Pompano Beach Magazine, September 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021

n w o d e k a h S f e Ch

A CULINARY COMPETITION

DINING GUIDE

Local Restaurant Listings

CITY BEAT

Neighborhood News

CREATIVELY COOKING A Super Easy September Supper

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A natural lifestyle focused on wellness.

At Solemar, we are working with Delos to create a state-of-the-art living environment that is dedicated to the wellness of our residents, set in a beachfront oasis.

Currently selling two & three bedroom residences starting from $1.5 Million.

Call (754) 812 3305 or visit SolemarBeach.com 1116 North Ocean Blvd, Pompano Beach, FL 33062

ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, MAKE REFERENCE TO THIS BROCHURE AND THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. Solemar is developed by PRH 1116 North Ocean, LLC (“Developer”) and this offering is made only by the Developer’s Prospectus for the Condominium. The Developer is not incorporated in, located in, nor a resident of, New York. This is not intended to be an offer to sell, or solicitation of an offer to buy, condominium units in New York or to residents of New York, or in any other jurisdiction where prohibited by law unless the condominium is registered in such jurisdictions or exempt. No statement should be relied upon if not made in the Developer’s Prospectus.

Architectural design elements may vary from concept to actual construction. All depictions are conceptual. Developer, pursuant to a license agreement has a right to use the trade names, marks, and logos of The Related Group. Consult the Prospectus for all terms, conditions, specifications, and Unit dimensions. Reproduction for private or commercial use is not authorized.

2021 ® PRH 1116 North Ocean LLC, unless otherwise noted, with all rights reserved.

4420 NE 31st Avenue, Lighthouse Point | $2.9M | 4 Bed | 3.5 Bath | WF: 112' Direct Intracoastal

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contents Pompano!

VOLUME 7 NUMBER 9

The Pompano Fishing Village

Pompano!

September 2021

30

40

Bots filing bogus applications in bulk, teams of fraudsters in foreign countries making phony claims, online forums peddling how-to advice on identity theft: Inside the infrastructure of perhaps the largest fraud wave in history.

At the heart of the story behind 50 years of the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort is a family business started by a Polish immigrant Holocaust survivor who partnered with one of America’s most iconic brands. The hotel has been at the center of tourism in the city for five decades with the Chase family still at the helm.

How Unemployment Insurance Fraud Exploded During the Pandemic

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50 Years of Chase Family Hospitality at the Wyndham

DRS. JARED & CATHERINE YOUNG

THIS MONTH AT POMPANO BEACH’S PEDIATRIC & ADULT DENTAL SPECIALISTS

WELCOME Dr. Alisa Kleiman and all of our new team members!

1930 NE 34th Court, Lighthouse Point www.BrightYoungSmiles.com

954•781•1855

We are now offering Skin Rejuvenation at Glowing Young,

located within our practice. Book your consultation today!

departments “From Bottoms to Repower, WE DO IT ALL!”

• Full Service On-Water Facility • Dockside Service & Repair • Fuel & Dockage • Parts • 50-Ton Marine Travelift • Sales/Brokerage • We Buy Boats

10

Creatively Speaking

12

Pompano Picks

14

City Beat

22

Creatively Cooking

26

Personal Development

28

It Dawned on Me

46

Dining Out

56

Last Resort

Susan Rosser wanted to write about bread but then this happened.

Happenings around town.

Marie Puleo keeps you up to date on all the news in Pompano Beach.

An easy-peasy weeknight dinner — sheet-pan sausage and apples with potatoes and onions too.

Small changes can have big effects.

Dawne’s thoughts on do-it-yourself projects.

When you can’t decide where or what to eat, consult our comprehensive dining guide for ideas.

Head west to Santa Fe and experience La Fonda on the Plaza.

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• Coastal News (email)

MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW WITH US • Insider Excursions, media travel

content submissions

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Please include the name and location of the event, the names of those pictured and a brief description.

954 - 567- BOAT

800 S. Federal Hwy., Pompano Beach www.completeboat.com 6 pointpubs.com •

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e-newsletter & social media

Coastal News is Point! Publishing’s complimentary semi-monthly e-newsletter. You can join the mailing list visiting pointpubs.com/newsletter. Like us on Facebook to receive hyper-local news on your feed.

Serving Our Community for Over 40 Years

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SEPTEMBER 2021 • pointpubs.com

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Pompano! is published monthly by Point! Publishing and

mailed free of charge to select residents and businesses in Pompano Beach and Hillsboro Mile. Copies of Pompano! are available at Whole Foods Market, UPS, Offerdahl’s Café and at the Pompano Beach Chamber of Commerce.

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Drop us a line and let us know what you’re thinking.

Pompano! magazine is all about community. Your ideas and comments are important to us. All letters to the editor may be edited for grammar and length. Send letters to: Editor, Pompano! magazine, 2436 N. Federal Hwy., #311 Lighthouse Point, FL 33064 or email editor@pointpubs.com.

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Lighthouse Point Publishing, LLC. Copyright 2021 by Lighthouse Point reproduced without the prior written consent of Lighthouse Point Publishing, LLC. Requests for permission should be directed to: editor@pointpubs.com.

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9

Creatively Speaking

Your Shot

BY SUSAN ROSSER This is my essay where I try to save humanity — or at least my neighborhood.

I often refrain from using this column as a public megaphone for my personal opinions, but when people are dying unnecessarily because they refuse a life-saving vaccine, well, that level of urgency justifies an exception.

Everyone eligible should be vaccinated against Covid-19.

And I must say, the reluctance of so many to get the Covid-19 vaccine has caught me by surprise. For the most part, I think people are naturally community-minded.

Getting along is in our DNA. So why are so many so opposed to these vaccines? Vaccines have now been around for centuries and because no vaccine is 100% effective, we must rely on one another to reach herd immunity — when the population is indirectly protected from an infectious disease because enough people are immune through vaccination or previous infection.

Herd immunity also protects those who cannot be vaccinated and those who don't mount a sufficient response to the vaccine. As of this writing, that group includes children under 12. Additionally, herd immunity stops the virus in its tracks, preventing it from mutating into something more contagious, more lethal or both.

I would guess that most people reading this have received the Covid vaccine. And I would also imagine

ABOVE Susan Rosser receiving her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Boca Raton Regional Hospital on Jan. 13, 2021.

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that anyone not vaccinated is asking themselves, "Why would I listen to some local magazine lady?"

To those people, I would say, don't listen to me. Schedule a visit with your doctor or seek advice from a health professional.

I am not a medical doctor or elected official, but I am reasonably confident the Delta variant is more contagious and disruptive. And now I hear of the Lambda variant.

Vaccinated or not, everyone in the world will continue to be at risk as long as the virus is spreading and mutating.

Everyone.

Today is August 15, 2021. And as I write this, Florida is in the midst of a Covid surge. And I am enraged. I can barely concentrate. I can't focus long enough to read a book. I can barely make it through a movie. After 18 months of this, I am drained.

