“The neighborhood is very unique, everyone is very friendly. I love that there’s a yoga studio that I can walk to, to take a class and teach with seasoned teachers. The walkability is amazing in itself.”
Seated in an intimate wine bar on a random weekday evening, Brittney Coates is talking about the area surrounding the new downtown residential building that she moved into days before.
The building, which hasn’t even formally opened, has all the sweet amenities — including a skybridge to the parking garage across the street — but appealed to her for its proximity to a variety of restaurants, bars, breweries, shops, art galleries and a yoga studio.
And the neighborhood is only getting more interesting: Coming soon will be a record shop with some secondhand celebrity glow — the owner knows Madonna very well.
But Coates’ new home is not in Brickell or Wynwood, Flagler Village or Mizner Park. She’s a “LoakL,” a resident of Oakland Park, where her 136-unit downtown building, The Sky, is the latest addition to one of South Florida’s most underappreciated night-out destinations.
Located across Dixie Highway from Funky Buddha Brewery and Jaco Pastorius Park, The Sky includes ground-floor retail and the new home of Oakland Park City Hall, and is scheduled for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The old City Hall property nearby will house Horizon of Oakland Park, a 311-unit, residential-retail building, with work slated to begin in December.
Among South Florida cities that have gained a certain cachet with everyone from chic Negroni sippers to nightcrawling shot chasers, the most well-established corridors of cool run west-east, toward the water. Think Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Lucerne and Lake avenues in Lake Worth Beach, and Clematis Street in West Palm Beach.
Downtown Oakland Park has gone in a different direction.
Along eight blocks on either side of parallel streets Northeast 12th Avenue and Dixie Highway, from 38th Avenue to Oakland Park Boulevard, the north-south spine of the city’s central business district is lined with nearly 20 unique destinations, all within an easy stroll from each other. From sophisticated dining to celebrated burgers, four breweries and a high-end distillery, it’s an interesting and inviting collection made even more distinctive by its unpretentious, small-town vibe.
And perhaps the most notable difference maker: Parking is free. That includes the new garage adjacent to The Sky.
‘This is the best-case scenario. I’m sooo happy to be here.’ — Brittney Coates, new downtown Oakland Park resident
A software professional and yoga instructor who moved to Oakland Park from Pompano Beach, the 30-something Coates lived in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village when that popular neighborhood was in the early stages of development more than a dozen years ago. With the move that took her to Oakland Park, she was looking for an area that was sociable, with restaurants, “but wasn’t as busy and bustling as Las Olas can be.”
“Just being able to walk out my door, put airpods in and have the ability to have different personalities and destinations, based on how I was feeling that day,” Coates says. “It was a lot of persuading to get my husband [to move], but we made it. This is the best-case scenario. I’m sooo happy to be here.”
For many residents, the makeover of downtown Oakland Park began when craft-beer pioneers Ryan and KC Sentz opened the 18,000-square-foot Funky Buddha Brewery in 2013.
Encouraged by the Oakland Park Community Redevelopment Agency, the slow transition of nearby warehouses into a hospitality zone called the Culinary Arts District has picked up steam in the past 18 months with the opening of the restaurant Red Sea Eritrean and Ethiopian Cuisine, Satellite Pinball Lounge, Moon Pizza Pie, Tripping Animals Brewing, Voodoo Brewing Co., BMC Smash Burgers and FMS Creamery, among others.
They join places that have already earned a passionate fan base over the last few years, including Nour Thai Kitchen, Rebel Wine Bar, Black Flamingo Brews & Kitchen, The Butcher’s Barrel and Bulegreen Cafe Yard.
Neysa Herrera, Oakland Park CRA and economic development director, says the city is leaning into the affordability and authenticity of the area, while also citing its creativity and walkability. Lampposts have signs urging passersby to “Live Like a #LoakL,” and the city has T-shirts, too.
“[It] has an organic feel for people looking for a unique destination,” Herrera says. “We liken ourselves to the Brooklyn of Broward.”
One unique way to experience the scene is during the quarterly Oakland Park Art Walk, hosted by Art Fusion Galleries on Saturday, Nov. 15, when shops and galleries will throw out a welcome mat from 6 to 9 p.m.
Until then, here is a quick tour of some of the reasons to make downtown Oakland Park a stop on your next night out on the town.
