley Haggin Boys & Girls Club of Delray Beach’s 13th annual Holiday Trunk Show, hosted in December at The Seagate Hotel & Spa, raised approximately $85,000 and will help support the programming for more than 400 children who attend the club.
                                   
    Diamonds by Raymond Lee will celebrate the grand opening of its bridal boutique at 2801 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton on Thursday, Feb. 25, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
                                   
    Noting that any person with a smartphone can be an amateur filmmaker, Michael Van Laanen of Boca Raton envisioned students creating mini-documentaries that meld science, technology, engineering and math with art. These mini-film projects would be housed free of charge in an online archive.
    To that end, in 2013, Van Laanen launched the nonprofit organization Our Rock Project Inc. and is seeking partners, students and support in Palm Beach County. He also seeks to partner with local university film and videography students to work with middle and high school students as part of paid internships.
    Van Laanen has already begun working with Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens High School.
    For information, visit www.ourrockproject.org. To watch student films, visit www.ourrockproject.org/archive.
                                   
    The Friends of Mounts Botanical Garden recently awarded $1,000 in scholarships to Palm Beach State College student Amanda Newell of Delray Beach. Newell seeks to pursue a career in horticulture and plans to continue her studies in organic gardening and sustainable horticulture.
    Also, Gennette Raborn of Delray Beach won Mounts Botanical Garden’s Selfie Contest to promote the exhibition Nature Connects: Art with Lego Bricks, which runs through Feb. 14.
    Admission is $10 for adults; $7 for seniors, veterans and students; $5 for children (3-12); and free for children 2 and under.  The garden is at 531 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
                                   
    Concerned about uncertainty in the tax code affecting small contractors, Rich Shavell, president of Shavell & Company P.A., certified public accountants and consultants in Boca Raton, took part of a four-person witness panel that provided testimony at a December hearing before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee in Washington, D.C.
    He represented the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc.
    Shavell argued that small businesses are the employer of choice for most Americans, but without a commitment and action by Congress, this might be jeopardized.
On Dec. 18, the House and Senate passed a tax extenders package that was signed by President Barack Obama.

    Delray Beach resident Allison Turner, CEO and owner of Business Consultants of South Florida, has become the 2016 chair of the Delray Chamber of Commerce’s Ambassadors.
                                   
    Two Boynton Beach Allstate agency owners, Jarred Smoke and Trisha Tenbroeck, were designated Allstate Premier Agencies for 2015 for their outstanding performance and commitment to their customers. Smoke’s agency is at 8784 Boynton Beach Blvd. Tenbroeck’s agency is at 622 N. Federal Highway.
                                   
    Daniel Solomon has been promoted to vice president of real estate at Katz & Associates. He works out of the Boca Raton office.
                                   
    Boca Chamber’s Community Cookout, March 5, will be held at the YMCA of South Palm Beach County, 6631 Palmetto Circle S., Boca Raton. It includes food, games, bounce houses, slides and DJ. Admission is free. Meal tickets cost $5. Children under 10 will receive one complimentary meal ticket.
                                   
    The Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce announced its 2015 award winners at its annual gala, A Winter Wonderland, at Benvenuto Restaurant on Jan. 21. They included: Donald K. Porges Certified Public Accountant, Business of the Year; Pathways to Prosperity, Nonprofit of the Year; and Tiffany Womack of TrustBridge, who was named the Young Professional of Boynton.

Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.

The Ziff estate includes a 12-bedroom main residence, two four-bedroom beachside cottages,

the seven-bedroom Mango House and botanical gardens with 1,500 species.

Photo provided

By Christine Davis

    Back in May The Coastal Star announced that Manalapan’s Gemini, the Ziff family’s 15.65-acre compound at 2000 S. Ocean, was on the market for $195 million.
    Update: On Jan. 28, the property hit the Multiple Listing Service. Premier Estate Properties agents Carmen D’Angelo, Gerald Liguori and Joseph Liguori have the listing. The price remains at $195 million.
    According to the listing, the walled compound and botanical oasis, with 1,200 feet on the ocean and 1,300 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway, comprises a 12-bedroom main residence, two four-bedroom beachside cottages, the seven-bedroom Mango House, the manager’s house with four apartments, and manager’s offices.
    This adds up to 84,988 square feet, 33 bedrooms, 34 baths and 13 powder rooms.
    The 62,220-square-foot main residence with loggias, open stairways and balconies, has wings on both sides of South Ocean, joined by a wide gallery under the road twinning the two sides, hence the estate’s name, “Gemini.”  
    The original 1940s home was designed by architect Marion Sims Wyeth for the Lambert pharmaceutical family and later became the winter retreat of Loel and Gloria Guinness.
    Current owners, with architect Edson E. Dailey, completed a reconstruction and expansion in 2003.  
Site details include botanical gardens with 1,500 species of tropical trees and plants, a golf practice area, dock and pier on the Intracoastal, freshwater pond and bird sanctuary, and sports complex with a regulation tennis court, half basketball court, playground, miniature golf course and butterfly garden with a large-scale model train.

