Walking into Southport feels like coming home, if you\u2019ve ever for one second fancied yourself a pirate. This circa-1970s dive is a time capsule of Old Fort Lauderdale, the sort of wood-paneled waterfront spot where the air is salty and so is the company\u2014of course, in the best way possible.<\/p>\n
The vibe: The front doors have porthole windows, immediately hinting at the vibe inside, which is dim and cozy, not unlike the cabin of a ship. Beyond the booth seating, a bar in back overlooks the dock and Intracoastal Waterway, where you\u2019ll likely want to sit to take in the live music, fresh air and festive atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The food: If it\u2019s on the raw bar menu, order it. My go-tos are the steamed clams, Old Bay peel-and-eat shrimp, conch fritters and smoked fish dip. The mahi mahi tacos, fish and chips, mussels and cheesesteaks are also popular for good reason.<\/p>\n
The drink: Cold beer and crisp white wine pair best with Southport\u2019s laidback seafood menu, but they do also have a full bar\u2014and the pours here are strong.<\/p>\n
Time Out tip: Ask your server or bartender to indulge you with a yarn about Ted Twist, Southport\u2019s original owner, who is something of a Fort Lauderdale legend. Bonus: Boat dockage here is free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walking into Southport feels like coming home, if you\u2019ve ever for one second fancied yourself a pirate. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250,68735,14161,687,68736],"class_list":{"0":"post-141568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news","11":"tag-more-recommended","12":"tag-price","13":"tag-restaurants","14":"tag-restaurants-seafood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}