My heart breaks for every new Covid fatality. These people did not have to die. Living with grief is painful and, at times, unbearable. Add to that a hefty dose of regret for remaining unvaccinated, and I don't know how a person copes after such a devastating loss.

Maybe the unvaccinated should be required to stay home, have their groceries and restaurant meals delivered.

Perhaps they should be forced to miss weddings and graduations and funerals? Maybe the unvaccinated should pay more for health and life insurance?

Or they can get vaccinated.

The very nature of this problem requires us to think not only of ourselves but of everyone around us. The decision to drive while drunk could be considered a personal choice. But getting behind the wheel while intoxicated endangers all motorists and pedestrians so society took that individual freedom away.

Walking around the supermarket unvaccinated endangers everyone in the supermarket. It's that simple.

The virus is viral, and the solution will take a village.

We all have a role to play. Y

To find a vaccination site near you, visit floridahealthcovid19.gov and click on the vaccine locator.

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Pompano Picks Happening around town

The Annual Greater Pompano Beach Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 8, 7am registration, 8am shotgun start WHERE: Pompano Municipal Golf Course followed by an

awards luncheon at Galuppi’s, 1103 N. Federal Highway, Pompano Beach COST: $150/per player, $600/foursome, $40 awards lunch only The day starts at 7am with a “Power Up” breakfast, and then a shotgun start at 8am. And beyond golf, players will enjoy raffles, goodie bags, mulligans and much more!

The sixth hole at the Palms course in Pompano Beach

Chef Shakedown WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 2, 6pm WHERE: Lighthouse Point Yacht Club,

2701 NE 42nd St., Lighthouse Point COST: $150/per person This culinary events pits chef against chef in categories ranging from tacos to burgers to barbecue and more. As of press time, Oceanic, Sicilian Oven, Kapow Noodle Bar and Papa’s Raw bar are among the competitors. Guests vote on their favorites from each category. And all seven winners from the last Chef Shakedown are returning to defend their titles. The event benefits Broward Children’s Center.

Pompano Picks contains information originating from other organizations. While every attempt is made to ensure all information is accurate, schedules do change. We recommend confirming events prior to setting out on your adventure.

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City Beat

BY MARIE PULEO

Mixed-Use Development Planned for Old Club Cinema Site Is Moving Forward Plans are moving forward to redevelop a 6.2-acre site along North Federal Highway in Pompano Beach, just south of Shoppers Haven and the RaceTrac gas station on NE 33rd Street.

Encore Capital Management is proposing to build Sentosa, a mixeduse project consisting of 285 rental apartments and 4,164 square feet of commercial space. The site, located at 3151-3251 N. Federal Highway, was once occupied by Club Cinema and a strip shopping center.

The property is under contract for purchase by Encore Capital Management, which is headquartered in Boca Raton. Last year, the current property owner, 1307 South Wabash, LLC, demolished all the structures on the site, including the former Club Cinema building.

According to plans submitted to the City, the project would consist of two 6-story buildings adjacent to Federal Highway, each with 51 residential units. Each of the buildings would also have two 1,041-square-foot ground-floor commercial spaces fronting the highway.

To make the buildings “less obtrusive,” they would face northsouth, so that only the ends of the buildings would be parallel to Federal Highway, and not the full length of the buildings, explained Joe DiCristina, president of Encore’s multi-family division, at a community meeting held in February.

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of 175 spaces. A 3-4 story parking garage with 284 spaces is proposed at the southwest corner of the property. In addition, seven spaces inside a detached garage at the southeast corner of the site, fronting Federal Highway, would be offered to residential tenants as an add-on rental item.

The residential units would range from studios to three-bedroom units.

The plan is for all of the residential units to be rented at market rate, according to the developer.

Encore is a long-term owner of the multi-family properties it develops,

A third building with 183 residential units would be adjacent to the Cresthaven neighborhood, which lies west of the project site.

This U-shaped building would have seven stories, but the “ends” of the “U,” which would be closest to the neighborhood, would be four stories high. Amenities for the development would be located in this building, including a clubhouse, full-service gym, game room, co-work space and an outdoor pool area.

There would be a primary access point on Federal Highway into and out of the development, and a

secondary access point on NE 33rd Street at the northwest corner of the site behind the existing RaceTrac gas station. There would be no access point on the west side of the site.

As per the plans, a call box with a gate would be installed on the access drive adjacent to Federal Highway for residents and guests. The secondary access point would be controlled with a gate and key fob system to only allow residents to use that access.

The project would include several surface parking areas with a total

ABOVE Rendering of Sentosa, a mixeduse project with rental apartments and commercial space.

as opposed to a developer that constructs a project and then sells it shortly after, said DiCristina.

The project site is currently zoned as a business district, but the City’s zoning code allows multi-family development on the property with the allocation of “flexibility units.”

The developer has applied to the City for the flexibility units, which will need to be approved by the City Commission. The project is also going through a site plan review process. Y

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City Beat

BY MARIE PULEO

Highland Oaks Townhomes No Longer Planned as Income-Restricted Housing Highland Oaks, the townhome project planned for a 10.75-acre site just east of Blanche Ely High School, will no longer be built as rental housing for income-restricted individuals and families. Now under a new developer — Sankofa Group, LLC — the townhomes will be a for-sale product for the entry-level market.

The townhomes will be “the first new substantial for-sale product within the Blanche Ely community,” the developer stated in documents submitted to the City for a revised site plan and building design.

Sankofa acquired the Highland Oaks project site, located at 921 NW Third Ave, from Pompano Beach Living, LLC in May 2021.

The Highland Oaks development consists of 21 buildings with a total of 138 townhomes, a multipurpose court and tot lot.

Sankofa is an organization

“dedicated to developing housing that addresses core needs in local communities, with a particular emphasis on breaking concentrations of poverty.”

Under the previous developers — Coral Rock Development Group and the Paragon Group of Florida, both based in Coral Gables — the Broward County Commission had approved $5 million in financing for the project from Broward County’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Financing also included tax-exempt bonds in an amount not to exceed $21 million that were to be issued by the Broward County Housing Finance Authority (HFA) and were eligible for a 4% low-income housing tax credit.

The Highland Oaks townhomes were to be for renters with incomes

ABOVE Rendering of Highland Oaks Townhomes

at or below 60% of the area median gross income for Broward County.

City officials had expressed concern that the income-restricted version of Highland Oaks would have been adjacent to another income-restricted project, called Sonata, which would have created “a concentration of poverty.”

The City is in the process of developing policies and regulations that would encourage mixedincome housing and mixed-income neighborhoods. Y

Atlantic Boulevard & Dixie Highway Intersection: New Traffic Pattern to Start Soon In preparation for the new traffic patterns that will start soon as a result of the upcoming Atlantic Boulevard and Dixie Highway intersection makeover project, plastic delineator posts to establish the new travel lanes are expected to be installed this month.

Striping will also be added, if necessary, and an adjustment to the timing of traffic signals is planned.

