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The caviar business in South Florida is sleeping with the fishes. Caviarteria, which has caviar restaurant and shops in Boca Raton and Palm Beach, closed in Miami Beach; New York; Beverly Hills, Calif.; and Las Vegas.
Other local caviar establishments are listed as inactive in Florida, according to state records, and those in business face a tough road ahead amid a shaky economy, crackdown on illicit imports and a dwindling supply of black eggs from endangered sturgeon.
Marky's Caviar in North Miami Beach is so concerned it is attempting to farm raise Caspian sturgeon domestically.
"The economy is not very good," said owner Mark Zaslavsky, who acknowledged an industrywide slowdown in demand.
Despite the dwindling numbers of sturgeon, supply from producers is not a problem, as 45 to 50 tons of caviar cargo will be available this year, he said.
Setbacks at Caviartena
One of the major players in the caviar business has been Caviarteria, opened by Louis Sobol in New York City in 1950.
A January 2000 Business Journal article told how the late Sobol's sons, Eric and Bruce, were planning to open their seventh location, on South Beach.
"In the South Florida region, we have 2,500 existing caviar customers," Eric Sobol said. "We do a major amount of business with South and Latin Americans, and Miami is obviously the gateway to Latin America."
But even after it opened, the place never took off, co-owner Bruce Sobol said recently.
"It wasn't really selling caviar," he said. "We like the drinks and the youths, but it really wasn't who we are."
Caviarteria South Beach dissolved in October, according to Florida state records. Also gone are New York City locations in Grand Central Terminal and the SoHo Grand Hotel.
In fiscal 2001, the company lost $2 million, according to court filings cited by The New York Times in a Jan. 20 article.
Eric Sobol, Bruce's brother, committed suicide in his car in the parking lot of a restaurant in Danville, Pa., on April 16, 2001, the Times' article said. His widow said he committed suicide so rife insurance...