Fabled Atlantic Avenue tavern

reborn as The Old Arcade

A ‘30s view of the Arcade Tap Room.

Photos courtesy of the Delray Beach Historical Society

A postcard depicts the dining room in the ‘60s.

Caffe Martier owner Eli Kamholtz has opened The Old Arcade with many of the original features intact.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    When he was a boy in the 1940s, Sandy Simon sold newspapers up and down Atlantic Avenue.
    Paper, sir? Paper, sir?
    “I’d go from table to table in the old Arcade Tap Room, selling the Miami Daily News for a nickel,” he says with a nostalgic chuckle.
    Delray Beach had a population straining toward 4,000 in those days, and chances are most of them dined and drank at the old Arcade.
    “There was no roof over the courtyard back then,” Simon remembers. “Tall coconut palms, and it didn’t try to be anything but a restaurant and lounge. The prices were attractive for the middle class, although the very wealthy also went there.”
    The Arcade Tap Room was a landmark on the avenue even before Alexander “Sandy” Simon was born in 1937, and seven decades and several reincarnations later, it’s back yet again — or hopes to be.
    On Dec. 5, 2015 — the 82nd anniversary of Prohibition’s demise — Eli Kamholtz, the owner of Caffe Martier, opened The Old Arcade in the space that once housed the fabled taproom’s east bar.
    “We were turning this into a private event space,” he said recently, “and we started hearing more and more stories, about high school graduations in the 1950s, wedding receptions. People who’ve lived here for 65 years started telling us about the good old days. Then we heard that in Prohibition they ran the numbers here and it was a speakeasy.”
    Nowadays, Caffe Martier occupies what was once the Arcade Tap Room’s courtyard. A bar has replaced the central fountain, the palms are gone and a roof’s arrived, but never mind. The new Old Arcade is still at 411 E. Atlantic Ave., and the back alley door to the side bar survives, with a neon arrow pointing to “The Old Arcade.” The mahogany bar’s original, and so’s the woodwork on the walls and ceiling.
    Old bars and restaurants gather a lot of myths and memories over the decades, and those grow sweeter when chased by alcohol, and time. Newspapers aren’t a nickel anymore, or sandwiches 50 cents, and the man who made the Arcade Tap Room shine is long gone, too.

• • •

ABOVE: Leslie Scarce, pictured in 1987, worked at the Arcade Tap Room for 24 years at the time the photo was taken.

Photos courtesy of the Delray Beach Historical Society

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bleckley, William Beers, Mrs. Harry Watts (wife of architect),

Tom Gaglione and Mrs. Alice Denyes seated at the Arcade Tap Room in an undated photo.

    Bill and Helen Kraus were honeymooners in their early 20s when they arrived in town in the mid-1920s. Bill had $16, and Florida had a real estate boom that promised lots of work at good pay. The $16 didn’t last, and neither did the boom.
    Kraus found work cleaning the Boca Raton Hotel, saved his money and opened a tiny coffee shop in the Firestone gas station at Atlantic Avenue and U.S. 1 before moving his business to the Arcade.
    Designed by pioneer architect Samuel Ogren (1899-1988) for the Atlantic Avenue Co. in 1925, the two-story Mediterranean Revival building was intended for stores and offices, many of them selling real estate. Then the boom went bust and the Atlantic Avenue Co. along with it.
    The landowner, Adolf Hofman (1871-1953), foreclosed, and then leased Kraus a small space in the arcade leading from the sidewalk to the courtyard. Kraus added sandwiches and buttermilk to his menu, and eventually the little shop expanded to three of those spaces.
    In 1932, Kraus persuaded Hofman to rent him the large courtyard for an open-air restaurant and lounge. The Arcade Tap Room was born that year, and so was a daughter named Carolyn.

• • •

A Dec. 5, 1936 Palm Beach Post classified ad seeking waiters.

