Cap's Place Restaurant

Cap’s Place Restaurant

Built 1928-29, listed in National Register of Historic Places 1990
2980 N.E. 31 Avenue; and is reached from Cap’s Dock, 2765 N.E. 28th
Court, Lighthouse Point

Photo captions:

Early View Cap’s Place From East
Image Courtesy of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society

Cap’s Place, 2011, View From East Image Courtesy of Broward County Libraries Division

Detail of Bar at Cap’s Place
Image Courtesy of Broward County Libraries Division

Eugene Theodore Knight, also known as “Cap,” built this wonderful example of 1920s frame vernacular architecture on a spit of land between the Intracoastal Waterway and Lake Placid near the Hillsboro Inlet. It consists of a collection of five one-story wood frame structures which retain their historic usage as a restaurant and bar. The first restaurant building was constructed on a beached dredging barge purchased in Miami in 1928 for $100 and was enlarged in 1929.

The main building walls are made from old growth Dade County pine and pecky cypress. The roofs are covered with tar paper and asphalt shingles. Open rafters grace the ceilings and illumination is provided by bare light bulbs, a Cap’s Place tradition. The bar structure is a rectangular building. On the north side of the interior is a large bar constructed of bamboo from the Everglades. The top of the bar was fashioned from decking from an old ship. Other structures include Cap’s original home, dock and walkways.

By the 1930s the restaurant and bar were frequented by gamblers. The casino and slot machines were removed in 1954, after a federal investigation into gambling in Broward County. Cap died in 1964 and his business associate, Al Hasis, and his family took over operation of this one-of-a-kind restaurant. Originally called Club Unique, Cap’s Place can be reached by a short, free boat ride on the Intracoastal Waterway. Cap’s Place is the oldest structure in Lighthouse Point and is like a time capsule amidst the expensive waterfront dwellings surrounding it. For more information, call 954-941-0418.
www.capsplace.com​​