Cefalo’s Wine Cellar files for bankruptcy South Florida Business

After just two years in business, Cefalo’s Wine Cellar in Coconut Grove has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Local sportscaster and former Miami Dolphin wide receiver Jimmy Cefalo owns the restaurant and wine tasting bar.

The bankruptcy filing lists 73 creditors, including the restaurant’s senior vice president, Brenda Bassett. Debt is listed at between $500,000 and $1 million.

The restaurant’s Web site lists former radio announcer Henry Barrow as wine director and Ileana Fajardo as associate wine director. Neither is listed as a creditor.

Gary Freedman, an attorney with Tabas, Freedman, Soloff & Miller in Miami, is handling the bankruptcy. He did not immediately return calls for comment.

In September, Sammy C’s Restaurant and Lounge took over the space.

Cefalo is a longtime wine enthusiast. His great-grandfather sold wine in Italy, and his father owns a winery in northeastern Pennsylvania, where Cefalo grew up learning how to crush the grapes and make wine, according to the restaurant’s Web site.

Cefalo opened the restaurant in 2006 on the site of the former Taurus restaurant underneath the Grove Gardens condominium.

In an interview with the Business Journal in July 2006, Cefalo said: "I'm not a wine expert. I'm a wine geek who tries to soak up every bit of it I can find."