"Our season in Fort Lauderdale is pre-boat show and post-boat show," Tim Petrillo of The Restaurant People told Miami New Times in September. "That's the real marker of season kickoff."
The 67th Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show runs through Sunday, Nov. 1, and Las Olas Boulevard looks different from how it looked six weeks ago. The new restaurants didn't spread evenly along the street. They opened at the two ends. One is a 291-seat restaurant on the river at Huizenga Park. The other is a pair of new restaurants facing each other at Southeast Ninth Avenue. Between those two ends, a 25-year regular has closed and one more opening is still on the way. Where the openings landed tells you more about this season on Las Olas than how many there are.
The middle of the boulevard went quiet first
Big City Tavern closed on Sept. 30 after 25 years at 609 E. Las Olas Blvd. It announced the closure on Instagram less than two weeks before its last night. The restaurant, part of Big Time Restaurant Group, gave no reason and hasn't announced what will replace it. For a quarter century, its kitchen under executive chef Ladanna Lawas made breads, pastas and gelato in-house and served weekend brunch in the 600 block.
A block west, Amal Las Olas is slated for fall at 500 E. Las Olas Blvd. It's a Lebanese restaurant from INK Entertainment Group, which already runs Amal in Coconut Grove and Toronto. No opening date had been announced as of late October. For the first time in years, the 500 and 600 blocks are between tenants just as the boat show crowds arrive.
The west end got a dining room on the river
Sweetwaters opened on Oct. 12 at 58 E. Las Olas Blvd., inside Huizenga Park. As the Sun Sentinel reported, the restaurant caps a three-year, $15 million redesign of the park. The family hospitality group behind Miami's Rusty Pelican developed it, and the menu focuses on coastal cuisine with New River views. It seats 291 between the dining room and the patio.
For now, Sweetwaters is an evening restaurant:
- Hours: 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 4 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, according to its OpenTable listing
- Happy hour: 4 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with several cocktails at half off and $5 beers
- Daytime: lunch and a morning café are planned for later; none had started by late October
- Coffee: Ophelia, a separate Miami-based business, sells coffee and baked goods from an RV trailer near the restaurant
The menu covers a lot of ground, from a $15 Thai chili Brussels sprouts plate to the $130 Steak Progressive, a four-cut steak flight. The reservation line is 954-231-7777.
Location matters more here than the menu. The park drew crowds before the restaurant existed. The Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority reported more than 100,000 visitors in the five months after the park reopened in January 2026, drawn by the market, sunset yoga and Yappy Hours, according to the Sun Sentinel. Sweetwaters opened into people who were already coming.
The Ninth Avenue corner was ten years in the making
About nine blocks east, the corner of Las Olas and Southeast Ninth Avenue gained two restaurants within days of each other.
Naia, a Mediterranean restaurant from Petrillo's group at 904 E. Las Olas Blvd., missed its original target of the weekend of Oct. 18. Its opening was announced for Thursday, Oct. 22. Petrillo told Miami New Times the site had been "in the making for a decade." His team set the building back 25 feet to make room for a wide sidewalk and a bar that "pokes out onto the sidewalk." The plan was to open with dinner and add lunch and brunch over the following two to three weeks. Its OpenTable page already shows hours from 11:30 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends, so call ahead before counting on lunch this week.
Across the street at 833 E. Las Olas Blvd., Marc Falsetto's Caviar Club set its public opening for Tuesday, Oct. 27, the day before the show began. Falsetto described it to Miami New Times as "a retro-glam American steakhouse inspired by the excess and decadence and unapologetic luxury of the 1980s." Despite the name, it's open to the public, not members only. The details:
- The Bar Room opens daily at 4 p.m. and serves martinis, caviar bites, a dry-aged burger and a Wagyu French dip.
- Reservations are taken only through the Caviar Club website. They open daily at 9 a.m. for dates 30 days out.
- A limited number of early-evening walk-ins will be seated, according to the Browardist.
- Its first 100 founding memberships sold out in three weeks, and another 50 followed.
Those 9 a.m. reservation releases matter for anyone planning around November. Opening the day before the show means the busiest first week a downtown restaurant can have, and tables 30 days out start filling as soon as they're released.
Petrillo explains the timing with what has happened around the boulevard. He pointed Miami New Times to the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale, which has opened, a St. Regis that's on the way, and the luxury towers changing downtown. Falsetto went further: "This is probably the most exciting time here in the last 10 or 20 years for downtown Fort Lauderdale, especially Las Olas."
This week, the river works differently
The two new ends of Las Olas sit along the New River, and this is the one week of the year when the usual boats don't stop there. Water Taxi has suspended regular service for the show and is running boat-show routes only. A day pass costs $15 and a five-day pass costs $65. The city's free LauderGO Water Trolley isn't running at all from Oct. 28 through Nov. 1 "due to the Boat Show."
| Day | Show hours | Water Taxi show service |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, Oct. 29 | 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Friday, Oct. 30 | 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Saturday, Oct. 31 | 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Sunday, Nov. 1 | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
The show's free shuttles and golf carts are for ticket holders. The Red route runs between Brightline's Fort Lauderdale station and the Riverside Hotel on Las Olas. So the end of the show day lines up with the start of dinner service. Water Taxi stops running an hour after the show closes, and Sweetwaters and the Caviar Club Bar Room open at 4 p.m. Expect the river end of the boulevard to be at its most crowded between about 5 and 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The park keeps its own calendar
Huizenga Park didn't clear its schedule for the show. Yappy Hour at The Dog Spot is still on for Thursday, Oct. 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., right next to the Sweetwaters patio. The listed dates after the show:
- Community Market by Sunnyside Up Market: Sundays, Nov. 8 and Nov. 22, noon to 4 p.m. on the Civic Lawn
- Sunset Yoga with Las Olas Yoga Studio: 6 to 7 p.m., with November sessions listed for Nov. 2, 9, 16 and 23
- Yappy Hour: Thursdays, Nov. 12 and Nov. 26, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The park calendar is the most reliable place to check, since Yappy Hour is billed as weekly but only alternate Thursdays are posted for November. The DDA said more than 200 free events were planned for the park's first year.
What's still pending
Two more openings are coming. Amal at 500 E. Las Olas still has no date. Good Night John Boy, the disco-themed bar taking over the former Howl at the Moon space, lists 270 SE Sixth Ave. on its website, which still reads "GET READY." No replacement has been named for 609 E. Las Olas. When the boat show ends Sunday at 5 p.m., the river end and the Ninth Avenue corner will be up and running, and the blocks between them will still be waiting on their next tenants.
A new restaurant opening on your block, or one moving out, can change how buyers see your street. If you own near Huizenga Park or the Ninth Avenue corner and want to know how this fall's changes on Las Olas show up in your home's value, The Gobin Group can walk you through a current valuation built around your specific location.
