Cap's Place Island Restaurant
Reachable only by boat. Al Capone ate here. The menu hasn't changed much.
Cap's Place opened in 1928 on a small island in the Intracoastal Waterway near Lighthouse Point. Theodore 'Cap' Knight ran it as a speakeasy and gambling den during Prohibition. Al Capone was a regular. Winston Churchill ate here during World War II. The restaurant has been in continuous operation ever since, reached by the same small ferry that has been running for decades.
Cap's Place is at 2765 NE 28th Court in Lighthouse Point. The ferry runs from the dock on the mainland — call ahead for hours. Reservations are strongly recommended. The menu is classic Florida seafood: hearts of palm salad, stone crab, broiled fish. The building is original. The atmosphere is unrepeatable.
The island has no road access. The ferry is a flat-bottomed boat that holds about 20 people. The restaurant is built on pilings over the water. The wood is old and the floors creak and the whole place smells like the sea. It is one of the few genuinely irreplaceable restaurants in South Florida.