That was fast: Park & Ocean in Fort Lauderdale replaced by The Grill at the Grove
It was just after Christmas when beloved beachy hangout Park & Ocean said farewell to Fort Lauderdale after 6 1/2 years of live music, burgers and conch fritters.
In a quick turnaround, the new concessionaire at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park has already cooked up a new restaurant to replace it: The Grill at the Grove.
Touting a new website and phone number, The Grill at the Grove quietly debuted Jan. 1 — just six days after Park & Ocean’s demise. The Grill’s new menu is a work in progress, Ari Hadley, a food and beverage manager, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this week.
“We’re in soft-opening mode at the moment, and the menu’s still being tweaked,” she says.
Stop by the new oceanfront eatery and you’d be forgiven for thinking it bears some resemblance to its predecessor in menu, if not vibe. A recent lunchtime visit showed no “Grill at the Grove” restaurant signs and a light smattering of patio customers dining under a lush canopy of sea grapes and tropical hammocks.
The paper menu of beach bar cuisine seemed to be a retooling of Park & Ocean’s bill of fare, with some detours. If Park & Ocean leaned hard into craft-beer variety, The Grill at the Grove adds a dozen more cocktails, with some libations — mai tais, frosés, frozen sangrias — shared by both menus.
The Grill’s food offerings include conch fritters, chicken tenders, burgers on brioche buns, fish tacos and chicken salad wraps. Of course, that’s hardly surprising, considering that many local waterfront grills consider these staple dishes.
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Here’s what’s new: Crab cakes served with roasted garlic and caper aioli, fried calamari, chicken wings, turkey BLTs, cobb and tuna salads and a Calypso Chicken sandwich topped with grilled pineapple, goat cheese and mango aioli on a toasted brioche. Appetizers, salads, baskets and handhelds range in price from $9.99 to $15.99.
The Grill at the Grove comes from Birch Hospitality LLC, an offshoot of Kansas-based concessionaire ExplorUS, which runs park properties across 17 states and has a history of turning around underperforming park concessions.
ExplorUS won a public state bid in November to replace the park’s former concessionaire, BG Parks, after years of stagnating profits from food and equipment rentals, according to profit-and-loss sheets on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s website.
The news caught Park & Ocean owner Steven Dapuzzo off guard. Originally hired by BG Parks in 2017 to handle Birch State Park’s food and beverage, Dapuzzo hoped to convince ExplorUS to keep Park & Ocean in business.
“They decided not to work with me,” Dapuzzo says of ExplorUS. “They wanted to do their own thing.”
Along with The Grill at the Grove, ExplorUS, whose 10-year contract began Dec. 28, is in charge of revamping Birch State Park’s aging buildings and boosting profits from bicycle, beach chair, Segway and boat rentals, its concessionaire agreement says.
By the end of 2025, ExplorUS must also spend $500,000 to renovate and add WiFi to the restaurant and Birch State Park’s Garden Club, build a new dock at the Marina Building, and install a new beach hut to operate equipment rentals, among other upgrades.
The company must also pay a 15.1% commission of monthly gross sales. (BG Parks paid less — between 9% and 13% commission — according to state records.) The company must also contribute 2% of its monthly gross sales into a capital fund for future upgrades.
The Grill at the Grove is at 3109 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Visit TheGroveHughTaylorBirch.com or call 754-324-4660.
