About
Mr. E.L. "Shorty" Allen left Georgia as a young
man more than 50 years ago. In 1951 he built and
opened the familiar log cabin style restaurant,
including family size picnic tables, screen
windows and a concrete floor. Since those early
days, Shorty's has been satisfying appetites with
our famous ribs, chicken, homemade sauce, creamy
cole slaw, and of course our delicious corn on the
cob.
Loyal patrons were shocked when their favorite
restaurant burned down in 1972 (pictured at the
left). Two years later Shorty rebuilt an almost
identical building on this same location. Today
the restaurant remains a piece of South Florida's
glorious history, a nostalgic and delicious
landmark next door to Datran Center Skyscrapers,
and the southern end of MetroRail, all just a
block from Dadeland shopping center. We maintain
the "Shorty's Atmosphere" in our newer
restaurants, so our old friends will certainly
recognize the familiar tastes that remain almost
unchanged since 1951.
In 1992 "Hurricane Andrew" came through South Dade
County. Shorty's was heavily damaged but thanks to
a lot of hard work, we reopened in a week to serve
the community. Shorty's continues to be an "Oasis
in Time", where you can taste what it was like in
South Florida over 50 years ago.