Patio Bar & Pizza brings modern vibe to Fort Lauderdale’s historic Progresso Plaza
By Ben Crandell South Florida Sun-Sentinel July 29,2022 Patio Bar & Pizza is finally open at the historic Progresso Plaza, after a lengthy renovation of the nearly 100-year-old structure yielding a beautiful new indoor-outdoor space destined to be one of the “it” nightlife spots in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The first of three soft-opening nights on Tuesday drew a diverse crowd — friends of ownership, youthful in-the-bizzers and veteran east Fort Lauderdale tavernistas — dispersed around the 2,500-square-foot restaurant and its walled, turfed-and-tiled terrace. The vibe was decidedly laid-back: Kids and dogs, locals and lost tourists, the tattooed, the gray-haired, a stylish pair of Golden Goose sneakers, one Tupac T-shirt and one poor soul in a Red Sox jersey. Overhead, a muted soundtrack flowed algorithmically: ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” Harry Styles’ “Late Night Talking,” the viral yearning of Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I...