Boatyard

A gumbo limbo tree grows up through the deck, hauled in by barge from Cape Coral and strung with lanterns, and most regulars want a table under it. This is Boatyard, the coastal seafood room The Restaurant People opened on the Intracoastal Waterway in 2015, at 1555 SE 17th Street. Executive chef Peter Boulukos runs the kitchen on a simple line: eat local, be coastal. The raw bar is the opening move, and the boats tie up out front. It is loud, it is busy, and on a clear evening the water does the rest.

The Kitchen

Peter Boulukos, a cofounder of The Restaurant People, took the kitchen when the group turned the old Bimini Boatyard into Boatyard in 2015, and he cooks to a coastal brief: local catch first, raw bar always, the grill doing the heavy work. The raw bar and shellfish towers are the way to start, built from the day's deliveries.

From there the menu runs through the Florida paella, dense with shrimp, clams, and chorizo, the grouper piccata, and a shoyu-glazed sea bass that is the kitchen's quiet signature. Premium cuts of beef share the page for the table that does not want fish. Mains sit around $35 to $49, the Scottish salmon at $35 and the sea bass at $49, so a full dinner with a starter and a glass of wine runs roughly $55 to $90 a head. The address is 1555 SE 17th Street, on the Intracoastal side of the 17th Street Causeway, and the kitchen has held its line there for a decade. Order the raw bar, the paella, and the sea bass, and you have the restaurant.

The Room

Boatyard reads as upscale Old Florida: weathered wood, rope, brass, and a long bar, with the deck opening straight onto the water and the boat slips. The gumbo limbo tree anchors the patio. Sound is loud and lively, especially at the bar and on weekend nights, so this is not a room for a whispered conversation. Lighting is warm and low after dark, lanterns in the branches. Tables on the deck are spaced for groups, while the indoor dining room runs a touch calmer. Dress is smart-casual, resort-normal for Fort Lauderdale, with no jacket needed. It seats well over 200 across the deck, dining room, and bar.

Best for a Team Dinner in Fort Lauderdale

Book Boatyard for a team dinner because it handles a group without losing the night to logistics. First, the deck and the long bar absorb a noisy table of twelve in a way a quiet tasting room never could, so nobody has to whisper to be heard. Second, the menu is broad enough to feed everyone: raw bar and paella for the adventurous, a steak or the Scottish salmon for the cautious, shareable towers down the middle. Third, the waterfront and the boats give the evening something to look at when the shop talk runs dry. Reserve the deck under the gumbo limbo tree, start with raw-bar towers for the table, and let people order their own mains.