Dining at Hollywood Beach
The Broadwalk's dining scene mixes a genuinely long-standing institution, upscale Caribbean-influenced cuisine, and a real slice of the island's French-Canadian identity -- named here as specific, real businesses rather than generic 'great local eats' filler.
Nick's Bar & Grill: A Broadwalk Fixture Since the Late 1970s
Nick's has been a staple on the Hollywood Broadwalk at Minnesota Street for over 40 years, per multiple regional guides -- the building itself dates to the 1940s, when it started as a hot dog stand, and was converted to a bar and restaurant in the late 1970s by a Canadian owner named Nick, a detail that connects the restaurant directly to the island's long-running French-Canadian visitor tradition even in its founding story. Recently renovated, it operates today as an open-air bar facing the beach, serving a full menu from burgers to lobster alongside beer on tap and beach-style rum drinks, with a laid-back, old-Florida character multiple guides describe as fitting naturally with the beach setting.
Sugar Reef: Upscale Caribbean and French Cuisine
Sugar Reef offers upscale Caribbean cuisine -- dishes like gumbo and Jamaican jerk-rubbed pork loin, per Broward Palm Beach New Times' coverage -- in an open-air Broadwalk setting that pairs white-tablecloth-style dining with genuine beachfront ambiance, its ocean-colored dining rooms opening directly onto the water it's named for. It represents a distinctly different price point and dining register than Nick's more casual bar-and-grill approach, giving the Broadwalk's dining scene real range within a short walking distance.
EZeat: Real Canadian Poutine and Montreal Smoked Meat, Opened 2024
EZeat, a Canadian-owned restaurant that opened directly on the Broadwalk in 2024, serves "real Canadian poutine" (cheese curds and gravy over fries) and Montreal smoked meat sandwiches alongside more standard American fare like burgers and club sandwiches, per CNN's April 2026 reporting on the island's "Little Quebec" identity. It's a genuinely recent, specific, and sourced example of how directly the island's decades-old French-Canadian tourism tradition still shapes its current dining scene -- not a historical footnote, but an actively operating business built around that exact identity.
The Broadwalk's Broader Food Scene
Beyond these three specifically named, sourced restaurants, the Broadwalk generally is described in multiple sources as a 2.5-mile promenade lined with restaurants, cafés, ice cream shops, and boutiques -- a genuinely walkable food-and-retail corridor rather than a scattered handful of destinations requiring a car between stops. This page does not attempt a comprehensive, current list of every café, ice cream shop, or additional restaurant along the full 2.5-mile stretch; that level of current, complete detail is better served by an up-to-date local directory than by this page.
Dining Logistics: Season and Crowds Matter Here
Because Hollywood Beach's winter season brings meaningfully heavier foot traffic -- driven by general Florida snowbird patterns and specifically by the island's French-Canadian visitor tradition, covered in more depth on this site's Year-Round Living Reality and Community & Lifestyle pages -- a dinner reservation during peak winter months at a popular Broadwalk restaurant should be expected to involve real waits or the need for advance booking, a genuinely different experience than dining at the same restaurant during the quieter, hotter summer months. This page did not independently confirm current wait times, reservation policies, or seasonal hours for any of the restaurants named here.
Groceries and Self-Catering: A Mainland Trip
For anyone cooking rather than dining out, this research did not confirm a full-service grocery store located directly on the Hollywood Beach barrier island itself -- a full grocery run most likely means crossing the Intracoastal Waterway to mainland Hollywood, covered in more depth on this site's Practical Living Guide. This is a genuine, practical planning fact for a visitor or new resident assuming beach-adjacent living automatically means beach-adjacent full grocery shopping.
A Genuine Range of Price Points and Styles Within Walking Distance
What's worth noting across the three specifically named restaurants on this page is the genuine range they represent within a short walk of each other: Nick's operates as a casual, open-air, beer-and-burgers bar-and-grill; Sugar Reef sits at a meaningfully more upscale register with white-tablecloth-style Caribbean and French-influenced plates; and EZeat occupies a distinct cultural niche entirely, built around a specific national cuisine (Quebecois/Canadian) that doesn't have an obvious analog at most other Florida beach towns. That range -- casual to upscale to culturally specific -- within a compact, walkable oceanfront corridor is itself a real, distinguishing feature of the Broadwalk's dining identity, not something every beach town of comparable size offers.
What This Page Doesn't Cover
This page names real, specific, sourced restaurants confirmed through multiple sources -- Nick's Bar & Grill, Sugar Reef, and EZeat. It does not attempt a comprehensive, current list of every restaurant, café, and food business along the full 2.5-mile Broadwalk -- local directories (Yelp, TripAdvisor, and others) will have more current and complete listings, including newer restaurants that may have opened since this research was conducted, current hours, and current menu pricing, none of which this page states as fact. Confirm current hours, menus, and any new openings directly with each business or a current local dining guide before planning a visit.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: Broward Palm Beach New Times for Nick's Bar & Grill's over-40-year Broadwalk history, its 1940s building origin and late-1970s conversion by a Canadian owner, and Sugar Reef's upscale Caribbean/French menu and open-air Broadwalk setting; CNN's April 2026 reporting (syndicated via CP24, ABC17, KESQ, KVIA, KEYT, KRDO) for EZeat's 2024 opening, its Canadian ownership, and its poutine and Montreal-smoked-meat menu as part of the island's broader "Little Quebec" tourism identity; and general regional descriptions of the Broadwalk as a restaurant-, café-, and boutique-lined promenade. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: current hours, current menu items or pricing for any of these businesses; a comprehensive, current list of all Hollywood Beach dining options beyond the specific restaurants named here; and confirmed reservation policies or typical wait times. Confirm current hours, menus, and additional dining options directly with each business or a current local dining directory before planning a visit. This page makes no health, allergen, or dietary claims about any menu item.