Vero Beach virtual golf in historic bar and restaurant closes after less than six months
The 19th Hole Virtual Golf Bar and Grill in Vero Beach has closed after less than six months in business.
It closed Saturday after its comedy shows Friday night.
The building at 1103 21st St. was designed by Vero Beach developer Waldo Sexton and constructed in 1935. It originally was a fruit stand, but since then has been a variety of restaurants.
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The most famous was The Patio, which closed in 2020 after a decline in business. The Sexton family that owned the property sold it in February 2022 to Boca Raton real estate broker Prakas & Co. for $600,000, according to Indian River County property records.
Building owner Athan “Tom” Prakas renovated the interior to accommodate three virtual golf simulators and leased it to Bob Gruber. It’s unknown why Gruber parted ways with 19th Hole, according to operations manager Shawn Steele.
Gruber, a Vero Beach resident of 35 years, had described it as both a restaurant with virtual sports and an entertainment venue that serves food when 19th Hole opened at the beginning of April.
The restaurant was run by executive chef Brent Blaha, who previously was an executive chef at the Amalfi Grill and the Pelican Yacht Club and a sous chef at the Polo Grill. He had created an eclectic "soup to nuts" menu with upscale bar food, salads, sandwiches, tacos, wings, pasta, steak, seafood and American classic comfort food.
The space was too big to survive solely as a restaurant, he said, so Gruber added virtual golf, baseball, football, basketball, zombie dodgeball, home run derby, field goal challenge and other simulated games.
The Full Swing Pro 2.0 simulators were marketed as “the only golf simulator trusted by Tiger Woods,” Gruber said, and golf greats use it in their homes. Prices ranged from $40-$80 per hour.
The 19th Hole Virtual Golf Bar and Grill was the only virtual golf venue of its kind on the Treasure Coast, he said, and there was nothing else like it from Orlando to West Palm Beach.
Laurie K. Blandford is TCPalm's entertainment reporter and columnist dedicated to finding the best things to do on the Treasure Coast. Follow her on Twitter @TCPalmLaurie and Facebook @TCPalmLaurie. Email her at laurie.blandford@tcpalm.com. Sign up for her What To Do in 772 weekly newsletter at profile.tcpalm.com/newsletters/manage.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: 19th Hole Virtual Golf bar and restaurant in Vero Beach closes