    “Well, I’m not sure I know all the facts,” Carolyn Kraus Cunningham says. “I was just a baby. But it was no major speakeasy, I can tell you that.”
    Bill Kraus’ daughter is 83 now and still living in town. Her father built the courtyard’s Spanish fountain with the dolphin sculpture himself, she says, as well as the big mahogany bar.
    As for the tales of secret passwords and bootleg booze, she has her doubts. True, rum runners from the Bahamas did dump their cargo on Delray Beach and bury it behind the dunes; but now some folks even claim there was a secret tunnel between the Tap Room and nearby Colony Hotel, for transporting illegal potables to the hotel guests.
    “I never heard such a thing as that,” Cunningham says. “My dad may have picked up some liquor from those boats. I hear that sort of thing.”
    In other words, Bill Kraus may have helped his coffee shop regulars score a bottle, but if he did it wasn’t for long. The Tap Room opened in 1932, and Prohibition died a year later.
    “When it rained, people would run in and try to find a spot near the bar,” Cunningham remembers. “And the waiters would run around with those flit guns to try and keep the mosquitoes off your legs.”
    The waiters were hired from Pullman railroad cars, she recalls. “They all dressed like Pullman car waiters, black pants and little white jackets. All the waiters were black.”
     One of those black employees, William “Willie” Franklin, became Kraus’ trusted assistant, respected by both customers and co-workers.
    “He was the bartender, and my father’s right-hand man,” Cunningham recalled. “He was there at all times and practically a partner.”
    Franklin’s house is now a Delray Beach historic landmark.
    Bill Kraus ran the business for 16 years and died of cancer in 1948. He was only 44, but in those 16 years he created what old-timers miss most.
    Not the fountain, not the bar, but the sort of place where you could get a warm welcome, a cold beer and mix with rich and poor alike.
    “I have a Life magazine autographed by J. Edgar Hoover,” Cunningham boasts.
    The FBI director and Sen. Richard Nixon, Errol Flynn and Gary Cooper, Joe Kennedy and Gloria Swanson came to Palm Beach, and then they came down to the Arcade Tap.
    In the ’40s and ’50s, cartoonists now long forgotten rented the Tap Room’s second-floor offices as studios. Pat Enright, the political cartoonist, and Fontaine Fox, creator of the Toonerville Folks comic strip. H.T. Webster and Zack Mosley. They drew upstairs, drank downstairs, and in time the Tap Room’s walls were adorned with their work.

• • •

    When Bill Kraus learned he had cancer, he sold the business to Bert White, who ran it until his own death two years later. In the 1950s, Bunny Fertita, a Fort Lauderdale restaurateur, took over the lease, renamed the business the Charcoal Pit, added a roof to the courtyard and tore out the brick fireplace in the bar.
    And then, in 1961, Jimmy Hallas arrived and ran the place for the next 28 years.
    “It was a fabulous spot back then,” Bruce Gimmy says. “I have great memories.”
    Gimmy was 21, a Michigan State University dropout when he arrived in 1964 and waited tables for a season.
    “I got off the turnpike and drove in and it was like Tobacco Road here back then,” he says. “Until you got across the railroad tracks, there was no civilization.”
    Beers were 5 cents and mixed drinks 50.
    “Snooky Lanson. Remember Snooky Lanson?”
    Probably not. Lanson (1914-1990) was a big band singer who went on to host television’s Your Hit Parade in the 1950s.
    “One night Snooky Lanson hit his wife on the shoulder and she went backwards into the fountain.” Gimmy still laughs at the memory. “I grabbed a leg and the maitre d’ grabbed a leg and her dress went up and she wasn’t wearing …”
    You get the picture.
    “I said, ‘Are you all right?’ and she said, ‘We need another drink here,’ and they went on like nothing happened.”
    Fifteen years later, Gimmy was back, and spent another seven, from 1979-1985, as the nighttime bartender.
    “The drunks, you cut ’em off,” he learned. “A number of guys thought I was pouring them a drink when I had my thumb over the bottle. You can get away with that when they’re that drunk.”

• • •

    By the 1960s, the population had surpassed 12,000, and Sandy Simon was no longer a little boy hawking newspapers. He was a grown man, and a customer.
    “Everybody in town was there,” he says. “Construction workers would drink with the very wealthy.”
    One night, he’s sitting at the bar, nursing a glass of water with a lemon.
    Just water, Simon says. Honestly.
    “And this construction worker thought it was vodka,” he recalls with laugh.
    “How much you gonna have?” the construction worker asked.
    “Well, my doctor says I should drink eight glasses a day.”
    The construction worker paused, then, “Who’s your doctor?”
    Oh, the stories.

• • •

Jimmy Hallas has a beer while sitting with Jennifer Blair on his final day of business at the Arcade Tap Room in 1989.

