Team from Miami’s Rusty Pelican opens a waterfront restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

Food National admin October 9, 2026 0 Comments

Team from Miami’s Rusty Pelican opens a waterfront restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

The first full-service restaurant in a downtown Fort Lauderdale park is set to make its debut.

Created by Specialty Restaurants, the family-owned hospitality group behind Miami’s Rusty Pelican, Sweetwaters is opening at Huizenga Park at the corner of Las Olas Boulevard and Andrews Avenue. The restaurant is opening after the park’s $15 million renovation, which also includes the addition of Ophelia, a mobile bakery and coffee spot house in a vintage RV that first opened in Miami in 2025.

Sweetwaters, however, is an entirely different beast than Ophelia (which, for the record, makes delicious coffee and baked goods). The new restaurant covers almost 10,000 square feet along the New River, with indoor seating for 121 diners, a 12-seat bar, a 90-seat riverfront patio and yet another terrace facing Huizenga Park with room for 44.

Designed by JVB Architect with interiors by ICRAVE, Sweetwaters features high ceilings punctuated by dramatic woven pendants. Executive chef Nicco V. Salanitro leads the kitchen, with a menu he developed with culinary director Matthieu Godard, who spent eight years working with French chef Daniel Boulud.

They built the menu with the location in mind, Salanitro said.

“Sweetwaters was designed to feel woven into Huizenga Park and the New River, capturing the ease and energy of life in the neighborhood,” he explained. “We want guests to arrive after a walk through the park, settle in for oysters and cocktails as boats pass by and stay for dinner after sunset.”

If you think this means the menu focuses on seafood, you’re right. Starters include yellowfin tuna crudo with mango, tangerine, ponzu, pickled Fresno and scallions as well as sushi rolls like the Castaway, with shrimp tempura, sashimi, avocado and marinated salmon roe. There’s also a seafood tower to feed two or three diners, with oysters, shrimp, mussels, clams, tuna tartare, crab salad and half a Maine lobster, and a chef’s sushi tower with three signature rolls, spicy tuna crispy rice, nigiri, sashimi and tuna crudo.

Main courses include a whole crispy snapper with coconut cilantro rice and lobster spaghetti, which comes with a whole Maine lobster. Meat lovers will have choices, too, like the steak progressive platter, with New York strip, filet mignon, Black Angus skirt sake and wagyu flat iron to share.

Sweetwaters also has a few options for vegetarians, like the crispy mushroom roll and sides like Thai chili Brussels and a special version of creamed spinach with garlic and Parmesan.

The cocktail program leans on unexpected flavors. The Tiffany combines Patron Silver Tequila and bergamot liqueur with citrus and coconut and limoncello sorbet, and Paid Vacation blends Ketel One Vodka infused with passion fruit and tarragon, purple basil and Szechuan flowers. Cloud Nine mixes ginger-infused Pegasus vodka with yuzu sake, Kleos Mastiha Liqueur, lemon and orange ginger tea and is finished with lychee caviar and citrus aloe foam.

Since its reopening in January, Huizenga Park has drawn more than 100,000 visitors in its first five months, according to the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority. It was also named Fort Lauderdale Magazine’s best park, best outdoor space and best dog park.

For John Tallichet, president and CEO of Specialty Restaurants, that sort of popularity in the neighborhood make it an appealing location.

“For our family, hospitality has always been about creating spaces that become part of the communities they serve,” he said. “With Sweetwaters, we saw an opportunity to bring that same spirit to Fort Lauderdale, welcoming guests to a restaurant that genuinely feels at home along the New River.”