After nearly four years, Bo’s Beach restaurant opens in Fort Lauderdale
Eatery to specialize in tropical cuisine, seafood, wood-fired pizza
Nearly four years in the making, Bo’s Beach restaurant has finally opened on city-owned land across from Fort Lauderdale beach at the former site of Oasis Cafe.
Bo’s Beach, from exDolphin Kim Bokamper’s restaurant group, quietly opened last weekend at 600 Seabreeze Boulevard, a heavily-trafficked tourist corridor.
The restaurant will specialize in tropical cuisine, seafood and woodfired pizza. It will be a departure from the Bokamper’s Sports Bar & Grill chain that PDKN Restaurant Group is best known for.
“Bo’s Beach is a distinctive new concept,” Bokamper says in a news release. “With a casual
beach ambience and breathtaking ocean views … [the restaurant] is certain to provide a memorable dining experience for all.”
Bokamper’s group was awarded the right to build the restaurant in summer 2015 after previous tenant Oasis Cafe defaulted on its lease.
Bo’s Beach encountered lengthy construction and permitting delays, and last year the city agreed to waive more than $300,000 in rent so that PDKN would finish the project. Restaurant staff was hired and trained in recent weeks.
The two-story restaurant has the capacity to seat 450 and will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. It will also offer weekday happy hours (5-7 p.m.) and weekend brunch. The kitchen is being overseen by executive chef Jimmy Dean, who has been with Bokamper’s Sports Bar & Grills since 2011.
Menu items include pizza, crab cakes, traditional eggs Benedict, ahi tuna poke stack, watermelon salad, whole fish, and wood-fired oysters. The restaurant offers full liquor and a selection of craft cocktails. The kitchen will be open late, serving until 2 a.m.
This marks the second major Fort Lauderdale opening for Bokamper’s group in the past year. The Balcony, a two-level restaurant and bar that features a New Orleans-theme, opened last spring on Las Olas Boulevard.