This “pilot program” will be in place for approximately three months to get motorists accustomed to the new traffic patterns.

The project to revamp the intersection will add amenities such

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as wider sidewalks and medians, shared-use paths, safer crosswalks and new landscaping. The project is part of the City’s plan to create a new pedestrian-friendly urban downtown, which includes the future Innovation District.

Actual construction of the project — which the City has branded a “Progress in Pompano! Project” — is expected to start sometime between November 2021 and March 2022 and will last approximately one year, according to Horacio Danovich, the city’s G.O. Bond and Innovation District director.

The cost of the intersection

project is still being finalized, but the current estimate is roughly $23 million, according to Danovich.

Money for the project will come from Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) transfer funds, the Broward County Penny for Transportation Surtax fund, the Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the city’s G.O. Bond. The makeover of the intersection is part of the G.O Bond project to upgrade the Dixie Highway corridor from McNab Road to Sample Road, which has an estimated overall cost of about $58 million. Y

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17

City Beat

BY MARIE PULEO

Hidden Harbour Project Scales Back Slightly The developer of Harborside at Hidden Harbour, a mixed-use project approved in 2020 for a site along North Federal Highway in Pompano Beach, is seeking approval from the City to modestly scale back its plans.

The proposed change is to reduce the building heights and the number of residential units.

The project site is located east of Federal Highway, north of NE 14th Street Causeway and south of NE 16th Street, with NE 23rd Avenue running north-to-south through the middle. The owner and developer of the site is Aqua Marine Partners, which, until March 2020, also owned the adjacent Hidden Harbour marine facility.

In the revised development plan, the proposed mixed-use building along Federal Highway would be reduced from nine stories to eight stories. The maximum height of the proposed mixed-use building along NE 16th Street would be reduced from nine stories to eight stories, retaining the height transition down to three stories at the east end,

which is adjacent to an existing twostory condo building. In addition to the reduced building heights, the number of residential units would be reduced from 300 to 271 units.

The developer has submitted an application to the City for a major site plan and building design review and approval for the amendments.

All of the remaining elements provided in the 2020 design are retained in the new design, including publicly accessible promenades along the waterway on NE 23rd Avenue and NE 16th Street. The marina’s existing dry boat storage building will remain, as well as boat slips for use by customers of the marina.

The building fronting Federal

ABOVE Rendering of Harborside At Hidden Harbour

Highway will include a ground-floor restaurant and bar with indoor and outdoor seating and a view down the Caliban Canal, as well as a marine retail space and showroom. At the south end of the building, there would be a nine-story parking garage with 574 spaces. There would also be valet parking on NE 16th Street.

In July 2020 the Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved the site plan for the project, which was one of the last steps of an approval process that took several years, starting with a land use change, and then rezoning the property, while creating controversy among residents in the neighborhood over traffic and density concerns. Y

Hilton Rooftop Bar in Pompano Beach Fishing Village is Now Open The Pier 6 Rooftop bar and lounge at the Hilton hotel in the Pompano Beach Fishing Village is now open, offering direct views on the ocean. Opening hours are 5pm10pm every day. Drink specials are from 5pm-7pm every day, with frozen drinks at $7 and bottled beer at $6. On Wednesdays only, from 5pm-7pm, bottles of wine are half-price. The rooftop bar will have a menu with appetizers and finger foods.

The hotel began renting rooms on June 30 and is now fully operational. Y

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FIRST F R I DAY OF THE MONTH

BAC K IN PERSON F RO M O C TO B E R 1

6 - 10 P M

Join us for a celebration of Old Town Untapped with a DJ, Local Arts & Craft Vendors, BaCA Studio & Gallery Openings, Local Musicians, Food Trucks & Craft Beer.

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SEPTEMBER 2021 • pointpubs.com

19

City Beat

BY MARIE PULEO

Plans for A1A Luxury Condominium Tower Are Making Progress

The Planning and Zoning Board approved in July the site plan and rezoning for a 21-story luxury condominium planned for a 1.9acre site at 900 N. Ocean Blvd. in Pompano Beach. The proposed development would feature 119 residential units ranging from one

to four bedrooms, and 2,500 square feet of neighborhood retail space on the ground floor.

The Miami-based developer behind the project is The Related Group, the same developer that is building Solemar, a luxury condominium at 1116 N. Ocean

ABOVE Rendering of 900 N. Ocean Blvd.

Boulevard in Pompano Beach that had its groundbreaking earlier this year. The architect, Arquitectonica, is also the same. Two- and threebedroom residences at Solemar start at $1.8 million.

The oceanfront condominium at 900 N. Ocean Blvd. would have a two-story parking podium with a pool deck on top, located on the west side of the building, fronting A1A. There would also be a sculpture garden, pedestrian plaza and walkway that extends down to the beach.

A number of residents from Sea Pointe condominium, located at 812 N. Ocean Blvd., attended the Planning and Zoning Board meeting and expressed their concern about the proposed condominium blocking their view.

The rezoning of the project site is expected to go to the City Commission for approval in September.

Construction Progress at the Amphitheater Installation of a new tensile membrane roof canopy over the Pompano Beach Amphitheater’s seating area is nearing completion. About 50,000 square feet of fabric will be used, which includes rain flaps. The project has an approved budget of $3.5 million, which will come from Pompano’s G.O. Bond.

Jeff Graves for Pompano! magazine

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Creatively Cooking

Sheet-Pan Sausage with Apples

BY MRS. KOSSENFLOFFER

September is all about apples. From apple pies, galettes, cakes and cobblers, I can’t get enough apple desserts. But why stop at dessert?

In this easy weeknight dinner, the apples get a touch caramelized as they roast, providing a lovely contrast in flavor and texture to just about any kind of sausage you like. >>>

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S.E. CUSTOM

Creatively Cooking <<<

Sheet-Pan Sausage with Apples Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

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PREPARATION Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Brush a little olive oil onto a sheet-pan and place the pan in the oven to preheat. While the pan is heating, cut the potatoes. Remove the pan from the oven and place the potatoes cut side down on the sheet-pan — season with kosher salt. Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until they are crispy golden brown.

Flip the potatoes over and place the apples and onions on the sheet-pan. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and toss using a spatula to coat the apples and onions. Season with a little more salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Nestle the sausages onto the sheet-pan and roast until the sausage is cooked through, about 25-30 minutes. About 5 minutes before the sausage is done, remove from the oven and sprinkle the rosemary on top of everything.

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Personal Development

The Compound Effect SMALL CHANGES CAN LEAD TO BIG RESULTS

BY CRAIG HALEY THERE IS A STORY ABOUT A MAN RIDING A HORSE, GALLOPING QUICKLY. IT APPEARS THAT HE IS GOING SOMEWHERE VERY IMPORTANT. A MAN STANDING ALONG THE ROADSIDE shouts, “Where are you going?” The rider replies, “I don’t know. Ask the horse!”

Sadly, this is the story of most people’s lives. They’re riding the horse of their habits, with no idea where they are headed.

