"Our season in Fort Lauderdale is pre-boat show and post-boat show," restaurateur Tim Petrillo told Miami New Times in late September. "That's the real marker of season kickoff." Mike Weymouth, president and CEO of The Las Olas Co., told the Sun Sentinel in June that openings work best when timed around October's Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, "that way, when you open, you burst out of the gate."
The calendar this year has a geography to it. The biggest new rooms are opening on the 800 through 1200 blocks of East Las Olas Boulevard, the stretch of the shopping district closest to Las Olas Isles. Meanwhile, the bridge just east of the isles has dropped to one lane in each direction through late 2026. For anyone on San Marco Drive, Coral Way or Royal Plaza, the easy direction this fall is west toward the boulevard, not east toward the beach.
Two Openings on One Corner at Southeast Ninth Avenue
Miami New Times expects the intersection of Southeast Ninth Avenue and Las Olas Boulevard to change within days as two restaurants open across the street from each other.
Caviar Club, at 833 E. Las Olas Blvd., opens first, with a members-only VIP party on Oct. 5 hosted by Marc Falsetto. Members and VIPs then get an early reservation window, and reservations open to the public on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Falsetto calls it "a retro-glam American steakhouse inspired by the excess and decadence and unapologetic luxury of the 1980s." There are two rooms. The bar room opens daily at 4 p.m. with martinis, caviar bites, a limited dry-aged burger and a Wagyu French dip. The main dining room centers on dry-aged and Wagyu steaks and Dover sole served tableside. Reservations are taken only through the restaurant's website and are released daily at 9 a.m. for dates 30 days out, with a limited number of early-evening walk-ins. Its first 100 founding memberships sold out in three weeks, and another 50 followed. No first night of public service has been announced, so Oct. 27 is the date to watch, and it is a reservation date, not a confirmed opening.
Across the street, NAIA is taking over 904 E. Las Olas Blvd., the former Mangos address. Petrillo's group, The Restaurant People, is aiming for the weekend of Oct. 18, pending final inspections. New Times' Sept. 30 roundup gave the same weekend. In June, the Sun Sentinel listed it for the first week of October and described a 240-seat Mediterranean-Asian menu with charred octopus with miso olive oil, sushi, glass-noodle pastas and Japanese A5 Wagyu.
The building matters as much as the menu. Petrillo's team set it back 25 feet from the street, which creates a wide sidewalk and a bar that "pokes out onto the sidewalk." He expects it to become "a signature corner and a great gathering space." Dinner comes first, lunch about one to two weeks later, and brunch within two to three weeks. That sequence puts brunch on the calendar right around boat show week.
Closer In, the 1000 and 1200 Blocks Have Already Turned Over
The Ninth Avenue corner is the headline. The blocks even closer to the isles changed with less announcement.
| Address | Former tenant | Status as of the latest sources |
|---|---|---|
| 1021 E. Las Olas Blvd. | B Square Burgers & Booze | Listed as Flora, the first restaurant of the La Felicità group |
| 1201 E. Las Olas Blvd. | Planta Queen | Little Hen, with posted hours and Resy reservations |
| 1217 E. Las Olas Blvd. | Dammiano's Café & Bistró | Pizza Queen planned for January 2027; Dammiano's was still open as of June |
Little Hen's Fort Lauderdale page lists brunch and afternoon tea from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends. The Sun Sentinel describes it as the fifth location of a Weston-born brunch concept from hospitality veteran Enrique Altamirano. The menu runs from English-inspired breakfast and afternoon tea to churrasco chilaquiles, caviar omelets and rose petal pancakes.
In June, the Sun Sentinel called the 1021 project La Felicità, an Italian trattoria with vines, grass walls, chandeliers and lamplit bookshelves. The group's site now lists the Las Olas restaurant as Flora and describes it as "our first expression" of the La Felicità idea, with a Palm Beach location listed as coming soon. Anyone searching for the old name will find it under the new one.
Pizza Queen is next door to Little Hen at 1217. It is also a Falsetto project, named for his wife, Danielle, and plans New York-hybrid slices from a triple-deck Forni electric oven, plus spumoni-style ice cream and Italian sodas. Its January 2027 target puts it after the boat show, in the middle of high season.
