Beloved South Beach restaurant finds a new home after fan outcry

Beloved South Beach restaurant Santorini by Georgios won’t close after heartbroken fans helped it find a new location at the Gale South Beach.

Santorini by Georgios photo

Devoted customers of Santorini by Georgios went out looking for spaces, ultimately helping Vogiatzis secure a new spot

Screenshot via Instagram/@santorinibygeorgios

Fans helped seal the new location

Fans helped seal the deal. When Vogiatzis shared the news of the closing in May, followers sent condolences and went out scouting for spaces.

“Some of you did something I will never forget,” he wrote in an Instagram post on June 8. “You went out yourselves, looking for spaces, sending me places, sending me your research, dreaming with me about where we bring our beautiful Santorini next. Who does this? Only family does this.”

After a decade, some of his customers truly have become more like family.

Grilled lamb chops at Santorini by Georgios

Santorini by Georgios photo

A Decade in South of Fifth

Vogiatzis, who grew up on the Greek island of Thassos in a family of restaurateurs, opened the restaurant in 2015 inside the Hilton Bentley South Beach, when he says the corner at 101 Ocean Drive looked nothing like it does today. The decade brought flaming saganaki, grilled octopus, lamb chops, whole fish, and enough Opa!-ing to rattle the hotel’s windows. When the May announcement landed, regulars were shaken. “We got married here! 10 years ago! We will miss it,” wrote one follower. A neighbor who had just relocated to South of Fifth was more blunt: “Oh man, just when we moved to the neighborhood and found our favorite happy hour!”

Vogiatzis was clear that the decision had nothing to do with business. “Even with so many 40 to 50 million dollar restaurants opening left and right around us, you kept choosing us, season after season, year after year,” he wrote at the time. The move was about finding a space where Santorini could grow without constraint. He referenced the idea of filoxenia, the Greek concept of hospitality as an act of love, and said he wouldn’t open somewhere that asked him to do it differently.

What Comes Next

No opening timeline has been announced for the Gale hotel debut. Vogiatzis says fans won’t have to wait for the finished space to follow along. “I do not want to just show you the finished home,” he wrote. “I want to take you along with me, every step of the way. The good days, the hard days, the dust and the dreaming, all of it.”

He ended on that note. “We did not build a restaurant together. We built a home.”

The Fort Lauderdale outpost at 4 W. Las Olas Blvd., opened in February 2026 with the same Mediterranean cuisine and a riverfront setting, is still running while the Collins Ave space comes together. The last call at 101 Ocean Drive is on June 30.

Santorini by Georgios. 101 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach (through June 30, 2026); new location: the Gale South Beach, 1690 Collins Ave, Miami Beach; santorinibygeorgios.com. Fort Lauderdale: 4 W Las Olas Blvd; @santorinibygeorgiosfl.

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