How does the cofounder of the buzzy-sporty nightspot chain American Social strike restaurant success a second time?

The answer, if you ask Paul Greenberg, is to create a new nightlife destination in a sleepy suburb without much of it: Parkland.

Which is why Greenberg teamed up with married restaurateurs Eddie and Christina Pozzuoli ( Prezzo , Corvina Seafood Grill) to open Dear Olivia, an American gastropub expected to debut sometime this spring.

Dear Olivia takes over the 6,400-square-foot space at 7805 N. University Drive that previously housed Mediterranean staple Deja Blue , which closed on Dec. 15 after eight years. Greenberg envisions an “American comfort-food restaurant that happens to play live sports” — as opposed to a sports pub — and a love letter to family-friendly dining.

Yes, there will be copious flat-screen TVs, but its lunch and dinner menu, created by executive chef Jeff Turks, will lean into high-end seafood and prime steaks, Waldorf salads, poke bowls, burgers, Nashville-style chicken sandwiches and other handhelds. The 122-seat dining room will be painted in a warm color palette of airy blues, greens and white, while the 110-seat patio, which has an indoor-outdoor bar, overlooks a manmade lake and fountain.

“It’s elevated American comfort food with our own twist on certain items,” Greenberg says. “You can go there to catch a game, or to have a nice steak or date night, or just to catch a nightcap after dinner. The emphasis will be on parents who eat out with their kids.”

Greenberg, for one, has already located its first customer: His 9-year-old daughter, Olivia, the restaurant’s namesake.

“She freaked out when I told her the restaurant’s name,” Greenberg says with a laugh. “My other two boys were giving me s— the whole time. But Olivia is my only girl, and she wants a burger on Day 1.”

Family is also central to Greenberg’s newly forged partnership with the Pozzuolis’ P Hospitality Group, which operates Corvina Seafood Grill, two locations of classy Italian sit-down Prezzo and the upcoming Eddie & Vinny’s , a coastal bistro coming in February to Coral Springs.

Greenberg, who co-created American Social on Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Boulevard in 2012, says he left the company in 2024 for personal reasons.

“Honestly, I was going through a divorce, and I wanted to spend more time with the kids,” Greenberg says. “I wanted to take a step back in life and look at the bigger picture, and my kids were the bigger picture.”

Eddie Pozzuoli, still finalizing Dear Olivia’s food and drink menu, says that while Parkland lacks late-night eateries, he’s under no delusion that the west Broward city is like Fort Lauderdale’s Himmarshee Street or Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue. He says Dear Olivia will close at midnight on the weekends and 11 p.m. on weeknights, although they’ll keep the doors open for major sporting events like the Super Bowl or UFC fight nights.

“Out west, there isn’t a huge demand for a bar atmosphere,” he says. “Heck, even Mizner Park dies down around 11 p.m. It’s not our intention to court super late-night crowds. But when I ran [the late] Tavolino Della Notte [in Coral Springs], I noticed folks would finish dinner at 10 p.m. and then it was, ‘Whose house are we going to for a nightcap?’ Well, we wanted a great place for people to enjoy one or two post-dinner drinks.”

Greenberg says Dear Olivia’s menu of 12 craft cocktails will be “minimalist” and inspired by “cool little Spanish cocktail bars” he visited over the summer, including Barcelona’s Dr. Stravinsky, Sips and Paradiso. Drinks will include a smoky old fashioned, espresso martinis and a handful of mocktails.

Dear Olivia will offer a happy hour menu when it opens, followed by brunch two weeks later.

Dear Olivia, at 7805 N. University Drive, in Parkland , is expected to open during spring 2025. Go to PHospitality.com/dear-olivia/ .