Oscar you mentioned Joe Sonken's Place - My Wife and her ex use to go there several times a week during Winter months. I have only been there a few times because at the time when we lived there "I was too broke to PAY attention".

Below is an article OBITUARY from the Sun-Sentinel back in 1990

OBITUARIES
June 3, 1990|By MIKE BILLINGTON, Staff Writer
Joseph Sonken, the owner of a Hollywood restaurant reputed for years to have been a Mafia hangout, died on Saturday in Humana Hospital Bennett in Plantation. He was 83.

Mr. Sonken moved to Miami in the mid-1940s from Chicago, where police claimed he was involved in a major prostitution ring with noted underworld figure Peter ``Petey Arnold`` Arnstein.

Not long after moving to Florida, Mr. Sonken and Arnstein`s wife opened a Miami nightclub called Mother Kelly`s, and he quickly became a well-known figure.

When that club went out of business, Mr. Sonken moved to Hollywood, where he opened the Gold Coast Restaurant and Lounge in 1948.

According to police and a special investigative committee of the state legislature, the restaurant has been a Mafia meeting place since it opened. Investigators also have said the restaurant was used as a national relay center for organized crime families that wanted to pass messages to one another.

Police said using the restaurant as a message center allowed mobsters to circumvent wiretaps.

Mr. Sonken repeatedly denied that his restaurant was a Mafia hangout or a mob message center when he was called to testify before the Florida Legislature`s ``Little Kefauver`` anti-crime committee in 1968.

Police surveillance indicated, however, that dozens of organized crime figures stopped in for dinner and drinks at the restaurant on the east side of the Intracoastal Waterway whenever they visited South Florida.

Among the most famous: John Gotti, reputed boss of the Gambino Mafia family in New York and considered to be the most powerful mobster in the country; Joseph Todaro, reputed head of the Magaddino crime family in Buffalo; and Edward Sciandra, said to be acting boss of the Bufalino crime family in Pennsylvania and New York.

Mr. Sonken, who often greeted visitors with his English Bulldog ``Bozo`` sitting at his feet, conceded that some mobsters had dined at his restaurant, but he was always quick to point out that judges, businessmen, politicians and families also frequented it.

Police tried on several occasions to put the cigar-smoking restaurant owner in jail.

He was arrested in 1972 by Broward Sheriff`s Office undercover deputies who charged him with illegal gambling. Detectives said they had placed bets with a bartender on jai-alai and horses. The charge was dismissed a month later, however, for lack of evidence.

Three years later, Mr. Sonken was indicted by a federal grand jury that charged him with attempted income-tax evasion and filing a false tax return. He was acquitted after a jury trial.

In 1978, agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement raided the Gold Coast Restaurant and Lounge, claiming Mr. Sonken stocked his storehouse with stolen groceries bought at cut-rate prices.

To make the arrest, the FDLE agents first sold Mr. Sonken $10,000 worth of anchovies, mushrooms and olive oil for $4,450.

The case was thrown out of court by Broward Circuit Judge Arthur J. Franza, who called the scheme ``a Keystone caper.``

Mr. Sonken, who never married, is survived by two brothers, Dr. Edwin Sonken of Skokie, Ill., and Dr. Paul Sonken of Denver.

Friends may call on Monday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Panciera Funeral Home, 4200 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood. Burial will be in Mount Sinai Cemetery in Miami.

Donations in his name may be made to Pet Rescue, 3440 NW 191st St., Miami.