    On June 30, 1989, Jim Hallas closed The Arcade Tap Room. A trio played For Once In My Life while the old-timers dined on prime rib, pork chops, broiled flounder and memories.
    Once upon a time, Hallas said, he served 500 meals a day and employed 125 people. Now he employed 21. Business was down 40 percent and he’d been trying to sell for two years.
    “There’s too many restaurants anymore,” he said.
    Bruce Gimmy worked for Hallas until that last day, and then opened The Trouser Shop, a clothing store just down the block.
“The last time I saw Jimmy, he was living in an apartment above where The Popcorn House is now and leaving for Greece,” he says.
    “Bruce,” Hallas told him, tearfully. “I’m a failure. I’ve only got $10,000.”
    No, you weren’t a failure, Gimmy told him. He’d touched so many lives, both the help and customers, during those 28 years he owned that bar.
    “Jimmy was a good guy,” Gimmy says. “Charitable, kind to people, but his ego took over. He knew how to make money, but he didn’t know how to manage it.”

• • •

    Now the population of Delray Beach is 65,000, and the new Old Arcade is open for business.
    “We’re starting to get a group of regulars,” Caffe Martier’s Kamholtz says. “We’re hoping by next season we’ll be busy enough to have reserved seats at the bar and tables.”
    Kamholtz envisions a cozy spot with spirit and wine classes, movie nights, food and drink pairings.
    Maybe even, for old times’ sake, a password for entry from the alley.
    “Being in a historic building and seeing the modernization under our feet, we just want to preserve a little of the history.”
    If he succeeds, the drinks won’t be 50 cents, of course, and they’ll be legal, but that wasn’t what made the old Arcade Tap Room so successful anyway.
    “If he wants to adopt the ethos of the original, it might work,” Sandy Simon says. “The Arcade Tap Room is an iconic expression of the character of Delray Beach. Customer-friendly, generous drinks and reasonable prices. Excellent service and a warm welcome.
    “I hope he succeeds and provides our downtown with some semblance of the original Bill Kraus Arcade Tap Room.”

Much of the historic information in this story was gleaned from Remembering: A History of Florida’s South Palm Beach County, by Sandy Simon; the Delray Beach Historical Society archives; and The Palm Beach Post. For more information, visit www.sandysimon.com and www.caffemartierdelray.com.

Event Co-Chairwomen Holly Meehan and Molly Powers.
Photo provided

By Amy Woods
    
    The Junior League of Boca Raton will set the table at a new venue this year for its Flavors of Boca fundraiser.
    On Feb. 11, guests will gather at The Addison, a historical landmark-turned-event facility designed by famed architect Addison Mizner.
    “I think the ambience is just going to be a ton of fun,” said Molly Powers, Flavors of Boca co-chairwoman. “People are going to love the event.”
    The fun begins at 6:30 p.m. with mixing and mingling in a banyan tree-encircled courtyard dotted with cocktail stations and food booths. In addition to an open bar, 15 restaurants, led by Executive Chef Chairman Eric Baker, of Max’s Harvest and Max’s Social House, will ensure the affair lives up to its name by serving savory samplings of fresh fare throughout the evening.
    “Guests are getting a great deal, tons of food. And even though it’s sampling, there are so many restaurants, you will get full,” Powers said. “We’re keeping the prices down. We want everyone to be able to come and be involved.”
    Proceeds will benefit the league’s three primary mission areas: child welfare, hunger and nonprofit support.
    “I think a lot of people feel like in Boca Raton, there’s no problems, there’s nobody who is going without food,” Powers said. “Hey, around your own community there are people who are trying to feed their kids.”
    In 2015, the league supplied 12,000 pounds of food to Boca Helping Hands, an agency that offers emergency assistance to needy people, and nearly 25,000 meals to South County charitable organizations. The league also runs a community garden that grows cucumbers, kale, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and other organic produce, a portion of which is used to feed people who might otherwise go hungry.
    “We donated 400 pounds of food last year from the garden. That’s a lot,” said Holly Meehan, also co-chairwoman of the event.
    Meehan said a multimedia display of the league’s accomplishments will be presented that evening to inform the public how it achieves its goals and why.
    “While I’m aware of the thousands of hours that my fellow Junior League members put in for volunteering … I don’t know that the rest of the community is,” she said. “I want to get that information out there.”
    In all, the league’s members logged 35,000 service hours in 2015.
    “That’s great membership satisfaction for us,” Meehan said. “It’s nice to have the community know about what the Junior League does."

If You Go
What: Flavors of Boca
When: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 11
Where: The Addison, 2 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton
Cost: $65 or $125 for VIP tickets
Information: Call 620-2553 or visit www.jlbr.org/flavors-of-boca-raton

By Amy Woods
    
    Tri-County Animal Rescue’s Doggie Ball has jumped to a new date: April 10.
    The fund-raiser was originally set for Jan. 31 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of an organization founded on the principle of saving unwanted pets from euthanasia. But April won out because the event is traditionally in the spring.

