“Casual” was the theme this past Friday when a friend and I headed a bit to the south to hit up a Fort Lauderdale beach spot that has been quenching thirsts and filling bellies since 1997 – the Quarterdeck.
Located at the south end of Las Olas Blvd. just a block from the world famous Elbo Room, the Quarterdeck is a neighborhood beach bar who’s roots, according to the restaurant’s website, go back to 1966. (After reading the “About Us” page, there appears to be a very close connection to Quarterdeck and another chain of South Florida restaurants, Flanigan’s.)
We drove around looking for a spot to park and settled on a parking lot about a block away from where parking was $10. There are a few parking spots in front of the restaurant but they were all taken and there is no valet.
Quarterdeck has seating outside at a few community high-top tables or you can sit down in some Key West-style rocking booths. We opted to sit inside, and were told to “sit anywhere we wanted” so we grabbed a corner booth.
Our server was friendly and came over right away to welcome us and wipe off the table which still had some “stuff” left from the previous diners. That’s a little pet peeve with me!
There are several different types of craft beer available and these days, who isn’t serving at least some type of microbrew? I opted to try the Orange Blossom Pilsner from Orange Blossom Brewing Company. My order came with an odd disclaimer. “I just want you to know, that beer comes in a can,” our server proclaimed.
When questioned about the “can” comment, she went on to say that apparently, some people don’t like the fact that it’s not on draught or in a bottle.
“As long as it’s cold and good, I’m good too,” I replied.
The menu at Quarterdeck is a bit discombobulated and hard to follow. A large two sided thing, it’s not neatly organized and has drinks and food items scattered on both sides making for a lot of flipping back and forth when trying to decide.
The food is pretty much your average American bar menu type food, with some seafood items thrown in. After all, being a block from the beach, you have to have some kind of fresh catch to lure ’em in!
We started off with the Fried Calamari that comes with pepperoncini peppers and cocktail sauce. You can get it tossed in one of their wing sauces, by the way. The calamari came out a crispy, well some pieces were a little too crispy. Yeah, it was a little overcooked, but there was a nice balance between the quantity of rings (which were rubbery) and little squids.
Next up were the wings. My friend ordered them un-sauced and they came out crispy and golden brown. They were given two thumbs up and they were a pretty good size. The fries they came with were really (really) good and had just the right amount of salt on them – these were almost as good as McDonald’s french fries! Yeah, McD’s fries are my fave.
I haven’t had fajitas in the longest time and when I saw them on the menu, well, I just had to go for them. They are available in steak, chicken or steak. Wanting to sample a bit of all three, I asked our server if that was possible, and she said “absolutely” although there is an upcharge to mix it up like this.
The fajitas came out on a sizzling plate loaded with green and red peppers, onions as well as a plate with all the traditional fajita fixings. I have to say, the fajitas were pretty good. The proteins were cooked and seasoned well and I was satisfied with my entree choice!
After one more of the Orange Blossom Pilsners, we departed and took a leisure drive up A1A back home on what was a gorgeous evening in South Florida!
Overall, the Quarterdeck is a good choice for a casual night out or a quick stop for a cold beer and some wings after a day at the beach. In addition to their location on Las Olas, their original location is on Cordova Road in Lauderdale and they have other locations in Davie, Plantation and Dania Beach.