Fort Lauderdale: the city’s best restaurants and bars
Simon Calder concludes his trip around the south-east Florida hotspot by checking out some of the top places to drink and dine
The boats that wash in from the Atlantic make Fort Lauderdale a fabulously cosmopolitan city. Where there are yachtsmen and women, there are always good-value places to eat and drink, offering indulgences not always available on the high seas.
Even if you haven’t got a yacht, you’ll still get a warm welcome by the waterside at locations such as the Southport Raw Bar — the oldest in Fort Lauderdale. With pretty, peeling paint and masses of maritime memorabilia, this is the city's biggest purveyor of oysters: enjoy half a dozen with a glass of the house sangria.
Buddy Sherman started working here as a bus boy in 1979 and from clearing tables he has worked his way up to become the owner. “I came down here for lunch about 38 years ago and I never left,” he says. “I’m more comfortable here than I am in the living room of my house. Our slogan here is: ‘Eat fish, live longer; eat oysters, love longer; eat clams, last longer’.”
The bar is one of those rare places where you feel instantly at home, no matter where you are from. As they say, there’s no such thing as strangers, just friends you haven't yet met.
An even more venerable Fort Lauderdale institution is Lester’s Diner, which has just celebrated its first half-century. It opened in 1967 and hasn't closed since. At any time of day or night, you can tuck into superb comfort food such as pancakes, French toast and eggs as you like them.
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