More Las Olas shuffling

Since March, the upscale tourist row has been blighted with temporary restaurant closures (Timpano, Rivertail, the Wharf) and permanent ones (Etaru Las Olas) as business owners tinker with safety upgrades and survive on halfcapacity seating. Nonetheless, new Las Olas restaurants are readying their debuts during the pandemic. They are:

•

Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar, 740 E. Las

Olas Blvd. (opened June

4), is a breezy retail-retail mashup serving poke bowls next to Tommy Bahama polo shirts.

• Bodega Taqueria & Tequila, 21 W. Las Olas

Blvd. (opening in July), is a fast-casual taco joint dishing over-the-top Mexican food and a speakeasy-style lounge inside a dining room with a taco food truck motif.

• Cuba Libre Restaurant

and Rum Bar, 803 E.

Las Olas Blvd. (October), is chef/co-owner Guillermo Pernot’s modern Cuban eatery – the second Florida outpost of a Philadelphia-based chain – featuring guava-slathered ribs and coconut crab fritters inspired from his Cuban travels.

• Salt7 Las Olas, 500 E. Las Olas Blvd. (tentatively November), is a two-story offshoot of the flashy Delray

Beach restaurant-club and will include a surf-andturf menu, a 5,000-square-foot patio and a top-floor VIP room with bottle service and private DJs. The restaurant, facing the New River, occupies the ground floor of the 45-story Icon Las Olas apartment tower around the corner from IT! Italy Ristorante Cafe Bar and the recently departed Etaru

Las Olas.