Happenings

Local Food & Entertainment

Here's some restaurant, entertainment and educational venues from around the Jupiter area and close to Jupiter Bay.

Jupiter, Florida

Click on the following link for an Historic Map of Jupiter showing places of interest:  "Historic Map"

Click on this link for a brief tour of Jupiter titled: "Live Like a Local"

Click on this link for a video of Jupiter's Tuesday evening Paddle Boarding Race: "Paddle Boarding Race"

Lazy Loggerhead Reopening as Dune Dog Beach Shack

According to a 10/17/23 Palm Beach Post article, Greg Bartoli, the Dune Dog’s owner, plans to lease, upgrade, and reopen the former Duke’s Lazy Loggerhead Café.

The café will undergo a Key West-style renovation with the addition of wood paneling to warm up the space as well as outdoor seating and an improved take-out window.

The updated café, called the Dune Dog Beach Shack, will serve breakfast and lunch, closing at sunset. The menu will feature breakfast sandwiches, pancakes, omelets, crawfish eggs benedict and a "smashburger," in addition to classic Dune Dog favorites.

Renovations are set to start in January with the hope of opening for business in March or April 2023 near the time of Dune Dog’s 30th anniversary. This will be the Dune Dog’s fourth location, with other sites in Jupiter, Stuart, and Cocoa Beach.

The Dune Dog and two other restaurant companies applied for the space at Carlin Park in November 2022, and the county Parks and Recreation Department’s selection committee ranked its proposal the highest.

The lease will last three years and is renewable. The monthly rent is $9,167 for the first year with annual 2% increases after that. (Editor’s Note: This is much higher than the $0.00 annual rent that Twisted Tuna pays Jupiter Bay.)

Guanabanas: My Favorite Restaurant

www.guanabanas.com

Opened by Jupiter surfers as a sandwich shop in 2004, Guanabanas has grown to become an institution in northern Palm Beach County for three reasons:

  • The lush, tropical setting;
  • Great cuisine and cocktails; and
  • Live music from both national acts and the hottest names in South Florida.

Guanabanas is a 100 percent open-air restaurant and bar with woven tiki huts and banyan trees towering overhead, and hand-chiseled coquina stone pathways underfoot. The restaurant provides a true “Florida” experience with their creative outdoor restaurant design which utilizes quality exotic/local plants and trees, Key West/Old Florida styled structures, hand-built chickee huts from the native tribes of Florida, fresh Florida seafood and a premium bar with live music.

Guanabanas re-opened in December of 2008 following a $2.5 million renovation that included creating a full-service, state-of-the-art kitchen. The use of locally produced ingredients is the order of the day. All of the seafood served at Guanabanas is purchased from local sources and is from the state of Florida.

Reef Grill: My 2nd Favorite Restaurant

www.captaincharliesreefgrillfl.com

For over 34 years, Captain Charlie’s Reef Grill has been a fine dining fixture in Juno Beach. Ross Matheson and his wife Mary Beth opened the Reef Grill in 1989, only two years after moving to the Juno Beach area of Florida from Toronto.

Fine food is only part of what makes Captain Charlie’s that special place to dine. The wine list and Ross’s reasonable pricing will be a pleasant surprise for first-time patrons. As a 16-time winner of the Wine Spectator “Award of Excellence”, Ross hand picks each pairing depending on available catch and time of year. The atmosphere at Captain Charlie’s is laid-back, and worthy of the easy-going beach life here in Juno Beach. Patrons enjoy the open kitchen, the great wine list, and truly wonderful cuisine at Captain Charlie’s.

Jupiter Inlet's Love Street Restaurant Complex

www.lovestreetjupiter.com

Three new restaurants and a seafood market were built along Love Street in Jupiter’s Inlet Village. The waterfront project, which opened in mid-January, 2021 is called Charlie and Joe’s, named after football icon Joe Namath and developer Charles Modica.

The restaurants include an oyster bar and beer taproom named Lucky Shuck, a modern American grill called Beacon, and a rooftop tapas bar known as Topside.

Lucky Shuck

This casual restaurant, offering views of the Jupiter Lighthouse, focuses on oysters and other raw seafood. Its full tavern menu also includes a fresh-catch of the day in a variety of preparations, Southern Gulf-inspired dishes (fried chicken, ribs, and gumbo), burgers and other pub-loving sandwiches, salads and snacks.

