![](\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Tfl-l-dom-carusos-courtyard-cafe-01.jpg?w=1400px&strip=all\")
\nChef Manny Varias prepares breakfast on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. <\/p>\n
Call it the best of both worlds: By day, tuck into $10 breakfast platters, country-fried steak and strawberry-smothered flapjacks. By night, say \u201cbuonasera\u201d to veal sorrentino, 18-inch vodka pies and red sauce-smothered rigatoni bolognese. Two years after closing in Wilton Manors, the beloved LGBTQ+ gathering spot once named Shawn & Nick\u2019s Courtyard Cafe has popped up in an unlikely place: inside the Italian restaurant Dom Caruso\u2019s Cucina.<\/p>\n
The newly blended business \u2014 now called Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe \u2014 debuted on Aug. 30 at 2468 Wilton Drive, on the northern end of the Drive, near Five Points, a half-mile north of Shawn & Nick\u2019s Courtyard Cafe\u2019s original location in the Shoppes of Wilton Manors. An egg breakfast platter on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the new Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe. Breakfast-lunch diner favorites are served by day and pizza and pasta classics by night, when the restaurant flips to full Italian. <\/p>\n
Consider it a full-blown culinary marriage between Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Varias, the cafe\u2019s former cook, and longtime friend Dominico Caruso, the namesake of Dom Caruso\u2019s Cucina. Varias says the diner-Italian mashup confronts the hard reality of being a mom-and-pop in 2025 with clear-eyed pragmatism: Rents are already \u201cridiculous\u201d on the Drive, he said, as are food and labor costs, so why not share the burden? \u201cIt\u2019s not Courtyard\u2019s money or Dom\u2019s money \u2014 we\u2019re all one,\u201d Varias says. \u201cEverything goes into the same bank account. If Courtyard has a slow day but Dom has a great night, or vice versa, it still works out. Dom\u2019s the yin to my yang.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reincarnated Courtyard Cafe keeps intact much of the menu locals remember, including corned beef hash, burgers, potato pancakes, chicken and waffles, BLTs, soul-warming soups and reliable portions of biscuits and gravy. Most entrees, even New York strips and boneless pork chops with eggs, cost $10 to $16. Varias, the original Courtyard Cafe\u2019s lead cook for seven years, said the comeback happened \u201con a whim.\u201d His former boss, Shawn Bombard, sold the restaurant in 2023 to new owners who rebranded the space as Myth Gastrobar, keeping Courtyard\u2019s old menu intact at first before converting the space into a bar-nightclub a year later.<\/p>\n
After leaving Myth in April 2024, Varias didn\u2019t seriously consider bringing the cafe back on his own until wistful customers shared memories about it on Wilton Manors Facebook groups over the summer, he says. \u201cAll I saw online was people sharing love for Courtyard, saying we didn\u2019t have a homey breakfast place anymore on the Drive,\u201d Varias recalls. \u201cSo in literally a month and a half, I came up with a business plan and talked to Dom. And he says, \u2018I\u2019m not open during the day [at Dom Caruso\u2019s Cucina]. Why don\u2019t you put Courtyard here?\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n
\nDinner service at the new Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. <\/p>\n
Given the greenlight, Varias says the next several weeks \u201czoomed by.\u201d First, he reconnected with former food suppliers. Then he changed the name just enough to distinguish it from Shawn and Nick\u2019s. Then he brought the band back together. \u201cManny comes to me and says, \u2018Are you onboard?\u2019 \u2014 and before he could even finish that sentence, I just said, Yes!\u2019 \u201d recalls Todd Price, a server at the original Courtyard Cafe for 18 years. \u201cOh my gosh, I was so elated, I was freaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n
To keep food costs low, Varias says he shops in bulk and doesn\u2019t pay distributors. Rent on Wilton Drive\u2019s northern fringes, where there\u2019s less competition, is \u201ca third\u201d of what he\u2019d pay in the middle of the Drive, where it\u2019s packed with bars and restaurants. \u201cWhen you go to a pricey brunch restaurant in Flagler Village, it\u2019s not like they get special chickens that lay special eggs,\u201d says Varias, who\u2019s been cooking at restaurants for 30 years. \u201cThey\u2019re all getting it from the same distributors, but what they\u2019re charging you extra is their overhead, their ambiance, their see-and-be-seen vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new Courtyard Cafe is an upgrade over the dining room at the old Shawn & Nick\u2019s, which had fading carpet and wood-paneled walls, Varias says. Two weeks in, the dining room still resembles an upscale Italian joint, with spaghetti sauce-red walls, a hanging chandelier, cherry-wood chairs and tall planters. But future plans aim to \u201cbrighten up the place\u201d for daytime crowds with eclectic, multicolored chairs and extra patio seating for al fresco diners, he says.<\/p>\n
