Carl G. Fisher and Alfredo Gonzalez
Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Marker Inscription
ALFREDO GONZALEZ, SR. (1935-2016) Since the onset, Hispanics have contributed to the rich cultural fabric that makes Miami Beach a great community and destination. It was in this tropical paradise that Alfredo Gonzalez, Sr. set roots in the city of Miami Beach opening and operating a family run Cuban restaurant which became a staple for locals and popular amongst tourists. This was the beginning of the success story of this family man, business owner, and caring citizen that exemplifies the experiences of the Hispanics who have made Miami Beach their home. In 1961, Alfredo exiled to the United States from Cuba, similar to his father before him who emigrated from Spain to Cuba a half century earlier. With a great desire to be part of the American Dream, Alfredo assimilated to American culture, learned a new language, and worked several jobs to provide for his wife Maria, his mother-in-law, and three sons, Alfredo, Alejandro and Adrian. With modest savings and with the support of his family, Alfredo realized his dream in Miami Beach of serving the cuisine of his native Cuba, with his first Cuban restaurant, Three Boys Luncheonette, located in North Beach. A couple of years later, the dream continued with David's Café which Alfredo operated for over 37 years on Collins Avenue, in the heart of South Beach. With much dedication, Alfredo expanded his business presence to Washington Avenue and almost 20 years at David's Café II on Lincoln Road. In keeping with the values inherited from his family, Alfredo's business success afforded him the opportunity to give back to the community and actively supported all three Catholic churches in Miami Beach. Alfredo became known as a champion of Miami Beach's aging elderly population seeking opportunities to improve their quality of life. Through their example of entrepreneurship, faith, and service, Alfredo and Maria instilled in their children and the community around them the importance of charity. The challenges and heartache endured by Alfredo while escaping the political chaos in Cuba allowed him to appreciate responsible civic participation. Indeed, Alfredo developed a passion for Miami Beach's politics, diversity, natural beauty, and historic character and endeavored to restore several historic properties, including the buildings located at 1058 Collins Avenue, a 1926 gas station, and a bungalow built by Carl Fisher in 1914. In appreciation for the contributions and legacy of this great citizen be it resolved that on September 12, 2018 the City of Miami Beach Mayor and Commission, by recommendation of the Hispanic Affairs Committee, dedicate this marker in honor of Alfredo Gonzalez, Sr.
Erected by City of Miami Beach Mayor and Commission
The Story
A 1961 exile from Cuba, Alfredo Gonzalez, Sr. worked several jobs before opening a small Cuban luncheonette in Miami Beach and, later, the beloved David's Café, which he ran for decades. His success let him support the city's churches and champion its elderly, and he restored several historic properties, including a bungalow built by Carl Fisher in 1914. In 2018 the City of Miami Beach dedicated this marker to honor his family's story.
Why it matters
Gonzalez's rise embodies the Cuban exile experience and the immigrant enterprise that reshaped Miami Beach in the second half of the twentieth century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Miami Beach did not exist as a city until the 1910s, when a stretch of mangrove and sand was dredged and filled into a resort town. From those beginnings it grew into one of America's great winter playgrounds, its low Mediterranean-style bungalows and, later, its Art Deco hotels drawing visitors from across the country. Buildings like a modest 1926 gas station or a 1914 bungalow are survivors of that first building boom.
By the second half of the twentieth century, Miami Beach was being remade again — this time by people, not just developers. After 1959, waves of Cubans fleeing the island's political upheaval crossed the Florida Straits and settled across greater Miami, transforming its neighborhoods, its economy, and its table. Spanish became a second civic language, and the cafecito counter became a fixture of daily life.
Into that world, in 1961, stepped a young exile who would spend the rest of his life helping build the community around him. His arrival was part of a much larger story, but the marker keeps its focus on one family and the corner of the city they made their own.
People & events
Alfredo Gonzalez, Sr. left Cuba in 1961, following a path his own father had walked a half-century earlier when he emigrated from Spain to Cuba. Arriving with little, Alfredo learned a new language, worked several jobs at once, and saved what he could to provide for his wife Maria, his mother-in-law, and their three sons — Alfredo, Alejandro, and Adrian.
His first venture was a small Cuban luncheonette in North Beach, named Three Boys Luncheonette for those sons. It was a beginning, not an end. Within a few years came David's Café on Collins Avenue in the heart of South Beach, which he would run for more than thirty-seven years. He later expanded to Washington Avenue and to David's Café II on Lincoln Road, where he served the neighborhood for nearly two decades.
Success, for Alfredo, was something to share. He supported all three of Miami Beach's Catholic churches and became a champion of the city's elderly residents, looking for ways to improve their lives. Having escaped political chaos himself, he threw himself into civic life, and his love of the city's historic character led him to restore several old buildings — among them a 1926 gas station at 1058 Collins Avenue and a bungalow that had been built by Carl Fisher in 1914. In 2018, two years after his death, the City of Miami Beach dedicated this marker in his honor.
Its place in the American story
Alfredo Gonzalez's life is one telling of a story that reshaped a large part of the American South. The Cuban exile community that formed in and around Miami after 1959 became one of the most consequential immigrant arrivals of the late twentieth century, turning a regional resort into a genuinely international city and leaving a permanent mark on American food, business, and politics.
His particular version of that story — arriving with almost nothing, mastering a new language, working relentlessly, and building a family business one storefront at a time — is a classic American immigrant narrative. The restaurant counter has always been one of the surest ladders for newcomers to this country, requiring long hours and personal warmth more than inherited capital, and Alfredo climbed it.
What lifts his story beyond commerce is what he did with what he earned. By pouring his success back into his churches, his elderly neighbors, and the physical preservation of his adopted city, he embodied the idea that citizenship is something you practice, not just something you receive. That the honor came from the city government itself, on the recommendation of its Hispanic Affairs Committee, speaks to how fully that community had become part of the civic fabric.
If you visit
This is a marker to read slowly and then look up from. You are standing in a neighborhood that a Cuban immigrant helped tend and preserve, so let your eye wander to the older, smaller buildings around you — the low bungalows and period storefronts that predate the tall towers, the kind of structures Alfredo Gonzalez spent his own money to save.
Miami Beach rewards travelers who slow down. Rather than rushing between the beach and the nightlife, take time to notice how many layers of history sit within a few blocks: an early gas station, a 1910s cottage, a mid-century café. Each has a story like this one behind it.
If your travels give you the chance, seek out a good Cuban café nearby and order a cafecito or a Cuban sandwich. It is the most fitting way to honor a man whose life's work was serving the food of his homeland to his neighbors — and a reminder that some of the most important history a place holds is the everyday kind, made one meal and one act of generosity at a time.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Alfredo Gonzalez, Sr.
- · Carl Fisher
Themes & tags
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