Fishing boats pull up to the docks just outside Lucky Shuck, and commercial fishermen unload and weigh their fresh catch in view of diners. The fish and seafood they bring supply not only Love Street’s three restaurants but also the Tacklebox seafood market, which is located at the entrance of the Lucky Shuck oyster bar. Here, visitors can pick up freshly caught fish and shellfish to prepare at home. They can also opt for grab-and-go side dishes, pokes, sandwiches, and salads.

The taproom component provides a diverse selection of craft beers on draft, bottles and cans.

Beacon

This dinner-only restaurant is the complex’s fine-dining spot. It sits next to Lucky Shuck, just across a heart-shaped courtyard, and has spectacular views. The restaurant’s centerpiece is an open kitchen ringed by a dining counter that offers customers a view of the chefs at work. Beacon’s menu focuses on local seafood with Mediterranean-inspired preparations (bouillabaisse, gazpacho, paella and pastas.) There are also options for meat-lovers including steaks, chops and chicken.

Topside

This rooftop bar, sitting above Beacon, provides a full tiki experience. A retractable roof delivers the complex’s most dramatic al fresco experience and views. The rooftop menu might be described as fun tapas. Bites range from charcuterie and cheese boards to sliders and flatbread to wood-fired skewers cooked over a robata grill. And there is a slate of tiki-style cocktails for sipping.

Kravis Center for the Performing Arts


The following performances are scheduled for the Kravis (Raymond F.) Center for the Performing Arts, Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr., Concert Hall located at 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach.

Kravis On Broadway

Kravis Theatre's 2023-2024 regular season is featuring the following:

  • Chicago -- 25 Years of Razzle Dazzle (Nov 7 - 12, 2023)
  • Mean Girls -- Hilarious, Splashy & Unmistakably by Tina Fey! (Dec 5 - 10, 2023)
  • Beetlejuice -- The Musical (Dec 19 - 24, 2023)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird -- By Harper Lee (Jan 2 - 7, 2024)
  • Jagged Little Pill -- The Musical (Feb 20 - 25, 2024)
  • Tina -- The Tina Turner Musical (Mar 12 - 17, 2024)
  • Six -- The Musical (Mar 26 - 31, 2024)
  • Hamilton -- (Apr 10 - 21, 2024)

The following Kravis Center's recent extensive renovations enhance the customer experience:

  • A brand-new park-like outdoor urban plaza in front of the Center to enjoy the peaceful ambiance and lovely waterfall, enhanced with expanded walkways and new bicycle paths.
  • An expanded Dreyfoos Hall Lobby with 6,000 additional square feet that included adding seating in a new bistro area and more restrooms on the expanded Orchestra level.
  • A valet-only entrance with dedicated parking garage offering expedited car drop off and pick up.
  • An enhanced self-parking garage with visible, artistic branding, a new entrance/exit ramp directly to the fourth floor to greatly reduce exit time, along with new technology that provide parking space availability to facilitate parking.
  • A pedestrian-friendly plaza on the Okeechobee/Tamarind corner, highlighted by an informational marquee.

Harbourside Place


Harbourside Place, located along the Intracoastal waterway just a short distance from Jupiter Bay, is the premier downtown destination for shopping, dining, luxury hotel accommodations, entertainment and boating.

Eight restaurants are now open at Harbourside Place - Tommy Bahama, The Woods Jupiter, Calaveras Cantina, BurgerFi, Mana Greek Fusion, SubCulture Coffee, Jupiter Grill, and Straits.

The Town of Jupiter and Harbourside Place have resolved event violations including car shows, yoga classes, green markets, farmers markets and concerts.  See article on the "Florida News" page of this website.

With settlement of its litigation with the Town of Jupiter, Harbourside is stressing outdoor dining and small gatherings as a way to rebrand itself. Harbourside is reducing its retail space by 71%, and using the extra space for offices, bars and restaurants. It is also de-emphasizing the live music performances, limiting them to 10 per year.

Cinepolis Movie Theater


The Shoppes at Jupiter is home to Cinepolis' first hybrid location. The movie theater, which opened on June 19, 2015, offers two unique auditorium concepts in one cinema, “Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas” and “Cinépolis.”

  • The theater’s six “Cinépolis Luxury Cinema” auditoriums offer guests a luxury movie-going experience with fully reclining leather seats and in-theater waiter service and dining with full bar, available at the touch of a button.
  • Guests of the theater’s eight “Cinépolis” auditoriums can enjoy a premium theater experience with comfortable seating and access to the gourmet menu and full bar in the lobby area. The approximately 1,100 non-reclining leather seats are wider than traditional movie seats.

