Downtown Fort Lauderdale's rebuilt riverfront park is about to get the restaurant it was designed around. Sweetwaters, the new waterfront dining room from the family-owned group behind Miami's Rusty Pelican, takes its first reservations on Monday, October 12, at 58 E. Las Olas Blvd., on the New River edge of Huizenga Park. It is the last big piece of a park that spent two years and $15 million being remade.

The park finally gets its dining room

When Huizenga Park reopened in January after its overhaul, the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority and the Huizenga Park Foundation said a full-service waterfront restaurant would anchor the dining side of the 3.6-acre space. Until now that corner at Las Olas Boulevard and Andrews Avenue has been a construction fence. From October 12 it becomes a place to sit with a drink and watch the boats work the river.

The restaurant comes from Specialty Restaurants, the family company that also runs Miami's Rusty Pelican, the waterfront landmark on the Rickenbacker Causeway. Sweetwaters is the group's first Fort Lauderdale restaurant, and it was built to make the most of the setting, with riverfront patio seating and a terrace that faces into the park.

What is on the menu

The kitchen leans coastal and Florida. The starters list runs from crispy shrimp with togarashi spicy mayo ($16) and a lump crab and shrimp crab cake with chipotle remoulade ($22) to Wagyu beef sliders ($14), charred octopus ($26) and Thai chili Brussels sprouts ($15). The house grilled oysters ($16) come two ways: Casino, with applewood-smoked bacon and Parmesan, or Rockefeller, with creamy spinach and Pernod.

From the raw bar, the yellowfin tuna crudo ($18) is dressed with sweet mango, tangerine, ponzu and pickled Fresno chile. For a table that wants a centerpiece, the Grand Seafood Tower ($98) stacks East and West Coast oysters, chilled shrimp, mussels, clams, tuna tartare, crab salad and half a Maine lobster. The dish most likely to show up on your feed is the lobster spaghetti ($59): a whole Maine lobster in a spicy tomato vodka sauce with Sugar Bomb cherry tomatoes.

A menu for the dog run next door

Here is the detail that tells you the restaurant knows where it is. Huizenga Park now has downtown Fort Lauderdale's first dog run, and Sweetwaters has written a full dog menu to match. The Pup Club list includes Pupperoni Chips of air-dried turkey pepperoni ($12), a baked Faroe Islands salmon and rice bowl with broccolini and carrots ($13), the Good Boy Burger, a plain beef patty with cheddar and pumpkin purée served without a bun ($9), a Greek yogurt and berry Pupsicle ($6) and a canine Steak Frites made with diced beef and watermelon fries ($14).

Happy hour and hours

The happy hour menu keeps things simple: $5 beers, $6 well spirits (vodka, gin, rum, tequila and bourbon) and house wines at $7 for a six-ounce pour, covering sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, rosé, pinot noir, merlot and cabernet. The restaurant group has said happy hour runs weekdays from 4 to 6:30 p.m., and that dinner will be served from 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

For bigger nights, Sweetwaters takes private events and group dinners, from small celebrations to large gatherings.

Why the park matters here

The setting is half the reason to go. The redesigned Huizenga Park, at 32 E. Las Olas Blvd., was planned by Perkins&Will and added an open civic lawn, shaded seating, a climbable play landscape for children, expanded riverfront seating, about 13,500 new plants and 88 shade trees. The Spirit of Fort Lauderdale fountain was restored, and new public art includes a sculpture by Manolo Valdés and a LOVE mural by Cey Adams. The park connects straight onto the Riverwalk, so dinner can start or end with a walk along the water.

For anyone who remembers this corner as a pass-through on the way to somewhere else, the combination is new: a park built to linger in, and a full restaurant inside it.

How to get a table

Reservations open for dinners starting October 12 and can be booked through the Sweetwaters reservations page. Opening weeks at waterfront rooms fill fast on weekends, so a weeknight table or an early happy hour seat is the easiest first visit. Ask for the riverfront patio if the weather cooperates, and if you are walking a dog through the park, bring it along: there is a burger with its name on it. The restaurant's number is (954) 231-7777.