Thursday, September 24th, 2026 - Feels like my college years all over again. TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue share one stage at Hard Rock Live tonight, a 25-year Las Olas dining landmark pours its last drink this month, and after decades of yellow tap water, Fort Lauderdale's new $666 million treatment plant finally starts running.đđđ
Stuff You Wonât Want To Miss This Week:
â TOP PICK THIS WEEK: TONIGHT - 7:30pm | TLC & Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue: ITâS ICONIC at Hard Rock Live, Hollywood. Three of the biggest names in 90s R&B and hip-hop share one stage. Tickets start around $91 but when will you ever? If not now, when?
TONIGHT - 6-8pm | Oldies Music Singo & Dance Show at the Herb Skolnick Center, Pompano Beach. Classic-hits bingo, two games, six winners, and dancing after. $7 per person.
TONIGHT - 6-8pm | Community Movie Night at the E. Pat Larkins Center, Pompano Beach. Free monthly movie night with light refreshments. Good thing this oneâs inside with all the rain lately.
Through Wednesday | Dine Out Lauderdale, last chance. More than 170 Broward restaurants are still running fixed-price menus, lunch from $35 and dinner from $45, before the promotion ends Sep 30.
Ongoing through Nov 10 | The Poppy Project Pop-Up Living Garden at Galleria Fort Lauderdale. Oversized handcrafted poppy flowers raising money and awareness for veteransâ mental health. Free to visit and photograph.
Ongoing through Oct 25 | Viva Fort Lauderdale at History Fort Lauderdaleâs New River Inn. A fifth-anniversary Hispanic Heritage Month exhibition with work from painters in Spain and Venezuela and sculpture from a Nicaraguan artist. Free.
Friday Night - 5-8pm | Founding Families Fall Festival. Visit the historic Stranahan House Museum to celebrate the founding families of Fort Lauderdale with festive fall fun. Guests will enjoy food trucks, beer and wine vendors, games, live music, and more for all ages. The Water Taxi will be providing complimentary rides.
Also Friday Night | Book Swap at the Cooper City Community Center. Trade the books youâve read for new adventures.
Friday, Wednesday, and Next Friday - 12-1:30pm | Riverwalk Tunes on Top at Las Olas Tunnel Top Plaza, downtown. Free lunchtime concerts under the new shade structure, running through Oct 9. Bring lunch and a chair.
Saturday Night - 6:30-9pm | Silent Disco Presented by Good Night John Boy at New River Landing, near Huizenga Park. Wireless-headphone dance party against the downtown skyline. RSVP early for a reserved headset from 6:30-7pm.
Saturday Night - 7-11pm | FAT Village Art Walk in the FAT Village Arts District. Rain-or-shine monthly gallery crawl with food trucks, live music, and a free Sun Trolley shuttle from Sears Town.
Saturday - 4-8pm | Flamingo Flea at Marina Village. A beachside food hall, vintage and handmade vendors, and a two-story boat bar with a DJ.
Saturday | Fall Harvest Festival at Sunrise Amphitheater. A petting zoo, corn maze and DinoDig trailer where kids can excavate dinosaur bones.
Saturday Night - 7:30pm | James Taylor and His All-Star Band at Hard Rock Live, Hollywood. This weekâs date-night marquee show; doors at 6:30pm. JT never goes out of style.
Saturday - 10am | Aerial Arts Society Competition 2026 at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center, NSU campus, Davie. Aerialists of all levels compete on silks and hoops, judges included, for a $1,000 grand prize.
Saturday Night - 6pm | Legacy: A Tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar at the Amaturo Theater, Broward Center. Acclaimed disciples and maestros perform the sitar legendâs repertoire.
Saturday Night - 7:30pm | Miamibloco: From the Streets to the Stage at Wells Hall, The Parker. A Brazilian Carnaval-style night of samba, Afro-Brazilian rhythm, and live percussion.
Saturday Night - 6-9pm | Salsa in September at Coconut Creek City Hall Courtyard. Free live Latin music and dance instruction from Melendrez Dance Studios.
Saturday Night - 9pm-1am | Club 90âs presents Ariana Grande Night at Revolution Live. A full night of Ariana Grandeâs catalog for the sing-every-word crowd. Tickets from $52.
Saturday - 6pm | Preseason Hockey: Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning at Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise. A cheap preseason tune-up between the two in-state rivals.
Sunday - 12-4pm | Huizenga Park Community Market at Huizenga Parkâs Civic Lawn. Local artisans, small businesses, and food vendors, with a live DJ through the afternoon.
Sunday - noon-5pm | Fort Lauderdale Neighbor Day at NSU Art Museum. Free admission for Fort Lauderdale residents on the last Sunday of every month; bring an ID or a utility bill showing your address.
Also Sunday - 2-5pm | Photo Book Speed Date at NSU Art Museum. Bring a favorite photo book and swap it in timed rotations with other photographers and collectors.