This cinema offers:

  • Traditional Seating & Luxury Reclining Seating
  • Full bar: wines, spirits and beers
  • Gourmet appetizers and entrées
  • 3D Viewing Experience
  • At-your-seat waiter service in select auditoriums
  • AV compatible for events & business meetings

Clematis By Night

Clematis is a street in downtown West Palm Beach bustling with activities. It offers a collection of some of the best restaurants, from Asian inspired to casual fine dining and everything in between.

Clematis Street is a great place to visit on a Thursday night when there's live entertainment, and where there are festivals on weekends. Great music, lots of good vibes and happiness.

The pier is a two-minute walk and so beautiful to relax on.

Maltz Jupiter Theatre

www.jupitertheatre.org/

Maltz Theatre Expansion

The former Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre, on the northwest corner of State Road A1A and Indiantown Road, underwent $2.5 million in renovations and two-years later a $25 million expansion. The expansion added 62 extra-wide seats in a second-floor lounge, expanded the lobby, built executive offices on the second floor, installed 10-foot-high windows on the east side and boosted the size of the restrooms.

A second major expansion occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown while the theatre is without performances. This $36 million expansion includes a new Broadway-scale stage that qualifies the theater for pre-Broadway and national tour-development productions, and a 199-seat second theater space. The theatre also expanded its Goldner Conservatory, home to the Maltz’s youth arts education program, and redesigned its entrance and lobby. Audience members will soon be able to dine at the new Scene Café, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows were installed on the theater’s three floors.

Annual attendance at the Maltz doubled to about 100,000 in 2019 from about 10 years ago. Subscriptions, where customers buy tickets to about five shows a year, increased from about 2,300 to about 7,600 during that same time.

On January 25, 2024, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre announced their 2024-2025 season:

  • Deceived, Oct. 27–Nov. 10, 2024.
  • Once, Dec. 3–15, 2024.
  • Disney's Frozen, Jan. 7–26, 2025.
  • The Lehman Trilogy, Feb. 16–Mar. 2, 2025.
  • Guys & Dolls, Mar. 18–Apr. 6, 2025.

FAU Lifelong Learning Society (Jupiter)


Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter provides one of the nations leading adult education programs.  FAU's courses, which are university-level non-credit, provide learning opportunities for seasoned adult learners of all backgrounds and interests.

Registration for Lifelong Learning's courses:

  • Winter Semester - November 1
  • Spring Semester - February 2
  • Summer Semester - May 1
  • Fall Semester - August 1

Register early to get the courses you want, as some classes fill up rapidly.

Taught by FAU professors and distinguished guest lecturers, course offerings include such varied subjects as foreign policy, political science, film, music, art history and literature. The Lifelong Learning Society was established to provide adults of all ages the opportunity to enrich their lives through non-credit, university-level courses with no homework or tests.

Fall one-time lectures and courses take place in the Lifelong Learning Society complex, 5353 Parkside Dr., at FAU’s John D. MacArthur Campus in Jupiter.

Busch Wildlife Sanctuary

Busch Wildlife Sanctuary's new campus, located in Jupiter Farms at Rocky Pines Road and Indiantown Road, just west of I-95 (20 minutes from Jupiter Bay) provides a sanctuary for 200+ animals.  The new $15 million Sanctuary is over 19 acres of nature trails and boardwalks.

The sanctuary is free (admission is by donation) and open to the public 7 days a week from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm. Visitors can schedule their arrival around the Sanctuary's many weekly programs:

  • Wildlife Encounters (Mon.-Fri. @ 3PM, Sat. @ 11AM & 2:30PM);
  • Alligator Talks (Mondays @ 4PM);
  • Toddler Storytime (Wednesdays @ 9:30AM)

The Busch Wildlife Sanctuary's wildlife hospital is available to receive injured animals Monday - Sunday from 8AM to 5PM.

Carlin Park Pickleball Courts

$200,000 in Zone 1 Impact Fee reserve funding was allocated for the construction of six pickleball courts at Carlin Park. Construction of the new courts is complete.  The new courts are located just north of the existing tennis courts, closer to Jupiter Bay, and accessible across and alongside the heart trail.

