Joel EngelhardtYes, he wants to play a less hands-on role running Subculture’s restaurants but he’s not selling out; it’s all to make time for the dogs.
For a guy stepping back from his business, Rodney Mayo is pretty busy.
First, the stepping-back part: The longtime mastermind behind the eclectic Subculture Group restaurant and coffee shop empire wants to open a sanctuary for dogs, the ones that never get adopted. Perhaps in New Orleans. Or the Bahamas.
To do that, he’s willing to reduce his hands-on role at Subculture.
To raise money for a sanctuary, he would sell one of the buildings housing his restaurants but only if the restaurant could remain as a tenant.
Food, socializing and a rooftop bar
Now the busy part: Projects he has been pursuing for years are coming to fruition.
First off: The Hacienda food hall, scheduled to open before the end of September. It’s been a work in progress since November 2024, when he bought the building at 522 Clematis St. next to his Respectable Street nightclub.
Like most Mayo visions, the draw is art, food, drinking, socializing and music amid a large dollop of whimsy. And, oh yes, a rooftop bar allowing patrons to look down on Clematis as if they were on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
He estimates he put $2.5 million into the buildout, with about half going toward reinforcing the structure to support the rooftop bar. But he knew he would be sorry if he didn’t try.
“I couldn’t afford it,” he said on a recent tour. “I splurged.”
The food court’s success depends on quality food and reliable vendors, he said. The list of food offerings carved into spaces along both sides of the building’s first floor includes Jamaican jerk, New Age sushi, burgers, pizza, Trinidadian vegan street food and a ramen bar with 30 flavors.
Mayo punctuates the space with yellow and gray trucks built in China that resemble French bakery trucks, where vendors will serve food from mini-kitchens or sell artwork.
And keep an eye out for the giant mechanical black cat and looming mechanical eyeballs, one to peer over the rooftop like Big Brother watching Clematis Street.
New for the Hacienda: It’ll be the first time in any Mayo establishment that TVs will be tuned to sporting events.
The multicolored square bar in back, with a bar top that transforms when lighted from below, will open to the patio behind Respectable Street. Customers outside will find four more food trucks, a stage and seating for 130, allowing nightclub revelers to mix with food patrons.
Mayo, 63, points with pride at the giant olive tree that dominates the back patio. He planted it in the early 1980s. That’s when, in his 20s, he bought the Respectable Street building and began converting it into the nightclub that opened in 1986.
The nightclub that predated Clematis’ revival is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year but it’s closed for renovations until Halloween.
Rather than stand in front of a food truck for a photo, he climbed the tree, saying it represents something with far more meaning to him.
The Subculture empire
Mayo, whose 2023 run for West Palm Beach mayor was blocked because a judge ruled that he had not established city residency, just opened the Man Ray restaurant in Lake Worth Beach, which also has a Subculture coffee shop.
He has coffee shops on Clematis across the street from The Hacienda and in Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Delray Beach and Boca Raton. He said he is working on adding a store in Boynton Beach.
The Peach art collective that he launched in West Palm Beach celebrated its fifth anniversary this month. His El Segundo Mexican brand there will expand soon to Palm Beach Gardens.
Mayo’s long-planned Shaker and Pie Italian bistro is aiming for an opening this year in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park, where he operates Tryst. He also runs Dada in Delray Beach, Hullabaloo and Shanghai’d on Clematis Street, Chhauka just off Clematis and Howley’s on West Palm’s South Dixie Highway.
Paying off foreclosed loan
But even as he prepares for multiple openings before the end of the year, he’s squelching a foreclosure lawsuit filed against him for failure to make a balloon payment on a two-year, $4.89 million loan.
As collateral on the debt, Mayo pledged the Lost Weekend building, next door to The Hacienda on Clematis; the downtown building on Narcissus Avenue where he ran the Camelot nightclub; and the industrial building on Henry Avenue near Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach where he runs his H3 Dog Rescue operation.
He bought the Narcissus building for $1.05 million in 2017 and sold it for $3 million in April to help pay down the loan. But negotiations to extend the time before his final payment broke down and the lender, BEB Credit Opportunity Fund out of New York, foreclosed.
Mayo said he has settled with the lender and lined up a new loan, this one payable in a year, meaning he’ll need the revenue stream promised by all his new endeavors.
But he’s committed to lining up a new structure where he works less and managers of his restaurants and nightclubs take on a partnership role. He’d prefer they took the calls in the middle of the night, instead of him, about clogged plumbing.
That requires capital to buy land, which means selling a building, he said.
But any conclusion that he is retiring or selling his business empire, built painstakingly over 40 years, is misleading, he said.
“I’M NOT EXITING SUBCULTURE,” he posted Sept. 6 on Facebook. “WE’RE EXPANDING.”
“After decades of restaurants, bars, coffee shops and obsessing over every damn detail, I want to spend more of my time doing something else I care deeply about: Saving dogs. I want to grow H3 Dog Rescue and ultimately build a 100+ acre dog sanctuary where dogs who may never find traditional homes can safely live out their lives.”