Dining: ‘It’s more diverse’
With food from Eritrea and Ethiopia, next to Thai cuisine, drive-worthy pizza and “best-of” burgers, there is so much good flavor in Oakland Park’s Culinary Arts District, it’s hard to know where to begin.
Red Sea Eritrean & Ethiopian Cuisine (RedSeaRestaurantFL.com) was opened almost nine months ago by Yoseph Kidane, who was raised in Addis Ababa before coming to the United States almost 40 years ago on a tennis scholarship to Barton College in North Carolina. By day an aquatic biologist, Kidane is a partner in the restaurant with his brother and two sisters, one of whom is the chef.
The menu is a fragrant survey of staples from northeast Africa, with lamb, chicken, beef and assorted vegetables appearing in stews and other dishes traditionally eaten by hand using injera, a traditional gluten-free flatbread. An alcove off the dining room is dedicated to three sinks for washing your hands. Yes, they also have silverware for the less dexterous among us.
Your waiter will be well-versed in explaining what to expect, including the varying heat level of the berbere, a spice fired by the berbere pepper that Kidane sources from Ethiopia.
“Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine is one of the healthiest,” Kidane says. “And the flavor is completely different than people expect.”
For after dinner, Red Sea has coffees made with a Nuova Simonelli, the Lamborghini of espresso machines. In December, Kidane plans to introduce exclusive coffee from Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region, which he calls “the best in the world.”
Kidane opened in the slow time of year last spring, but he says this season is “looking very promising.” He’s bullish on the area, too.
“The city has done an unbelievable job, you know, creating this Culinary Arts area. And with Wilton Manors being a neighbor city, it’s more diverse. The people are more accepting, to try different kinds of food,” Kidane says. “This area is turning. I’m very optimistic.”
A few doors down, Nour Thai Kitchen (NourThai.com) is a destination unto itself, with a flurry of five-star reviews on Yelp and a peaceful patio out front. “It’s just, notably, fantastic. It definitely gives Larb Thai [in Fort Lauderdale] a run for its money,” Coates says.
Across Dixie Highway, Dwight Slamp’s Moon Pizza Pie (Instagram.com/moonpizzapie_florida) is a popular stop for pie-zans, located next to Slamp’s retro bar-game room Satellite Pinball Lounge (Instagram.com/satellitepinballlounge), which opened in 2024.
“I’m here all the time, every couple of weeks,” says Troy Gambell, of Davie. “It’s a ride over here, but it’s the best pizza in Broward, for sure. Plus, there’s pinball.”
On the opposite corner of Northeast 35th Street, revered food trucker Jason “Jay Rok” Smith opened his brick-and-mortar BMC Smash Burgers (Instagram.com/eat.bmc) in 2024, and his reputation followed. In May, the Burger Beast named BMC’s Patty Melt to his list of “The 10 Best Burgers in Broward.”
Last month, seeing a void in Oakland Park’s menu, he opened FMS Creamery (Instagram.com/fms.creamery) next door to his burger spot. Along with scoops, he has the fixings to create your own float, selling more than 10 different root beers, a bacon-chocolate soda, as well as bottles flavored with peanut butter and jelly, buffalo wings and more.
Drinking: ‘Just way more inviting’
Rebel Wine Bar (RebelWineBar.com) is the perfect antidote to South Florida glare — intimate, dark and chill, by day or night. Enclosed in evergreen walls, a few stools surround a small L-shaped bar, with four-top tables in a line leading back to a seating area arranged around a velvet mauve loveseat that, rumor has it, is the best in the house.
The vibe is friendly and conversational, the tapas are tasteful, the wine list broad and thoughtful (Spanish red recommendation: The plummy and surprisingly smooth 2022 Castillo de Monjardín Garnacha). Here, old-school R&B is the jam. Worth checking out is Rebel’s happy hour, which runs from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday (yes, Saturday), offering select wines for $6 to $10, beers for $3, and mini hummus or cheese plates for $5.
Bartender Rebecca Guido, 29, formerly of Uncommon Path Brewing in Fort Lauderdale’s Thrive Art District, says the area around Rebel Wine Bar is “definitely a hidden gem.”
