Coconut Grove's Cafe Tu Tu Tango Alive and Well on New Facebook Fan Page

Live for about a week, a new Cafe Tu Tu Tango fan page on Facebook logged 100 fans today, just meeting the requirement to claim its own brand URL. Other digital fan clubs exist for the chain, including one for the now-defunct Coconut Grove branch, but this is the first...

By Jackie Sayet

July 8, 2009

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Live for about a week, a new Cafe Tu Tu Tango fan page on Facebook logged 100 fans today, just meeting the requirement to claim its own brand URL. Other digital fan clubs exist for the chain, including one for the now-defunct Coconut Grove branch, but this is the first one open to the public and appears to have the most fans.

The page is the creation of Coconut Grove Grapevine editor Tom Falco, who claims to have first reported the artists' haunt's closing last year.

"I had lots of pics, and I hang out with all the artists who painted there," Falco explains. "We always talk about it and all have photos and stories, so I thought it would be a reunion page-type thing. Memories..."

The restaurant shuttered just shy of 20 years old in May 2008, to rumors of loudness, lease problems with CocoWalk, slow business, and issues with its structural integrity after Hurricane Wilma.

"People keep asking me if it will come back, and one local club actually wanted to bring back the concept," Falco adds. "The club closed before there was a chance to start it up. I would like a local restaurant or business owner to bring the concept back. Artists contact me all the time asking for a place where they can actually paint in public. They like doing that. It seems to be a very creative thing for them -- sharing their work as it is being created live."

Asked what he thought about the space's current tenant, Crazy Pianos, Falco responds, "no comment." You can see what he really thinks on his blog.

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