It's time to take control of the reins and move your life in the direction of where you want to go.

Most of us can list everything we want in life, money in the bank, dream jobs, good health, etc. The challenge is our current habits and daily routines may be sabotaging our results.

Most of us think to achieve what we want, we need to make considerable shifts to our daily routine. Taking those quantum leaps can seem daunting, and because they seem so overwhelming, we don't do anything.

The Compound Effect is all about making small, seemingly inconsequential changes to a daily routine, which compounded over time can lead to huge changes.

A good example is a flight that from Los Angeles to New York City. If the plane's nose is pointed only one percent off course, it

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will ultimately end up 150 miles off course, arriving either upstate New York or Delaware.

One percent seems so small, and yet the result is enormous.

Your life is the same way. Deciding to make small changes to your habits and routines can lead to improvements over time.

The first thing we must think about is what we want. Paul J. Meyer says, "If you are not making the progress that you would like to make or are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined."

What are your goals? What specifically do you want in life? How much money do you want to earn? How much do you want to weigh? How much do you want to save? Do you want a promotion?

The Compound Effect is powerful, just like compound interest.

Small changes could be as simple as switching out soda for sparkling water. The average soda has 150 calories. If you drank two cans per day, you would save 109,500 calories in a year.

Most of us think that change will be painful. I heard the story of a woman who was 30 pounds overweight and wanted to run a half-marathon because her friend was doing it. She had her high school reunion coming up and wanted to look great in front of her old classmates.

Running 100 yards was daunting to her let alone 13.1 miles. Her coach suggested starting small and building up over time, just like the compound effect suggests.

She started to walk/run a half-mile and did that for a few weeks.

Once that was easier, she gradually increased her distance and reduced the walk time in her runs.

Ten months later, she was able to run the half-marathon, and she lost the 30 pounds she wanted to lose!

Success is not for other people. It is for you. All you need to do is start making small changes, let them compound over time and watch the magic happen. Y Master Shihan Craig Haley is the Seventh Degree Black Belt instructor at Elite Force Martial Arts, eliteforcemartialarts.com.

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It Dawned on Me

[Don’t] Do It Yourself

BY DAWNE RICHARDS

I’M A BIG FAN OF DO-IT-YOURSELF PROJECTS. MY PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE ARE LITTERED WITH THINGS I WILL DO MYSELF THAT WILL CHANGE MY LIFE AND MAKE MY HOME A MINIMALIST'S OR MAXIMALIST'S DREAM. This fearless and unfounded faith in my own abilities is bounded in reality — ish. There are two types of projects I don’t attempt myself: anything involving plumbing and/or electricity. I avoid plumbing because (a) I just don't get it on a fundamental level, and (b) the consequences of any mistakes could involve large, expensive floods. I avoid electricity for one main reason: it's eminently possible that I would electrocute myself.

Those exceptions aside, I’m up for tackling just about anything, regardless of my utter lack of experience or knowledge.

When I'm asked (frequently): "Do you… know anything about that?" my general response is "No, but I can learn!

That's what the internet is for!" And, as we know, the internet is full of entirely factual information, posted by verified experts. Wink, wink.

As usual, I digress. Sorry. Not sorry.

My worst idea ever occurred in the 1990s when I saw a cute idea (hahaha!) in a magazine describing how to make your own valance using — wait for it — chamois (yes, like the kind you use to dry your car), grommets, and an awl (or some sort of hole punch; I've blocked out the details). To say that this valance was hideous is a vast understatement. Nevertheless, I'm a woman of my word, and I bravely finished the valance, and — this is the worst part — installed it AND LEFT IT UP FOR SEVERAL YEARS. I'm pretty sure my now-grown daughters are still in therapy.

I've had some great ideas, too, to be sure. But here's what I've learned after decades of painful lessons: I'm way better at theory than I am at execution. It's taken me a long time to realize that it's usually a bargain at twice the price to thoroughly describe my vision to an experienced professional

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Take, for example, the shelves I recently installed. No, scratch that. These are the shelves I bought and paid someone else to install. Sure, this cost money, but you know what didn't happen?

Here's what didn't happen:

I didn’t drop one of the absurdly heavy shelves on my head.

There are not 25 "extraneous" holes in my wall because, even though I used a level, something went horribly wrong between holding the level, marking the spot and drilling the hole.

The shelves are actually level, and all four are even with each other.

If you're like me — where things turn out way better in your head than they do in the real world — do yourself a favor and just pay someone. Lately, of course, this requires an abundance of patience because every contractor in South Florida is busy with, like, six more months of work. That's OK. Eventually, the contractor will show up. Your walls, and your head, will thank you. Y

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3030pointpubs.com pointpubs.com• •POINT! POINT!PUBLISHING PUBLISHING

HOW Unemployment Insurance Fraud Exploded During the Pandemic BOTS FILING BOGUS APPLICATIONS IN BULK, TEAMS OF FRAUDSTERS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES MAKING PHONY CLAIMS, ONLINE FORUMS PEDDLING HOW-TO ADVICE ON IDENTITY THEFT: INSIDE THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF PERHAPS THE LARGEST FRAUD WAVE IN HISTORY.

BY CEZARY PODKUL, ProPublica

SEPTEMBER 2021 • pointpubs.com

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A Bronx man allegedly received $1.5 million in just ten months. A California real estate broker raked in more than $500,000 within half a year. A Nigerian government official is accused of pocketing over $350,000 in less than six weeks.

What they all had in common, according to federal prosecutors, was participation in what may turn out to be the biggest fraud wave in U.S. history: filing bogus claims for unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. (The broker has pleaded guilty, while the Bronx man and Nigerian official have pleaded not guilty.)

Fraudsters have filed in high volumes, sometimes obtaining payments from multiple states, despite the fact that a jobless person is barred from getting assistance in more than one state. One person, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, used a single Social Security number to file unemployment insurance claims in 40 states. Twenty-nine states paid up, sending $222,532.

But the problem extends far beyond a plague of solo scammers. A ProPublica investigation reveals that much of the fraud has been organized — both in the U.S. and abroad. Fraudsters have used bots to file online claims in bulk. And others, located as far away as China and West Africa, have organized low-wage teams to file phony claims.

In addition, the fraud has been enabled by a burgeoning online infrastructure, whose existence has not previously been reported in the mainstream press.

Much of it is geared toward exploiting aging or obsolete state unemployment systems whose weaknesses have drawn warnings for decades. Communities have sprouted on messaging apps such as Telegram, where fraudsters trade tips on how to cash in. Hustlers advertise their techniques — or “sauces” (apparently short for “secret sauce”) — for filing bogus claims, along with state-specific instructions on how to get

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around security checks, according to a ProPublica review of messages on more than 25 such chat forums.

