Welcome back Cafe Alcazar – and a new owner

Historic City News has learned that George Chryssaidis, the owner of Athena Cafe and Georgie’s Diner downtown, is also the new owner of Cafe Alcazar in the historic Lightner Museum.

It’s the third restaurant in Downtown St. Augustine for Chryssaidis; who also owns a pub with a partner in New Orleans.

After being closed for nearly a year, the City of St. Augustine accepted an offer from Chryssaidis to renovate and re-open the restaurant in the space that was once the world’s largest indoor swimming pool.

Chicago publisher, Otto C. Lightner, purchased the building to house his extensive collection of Victoriana in 1946 and opened the museum two years later. He gave the museum to the City of St. Augustine. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Chryssaidis, a native of Greece, began leasing the Granada Street location last May and has spent the past 11 months and a reported $100,000 on renovation of the restaurant space.

The Lightner Museum at 75 King St. now contains artifacts of opulence from the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, but the building was originally built as the luxurious Hotel Alcazar in 1887 by railroad magnate Henry Flagler.