Sunday | Asian Food and Music Festival at the Seminole Casino in Hollywood. Taste your way through Asia with more than 50 food vendors offering authentic regional specialties.
Ends Sunday | School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at The Hive Black Box Theater, Pompano Beach. BrĂ©va Theatreâs run of Jocelyn Biohâs comedy about ambition and colorism at an elite Ghanaian boarding school closes this weekend, nightly at 7:30pm.
Wednesday Night - 6:30-8pm | Think and Drink Bingo at Huizenga Park. Bingo with music and an energetic host, right in the park.
SAVE THE DATES for Next Week
Thursday, Oct 1 - 7pm | John Crist Live at the Au-Rene Theater, Broward Center. Stand-up from a comedian Pollstar ranks among its Top 10 global touring acts.
Thursday, Oct 1 - 7:30pm | Great White & Slaughter at Wells Hall, The Parker. Two four-decade rock bands sharing a bill as part of the Cleveland Clinic Rock Series.
Thursday, Oct 1 - 8pm | Celtic Thunder: Celebrate Your Favorite Songs at the Amaturo Theater, Broward Center. The Irish vocal groupâs theatrical stage show, backed by the Celtic Thunder Band.
Thursday, Oct 1 - 11am-7pm, performance at 5:30pm | NSU Art Museum Free First Thursday. Free admission all day, a noon tour, and a closing performance blending heavy metal, swamp imagery, and experimental sound as the Close to Home exhibition ends.
Friday, Oct 2 - 6-10pm | Old Town Untapped in Old Town Pompano. A free block party with live music from Mama Fuma, a gallery opening at Bailey Contemporary Arts Center, and food trucks.
Friday, Oct 2 | Digger Opens at AutoNation IMAX, Museum of Discovery and Science. A high-stakes thriller about a world leader racing to stop a disaster of his own making; showtimes post closer to opening.
Friday, Oct 2 - 7pm | Ziggy Marley and Govât Mule at Hard Rock Live, Hollywood. A reggae-and-jam-band double bill; tickets from about $62.
Oct 2-4 | Pippin at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center, NSU campus. NSUâs Department of Communication, Media & Arts stages the Tony-winning musical about a princeâs search for meaning.
Saturday, Oct 3 - 3pm and 7pm | Absolute Queen & Absolute Journey feat. Bo Bice at Aventura Arts & Cultural Center. Two tribute acts covering Queen, Journey, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi, with American Idol finalist Bo Bice fronting.
Saturday, Oct 3 - 7pm | Atsuko Okatsuka: The Big Bowl Tour at Wells Hall, The Parker. Stand-up from the Truist Comedy Series, drawing on her unconventional upbringing.
Saturday, Oct 3 - 7:30pm | Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida: Program I at the Amaturo Theater, Broward Center. The company opens its 2026-27 season with classical and contemporary works, closing with Raymonda Grand Pas.
Saturday, Oct 3 - 11am-3pm | Coconut Creek Fire Rescue 5-Year Anniversary Open House at Fire Station 50, Coconut Creek. Free open house marking five years of the cityâs own fire-rescue department.
Saturday, Oct 3 - 10am-2pm | Las Olas Autumn Festival on Las Olas Boulevard. A seasonal street festival with local vendors, food, drinks, and live music, no tickets needed.
Sunday, Oct 4 - 11am | Sunday Jazz Brunch at Esplanade Park / Riverwalk. Free live jazz on three stages, first Sunday of every month; bring a chair and a leashed dog.
Sunday, Oct 4 - 10:30am | Sensory-Inclusive Clifford the Big Red Dog: The Musical at Wells Hall, The Parker. A 60-minute adaptation with reduced sound and no strobe lights, built for children and adults on the autism spectrum. Insider Tip: presale tickets start at $10 but the price rises after Sep 27, so lock it in early.
Sunday, Oct 4 - 11am-2pm | Arts Launch Broward 2026 at the Broward Center. A free community celebration of the countyâs arts scene, stacking with Jazz Brunch and Sensory Clifford for a full Sunday downtown.
Our Ask: If we rolled back 30 years, tonightâs show would be the biggest names in the business. Reply TLC, SALT-N-PEPA, or EN VOGUE: whose set are you most hyped for tonight?
Featured Fort Lauderdale
After 25 Years, Big City Tavern Pours Its Last Drink on Las Olas
If you have lived here more than a year, somebody has probably invited you to Big City Tavern. A first date, a burger after a long week, the lobster mac and cheese you swore you would split. It has held the corner at 609 East Las Olas since 2001.
Next week (September 30) it closes for good.