Not every change on the boulevard is an opening. Big City Tavern at 609 E. Las Olas Blvd. announced it would close Sept. 30 after 25 years. The Sun Sentinel's June roundup noted the 11 openings it counted around Las Olas were arriving amid rising rents and the loss of some longtime restaurants.
October on the Boulevard, in Order
The dates below come from the venues and organizers. The Sun Sentinel notes that opening dates in particular can change.
- Oct. 3, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The first Las Olas Autumn Festival takes over the First Presbyterian Church parking lot at 1224 E. Las Olas Blvd., across from Little Hen's block. It is free, with local vendors, live music, food and family activities.
- Oct. 5. Caviar Club holds its members and VIP opening party.
- Oct. 12. Sweetwaters, from the family hospitality group behind Miami's Rusty Pelican, is set to seat its first diners at 58 E. Las Olas Blvd. in the reworked Huizenga Park. It has nearly 300 seats looking out on the New River.
- Oct. 17 and 18, from 10 a.m. each day. The 39th Annual Las Olas Art Fair runs along East Las Olas Boulevard with free admission and is listed until 5 p.m. on Saturday. NAIA is targeting the same weekend for its first dinners.
- Oct. 27. Caviar Club opens reservations to the public.
- Oct. 28 through Nov. 1. The 67th Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show runs for five days at seven waterfront locations and is expected to draw more than 100,000 attendees.
Amal, the Lebanese restaurant from INK Entertainment Group, is still slated for fall at 500 E. Las Olas Blvd. with no exact date.
East of the Isles, the Bridge Is Down to One Lane Each Way
All of this is happening while the Florida Department of Transportation rehabilitates the East Las Olas Boulevard bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. The project started in May 2026 and is scheduled to finish in late 2027, with Seacoast Incorporated as contractor and an estimated construction cost of $14,053,215. The scope includes:
- a new solid-surface aluminum deck
- painting of the structural steel
- new electrical components and wiring
- replacement of the mechanical span locks
- new navigation fenders in the waterway
- a renovated bridge tender house
- minor repaving at both ends of the bridge
Weather postponed the 48-hour full closure from Sept. 22, and the city rescheduled it for Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. through Thursday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. When the bridge reopens, the north side closes and all traffic moves to the south side, with one lane in each direction. Pedestrians and cyclists use the south sidewalk, and the north sidewalk stays closed. The city says this setup lasts through late 2026, subject to weather and unforeseen conditions. Boat traffic is not affected.
The one-lane setup will be in place through the boat show and the busiest stretch of opening weeks. Beyond the bridge, the city's Las Olas Boulevard Mobility Project covers the eastern corridor from Southeast 17th Avenue to A1A. In the city's September 2026 update, the project team was still gathering existing-conditions data for that segment and planned to move into schematic design once that was complete. A stakeholder meeting was held Sept. 3, and a survey closed Sept. 17.
Boat Show Week by Water
For the five days of the show, Water Taxi suspends its regular service and runs ticketed show service instead, at $15 for a day pass or $65 for all five days, Oct. 28 through Nov. 1. The boat show's own water taxi page lists pickup and drop-off between Shooters Waterfront and Las Olas Marina, which makes the marina at the east end of the boulevard a show stop. Anyone who uses the taxi as everyday transportation will need a show pass that week.
After the show, the operator's daily 90-minute Premier Sightseeing Cruise leaves Stop F7 at Las Olas Landing at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., with tickets listed at $30. It is an easy way to take out-of-town guests on the water without sitting in bridge traffic.
At Las Olas Marina, Suntex has signed a lease with True Grit Hospitality for a Calaveras Cantina. Design and construction are planned through 2027, and no opening date has been set.
For more on the boulevard's established spots, see our Fort Lauderdale dining guide. Our Las Olas Isles neighborhood page covers the isles themselves, and our guide to boating around Fort Lauderdale covers the waterways the bridge work leaves open.
If you have guests flying in for boat show week or the start of season and want them within walking distance of these new tables, Latitude Key can line up a luxury seasonal rental on or near the isles that matches your dates. Reach out and we'll put together a shortlist before the Oct. 28 rush.
