Cap’s Place Island Restaurant

This lively seafood joint is a relic of an especially colorful period in Florida’s history. Opened in 1929 by Captain Theodore Knight, a.k.a. “Cap,” the restaurant helped raise folks’ spirits during Prohibition. (The fact that Cap was a rum runner certainly helped.)

Cap’s Place quickly became a popular spot for both gambling and memorable seafood suppers. The original name of the restaurant was Club Unique, and built out of a stripped barge that Cap bought for $100, it certainly lived up to this title. After the barge’s cabin and machinery were removed, and some enclosed structures were added on, Cap and his team had themselves a proper gathering spot, which they eventually docked on an island off Lighthouse Point in Broward County.

From the beginning, the restaurant served up some interesting dishes, including a hearts of palm salad—made from Sabal Palm trees imported from the Ever­glades—and Turtle egg pancakes served with seagrape jelly. While the menu these days is a bit less adventurous, there’s still a focus on only the freshest native fish, which can be broiled, deep fried, blacked Cajun style—you name it!

Thanks to its seedy charm, Cap’s Place has drawn in many notable guests over the years, with Joe DiMaggio, George Harrison, and the Vanderbilt family all entering the storied barge. The most surprising visitors, however, were Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who arrived at Cap’s in 1942 while staying in Hillsboro Beach for secret war conferences.

Though it no longer contains slot machines or a Wheel of Fortune by the bar, it’s easy to picture the restaurant’s history as an illegal gambling den when looking up at its pine ceiling beams or ordering a drink at its one-of-a-kind bar—made of Everglades bamboo and polished wood from the decks of ships. Newspaper clippings and photographs on the walls document the restaurant’s past, and you’ll encounter many other antique curiosities, including a Spanish galleon’s bow-sprit behind the bar.