The announcement went up on the restaurantâs own Instagram last Friday, short and gracious: they are raising a glass to the guests, the team, and the community who made the place what it is. No reason was given. Todd Herbst, who co-founded Big Time Restaurant Group, the company that owns it, put it this way: âI think we were fortunate to be there as long as we have been. Times are changing and you canât compete with progress.â
Here is the part worth knowing before you mourn the building. Big Time is the same group behind Louie Bossiâs up the street, Roccoâs Tacos, and Elisabettaâs, and Herbst says they have âa terrific agreement with the landlordâ and âmore to come from us on Las Olas.â The room will get a new tenant, and it will be the same people. The 45 who work there have been offered jobs at the groupâs other restaurants.
It is also worth knowing what came out of that kitchen. Louie Bossi cooked at Big City Tavern before the boulevard had a restaurant with his name on it, and so did chef Ladanna Bennett. A good share of what you eat on Las Olas started at that corner.
You have until the end of the month. Go once more and order the thing you always order, one last time.
So... You Think You Know South Florida
You probably already know⊠our fair city by water is named for a Major by the name of Lauderdale.
What you might not know is⊠how little time he actually spent here.
Major William Lauderdale rode in with about 200 Tennessee Volunteers and on March 6, 1838, put up a blockhouse on the north bank of the New River, near todayâs SW 4th Court and SW 9th Avenue. On March 22 he and the regulars marched west into the pines around what is now Davie, hunting the Seminole leader Abiaka.
They came back two days later with one man shot in the hand and nothing to show for the adventure. On April 4 the Tennesseans left for Fort Jupiter.
All told, Lauderdale was here twenty-nine days. On the way back home he died near Baton Rouge on May 11, 1838, just two months after he first saw the New River.
The fort he built barely outlasted him. The army pulled out in May and the Seminoles destroyed it after the Armyâs departure. In February 1839 a second Fort Lauderdale went up at Tarpon Bend. By September a third and bigger one stood on the beach, between the ocean and what is now the Intracoastal, where the South Beach parking lot sits across from Bahia Mar.
That third Fort Lauderdale held until January 1842, when the war ended and the soldiers went home. Very few settled here again in any number until the 1890s.
This is what the New River looked like in 1892 (a bit different from today). Photo courtesy of History Fort Lauderdale.
More Treats To Try
We donât let just anyone sponsor this newsletter. Hereâs who âmade the cutâ this week:
Annual Holistic Womenâs Wellness Event is happening this year in Delray Beach! Use the promo code LAUDERDALE and all H!L readers get $50 off their ticket. Thanks to Ryann Watkin for the tip!
Free Tuition Savings Tool: TuitionPay.ai helps private school families find smarter ways to pay tuition and maximize rewards. See how much you could save: https://www.tuitionpay.ai/heylauderdale
If you have been looking for music lessons to start the school year, Thoven is an online music academy founded in South Florida, where we help families find 1:1 music lessons that fit their kid and their schedule, from home. We work with a hand-picked, vetted network of teachers, including musicians and educators from schools like The Juilliard School and Berklee College of Music. If youâd like a personalized match, you can reach out to keri@thoven.co to talk to our head of music education.
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Quote Of The Week
âThe desire to be loved is the last illusion. Give it up and you will be free.â ~ Margaret Atwood
Best known for the Handmaidâs Tale, Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction.
Flotsam & Jetsam
If your mind is looping on a specific problem today, try this.
Pixel Thoughts is a minimalist tool that started on the web with a simple premise: type your current stressor into a glowing star and watch it shrink into the vastness of space over 60 seconds.
The new mobile app on iOS and Android takes that concept a step further with custom meditations. You pick the duration and background music, type in your exact worry, and the app generates a tailored reframe designed for your specific situation.
No sign-ups, no paywalls, and no setup required. It takes one minute to see if it clears your head.
Word Play Of The Week
âBreak the ice.â
Traces back to Erasmus's 1528 Adagia, describing boatmen sent ahead to break up river ice so others could follow. ~ âSource
âUnder-The-Radarâ Openings Job Board
Lots of folks offering cool positions here locally. Maybe thereâs one for you or a friend?
Teaching Artist at Broward Center for the Performing Arts â contract role teaching across genres and age groups through the Centerâs education wing.
Manager, NSU MD Laboratory Services at Nova Southeastern University, Davie. Runs the gross anatomy and histology labs for med students, including maintaining anatomical specimens.
Zoo Keeper / Farm Worker / Animal Entertainer in Davie. $16/hour, feeding and handling animals and hauling them to schools and festivals for educational shows.
Finish Gelcoat Technician at Dusky Marine, Dania Beach. Hand-repairs and color-matches gelcoat on fiberglass boats to a factory finish.
Do you have a listing you would like to place here for next week? Hit reply and let us know.
Lastly⊠One Big Idea For Your Week
Remember the game of âhotter⊠colderâ as a child? It was so fun to get immediate feedback. Take one step in the wrong direction, and the âcolderâ clue would tell you to reverse direction.
What about your life today? Are you moving closer or further away from what really matters?
Tell Us How We Are Doing
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Please share your feedback. What do you love? What could we do better FOR YOU? What FTL businesses and experiences should we be highlighting?