Some of the forums have thousands of participants and regularly offer stolen identities for sale, alongside tech tips, screenshots that ostensibly prove the methods work and advice on which states are easiest to game and which are “lit” — that is, still paying out fake claims. Users have created two Telegram channels in which they trade tips for filing claims in Maryland, whose labor department recently said it detected some 508,000 potentially fraudulent jobless claims between the start of May and mid-June. Participants in those forums have been talking about turning their efforts to Pennsylvania, where officials recently said they have “noticed an uptick” in fraudulent claims.

Telegram did not respond to requests for comment.

But after ProPublica’s inquiry, 10 of the channels we asked about suddenly went dark, marked with this notice: “This channel can’t be displayed because it violated Telegram’s Terms of Service.”

Nobody has yet come close to putting a definitive number on the dollar value of fraud relating to pandemic-era unemployment benefits. But ProPublica performed a data analysis that hints at the massive scope. In state after state, the volume of initial jobless claims has far exceeded the number of estimated job losses. Across the U.S. from March to December 2020, the number of initial claims equated to 68% of the country’s labor force, which stood at around 164 million before the pandemic. In five states — Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Nevada and Rhode Island — the initial claims outnumbered the entire pool of civilian workers. By contrast, about 23% of American workers were out of a job or underemployed at the peak of the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; in the most recent report that figure is just under 10%. (There are innocent explanations for at least some of the disparity: If a person loses a job more than once during a given year, they can legitimately file for benefits more than once during that time.)

The fraud estimates provided by states so far range from high to jaw-dropping. In Vermont, as many as 90% of claims in some months were determined to be fraudulent, state officials said in June. Rhode Island’s labor agency said in March that it suspected fraud in 43% of the claims it had received. The equivalent agency in California has confirmed fraud in about 10% of its payments and said it’s investigating a further 17%.

The numbers have tailed off in Texas, whose agency says it now suspects fraud in about 14% of its claims.

“The system was the victim of what is one of the largest internet crimes in history, perpetrated against all 50 states at extraordinary levels,” said James

Bernsen, a spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission. (Bernsen and officials for other states say the damage could’ve been even worse: They say they’ve been able to stop billions of dollars’ worth of bogus claims before they got paid.)

The U.S. Department of Labor’s inspector general estimates that at least $87 billion in fraudulent and improper payments will have made their way through the system by the time pandemic-linked jobless aid programs expire in September. That estimate is based on a historic assumption that fraud and waste eat up about 10% of unemployment insurance aid. The inspector general acknowledges that figure is likely too conservative in an environment where unemployment insurance fraud has “exploded” to “unprecedented” levels.

Other experts anticipate a dramatically higher tally.

“From my experience, when this is all said and done, we are going to be counting in the hundreds of billions of dollars, not the tens of billions,” said Jon Coss, who heads a unit within Thomson Reuters that is helping states detect fake unemployment insurance claims.

Coss bases that assessment on the widespread fraudulent activity he’s seen. He said one U.S. state,

crime over the past 25 years or so, particularly the use of stolen identities to file fake claims on someone else’s behalf, opened the way to fraud on an epic scale.

The problem was already described as ongoing as early as 1998, when the Labor Department’s inspector general warned about the “continued proliferation of UI fraud schemes.” Four years later, a report by the inspector general said, “We are particularly concerned with identity theft or imposter schemes, which occur when individual identities are stolen and then used to apply for UI benefits.” The report noted that “individuals have the opportunity to defraud multiple states from a single location.”

In 2015, the agency detailed the “systemic weaknesses” that make UI programs vulnerable to fraud. (More on those later.) At least twice during the Obama administration, the Labor Department proposed reforms to Congress to address some of these inadequacies, primarily by boosting information sharing among states and federal agencies. Both times these efforts went nowhere. President Donald Trump included similar reforms in each of his four budget proposals to Congress. They, too, were never enacted.

The system was the victim of what is one of the largest internet crimes in history, perpetrated against all 50 states at extraordinary levels.

— James Bernsen, a spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission.

which he declined to name, received fake claims — all purportedly from state residents — that originated from IP addresses in nearly 170 countries.

They included countries historically linked to fraud, such as China, Nigeria and Russia, as well as more surprising ones, such as Cuba, Eritrea, Fiji and Monaco. Overall, Coss said, between 40% and 50% of the claims his group has analyzed seem highly suspect. He added, “It’s mind-boggling the level of fraud that we’re seeing.”

Defrauding unemployment insurance, or UI, programs, which pay out weekly benefits to workers who’ve lost jobs through no fault of their own, is likely as old as the programs themselves. But the rise of internet-based

Meanwhile, states’ funding for unemployment insurance administration was falling, largely because the economy strengthened and unemployment fell.

At the start of the pandemic, funding for states’ unemployment insurance administration stood at a 30year low, according to the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

The funding squeeze led to some predictable results.

California, which had hired Coss’s firm to help detect fraud, canceled that contract in 2016 to save money.

Budget cuts also trimmed the ranks of the federal Labor Department’s inspector general’s office, which lost 28% of its criminal investigators between 2012 and 2020, according to figures provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

At the same time, online criminals were expanding their targets. Years ago, Agari Data, a cybersecurity firm that helps catch email scams, began tracking SEPTEMBER 2021 • pointpubs.com

33

a Nigerian cybercrime group it dubbed “Scattered Canary.” Agari produced a timeline of the group’s evolution that looks like an ever-branching tree: It grew out of Craigslist scams (2009) into phishing (2015) and then tax return fraud and credit card fraud (2016).

Scattered Canary started targeting unemployment aid, too. “Similar to how the group pivoted from individual victims to business targets during the previous threeyear period,” Agari wrote in a 2019 report, “Scattered Canary again set their sights on a new type of target in 2017 — government agencies.”

A steady procession of large-scale hacks of corporations and governments over the past decade provided the raw material needed to defraud government benefit programs. What scammers call “fullz” — a suite of data ranging from a person’s name and address to their Social Security number, date of birth and more — was increasingly easy to obtain. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which tracks data breaches, tallied 2,229 hacks from 2010 to 2019, according to a database of such incidents. Those hacks exposed nearly 6.9 billion records.

When the pandemic seemed to threaten the foundations of the economy in March 2020, Congress responded quickly, launching the biggest expansion of unemployment insurance since the system was created amid the Great Depression. Lawmakers created three massive programs that workers could tap as states shut down to halt the spread of the deadly virus.

One program provided workers 13 additional weeks of aid once they exhausted their regular unemployment benefits. Another gave laid-off workers an extra $600 per week on top of existing benefits. A third, known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, funded 39 weeks of jobless benefits for workers traditionally excluded from unemployment insurance, such as self-employed “gig economy” contractors.

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As of July 17, 2021, the three programs have collectively paid out about $604 billion, a total projected to reach up to $873 billion by the time the programs expire in September. That’s on top of states’ regular unemployment insurance plans, which paid out another $166 billion in jobless benefits between March 2020 and June 2021. That means total payments to the jobless could add up to about $1 trillion over 18 months.