For his part, Caruso says he is all-in on his restaurant\u2019s makeover, describing the partnership with Varias as a fast-track to semi-retirement in one or two years. \u201cI see in Manny what I saw in myself when I was younger,\u201d Caruso says. \u201cHe\u2019s aggressive, he\u2019s a hard worker and good friend. But me? I\u2019m winding down. When you hit your 60s, you want to enjoy life too.\u201d \u201cItalian and diner food is an odd combo, but it works well.\u201d \u2014 Dominico Caruso, owner of Dom Caruso\u2019s Cucina<\/p>\n
Blended businesses with multiple restaurants under one roof are uncommon creatures in South Florida, but they\u2019ve existed for years. Consider the rise of ghost kitchens, where several food spots share a single address, or even food halls, where competing vendors share dining space and foot traffic. Along with the diner menu, Courtyard Cafe also carries Italian lunch specials, from meatball parmigiana sandwiches to manicotti, alongside desserts and drinks from nearby shops Cake Daddy\u2019s and Aunt Jenn\u2019s Tea & Spice Shop.<\/p>\n
\nChef Manny Varias prepares breakfast on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. <\/p>\n
Nearly every day since it reopened, David Gehr and his dog, Mr. Wilson, grab a booth at Courtyard Cafe for his favorite order, a Spanish omelet with bacon. Gehr, who\u2019s legally blind and doesn\u2019t drive, walks the full mile from his home so \u201cI can burn off a few calories before I get here,\u201d he jokes. \u201cMr. Wilson likes bacon,\u201d the retired paralegal says, tearing off a piece for his rescue bichon fris\u00e9 under the table on a recent Tuesday. \u201cI have to limit him so his cholesterol doesn\u2019t go up too high.\u201d Sometimes he returns to Courtyard Cafe when it morphs into Caruso\u2019s for his favorite dinner, linguine and clams.<\/p>\n
The hybrid restaurants are a \u201cpractical way of doing business,\u201d even if the cuisines are night and day. Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe is at 2468 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors. Call 954-565-7222 or go to Courtyard Cafe\u2019s Facebook page and DomCarusosCucina.com. The partnership between Varias and Caruso is a unique approach to the challenges faced by mom-and-pop restaurants in 2025, and their blended business model may be a sign of things to come in the culinary world.<\/p>\n
Q: What is the address of Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe?
\nA: 2468 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors.
\nQ: What type of cuisine does Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe serve?
\nA: The restaurant serves breakfast-lunch diner favorites by day and pizza and pasta classics by night.
\nQ: How did the partnership between Varias and Caruso come about?
\nA: Varias, the former cook of Shawn & Nick\u2019s Courtyard Cafe, partnered with Caruso, the owner of Dom Caruso\u2019s Cucina, to create a blended business model that combines their culinary expertise.
\nQ: What are the prices like at Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe?
\nA: Most entrees cost $10 to $16.
\nQ: Is Caruso\u2019s and Courtyard Cafe a unique concept?
\nA: Yes, the blended business model is an uncommon approach in South Florida, but it has existed in other forms, such as ghost kitchens and food halls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to Caruso’s & Courtyard Cafe Call it the best of both worlds: By day, tuck into $10 breakfast platters, country-fried steak and strawberry-smothered flapjacks. By night, say \u201cbuonasera\u201d to veal sorrentino, 18-inch vodka pies and red sauce-smothered rigatoni bolognese. Two years after closing in Wilton Manors, the beloved LGBTQ+ gathering spot once named Shawn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Tfl-l-dom-carusos-courtyard-cafe-01.jpg?w=1400px&strip=all&w=1400&resize=1400,933&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19988,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19985\/revisions\/19988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}