    “All of our regular supporters are so accustomed to having it in the spring that they voiced their opinions,” said Erica Tricarico, development director.
    The more than 650 guests expected to attend the event will honor the group’s executive director, Suzi Goldsmith, with the Jeannette Christos Award, named after the shelter’s late founder.
    “People were saying, ‘We really wanted to come, but why did you move it?’ ” said ball Chairwoman Sharon DiPietro.
Save-the-date cards announcing the change went out last month.

If You Go
What: Doggie Ball
When: 5:30 p.m. April 10 Where: Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton
Cost: $250
Information: 581-8110 or www.tricountyhumane.org

Caridad Center’s annual gala raised funds to provide dental and medical care to the working poor, furthering its mission of upgrading education, health and quality-of-life standards for underserved families. Board members Rick Retamar and Marie Speed received the Connie Berry Award, named after the organization’s co-founder.
ABOVE: (l-r) Paul Zarcadoolas, Nancy Zarcadoolas, Esme Menoud, Mark Menoud, Maylin Menoud and Lazaro Menoud.
BELOW: Sanjiv Sharma and Nadine Allen. BOTTOM: (l-r) Marie Speed, Connie Berry and Rick Retamar.

Photos provided by Harrington Photography

It was a morning of sisterhood amid fashion, friends and fun as more than 50 female supporters of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County gathered in Neiman Marcus to give Lion of Judah Endowment funds and enjoy a presentation and a fashion show. LEFT: (l-r) Freyda Burns, Elyssa Kupferberg and Florence Brody.

Photo provided

More than 1,500 students attended a Holocaust survivor-inspired ballet based on the life story of Naomi Warren that was choreographed and written by Ballet Austin Artistic Director Stephen Mills. Mills conducted a master class the day before for seniors at Dreyfoos School of the Arts. ABOVE: Mills with (l-r) Jordan Wohl, Sasha Lazarus, Skylar Smith and Ximena Azurmendi.

Photo provided by Jason Nuttle Photography

Spirit of Giving, a local nonprofit, partnered with 60-plus community organizations to bring more than 9,000 needy children and their families, along with 1,000 veterans, to the sporting event. ABOVE: (l-r) Scott Singer, Ann Rutherford, Linda Gunn Paton and Doug Paton.

Photo provided

 More than 100 local business leaders attended an informational event featuring Paul Leone, president of The Breakers Palm Beach and Flagler System. Leone gave an in-depth presentation of The Breakers’ 119-year history. ABOVE: Jeff Stoops and Leone. BELOW: Danielle Cameron and Nathan Slack.

Photos provided by Lila photo

The first in a series of fundraisers to ensure all students can participate on the team with equipment and uniforms took place before a crowd of more than 100. The team received a $500 donation from the café, and a Go Fund Me campaign for the Eagles was announced. ABOVE: (l-r) Ken Cordes, Alex Cordes, coach Steve Wilson and Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein.
Photo provided

Guests at the ninth-annual event celebrated Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse’s 30th anniversary with the theme ‘30 Years, 30 Faces – The Survivors, The Champions and Those Who Serve and Protect.’ It honored women overcoming domestic abuse and 30 volunteers who have made a positive impact. ABOVE: (l-r) Catherine Colangelo, Denise Heimberg, Faith Tepper, honoree Gail Veros, Carol Niren and Joan Snyder.

Photo provided

More than $300,000 was raised for Florida Atlantic University’s Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center to support programs and services for families living with memory disorders. The fun-filled event brought together nearly 500 walkers, and highlights included live entertainment, the presentation of a city proclamation and prizes.
ABOVE: Louis and Anne Green.

Photos provided

A crowd of 350 of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County’s top donors enjoyed a cocktail reception, dinner and a speech by U.S. humanitarian aid worker Alan Gross at the annual gathering. Gross shared his experience of five years in a Cuban prison, how he survived and the life lessons learned.
ABOVE: Myron and Joan Kaufman.

Photo provided

The 17th annual affair geared toward readers and writers had a storybook ending as a crowd of more than 150 was able to meet and greet 12 participating authors and purchase autographed books from them. The free event takes place each year during National Book Month in January.
ABOVE: Author Suzanne Snyder-Carroll, with On the Edge of Dangerous Things.
Photo provided

The pink ’57 Chevy in front of Ellie’s Diner will likely be granted a variance

to remain on the property along Federal Highway.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

   Doo-wop or don’t wop. Ellie Smela’s favorite color is pink, but she and husband, Bob, are seeing red these days. All because of that ’57 Chevy   . . . the pink one that “loudly” proclaims, WELCOME TO ELLIE’S 50’s DINER on Federal Highway at the north end of Delray Beach.  
    For 25 years, Ellie and Bob have been serving breakfast, lunch and backroom parties on North Federal with a generous helping of vintage rock ’n’ roll.
    The pink four-door Bel Air has been the landmark telling prospective customers they’ve come to the right place.