Augmenting UI payments was not an unusual move for Congress — but the scale and speed were vastly different. For example, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress funded an extra $25 a week on top of regular state unemployment benefits, then averaging around $300 a week. This time, Congress authorized a weekly $600 payment that was automatically added to regular UI payments, which require verification of prior income and employment.

But in its urgency to get cash to people with no work, Congress chose not to require such verification in the PUA program. It requested only self-certification of eligibility and no proof of income or identity. And successful applicants could get the extra $600 weekly payment, too.

With its loose application requirements, PUA instantly drew throngs of scammers. California state authorities have said that 95% of its confirmed fraudulent UI payments originated in PUA claims.

Pennsylvania’s agency estimated that nearly 84% of its PUA claims were phony.

A scroll through the thousands of messages exchanged in Telegram chat forums provides a vivid illustration of what state unemployment agencies have been up against. The forums are easy to find: Simply searching

for the acronym “PUA” can lead any Telegram user to a bunch of them (even after Telegram shut 10 of them in the wake of our questions). They have proliferated since the start of the pandemic, providing bustling marketplaces for criminals looking to obtain stolen IDs, methods for filing fake jobless claims or other advice.

The most common products sold on the forums — statespecific sauces for filing claims — are hawked with daily frequency.

A Telegram user who posts under the handle “VerifiedFraud” recently offered his 1,300 chat room participants a new sauce for Pennsylvania’s system that he said would pay $700 a week. (VerifiedFraud also posted an earnest “new month prayer” on July 1, asking God to help his customers: “My prayer is all your sleepless night & day coming to this forum working & praying to God shall come through and Success will locate u.”)

Pennsylvania said it’s unable to speak to the validity of the guide. When ProPublica asked about the guide, VerifiedFraud responded with two emojis. Fifteen minutes later, he posted a message in his channel that seemed to rationalize fraud: “Virtually all these wealthy entrepreneurs you see around 90% of them started with something illegal to make enough money to run their business.”

The guides available on Telegram include lengthy step-by-step directions and screenshots detailing where to input stolen information. They offer advice on how to avoid triggering anti-fraud software, such as not to fill out part of the application on one device or from one IP address, then switch to another. One guide for filing claims in New York state warns users, “Don’t Copy and Paste in the text box. Type in the details while filling the text boxes. A script monitors activities like Copy&Paste to raise red flags.”

When such guides outlive their usefulness, new ones quickly pop up. “New CALI SAUCE WAVE,” read one of several messages posted in late June alongside a screenshot of what purported to be a successful unemployment aid application for California. The ad, offered by someone who calls himself the “King of Cali,” touted a video guide and a PDF walk-through.

California’s Employment Development Department declined to comment.

Many of the pitches are blunt. One ad features the 2021 edition of a “Fraud Bible” for sale alongside 19 other sauces, including a guide for obtaining loans under the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, another frequent fraud target. The PPP loan program ended on May 31, underscoring the risk that the people selling the Fraud Bible may not be on the up and up. (When ProPublica requested comment, the seller or sellers of the

Fraud Bible responded with variations of “fuck you.” The “King of Cali” responded by asking, “Are you ready to pay?

I’ll give you everything you need.” Hours later, his profile was deleted and replaced with a warning: “Many users reported this account as a scam or a fake account. Please be careful, especially if it asks you for money.”)

Concerns about fraud are rampant inside the forums — but only insofar as the users fear they could become victims of it rather than perpetrators, say, by paying for a fraud strategy that no longer works. One Telegram forum called “$CAM C3NT£R” promises a “trusted” escrow service that clears sales of sauces, stolen identities and other services to make sure participants don’t rip each other off while preparing to rip the government off. (The administrator of $CAM C3NT£R told ProPublica he’s just trying to stop fraud inside his channel: “lot of fake people around and I’m doing escrow to protect my people.”)

To convey the success of their methods, sellers frequently post photos of wads of cash or screenshots of unemployment payments seemingly landing in their bank accounts or mobile payment apps. One user who recently advertised a Michigan sauce elegantly arranged $20 bills in the shape of the words “tap in” to encourage users to pay $200 via Bitcoin for his method, along with a screenshot of Michigan’s jobless aid website and the claim that “Michigan still hittin and is payin good money.” (A spokesperson for Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency said the state is having success stopping fraudulent payments before they’re made and that “these type of messages amount to false advertising in order to elicit money from those who would steal identities.”)

Social Security numbers, names and dates of birth are frequently exposed in the forums by sellers wishing to give buyers a taste of what they’ve got.

Sometimes users post links to files of data purportedly stolen via corporate hacks.

In another dark web forum

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which tracks data breaches, tallied 2,229 hacks from 2010 to 2019, according to a database of such incidents.

Those hacks exposed nearly 6.9 billion records.

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called White House Market, some participants offer to create identity profiles tailored to specific states where buyers want to file jobless claims. “No guarantee in success, but all pros would be made just for you,” read one such ad. The asking price was $70 per profile.

Such forums have attracted users from around the world, but user messages suggest that one country in particular appears to provide a significant set of followers: Nigeria.

That’s where Abidemi Rufai was bound on the evening of May 14 when he was getting ready to board the first-class cabin of a flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport after visiting his brother in New York. Instead, he was arrested by FBI agents and charged with stealing more than $350,000 in unemployment benefits from Washington state.

Details of that indictment shed light on how federal prosecutors believe such schemes are carried out, and the sheer variety of participants they have attracted: Rufai serves as a senior special assistant to the governor of a Nigerian state.

He allegedly used stolen identities to file fake unemployment benefits in 11 states, including over 100 applications in Washington, where state auditors have tallied a total of $1.1 billion in possible imposter fraud from nearly 250,000 potentially bogus claims.

Prosecutors say Rufai filed his claims using variations on the same email, sandytangy58@ gmail.com, which he modified by inserting periods in different places, like san.dyta.ngy58@gmail.com or sa.ndyt.a.ngy58@gmail.com. Servers for state unemployment agencies treat those as different email addresses, but Google disregards periods when routing messages to a gmail account. That allowed Rufai and his co-conspirators the convenience of filing in multiple states while handling all of their correspondence from one email account. It’s a popular strategy: Another Nigerian national allegedly used it to claim more than $489,000 of unemployment payouts from 15 states,

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according to an affidavit filed in a similar case.

When completing unemployment benefit applications, Rufai and his co-conspirators directed states to pay benefits into Green Dot online banking accounts, one of several fintech platforms favored by criminals for their ability to quickly link debit cards with checking accounts that can be used to receive government benefit payments. In other cases, they directed payments into bank accounts controlled by “money mules,” people who would receive funds and then transfer them to Rufai and his co-conspirators in exchange for a fee. (Green Dot Chief Risk Officer Philip Lerma said the company has been working with state agencies to combat fraudulent activity. “This is an ongoing process of learning and refinement across the industry,” he said in a statement.)

Prosecutors said Rufai’s email account contained a “staggering” amount of stolen information, including passwords to people’s email accounts, security questions and answers, driver’s license numbers, and bank account and routing numbers, as well as more than 1,000 stolen tax returns.

