"Even if it's exactly the same, if they don't see me or Diane there, they're going to say it's not the same," Marcello Fiorentino told the Palm Beach Post in a story published October 15 and republished by Miramar News. He was talking about the restaurant his parents opened in 1986.
He and Diane Fiorentino have sold La Sirena to Alex and Amanda Gaudelet. The new owners plan to reopen in November after a light renovation, with a refreshed menu, more wine and a full bar. For anyone living near 6316 S. Dixie Highway, the biggest change is the calendar. Under the new owners, La Sirena will stay open all year.
The closing schedule ends with this sale
For years, La Sirena ran on a schedule you could plan around. According to the Post, the Fiorentinos usually closed for vacation in May and reopened in October. That meant the restaurant was effectively a season-only dinner. You could book a birthday in February. You couldn't book an anniversary in July.
The schedule came out of how the restaurant grew. Marcello Fiorentino's parents opened it in 1986, and it stayed in the family after his father died in 1994. He and Diane later rebuilt it together. After a trip to Italy in the late 1990s, they moved much of the menu toward classic Italian cooking and slowly built the wine list. In the Post's account, Fiorentino laughed about the early years: "We built it out of desperation."
That wine list became one of the most decorated in the state. La Sirena won its first Wine Spectator Award of Excellence in 1999. In 2015 it received the Grand Award, the magazine's highest honor for restaurant wine programs. The Post reports that only four restaurants in Florida hold it.
So South Dixie Highway has had one of Florida's top wine lists for more than a decade, and for part of every year its doors were closed. Starting with the November reopening, the new owners plan to keep them open.
What the Gaudelets bought
The cellar came with the sale. The Post puts it at 4,000 bottles and more than 2,000 selections, with special depth in Italian wines. Alex Gaudelet said buying the cellar was essential to keeping a wine program at the Grand Award level.
Gaudelet grew up in Paris. He met the Fiorentinos through publicist David Sabin while he was launching The Polo Room in Palm Beach, where the Post says he is a principal partner. Palm Beach Illustrated reported that The Polo Room took over the former PB Catch space at 251 Sunrise Avenue. It opened in early December after about 30 days of conversion work, with an Argentine-influenced, asado-focused menu and seafood carried over from the old raw bar.
The year-round plan follows from the family's own move. The purchase lined up with the Gaudelets relocating from Connecticut to South Florida. "The reason we acquired La Sirena was because as a family we decided to move here," Gaudelet told the Post. For the first time in its history, La Sirena's new owners are new to the neighborhood. They have chosen to run it as a full-year local restaurant rather than a seasonal one.
What stays and what changes
The Gaudelets call the renovation decorative. Here is a side-by-side of what the Post reported.
| Under the Fiorentinos | Under the Gaudelets | |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar | Usually closed May, reopened October | Open year-round |
| Bar | Wine-focused, no full bar | Full liquor license, cocktails such as Negronis |
| Cellar | Italian-focused, 2,000+ selections | Same cellar plus about 300 French wines |
| Menu | Classic Italian | Still rooted in traditional Italian, some familiar dishes updated, new ones added |
| Room | Longtime décor | Redesign led by Amanda Gaudelet with custom glass, mosaics and Roman and Mediterranean motifs |
| Capacity and parking | Valet | Capacity about the same, valet continues |
| Gift certificates | — | Honored indefinitely |
The cocktails depend on a new license. The Post says a full liquor license makes drinks like Negronis possible at La Sirena for the first time. An older profile from the regional restaurant show Check, Please! South Florida listed the restaurant as serving beer and wine only.
The roughly 300 French wines are a nod to Gaudelet's roots. They add to the Italian collection the Fiorentinos built and don't replace it. The new mosaic work also connects to the past. Post photographer Thomas Cordy photographed a newly made mosaic panel showing the restaurant's siren motif on October 14. "It was extremely important that we involve the community, knowing the very big shoes we are filling," Gaudelet said.
Why year-round matters more than the menu
Taken one at a time, most of the changes are small. Capacity holds steady, the valet stays, the menu remains Italian at its core, and old gift certificates still work. The full bar and the French wines expand the list without changing what the restaurant is.
A table that used to be available only from October through spring will now be open in June, July and August too. That means the summer, when the old schedule closed the doors, becomes another month to book. Add cocktails and a broader wine list, and La Sirena becomes a dinner for a regular weeknight in any month, not only an occasion saved for the season.
Gaudelet described the job in terms of the long run. "La Sirena is timeless because it has been here for 40 years," he told the Post. "Now we have to prepare it for the next 30."
Before it reopens
The Post's report gives the reopening only as "November," with no exact day. OpenTable is the restaurant's listed booking channel and still shows it as closed and not taking reservations. The phone number on the Check, Please! profile is 561-585-3128.
If you have an old gift certificate in a drawer, keep it. The new owners told the Post they will honor existing certificates indefinitely.
New on South Dixie this fall
La Sirena isn't the only change along South Dixie Highway this fall. Two newer spots nearby fit the same pattern of businesses opening for all twelve months.
- The Daily Focaccia opened Monday, October 5, at 410 Evernia St., Suite 118. The Post notes that despite the Evernia address, the shop faces South Dixie Highway. Chef Erjon Musaj and his wife, Fernanda Bruna, run it, and the menu includes nine sandwiches on fresh focaccia, among them the Italiano Bello. See the Post's photos.
- 212 Bagel Co. is planned for November on the 500 block of Clematis Street. As of the Post's October 14 update, it had not opened and no exact address had been given.
Of the three, only La Sirena brings a 40-year history, a Grand Award cellar and a closing schedule its regulars knew by heart. When it reopens in November, the old October-to-May routine ends with it.
At Engel & Völkers Fort Lauderdale, we follow changes like La Sirena's because the restaurants on your street are part of what makes a neighborhood feel like home. If you'd like to talk about life along South Dixie Highway or anywhere in West Palm Beach, please contact us. We're glad to help, at any time of year.