    But a few weeks ago, when they received a notice from the city’s Community Improvement Department that the Chevy was an “abandoned vehicle” and had to go, they were rocked to their very soul.
    The seller delivered the car by truck, and Bob drove it only once — to Fort Lauderdale and back. The transmission was slipping, so he parked it out front. “I paid a little too much for it,” Bob confessed, “but I can’t move it. It’s part of my business.”
     Bob’s daily driver, by the way, is a Lexus; Ellie tools around town in a latter-day Volkswagen Beetle festooned with diner decor.
Technically, the original site plan filed a quarter century ago made no mention of the car. For one reason or another, no one at City Hall took notice until Code Enforcement Officer C.J. Lee cited Ellie’s for the “abandoned vehicle.”
    However, the Smelas met in late January with Community Improvement Director Michael Coleman, and the future looks rosy. A variance should allow the car to retain its pole position.
    “Mike told me what to do,” Bob Smela said.
    Added Ellie, “I think it’ll be OK. We’ve got a lot of people working on it for us.”
    They expect the car to be there in all its radiant beauty for the Valentine’s Day party, complete with a lover’s buffet and an Elvis impersonator.
    But no making out in the back seat.
                                   
    Details remain almost nonexistent, but John Paul “J.P.” Kline, the force behind Delray’s popular 3rd and 3rd restaurant, died Jan. 15 at his mother’s Boca Raton apartment. However, no one was present at the time, and the case was referred to the county Medical Examiner’s Office to determine a cause of death.

    Instead of celebrating 3rd and 3rd’s third anniversary on Feb. 18, staff will observe a day of remembrance.  
    3rd and 3rd has no outside signs, but its fans have no trouble finding the place or feeling at home inside. The cuisine was imaginative. Artists could hang their work on the walls. Budding musicians could plug in and play.
    In a message to Broward/Palm Beach New Times, manager Sabrina Milroy wrote, “True to John Paul’s style of party, I would like to ask of the people to keep coming back and hanging out with us to help us keep John Paul’s dream alive.”
                                   
    Death also had an effect on the Boca West Foundation’s 2016 Concert for the Children set for April 5. Organizers of the benefit for several local youth-oriented programs were planning an “unforgettable” evening at Boca West: The 28-piece Symphony of the Americas, the Atlantic City Boys and, as headliner, Natalie Cole.
    On New Year’s Day, however, they would have preferred to forget everything. The night before in California, Cole, only 65, had died. Cause of death: heart failure caused by idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, a lung disease that was diagnosed after her kidney transplant in 2009.

    Cole was participating because the beneficiaries of the concert included the Nat King Cole Generation Hope. Founded by Natalie’s sisters and Boca residents Timolin and Casey, the foundation provides music instruction, mentoring and resources to schoolchildren with the greatest need and fewest resources. The sisters grieved, but knowing Natalie’s dedication to the foundation, they began searching for a replacement, even as they made funeral plans.

    Tributes were paid around the globe. At a New Year’s Day concert in Pennsylvania, a multiple Grammy winner offered a salute with a few inspiring bars from Cole’s Inseparable. “Thank you for all the great music, Natalie,” Aretha Franklin added.
Within days, the sisters had their “fill-in.”
    The concert — Franklin headlining — is set for April 5 in Boca West amphitheater. Tickets are $150, seating assigned by drawn lottery. (www.bocawestfoundation.org)
                                   
    The Allman Brothers Band may have broken up, but, as the Midnight Rider drawls, “the road goes on forever.” Founding member and drummer Butch Trucks, a Palm Beacher, is working to develop two new bands: the Freight Train and Les Brers.
    Freight Train includes Trucks’ son Vaylor on guitar, Berry Oakley Jr., son of the late Allman bassist, on bass, and keyboard legend Bruce Katz.   
    Having spent Christmas at his second home in France, Trucks was slightly jet-lagged when he arrived for the band’s Funky Biscuit gig the next night.
    In early development, the band also includes other family members and friends and a promising young woman from Tallahassee. They play lots of Allman hits, plus such classics as Only You Know and I Know, Highway 61 Revisited and Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone, the last featuring guest performer Heather Gillis on guitar and vocals.
    “She sat in with me a few months ago in Tallahassee and, in spite of how she looks, she blew me away with her version of Ain’t No Sunshine,” Trucks said. “She has the chops but is still looking for her own voice. What I do like is that we have a 21-year-old female in a band of ugly old men.  
    “She is not Duane yet, but her guitar playing sure as hell is far better than Susan Tedeschi, who everyone thinks is great. I’m giving her the opportunity to play with pros, and she may help us bring in some younger crowds. We shall see.”
    Nevertheless, the Freight Train will not stop April 14-16 at the Wanee Music Festival, the traditional Allman lovefest in Live Oak. The Allmans officially have broken up, but most of the members will cook with their high-powered spin-offs, and season the event with dozens of top bands and promising up-and-comers.
    Of particular interest will be the debut of Les Brers, featuring Trucks, Allman percussionists Jaimoe and Marc Quinones, bassist Oteil Burbridge, former Allman guitarist Jack Pearson and Katz plus Lamar Williams Jr., son of the late Allman bassist and harmonica man Pat Bergeson.
    Other ex-Allmans on the bill: Greg Allman, Warren Haynes’ Gov’t Mule and his new group The Ashes & Dust Band, Jaimoe’s Jazz Band, Oteil (Burbridge) and Friends plus Widespread Panic, Hot Tuna, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, Stanley Clarke Band, the North Mississippi Allstars and Umphrey’s McGee. (waneefestival.com)
                                   
