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Where to Eat | Shopping | Sports and the Outdoors
South Broward’s roots are in early Florida settlements. Thus far it has avoided some of the glitz and glamour of neighbors to the north and south, and folks here like it that way. Still, there’s plenty to see and do—excellent restaurants in every price range and a new focus on the arts, both inland and on the beach. South Broward’s beachfront extends for miles without interruption, although the character of communities along the shoreline varies. Heading 4 miles south from Fort Lauderdale Beach proper, you’ll reach Dania Beach, in another 4 miles you’ll be in Hollywood, then a few miles more and finally you’ll hit Hallandale at the Broward-Dade county border.
Dania Beach is 4 miles south of Fort Lauderdale.
This town at the south edge of Fort Lauderdale is probably best known for its antiques dealers, but there are other attractions as well.
Getting Here
From Interstate 95, exit east on Griffin Road or Stirling Road.
Essentials
Visitor Information
Greater Dania Beach Chamber of Commerce. | 102 W. Dania Beach Blvd. | 954/926–2323 | www.daniabeachchamber.org.
Where to Eat
FAMILY | Grampa’s Bakery & Restaurant.
$ | AMERICAN | As featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Grampa’s Bakery and Restaurant provides a cheery, homey fix of comfort foods from the charbroiler, fryer, and grill. You won’t go hungry ordering Grampa’s chili with cheese, lox, eggs, or biscuits and gravy. Check out the sweets at the bakery counter up front or head next door to Jaxson’s for some ice cream. TIP Come for the breakfast food, and skip the dinner menu. | Average main: $14 | 17 S.W. 1st St. | 954/923–2163 | www.grampasbakery.com | No dinner Sun. or Mon.
Rustic Inn Crabhouse.
$$$ | SEAFOOD | The late Wayne McDonald started with a cozy one-room roadhouse in 1955, when this stretch was a remote service road just west of the little airport. Now run by Wayne’s family, the still-rustic place brags that it is still crackin’ after more than a half century. The ample menu, once luring entertainer Arthur Godfrey, and more recently Johnny Depp and Dan Marino, features garlic crabs (patrons bang crabs open with mallets on tables covered with newspapers) and peel-and-eat shrimp (either with garlic and butter or spiced and steamed). Lunch specials include a fine fish sandwich with fries and a soda for around $12. Finish off with pie or cheesecake. | Average main: $22 | 4331 Ravenswood Rd. | 954/584–1637 | www.rusticinn.com | Reservations not accepted.
Tarks of Dania.
$ | SEAFOOD | Started in 1966 as a small stand for clams, wings, and beer, Tarks hasn’t changed much, with a dilapidated counter and a few tables for neighbors and drop-ins to eat, drink, and take in the staff’s salty attitude. From Tarks’s raw bar come top-neck and littleneck clams along with raw oysters. From the fryer are clams (bellies or strips), oysters, scallops, shrimp, wings, and curly fries. Specials include clam strips on Friday night and Alaskan snow crab on weekend nights. | Average main: $14 | 1317 S. Federal Hwy. | 954/925–8275.
Shopping
Depression-era glassware and old dolls seem plentiful, and shop owners are cordial along Dania Antiques Row, buying and selling everything from vintage knickknacks to furnishings of antiquity. This two-square-block area is on Federal Highway (U.S. 1), half a mile south of the Fort Lauderdale airport and half a mile north of Hollywood. Take the Stirling Road or Griffin Road East exit off Interstate 95.
Sports and the Outdoors
Fishing
Dania Pier.
The 920-foot pier, now operated by the City of Dania Beach, has been gussied up with chickee huts, restrooms, and a concessionaire restaurant of sorts (as well as a Quarterdeck neighborhood grill at the pier’s entrance). Gone are the days of 24-hour fishing possibilities; the pier’s shaved down its hours to 6 am–midnight, daily. | 300 N. Beach Rd. | 954/924–3613.