How many courts: 6 courts

Hours: 7 a.m.-7:30 p.m. daily

What you can expect: These courts are outdoor and free to use. The county advises that players limit their time on the courts to 30 minutes when others are waiting to play. The courts have a first-come, first-served player rotation.

Address: 400 Florida A1A, Jupiter. 561-741-2400 or jupiter.fl.us

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum is operated by the Loxahatchee River Historical Society. It has a museum and gift shop and offers tours to the top of the Lighthouse.

Days & Hours:

  • Wednesday-Friday, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Gift Shop open until 5pm
  • Saturday & Sunday, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Gift Shop open until 4pm

Special Events Include:

  • Step Up for the Light
  • Lighthouse Luminary Events
  • Rendevous at the Light
  • Family Adventure Day
  • Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Lighthouse Tours

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum offers climbing tours of the landmark 1860 Jupiter Lighthouse and exhibits in the waterfront History Museum located in the restored WWII Naval housing quarters building.

The Lighthouse is located on a US Coast Guard base. Visitors are permitted access to the Lighthouse and Lighthouse grounds only on a guided registered tour through the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum. The admissions desk is located in the Museum gift shop.

Prices are: $12 for adults, $10 for US Veterans & Seniors 60+, $6 for children ages 6-18, and free admission for children 5 & under. Admission includes Museum exhibits and Lighthouse Tour. Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult and must be a minimum of 48" tall to climb the Lighthouse. Please allow 2 hours to visit the site and trail.

Jupiter Marine Life Center

The Loggerhead Marinelife Center, located at 14200 US Highway 1 in Juno Beach, is one of Florida's most visited nonprofit scientific destinations focused on ocean and sea turtle conservation.

The Center’s conservation team serves as a regional and worldwide agent of ocean conservation. LMC’s Project SHIELD works to develop and implement multifaceted comprehensive conservation solutions to man-made threats facing sea turtles.

For over three decades, LMC has been committed to the rehabilitation of sick and injured sea turtles. LMC’s advanced hospital, founded by The Gordon & Patricia Gray Family, is one of the leading facilities in the state and a prime resource for sea turtle rehabilitation. It features a surgical suite, upgraded x-ray room, blood work lab, endoscope, and ultrasound – allowing numerous sea turtles to be examined and treated at LMC.

Loggerhead Marinelife Center is undergoing improvements and a Capital Expansion at this time. During this construction phase, our work rescuing and rehabilitating sea turtles will continue, and the animals in our hospital will continue to receive the highest quality care available. Notice: Our Outdoor Sea Turtle Hospital will be closed to guests Monday – Friday from 10:45am – 11:15am and 12:15pm – 12:45pm until August 9th to accommodate visiting field trips.

Seabreeze Amphitheater


Seabreeze Amphitheater is a medium-sized entertainment facility located in Carlin Park, and hosting up to 2,000 patrons for theater, concerts, tribute bands, and community fundraisers.

Amenities include a covered 36’ x 35’ stage, three dressing rooms, prop/costume storage, green room, rigging for sound and lighting, and access to power for production requirements.

Seabreeze Amphitheater is the home to the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival, now in its 24th stellar season of bringing high quality theater entertainment to the community. Thousands of County residents have enjoyed the opportunity to see live theater in park setting which is made possible through a partnership between Palm Beach County and the Shakespeare Festival.

Seafood Festival - Coming to Carlin Park on Saturday & Sunday, February 17 & 18, 2024.

Doors Tribute - Carlin Park After Dark presents Doors Alive. Free concert Saturday, April 13, 2024, 7pm - 9pm.

Other regular Seabreeze entertainment events include the annual Safe Harbor Celebrity Dog Wash, CBS Radio and Guanabanas Restaurant.

The Square

The Square, located in downtown West Palm Beach, is the center for dining, shopping and entertainment.

Restaurants include Adrienne's Pizzabar, Angie's Epicurean, Barrio, BurgerFi, Cheesecake Factory, City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill, City Pizza, El Camino, Felice, Galley, Harry's, El Bellagio, Le Macaron, Planta, Pura Vida, RH Rooftop Restaurant, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Saito's Japanese Steakhouse, Sur La Table, Sweetgreen, Tacombi, The Regional Kitchen & Public House, The Salty, and The Food Kitchen.

Fountain Shows on the Plaza.

Enjoy the eco-friendly show fountain on the Plaza, sure to dazzle you with a choreographed performance to music every half-hour, daily. Also, The Square hosts live music on weekends.