    Closer to home, Robert Plant, Hall and Oates, The Avett Brothers, Miguel, Booker T. Jones, Ween and Mumford & Sons headline the first Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival March 4-6 at Sunshine Grove, which promoters claim “will put Okeechobee on the map.” The festival, with roots in Bonnaroo, offers 24-hour music from 80 acts on five stages, RV and tent camping, food trucks and lake swimming. Music fans no doubt also will hear a lot of plugs for Sunshine Grove, the real estate development where it all will happen (okeechobeefest.com).
                                   
    New best friends.

    Spotted lunching at Brulé Bistro in Delray over the Christmas holidays, new celeb residents Billy Joel (Manalapan) and Kevin James (Delray Beach).
    Before heading back to New York for his monthly (Jan. 7) show at Madison Square Garden, Joel welcomed 2016 at the BB&T Center in Sunrise with assistance from James, who took a futile shot at “the lights on Broadway” before declaring the piano was “way out of tune.”
    Joining Joel onstage to kick off the new year were Jimmy Kimmel and Palm Beach homeowner Howard Stern.  
                                   
    Years ago, Lake Worth’s Bamboo Room cooked with national and regional performers and was also a choice place where local talent could hone their craft.  Old-timers still recall one “songwriter’s night” when a woman interrupted a rocking version of The Wanderer with “It’s supposed to be original material,” to which the singer Dion (DiMucci) replied, “Yeah, no kiddin’. ”

    Nothing like that happening lately at Bamboo. New owners came in last year with promises to revive the scene, but so far, no top acts and it’s only open Thursday through Saturday.  Maybe Billy and Kevin could drop by and liven up the place.
                                   
    While on the subject of old rock ’n’ rollers, a hot show is coming to the Carole & Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium at Florida Atlantic University on March 18. Heading up “Pop, Rock & Doo Wopp Live!” is the “Wild One,” Bobby Rydell, one of the early teen idols. Now 73, Rydell still has his hair and again has his health after liver and kidney transplants in 2012.
    He’ll be joined by The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You), the Shirelles’ original lead singer Shirley Alston Reeves (Mama Said, Soldier Boy), Emil Stucchio & The Classics (Till Then) and The Mystics (Hushabye). All proof that there’s plenty of life left after 60.
                                   
    A new doorman for Whitehall.
    Retiring after 20 years on the job, John Blades on Feb. 28 will give up the keys to the glamorous former residence of Palm Beach developer and railroad magnate Henry Flagler. Taking over what is officially known as the Flagler Museum will be Erin Dougherty, most recently executive director of the Princeton, N.J., Historical Society.
    While Blades is stepping down, his wife, Rena, will likely be stepping out a lot more in the weeks and months ahead. As president and CEO of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, her first new task will be to kick off its new Cultural Concierge Program — a first not just for the council but for the global tourism industry.  
    The free service will assist individuals, families and big tour groups with customized travel experiences — perhaps a group tour to the South Florida Fair, a day at the Morikami or tickets to a performance at Old School Square. Bama Lutes Deal, a county native, arts expert and musicologist who has worked with the arts and cultural communities for more than three decades, will run the program.
    Rena Blades also has this thing about money, specifically when making a case to spend it on culture. The County Commission is considering a bond issue or a 1 percent sales tax increase to pay for road and facility repairs and to improve county cultural attractions such as Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, the Norton Museum of Art, South Florida Science Center and Aquarium and Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society.
    “Nationally, 98 percent of proposed tax increases that include cultural funding are passed,” Blades said. “The public knows how valuable it is. Plus every tax dollar spent brings in an additional two from the business community.”
                                   