“There’s a lot of different restaurants and little shops and places to get drinks, grab a good bite to eat. Everything is in nice walking distance. The area is really safe, too, and not overcrowded, in comparison to downtown Fort Lauderdale and Las Olas. And way less expensive, too,” she says. “Parking is free, and everything is just way more inviting.”
Rebel Wine Bar owner Larissa Castelluber was running a marketing company when she turned her tiny storefront into a cozy boîte four years ago, partially to get more involved in the community. Last week, Rebel provided free sandwiches for local SNAP recipients.
“This spot has given me an ability to meet people I never would have met before in my life, and to have special moments and a platform to be able to help,” Castelluber says. “Some people, all they do is complain about things and not do anything. I’m happy to be able to at least contribute a little bit.”
Castelluber acknowledges that downtown Oakland Park was a “dead zone” for a while, and says even its current energy may not last, citing the government shutdown and tariffs.
“This year has been very hard for us. Everyone is just kind of bootstrapping it. We’re all trying to work together. We all try to collaborate with each other. It is a community effort at the end of the day,” she says.
If you’re looking for another place in the area to stop for a drink, create your own brewery tour — there are, count ’em, four nearby: The cavernous Funky Buddha Brewery (FunkyBuddha.com); Tripping Animals Brewing (TrippingAnimals.com), with a sprawling beer garden and sous-vide chicken wings; more great food at Black Flamingo Brews & Kitchen (BlackFlamingoBrewing.co); and Voodoo Brewing (OaklandPark.VoodooBrewery.com), bright and welcoming, with three styles of mussels.
Also nearby is ChainBridge Distillery (ChainBridgeDistillery.com), a Hungarian mom-and-pop shop that offers housemade gin, brandy, rum and vodka. In the tasting room (closed Mondays), look out for the Florida Basil Vodka (infused with basil grown on Florida farms) and Florida Ginger Vodka.
If you’re in the mood for a dive bar (no judgment), Big Dog Station Sports Bar & Cafe (Facebook.com/BigDogStationFL) and Tenth Level Tavern (Instagram.com/tenthleveltavern), “built, owned and [run] by gamers, nerds & geeks,” keep things real.
Shopping: ‘Oh, that’s cute’
On the opposite corner from restaurant Red Sea, a tidy gray building with smart black awnings and a second-floor patio sits empty, but filled with promise. Pending final approval from the city, it is the future home of Jellybean’s Funhouse Record Store.
That would be Jellybean Benitez, the DJ and producer who was a pivotal figure in the early career of Madonna, his girlfriend at the time, after they met when he was spinning at New York nightclub Fun House. Benitez produced Madonna’s breakout hits, “Holiday” and “Lucky Star.”
Plans for the record store feature two floors of retail, including coffee, kava and juice bars.
Benitez and wife Carolyn Effer visited the area recently, dining at Red Sea, owner Yoseph Kidane says.
“He’s been here a couple of times. Great guy, great couple,” Kidane says. “Once that opens up, we hope it brings in a new kind of crowd.”
The CRA’s Herrera says that in conversations with Benitez, he remarked on how charming and clean the downtown area was.
“We are super-excited. We do believe that it will be a great addition to the vibrant downtown that the city is committed to building,” Herrera says. “It adds to the mix and the environment, the hub of culture and entertainment that we are trying to build here.”
As for shops that are currently open, it is hard to walk past the window of The Wander Shop (TheWanderShop.com) without someone saying, ‘Oh, that’s cute.” The shop specializes in women’s and kids’ fashion and lifestyle items curated by the discerning eye of owner Marisa Folz (you may remember her Airstream pop-ups back in the day). Heads-up: Folz hosts a Small Business Saturday tent event after Thanksgiving that typically turns into a mini festival. Check Instagram.com/tothewandershop for updates.
Art Fusion Galleries (ArtFusionGalleries.com) is a bold and colorful presence on the downtown strip, but also an active participant, as host of the Oakland Park Art Walk on Saturday, Nov. 15. What’s more, the gallery is holding a competition during Art Walk, with selected artists creating original pieces live on site. Details at Instagram.com/artfusiongalleriesoaklandpark.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Oakland Park Art Walk
WHEN: 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15
WHERE: Northeast 12th Avenue, between Northeast 36th Street and 34th Court
COST: Free
INFORMATION: OaklandParkFL.gov/OPAW
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell.