Huizenga Park Is Filling In From Morning Coffee to River-View Dinner as Las Olas Resets Around It

Ophelia's window at Legacy Terrace opens at 8 a.m. every day, and the brown sugar cinnamon latte with vanilla cold foam sometimes draws a line before it does, according to the park's own October 5 update. A few steps away, Sweetwaters is taking reservations for a dinner room with patios over the New River and the lawn behind it. When Huizenga Park reopened in January, downtown gained a redesigned public park. This October, for the first time, the park is lining up food and drink from breakfast through dinner. That arrives just as the blocks farther east on Las Olas Boulevard trade a 25-year regular for a group of new restaurants. Las Olas is getting a new starting point at its river end.

What the January reopening put in place

The park's restaurants make more sense once you know what was built around them. The Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority led the redesign and owns and operates the 3.6-acre park. Perkins&Will designed it and MBR Construction built it. The Huizenga Park Foundation launched a capital campaign to raise $5 million toward construction. The Miami Herald reported a cost of more than $15 million, paid by private donors, the City of Fort Lauderdale, the State of Florida and the DDA.

Construction started in August 2024. The DDA first projected a finish by the end of 2025. The park actually reopened on January 22, 2026, and the official grand-reopening weekend followed on January 24 and 25.

Before construction began, the DDA's 2024 plan projected a 103% larger Riverwalk segment along the park, 88 new shade trees and more than 13,500 plants across 58 species. The finished park is divided into named spaces:

• Legacy Terrace: the concession area with shaded café seating
• Civic Lawn: the central green
• Poppy's Play Patch: a landscaped, climbable mound for kids
• The Dog Spot: an enclosed off-leash area
• Riverwalk Terrace, River View and New River Landing: the links to the water and the Riverwalk

Walking paths, play space and a dog run cover the hours when people pass through. What the park lacked from January through September was a reason to stay into the evening.

Three operators, three parts of the day

Concessions came first. Mr. Smash Burgers was already serving in the park by the DDA's February recap of the reopening, and Miami New Times reported it opened in December. It covered lunch at Legacy Terrace. This fall adds the morning and the night.

Ophelia's background is unusual for a park café. Husband-and-wife chefs Ana De Sa Martins and Juan Vieira, who both trained in fine dining, began serving through the window of a retrofitted RV in a Coconut Grove parking lot last year, as Miami New Times tells it. The Huizenga Park location is their first in Broward County. Breads, pastries, syrups and cold foams are all made in-house, including the English muffin under the signature bacon, egg and cheese. The coffee-glazed cinnamon rolls round out the case, and New Times also lists a guava kouign-amann.

Sweetwaters sits at 58 E. Las Olas Blvd. It comes from Specialty Restaurants Corporation, the family-owned group behind Miami's Rusty Pelican. The park's description lists a double-height dining room, an open kitchen, and outdoor patios facing both the New River and the park. There is also a pup menu, a natural fit for a park with its own off-leash area. New Times reports that the restaurant will open with dinner and add breakfast and lunch later. Opening dates have varied across reports. A September 30 article gave October 12 as the reservation start, while the park's October 5 post says reservations are already open, so the Sweetwaters reservation page is the place to confirm current availability.

The park staff describe Sweetwaters as a key part of the plan. Alex Saiz, the DDA's Design & Construction Director, oversaw the planning, design and construction and now runs daily operations. In the October update he calls Sweetwaters "a cornerstone of the park's long-term vision," designed to "extend the park's energy well beyond daytime hours." One more space is still coming. The park's site lists The Nook as under construction.

The free calendar fills the hours between meals

The restaurants are a recent addition, and the park's free programming has been running all year. The DDA built the calendar around three themes: Health & Wellness, Arts & Culture, and Dogs & Pets. It planned more than 200 free events for the first year, up from the roughly 150 the Herald reported in December 2025. Opening week alone had 11 programs, including a Cleveland Clinic wellness series, a movie on the lawn and the Sunny Side Up Community Market.

The park calendar for the next week shows how the events and the restaurants line up:

1. Friday, Oct. 9, 6:30 p.m.: Zumba by Domingo, for ages 12 and up
2. Saturday, Oct. 10, 9 to 10 a.m.: FTL Free Workout Saturdays, a short walk from Ophelia's line
3. Sunday, Oct. 11: Community Market
4. Tuesday, Oct. 13: Sunset Yoga and the weekly Two Mile Run Club
5. Wednesday, Oct. 14: "Thriller" flash-mob practice and trivia
6. Thursday, Oct. 15: Yappy Hour

The timing works in the park's favor. A 9 a.m. Saturday workout ends while the bakery is open. Sunset yoga lands at the hour Sweetwaters is built around, since it plans to open with dinner. In January the events had no restaurant on either side of them.

Farther east, the boulevard's long-timers are turning over

The park's new restaurants arrive during a busy season for openings and closings on Las Olas. New Times' fall roundup places much of Fort Lauderdale's new restaurant activity along Las Olas, downtown and the waterfront. Here is how the blocks east of the park stand this month:

Big City Tavern closed after a long run. The brick-lined saloon, half a block east of the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel, served lobster mac 'n' cheese, meatloaf sandwiches and house-made breads for 25 years. Co-founder Todd Herbst of Big Time Restaurant Group told the Sun Sentinel that the group has "a terrific agreement with the landlord" and that "there's more to come from us on Las Olas." He also said the 45 staff members were offered jobs at the group's other restaurants.

At 904 E. Las Olas, NAIA comes from the team behind YOLO, Boatyard and S3. It plans a wider sidewalk and an outward-facing bar meant to make the corner a gathering spot. Dinner comes first, with lunch and brunch to follow. The opening date isn't settled. New Times reported a target of the weekend of October 18, and a Sun Sentinel roundup earlier in September gave October 22. Caviar Club leans into 1980s excess, with martinis and caviar bites at the bar and dry-aged and Wagyu beef and tableside Dover sole in the dining room. Amal was announced in a June Sun Sentinel preview of fall openings on Las Olas and still has no firm date.

Amal, NAIA and Caviar Club are announced targets, not confirmed openings, and dates have already moved. Caviar Club's VIP night was first reported for October 5 before shifting to October 15. The places confirmed open, Ophelia and Mr. Smash Burgers, are at the river end, inside a park with a full events calendar.

A Las Olas evening that starts at the river

Taken together, these changes mean a night on Las Olas can now start at the west end. Coffee and a cinnamon roll at Ophelia, a lap of the extended Riverwalk, and a Saturday workout or a sunset yoga class on the lawn all happen at 32 E. Las Olas. Once service begins, dinner can be on the Sweetwaters patio over the New River, or, as the new restaurants open, a walk east to NAIA's corner or Caviar Club's bar. Both are announced to open before the end of October.

Pilar follows openings like these for the clients she helps settle into downtown Fort Lauderdale, and she's glad to share which blocks along the New River and Las Olas fit the way you want to spend your days. Pilar Ruiz Homes offers this guidance in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Schedule a private consultation with Pilar.