Rufai had also used his gmail account to submit claims for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief in 2017, according to prosecutors, followed by fraudulent submissions to the Small Business Administration and the Internal Revenue Service. After Rufai was charged, investigators at the IRS disclosed they had been investigating the sandytangy58@gmail. com account for several years. They told prosecutors that the agency had received 652 applications for fraudulent tax refunds from “dot variants” of that email, totaling $1.6 million. Of that, about $900,000 was approved for payment.

Rufai has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Michael Barrows, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Barrows wrote in a bail filing in late June that Rufai has no criminal record and that prosecutors are offering “intentionally false and/or misleading information in an effort to exaggerate the crimes alleged while tarnishing the reputation of a wellrespected Nigerian government official.”

Some scammers employ similar techniques on a mass scale by writing computer scripts, or bots, to automatically populate stolen identities into states’ application portals. New York suffered an attack from one such bot, which was able to repeatedly navigate and complete its application process, according to a person familiar with the episode. New York’s labor commissioner has said that the state is “aggressively deploying advanced resources” to fight fraud, including computer algorithms of its own.

Other fraudsters outsource such activity to human

labor farms in low-wage countries, according to cybersecurity firm F5. Patterns of UI applications indicate workers in China, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico and West African nations have been hired to input data into U.S. unemployment portals, according to Carlos Asuncion, F5’s director of solutions engineering.

Asuncion said job ads to do that kind of work often pop up on websites catering to “microworkers” — people who earn pennies per task for such actions as creating gmail accounts, inputting email addresses or zip codes and solving captchas (the latter for as little as five hundredths of a cent per captcha). The labor can be even cheaper, according to Asuncion, than developing and updating a computer algorithm. As he put it, “It’s kind of an arms race.”

State unemployment agencies, burdened by aging technologies and siloed databases that don’t effectively communicate with each other, have been unable to keep up with any sort of arms race.

Federal rules require states to cross-check applicants’ information against a handful of databases when determining eligibility for jobless benefits. These include a national directory of new hires, quarterly wage records submitted by employers, and an immigration database that allows states to verify applicants’ citizenship status. The Labor Department also recommends that states check a database aimed at preventing claims in multiple states, as well as the Social Security Administration, prisoner records and an interstate data hub meant to help flag foreign IP addresses, suspicious email domains and applicants, according to a May 2020 compliance bulletinbulletin.

But performing all those checks requires modern technology. Many states are running their UI systems on software so obsolete that it’s hard to even find anyone able to service it. North Dakota had to recruit programmers from Latvia to prop up its systems last year, since the tiny Eastern European nation is one of the few places that still teaches the software used by the state’s unemployment insurance system. The clunky mainframe was “miraculously patched together, at considerable cost, to get us through the pandemic surge,” the state’s governor said in his December 2020 budget proposal, which sought to replace the system.

Amid the surge in claims, databases frequently froze up or slowed to a crawl, according to the Labor Department’s inspector general. States also reported not having the mainframe capacity to perform cross-matches for the large volumes of claims they were getting.

The result was that many cross-checks simply didn’t happen. Twenty states did not perform all the required database cross-matches, and 44 states did not perform all recommended ones, the inspector general found.

Even when states perform the checks, they can still be fooled. After all, the extent of identity theft means that criminals often input the information of a real person.

Validating that the data is accurate doesn’t necessarily verify whether the claim was filed by the person whose data was used. “Verification and validation are two different things,” said John Pallasch, an assistant secretary of labor during the Trump administration.

“That was the inherent flaw in all of this.”

Violinist Philip Payton got caught on the wrong end of this after he lost his job playing in Disney’s “Frozen” musical. When the pandemic shut down all Broadway performances in March 2020, word got around the orchestra that musicians could apply for unemployment insurance. By early April, Payton was receiving $504 a week plus the extra $600 authorized by Congress, his account shows. “This just helped me stay normal,” he said. “I could pay my bills and pay my half of the rent.”

But things changed in mid-September when the weekly payments suddenly stopped. He called New York’s Department of Labor and was told, he said, that he had a claim in another state. The agent didn’t tell him which state. A follow-up conversation in October ended the same way.

Many have shared Payton’s plight. In 2020, consumers filed nearly 400,000 complaints claiming their identities were stolen and used to claim government benefits. That was up more than 2,900% from about 13,000 such complaints in 2019, according to Federal Trade Commission data.

Unsure what to do, Payton kept calling until he finally got through to someone who told him the other claim was in Texas. Payton called the Texas Workforce Commission’s fraud line, but couldn’t get through to anyone.

By then, it was January and Payton was beginning to run low on cash. He kept calling and leaving messages but couldn’t get a call back. Eventually, through a chain of contacts, Payton reached an agent at the Texas commission, who told him he was listed as having filed claims in multiple states. The agent told him to call New York’s labor department to get his benefits restarted.

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three to four hours a day on hold while practicing violin or browsing job ads on the internet. He also started contacting organizations he thought might be able to help. Eventually, he connected with a paralegal at the Legal Aid Society, who sent an email to two New York labor department officials asking to expedite his case.

A day later, after eight months of missed payments and little work, Payton’s unemployment benefits finally

restarted (and covered the earlier missed payments).

But the experience shook his faith in the program.

“There just has to be a better system,” Payton said.

The state unemployment agencies in New York and Texas both declined to comment on Payton’s situation, citing privacy restrictions. But Bernsen, the spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission, said in a statement that the state generally blocks suspicious claims by placing a “fraud block” on them. “This becomes a problem when the legitimate person needs to access those funds.” He added, “Fundamentally, the system is trying to do two things simultaneously that are at odds with one another: ensure quick payments to individuals and prevent fraud.”

Of the two issues, fraud prevention is now much more on the minds of officials in Washington. Gene Sperling, President Biden’s top official in charge of the pandemic response, said the issue goes beyond just unemployment insurance. The deluge of fraudulent claims has slowed as the surge in federal aid draws to a close, but he sees the proliferation of identity theft for government benefits as the larger threat. “It’s always a bad thing when somebody cheats and gets a few thousand dollars by doing this or that,” Sperling told ProPublica. “But we seem to be seeing something much larger and systemic.”

Sperling said the White House asked federal agencies to provide preliminary recommendations by mid-July on what the government can do to prevent criminal

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syndicates from using stolen identities to access government aid, whether unemployment benefits, small business loans or disaster aid given out by FEMA. One idea that’s already being implemented is improving the Labor Department inspector general’s access to states’ unemployment compensation data, so that federal watchdogs can analyze claims for fraud in real time instead of individually subpoenaing states for the data.

The administration is also planning to spend $2 billion to modernize states’ unemployment insurance programs and strengthen them against fraud. The Labor Department is still figuring out how to allocate the funds, which were appropriated under the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill enacted in March.

