The House on the River: A new dining gem in downtown Fort Lauderdale

One of Fort Lauderdale’s most attractive settings now has its jewel: The House on the River, a beautifully polished heirloom on the downtown waterfront that will instantly rank among the most popular dining destinations in the city when it opens on Mother’s Day Weekend.

The new restaurant is the result of a handsome and thoughtful renovation — it took nearly a year and more than $1 million — of one of downtown’s most prominent and enigmatic properties, which locals call the River House.

In a city that seems to be losing more history every day, The House on the River was a rescue mission for local hospitality veteran Steven D’Apuzzo, a bet on the quirky appeal of a restaurant composed of two historic homes huddled in the expanding shadow of glass-and-steel monuments to modernity.

“It’s going to be a little oasis,” D’Apuzzo says, describing a “Florida Riviera” style that marries the city and the shore. “Our theme is really very coastal, but embracing the history of the home and the charm of it. This is Fort Lauderdale. This was here before Fort Lauderdale was Fort Lauderdale. ”

The House on the River will make a soft debut for dinner on Friday, May 12, with service from 4 to 11 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, brunch will be served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with dinner 4 to 11 p.m. Mother’s Day Brunch will cost $59 (drinks extra). For information and to make a reservation, visit TheHouseOnTheRiver.com.

The founder of Society 8 Hospitality Group, D’Apuzzo is no stranger to distinctive Fort Lauderdale dining destinations. They include downtown’s Sistrunk Marketplace & Brewery, hidden gem Park & Ocean and Wild Thyme Oceanside Eatery at The Atlantic Hotel & Spa on the beach. D’Apuzzo also is now creating a new food hall, Block 40, in downtown Hollywood.

Built on the north bank of the New River in 1903, before Fort Lauderdale even existed, the conjoined structures on the River House property have slumped in forlorn disuse for most of the past decade as residential development erupted around the site along the paved Riverwalk, just west of the Brightline/FEC railroad tracks.

Located between the vibrant stretch of new restaurants and bars on Las Olas Boulevard to the east and the crowd magnet of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts to the west, the plight of the stately old River House was both mysterious and a little personal for locals.

Whatever Riverwalk passersby may have expected to emerge from this latest attempt to resuscitate the property, the reality likely exceeds their expectations. Both as a place to relax, drink and dine, and as a welcome postcard from Old Florida, The House on the River is extraordinary.

“It needed a lot of work. We spent almost a year restoring it, bringing it back to its splendor, bringing back the charm to it … and giving it an identity that it deserved,” D’Apuzzo says.

Shaded by old-growth oaks, ficus and sturdy palms, the riverside terrace out front is a study in tropical informality, with great expanses of old bricks edged by tidy green fields of artificial turf and scattered with umbrella-topped tables and chairs.

Inside the front door of the old stone home on the eastern side of the property is a ground-floor dining room, called the Mirror Room for the collection of looking glasses covering its warm taupe walls. An adjacent room has been painted a deep red, with a long wooden table with seating for eight to 10, called the Rose Room.

Visible just beyond the Mirror Room is a distinctive glass-walled space, once a bar and now the sunny home to a French bakery, La Ville Rose. Operated by Shirley Sanchez, a native of Colombia who trained in Toulouse as a pastry chef, the family business opened four weeks ago, serving pastries, breakfast, lunch and brunch.

Up a narrow flight of stairs, three more rooms have been turned into intimate dining spaces, each given a distinctive decor and color scheme, including the masculine Trophy Room, its dark teal walls lined with painted faux wildlife heads.

Another room that seems likely to be the most popular at The House on the River is a bright second-floor sunroom facing the river, distinguished by a small table bracketed by cushioned benches that are suspended from the ceiling by ropes entwined with artificial pink roses. For you romantics out there, ask for the Porch Swing Room.

The house on the west side of the property has its own entry, but also can be reached by a bridge that runs above the ground-floor lobby. It has four dining rooms and will be used for chef dinners, wedding parties and other special engagements, as well as brunch seating. Renovations on this part of the property should be complete by July 4.

In total, The House on the River will have seating for about 120 on the patios in front of each home and 150 inside.

D’Apuzzo envisions a menu that reinforces the seaside theme.

“We’re offering a menu that is very seafood-centric. We’re sourcing seafood from The Keys and whatever local purveyors we can get. The menu is going to be a little globally inspired and coastal, like Italy, the South of France,” he says.

The executive chef at The House on the River will be Aedian Reid, who has worked at spots such as Cut 432 in Delray Beach and City Fish Market in Atlanta (as executive sous chef).

The House on the River would be unrecognizable to local pioneer Philemon Bryan’s two sons, Tom and Reed, the businessmen who built the two homes in 1903. The city-owned structures, at 301 SW Third Ave., are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

More than three decades ago, the property was a popular part of the Chart House restaurant chain, then in 1998 it was taken over by Ron Morrison, one of Fort Lauderdale’s preeminent restaurateurs at Mistral and Evangeline on the beach, and Sage on North Federal Highway.

In Morrison’s hands, the homes — called Reed’s River House and Reed’s Mosquito Bar — developed an enthusiastic following among locals and tourists alike.

The Restaurant People, then best known for nearby restaurants Tarpon Bend and Himmarshee Bar & Grill (with hotspots YOLO and S3 a glimmer in their eye), took over operations in the early 2000s — just as the ill-fated Las Olas Riverfront entertainment center opened as a gloomy distraction just east of the tracks.

Built on the premise of imminent downtown residential development, the massive Las Olas Riverfront complex discovered those people were slow to arrive. Through the years, visitors dwindled, businesses closed and the atmosphere of the riverfront developed a reputation as unsafe after dark. The property then-called the River House closed in 2009.

The restaurant sat empty, and in 2015 the city leased the site to James Campbell, of Riverfront Cruises and Anticipation Yacht Charters, as a tourist welcome center and special-events space.

Campbell later teamed with Food Network chef Jonny NoBones on a vegan restaurant that opened at the River House site in 2020. No match for the pandemic, Jonny NoBones Old Riverhouse Vegan Village closed after about four months.

But times and demographics in downtown Fort Lauderdale have changed, says D’Apuzzo, a Brooklyn native who has lived in the city for more than 25 years.

Standing on the terrace at The House on the River, he can point to several new residential towers, including 10X Riverwalk (formerly 4 West Las Olas) and Society Las Olas, which opened in 2020 on the site of the demolished Las Olas Riverfront, and others under construction or near groundbreaking.

D’Apuzzo says longtime local residents will be a key clientele for the restaurant.

“I’ve never gotten the feedback we’re getting. We get emails from people saying, ‘Hey, I got engaged there 20 years ago, we want to have our [party] there.’ People feel a bond to this place,” he says.

The House on the River is at 301 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale. For information and reservations, visit TheHouseOnTheRiver.com.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.