Gondolas on Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale

East Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

East Las Olas Blvd

Gondolas on Venice Bridge, Las Olas Boulevard. After the extraordinary success of the Las Olas Gondola Tours in 2006, Stork's Cafe is bringing them back to Fort Lauderdale's New River for 2007.

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Here's what the press made of the Las Olas Gondola tours in 2006...

Lovers delight: Going gondola
Cafe's gondola service brings a touch of old Venice to Fort Lauderdale
BY ANGELA TABLAC
Sunday 29, 2006

Fort Lauderdale calls itself the Venice of America, so it's no small wonder that the gondolas took so long to appear.

But there they are, docked alongside Stork's Cafe on the Himmarshee Canal off Las Olas Boulevard.

Under a clear blue sky one afternoon last week, Jose and Rocio Andreu of Aventura spent part of their fourth wedding anniversary gliding along in the sleek wooden vessel, steered by a native Italian.

''We wanted to do something different and romantic,'' Rocio Andreu, 28, said after she stepped off the floating wooden dock. "It's very romantic.''

Stork's gets the credit. Nestled in a corner of Las Olas that overlooks the canal, the cafe sells coffee, bistro-type sandwiches and desserts. It's been there since June 2004, but started the Gondola Passport service Dec. 26.

Angelino Sandri, 42, born in Italy, navigates an authentic Venetian gondola through the dark water, as people walking on the bridge over the canal stop to peer at the vessel.

For $50, a couple gets $50 in discounts to Las Olas-area businesses and a 30-minute gondola ride, which goes along the historic canal and out to the New River. Sandri turns the gondola around in the New River and comes back on the canal.

About 450 gondolas navigate Venice, where there are no cars. While people rely on taxi boats or other vessels to get around, hitching a gondola ride is a luxury there, Sandri said.

Fort Lauderdale's web of canals was dug in the 1920s, around the time developer Charles Rodes made the comparison to the famous Italian city. He named a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood Venice. But it wasn't until the 1950s that Fort Lauderdale used the slogan ''Venice of America'' when promoting its Festamare celebration, said Merrilyn Rathbun, research director for the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society. Gondolas were used on the city's canals during the festival.

The city now has 85 miles of navigable waterways, said city spokesman Chaz Adams.

Stork's Cafe owner Jim Stork, 39, had the idea for an Italian-inspired waterside service as he was scouting locations for the cafe two years ago.

''The whole reason I went into that space was because it was a beautiful canal and it was underutilized,'' said Stork, a former Wilton Manors mayor who owns a cafe in that city.

In 2003, Stork visited Venice on vacation and looked for a way to bring back Venetian gondolas.

But he ended up finding Sandri via phone and Internet. Stork persuaded Sandri, who with his wife had owned a gondolier business in Oakland, Calif., since 1999, to move his family to South Florida and provide gondola service in Fort Lauderdale.

''We just wanted the right spot for the boats. It just ended up being a perfect fit,'' said Sandri, adding that the California winter is too chilly for the gondola service. He still owns the California business.

Sandri put one of the gondolas on a trailer and drove it cross-country, while a second gondola and a smaller boat were shipped on a truck.

Hurricane Wilma delayed their journey, but Sandri and the boats arrived in November. Sandri uses one gondola for tours and stores the other on the canal. He said he plans to use the small boat for tours, as well.

Out on the canal, he steers the solid wood gondola, 11 meters long, with long wooden oars. He said he gauges the customers' personalities in deciding when to sing Venetian folk tunes or talk about the gondola's history.

The first known mention of a gondola was in 1094, but the earliest glimpse of what the vessel looked like appeared in a painting in 1486, Sandri said.

Sandri's vessel follows the same design and dimensions that have been used for all gondolas made since 1890, when the famous builder Dominico Tramontin designed the boat in an asymmetrical shape, Sandri said. The new design required only one rower to steer. Older designs needed two.

Even today, gondola builders produce only a few vessels a year, so they ``put their souls in the boats.''

''I like the idea that you can touch history,'' he said, wearing a black-and-white striped shirt, black pants and a straw hat with a red ribbon.

Stork said the gondolas have been good for business -- he estimates a 30 percent increase in customers ``from people walking up just to see the gondola.''

''When this started, we couldn't believe it,'' said Ruthie Voluck, 59, who lives in an apartment above the cafe with her husband, Jeffrey. ``We moved here because it was like being in Italy.''

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For more information about the gondolas on Las Olas call Gondolier Mike on 954-561-7650 -- Stork's cafe phone number is 954-522-4670