Fort Lauderdale opens up ‘The Fort’ with 42 pickleball courts and a unique restaurant to eat after playing

Attention residents of Broward County Your largest city may be on the verge of changing its name Fort Lauderdale could soon be called Fort Pickleball A huge complex dedicated to the sport is up and running with tons of courts and a very cool place to chow down Pickleball fans welcome to your new home The Fort is opening inside Snyder Park and it s calling your name Troy Boynton It s courts covered The world s first pickleball stadium The world s first pickleball stadium that s impressive But courts That s a lot of pickles Don t get the wrong idea Business is booming Troy Boynton Believe it or not if you look around right now every court s being utilized on an evening like tonight Monday through Friday our evenings are packed not a court s open especially Saturday and Sunday mornings are just as packed It doesn t matter where your challenge is There s so much going on you ll find your place here Troy Boynton Yeah we have a little bit of everything for everyone We have free entry to pickleball classes for people who have never played before We hire a pro and they train them to learn how to play The more you play the tougher the competition gets Troy Boynton We have everything from open plays to skilled reserved plays for all types of levels We have different leagues for men s women s or mixed You ll definitely get a good workout on the court You ll also get the chance to expand your circle of friends Troy Boynton You can play with four different people and rotate in and out You could ve played with ten to fourteen people throughout the night and just connecting with them talking with them on and off the court Maybe you and your new pals will be ready to kick back after a hard night of pickleball at The Fort That s where the Florida Room comes in Jeff McGinnis We re open right here on The Fort it s an amazing pickleball complex The place is run by the husband and wife chef group of Janine Booth and Jeff McGinnis They re veterans of the so-flo food scene Jeff McGinnis The cuisine is a lot of food we ve picked kind of a lot of our favorites from a lot of our other restaurants We kinda brought everything in this is the fun one right The kitchen turns out plenty of plate-filling possibilities Jeff McGinnis So we ve got everything from pizza to fried chicken to ribs so you can get the casual stuff but then we have specific really high-end stuff like short ribs The chefs jumped at the chance to do business at The Fort Janine Booth I really think that this pickleball complex is such a fun welcoming milieu There are people that have made specific new friends they re moving and then they come in here to the Florida Room have a beautiful dinner We ll ask the question we know is on your mind Do they serve pickles at the Florida Room You re going to like the answer Janine Booth We have a ton of pickles The pickleball vibe into the restaurant it touches it s really all about the Florida Room vibe It s really a beautiful place for everybody to enjoy