    In New Jersey it was named the museum most worth traveling to, but we’ll have wait a while to see if the Silverball Pinball Museum, soon to open in Delray Beach, will merit a “cultural” designation. The offspring of the legendary Silverball Museum on Asbury Park’s boardwalk is incubating in the old Pineapple Groove site, just behind Johnny Brown’s.   
    No feeding quarters into slots of nearly 200 pinball and other arcade machines packed into Rob Ilvento’s Jersey operation; they are played and paid for by the hour. The setup is similar to Delray’s other wizard hall, Vintage Pinball, which is accessed through the cigar shop at 916 SW Fifth Ave. It offers a $10 daily pass. Let the games begin.   
                                   
    Just in time, the Force awakens. Thirty-nine years after the Millennium Falcon first raced through hyperspace, it’s back with Luke, Leia, Chewie and Han Solo. So what if Harrison Ford is 73. He still cuts a heroic figure.
    And the Force doesn’t stop with the new flick. On March 4, at Mizner Park Amphitheatre, Ford as Indiana Jones will fill the screen in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The screening, marking a blockbuster opening weekend for the 10th annual Festival of the Arts Boca, will be enhanced by the Florida premiere of the score by a live orchestra. Festival conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos will lead the University of Miami’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.
    The following evening, Kitsopoulos conducts The Symphonia, Boca Raton in the festival’s first-ever opera, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, in English. Sunday’s bill features trumpet by Herb Alpert and vocals by wife Lani Hall.
    The music continues March 11 with 13-year-old Balinese piano prodigy Joey Alexander and his trio performing An American in Paris with Kitsopoulos and The Symphonia. It wraps March 16 with violinist Joshua Bell performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons while conducting the Lynn Philharmonia Orchestra, Jan McArt narrating.
    Not only music, the festival has always featured food for thought. Washington Post columnist, CNN host and author Fareed Zakaria (March 7) will discuss “Global Trends & Hot Spots”; author, neurobiologist and MacArthur “genius” Dr. Robert Sapolsky talks about “The Biology of Good and Evil” (March 8); and Dr. Jay Winter, author and historian, takes on “The Enduring Legacy of World War I and Its Impact on the 21st Century.”
    For tickets and information, go to www.festivaloftheartsboca.org.
                                   
    Services on Feb. 14 at most liturgical churches will feature traditional Lenten hymns, but at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lake Worth vespers will give way to music for lovers, with a candlelight concert by the South Florida Harp Trio — Charlene Conner, Stacey Berkley and Nancy Ann Gillian. A reception will follow, featuring chocolate desserts with hints of Bailey’s, Moscato d’Asti and California zinfandel. ($25 in advance, 582-6609)


Write Thom Smith at thomsmith@ymail.com.

By Steve Pike

    In the fifth installment of his “Shagball and Tangles” series of adventure novels, Lantana author A.C. Brooks pulls out all the stops — at least for now. Rigged finds the not-so-dynamic duo of TV fishing show host Shagball and his pint-sized partner Tangles entangled (pardon the pun) with a secret U.S. government spy agency, ISIS terrorists, a former U.S. president and a tricked-out fishing boat that would make Clive Cussler proud.
    Rigged is Brooks’ most ambitious, politically incorrect and entertaining book to date, as he puts our heroes (and new and old readers) deeper into the service of the Department of International Criminal Knowledge (DICK), an agency softly introduced in Weedline, the third book in the series.
    Self-published like its predecessors, Rigged expands Shagball and Tangles’ world of the absurd and inane from South Florida and the Caribbean to deep into the heart of Texas and the Mexican border.
    “There is no over the top in fiction,” Brooks said. “If you’re buying into it, you’re buying into it.”
    At the same time Shagball and Tangles are expanding their world, Brooks is maturing as an author. Rigged flows more freely than his previous novels and ends with a twist that few readers will see coming.
    “I can only go by what others tell me, and most people think that my writing has gotten better each book, which I would hope,” Brooks said. “But I certainly haven’t changed my style. For me the most important thing is to make somebody turn the page, entertain them, give them some laughs and get them sucked into a story. I don’t give it too much thought other than that. I might be turning off some readers with some of the political background, but it’s unavoidable in the story.  You can take some shots and have some fun doing it.”
    As with each of the books in the series, Rigged is available at The Old Key Lime House in Lantana and on amazon.com. Brooks will make signing appearances at the Old Key Lime House from 4 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 5 and March 7.
    At each of those signings — and in between — fans will no doubt ask Brooks about his next book.
    “I don’t know yet,” Brooks says, smiling in a booth at the Old Key Lime House. “I sort of have an idea. But Shagball and Tangles don’t think too far ahead, either.”