10 March 30 - april 5, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | News | letters | coNteNts | Sunday, April 9 Egg Hunts Face Painting Spin Art Bubble Dance Party Story Time Games and More! Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | 1993 when they were negotiating the sale of the business. That he had the nickname “Happy” was wholly ironic in its provenance, Howard asserts. “Like a fat man is called ‘Tiny’ or a bald man is called ‘Curly.’” An accomplished swimmer who es- chewed alcohol and always came to the bar dressed in a fashionably cut suit and necktie, Goldlust would sit in the bar’s interior near its front entrance during the late afternoon and watch the tipplers come and go. Dave Fischbein first met Happy as a 15-year-old boy who the proprietor would occasionally ask to deliver liquor to the homes of loyal customers. He got to know Goldlust better when he returned to the premises as an adult in his twenties. But even in his adoles- cence, Fischbein could detect a certain whiff of the underworld about the Runyonesque bar owner. “That was the air he would put out, in kind of a secretive way,” says the 66-year-old land surveyor. “He was very observant and street smart, big-time. And if he knew something about the mob, he wouldn’t tell you.” Much of the vintage patina that differenti- ates Happy’s from more conventional dive destinations like On the Rocks in North Beach dates to Goldlust’s 37-year tenure as its owner. The cash register nestled among the liquor bottles on the bar’s western side has a distinctively 1950s look. The package-liquor side of the business boasts a black rotary tele- phone that operates on a landline and is straight out of that same decade. (It proved its worth when a hurricane knocked out local cell networks for days on end.) Goldlust commissioned a sepia-toned mu- ral that covers much of the eastern wall of the bar and depicts drinkers from different walks of life enjoying beverages and one another’s company. Look closely, and you’ll note that the elegantly coiffed woman clad in a mink stole and clutching a cigarette holder in her right hand is pockmarked with two small-cal- iber bullet holes, one just to the left of the part in her blond hair, the other slightly to the right of her left nostril. Happy himself didn’t entirely escape the occasionally trigger-happy ways of some of the lounge’s real-life visitors. An undated newspa- per clipping tucked under the glass that tops the bar recounts an incident in Happy’s park- ing lot when Goldlust refused to hand over a wad of cash to a would-be robber and was shot once in the stomach with a .25-caliber pistol in broad daylight. “Bernard (Happy) Goldlust was listed in serious condition and still under- going surgery late last night,” notes the article. Goldlust survived his wounds. But by the early 1990s, he’d grown weary of the entre- preneurial life. He told a North Miami-based cousin of the Inerfelds that he was looking to unload the bar that bore his sobriquet, and a deal was done. Howard and Steven have added some technological touches in the intervening years, including an electronic jukebox and, for sports fans, large flat-screen TV monitors that hang from the ceiling. But as moving day looms, the brothers promise to preserve as much of the old Happy’s flavor as they can. About two-thirds of the wooden bar that starts near the neon-festooned front window and winds toward the rear of the current setup will be transplanted to the outdoor patio at the new digs. Some of the sooty posters that adorn the walls will come too, as will the mural, complete with bullet holes. Beyond that, the middle-term outlook for Happy’s Stork Lounge is about as clear as a frosted beer mug. The Inerfelds’ new land- lord will be the Sunbeam Television Com- pany, whose billionaire chief executive officer Andy Ansin completed a $57 million buying spree in the spring of 2021 that saw him snap up six acres of prime (and mostly waterfront) property in North Bay Village. When the lease with Sunbeam comes up for renewal in a scant four years — an eternity in Miami de- velopment time — it’s possible that a fleet of bulldozers will be poised to demolish the sin- gle-story structure where the brothers and their bartenders will have been pouring $6 double vodka-tonics for 48 months. But fear not for the long-term prospects of the Inerfeld family business. Until recently, none of the brothers’ three adult children had expressed even the slightest interest in inher- iting the taps one day. That changed late last year when Steven’s only child, physical thera- pist Brittany Inerfeld, pronounced herself an heiress-apparent, eager to learn the finer points of operating a liquor business whose hours are 10 a.m. to 5 a.m., 365 days a year. “I grew up going to the bar as a kid, and it was torture,” the 30-year-old Long Island na- tive recalls. “But as it got closer to the reality of it closing, I realized how badly I didn’t want to lose the place. I just want to keep the legend alive for my dad because everyone knows him from Happy’s. I don’t see it happening anytime soon, but whenever he feels the need to slow down, I’ll help pick up some of the slack.” The barflies of North Bay Village and environs will drink to that. [email protected] Last Call from p9
