Travel Blog

Because of the exorbitant rents on Las Olas (which I’ve bemoaned before) the interesting things in Fort Lauderdale are happening elsewhere. Two opened this weekend alongside the FEC tracks.

Henry’s Sandwich Shop in FAT Village has such a smart and appealing design that bulk boxes of potato chips are employed as part of the décor. Even more thought goes into the food: the roast pork sandwich – with broccoli rabe and sharp provolone – took me back to Philadelphia (fly, Eagles fly) while the red beet and goat cheese salad (the default choice for celiacs) was, according to Hania, excellent: just the right size and with a delicious citrusy dressing. As we ate, the Brightline train passed a few feet away. When I return by myself some weekday, I’m going to finish with a slice of pie. You can also buy a roll of Reed’s Root Beer candy, which I hadn’t seen since childhood.

That was Saturday lunch. Saturday evening we stopped by for opening night at the Tarpon River Brewery on SW 6^th Street. It is a brewery/restaurant/bar like no brewery or restaurant or bar I’ve ever seen, except perhaps at Oktoberfest in Munich, where little “cabins” are tucked inside the massive tents. (Though there the beer is brought in, not brewed on site.) Here, the house-within-the-old-warehouse bar requires bartenders to watch their backs, so to speak, because patrons stand at a series of open windows, gazing in at the people sitting at the bar and waiting to place their orders. At one of these windows I sipped a refreshing orangey IPA while Hania made the acquaintance of a giant, eight-month-old Harlequin Great Dane. I saw what looked like a plate of fries topped by a fried egg sail past, and – another nod to Oktoberfest – a giant soft pretzel. In a few months, the Brightline train to Miami will also be sailing past.