Cap's Place Review

Non-negotiable, and unlike any dinner in the state: you cannot drive to Cap’s Place — a 1928 Prohibition-era speakeasy on an island reachable only by boat, where Churchill and Roosevelt ate together during the war. Skip it and you missed the strangest, best “how do we even get there” meal in Florida.

Why it earns the boat ride

Cap’s opened in 1928 as a gambling house and rum-running speakeasy for a captain named Cap Knight, and the only way in has never changed: a short free launch across the water, roughly five minutes on Cap’s own motor boat, to a rustic island fish house with no road, no bridge, and no way to arrive by accident. It’s the oldest restaurant in Broward County, still standing on the same island after nearly a century.

Three things the guidebooks skip. First, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill dined here together in 1942 — you’re eating in a room where the war got talked over, and the wall of photos backs it up (Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, and a long line of presidents followed). Second, the crossing is the experience — the boat, the dark water, the lit-up fish house appearing across the channel does more than the menu. Third, it’s dinner only, from 5:30 p.m., a handful of nights around the week, so this is a plan-ahead meal, not a walk-in.

The move

Reserve ahead, then confirm by phone the day of — Cap’s takes requests but wants them locked, and a rough-water evening can shift the schedule. Park behind the Lighthouse Point marina, walk to the launch dock, and ride the boat across. Order the whole fried snapper or the hearts-of-palm salad — the signature dish nobody else does the same way — and add stone crab if it’s in season. Sit near the water side of the dining room and let the age of the place work on you.

The honest catch — what to skip

This is Old Florida seafood, not a destination kitchen — come for the room, the boat, and the history, and you’ll leave thrilled; come expecting a modern tasting menu and you’ll wonder what the fuss is. Weekends run late and the launch backs up, so a Friday or Saturday can mean a wait on both ends of the boat. Skip it entirely if a five-minute open-water crossing after dark isn’t your idea of dinner, or if you can’t commit to a dinner-only, reserve-ahead schedule. Everyone else: go.

Nearby

Chase it with a Miami morning at a Cuban coffee ventanita or lunch at Versailles in Little Havana, then a claw-cracking dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab. An hour southwest, Everglades National Park makes the natural bookend to a South Florida run — it’s all mapped in the Florida guide.