Omni Fort Lauderdale has opened Barchetta, a coastal Italian chophouse situated on the waterfront plaza adjacent to the hotel and the Broward County Convention Center at 1880 SE 17th St. The restaurant overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway and adds a seventh food-and-beverage outlet to the property, which debuted last December.
The Menu
Executive Chef David Caceres leads a kitchen built around imported Italian ingredients filtered through a South Florida lens. The menu centers on handmade pastas, premium seafood, and prime steaks — including a Bistecca Fiorentina T-bone for two, a Frutti di Mare featuring Florida black grouper and Kaluga caviar, and a Bucatini Cacio e Pepe finished with black truffle. "This is the kind of food I love — great ingredients, bold flavors and dishes with a lot of character," Caceres said. "We've created a menu that celebrates all of those things, and I'm incredibly proud of what our team is bringing to the Fort Lauderdale culinary scene."
For hotel operators, the positioning is instructive: Barchetta's menu fuses recognizable Italian classics with locally sourced and regional ingredients, a strategy that has proven effective for hotel restaurant programming targeting both convention business and destination diners.
The Bar Program
Barchetta's cocktail program leans into aperitivo culture with a Florida accent. The Pomodoro Negroni swaps standard gin for a tomato-basil-washed version alongside Campari and sweet vermouth. A collaboration with Miami-based Tropical Distillery — whose J.F. Haden's Lychee Liqueur is produced by Florida natives and former NFL players Mike and Maurkice Pouncey — yields the Day Drift, a Prosecco-lemon-St-Germain build featuring the local liqueur. J.F. Haden's products also appear across the broader Omni Hotels & Resorts property, demonstrating how regional spirits partnerships can create a coherent, location-specific beverage identity throughout a full-service hotel. The list rounds out with spritzes, Italian wines, and classic pours.
This kind of hyper-local spirits sourcing aligns with a broader shift in hotel beverage programming, where operators increasingly differentiate their bars through regional producer relationships rather than relying solely on national brands.
What It Means for the Market
Barchetta's opening brings approximately 52 jobs to the Broward County hospitality corridor and signals continued investment in Fort Lauderdale's waterfront tourism district. Gayla Guyse, General Manager of Omni Fort Lauderdale, framed the opening as part of a longer community-integration strategy. "Barchetta is an important part of that vision," Guyse said. "It gives our local community, convention attendees and visitors a new reason to experience the waterfront."
The restaurant seats guests Tuesday through Sunday, with dinner service from 5 to 11 p.m. and extended midnight hours on Friday and Saturday. The kitchen closes at 10 p.m. nightly. Reservations are available through OpenTable. Barchetta joins Reef 76 Kitchen + Bar, Fair Ketch, Ibis Sky Lounge, Hidden Key, Tide Coastal Kitchen, and Leeward Market as part of the Omni Fort Lauderdale dining portfolio — a scale of F&B programming that positions the property as a dining destination independent of overnight stays.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