One approach under consideration involves having the federal government develop centralized technology to help the 53 states and territories manage their jobless aid programs, instead of having them all fend for themselves and scramble to implement changes during crises.

Recent increases in funding to bolster fraud detection have also been a boon for ID.me, a company that has been hired by 27 states since mid-2020 and recently won a $1 billion federal contract to provide its services to more states. ID.me verifies that claimants are who they say they are by having them take selfies or asking them to appear on video and checking to make sure their faces match the photos on identity documents used to apply for benefits.

ID.me’s chief executive, Blake Hall, made headlines last month when he told Axios that he thinks taxpayers’ losses from UI fraud will top $400 billion. Hall defends that estimate, which some commentators criticized as wildly inflated. Hall based the figure on the precipitous drop-offs in new claim applications that states have experienced after implementing ID.me verification. In New York, for instance, state data confirms that new claims for PUA fell by 89% after ID.me went live in late March. And more than 50% of people who have already filed for UI benefits don’t even try to confirm their identities when asked to do so, according to Hall, who cited data from five states the company has worked with.

Fraudsters are trying to adapt. Telegram forums have lit up with offers of sauces and software that sellers claim can bypass ID.me. Hall said his firm monitors such ads and maintained that he has yet to find any that work. “There is no bypass,” he asserted.

That may be true today. But, as one recent post on a dark web marketplace noted, “The fraud business is an ever-changing type of business, meaning methods are constantly being updated because of new security implementations on the market.”Y

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At the heart of the story behind 50 years of the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort is a family business started by a Polish immigrant holocaust survivor who partnered with one of America’s most iconic brands. The hotel has been at the center of tourism in the city for five decades with the Chase family behind it still.

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50 Years

OF CHASE FAMILY HOSPITALITY

BY RICHARD ROSSER

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BELOW The Deerfield Beach Pier RIGHT A brochure from the Howard Johnson Hotel which is where the Wyndham is currently located FAR RIGHT

David Chase

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At the heart of the story behind 50 years of the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort is a family business started by David Chase, a Polish immigrant and Holocaust survivor. He partnered with one of America’s most iconic hospitality brands, Howard Johnson’s. The hotel has been at the center of tourism and recreation in Deerfield Beach for five decades, with the Chase family very much behind it today.

I had the opportunity to interview Cheryl Chase and Landon Chase, daughter and grandson of David and Rhoda Chase, in a conference room along with general manager Claude Dubois. The Chase’s live full-time in Connecticut but are very active with this property and it is currently the only hotel in their business holdings.

The family story gets very interesting, very quickly.

David Chase survived the Holocaust, having endured imprisonment at the Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen concentration camps.

David and his sister lost their parents, younger sister and many other family members. After the war, he emigrated from Europe to Connecticut, where he

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finished high school, started college and quickly met his wife, Rhoda, whom David credited for having the most influence on his life.

David was the quintessential entrepreneur, looking for business opportunities that many Americans may not notice — such as garages. After the war, Americans bought new cars, but many of the houses of the day did not include garages. David saw this opportunity and got to work learning how to construct them.

David Chase grew his business to include office buildings, shopping centers, department stores and over 50 hotels.

A penniless immigrant amassed a significant portfolio of assets — because he was trustworthy When banks, clients and investors trusted David Chase, they were rewarded with success.

A Builder Saw the Land

A builder in Miami told David about a parcel in a sleepy, beachside town near a fishing pier in northern Broward County. David bought the land and hired the builder to construct a hotel.

The Chases selected the Howard Johnson brand and system for the hotel.

It is difficult to overstate how dominant the Howard Johnson brand was at that time or to exaggerate its fall

Before and After

from the top as a national restaurant and motel operation.

In 1925, Howard D. Johnson started with a small ice cream shop in Quincy, The Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier has been complete Massachusetts. since 1952, but the empty lot nearby remained vacant until 1971 when With almost 1,000 locations in the 1970s, the Chase family constructed a hotel under the Howard Johnson the chain was the most popular restaurant brand (above left). brand in the United States for many years.

By 2000, the hotel showed signs of aging. Consumer expectations The restaurant was particularly popular had changed, and an upgrade was needed. What the building got was with travelers because it could be trusted more than an upgrade; it was completely gutted and rebuilt. For all no matter where you were. This success practical purposes, the building was now an entirely new hotel. prompted the brand to expand into motor In 2010, Howard Johnson branding was replaced by the Wyndham lodges where guests customarily enter Deerfield Beach Resort, as it is called today. Howard Johnson by their room directly from their car.

Wyndham still operates about 300 properties in the USA. The Chase’s choice to partner with Howard Johnson for an eight-story, beachfront hotel was very unusual for the chain, but the combination turned out to be a success.

By 2000, most of Howard Johnson’s restaurants were closed and currently, only one restaurant location is functioning near Lake George, New York.

The motor lodges were divested from the restaurant brand in the 1990s and passed through a few ownership changes. Coincidently, the remaining 300 properties are now owned by Wyndham, which markets them as “Howard Johnson by Wyndham”.

The Julian Felder Years

Julien Felder was the general manager of the property for 27 years. Again, in my view of the universe, hotel managers in South Florida do not last 27 months at one property let alone 27 years.

After earning a college degree in business administration, finance and accounting, he expected to work at an accounting firm, but happened to see a newspaper notice for a job in the accounting department of a hotel chain. He was

Claude Dubois the current general manager of the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort

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Eye on the Prize NOTABLE AWARDS Howard Johnson property of the Year – 2004 Wyndham Hotel of the Year – 2015/2016 competing against 127 properties worldwide Wyndham Hotel of the Year – 2016/2017 competing against 127 properties worldwide Wyndham Hotel of the Year – 2018/2019 competing against 127 properties worldwide Upscale property of the Year – 2018/2019 competing against 198 properties worldwide First Wyndham Hotel Worldwide to achieve the highest level of Green Certification – Level 5. Out of 9,200 properties worldwide

Best Wyndham Hotel Worldwide awards – from left to right –

Tarry Hrovatin, CRME - Senior Director, Operations and Support-Wyndham Hotels and Resorts at Wyndham Worldwide Cheryl Chase – Chase Enterprises – Owner of the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort Claude Dubois – General manager – Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort Audra Durham – Director of Sales and Marketing – Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort Cynthia Liu - Group Vice President of Brand Operations, Upscale & Lifestyle Brands – Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

soon the controller for seven hotels, and his long career in the business was launched.

Through those years, Felder was fortunate to work for a franchise business, owned and operated by a family he liked.

He went to work for a man named David Chase, who had franchise arrangements to operate hotels under the Howard Johnson brand. After working up north, Felder was named general manager of the Howard Johnson hotel on Deerfield Beach in 1988. The hotel had first opened in 1971 as a Howard Johnson on a previously empty lot.

The Claude Dubois years

Claude Dubois took over from Felder in December 2017 in the middle of a renovation caused by Hurricane Irma. Dubois has an extensive background in luxury hotels around the world with the Taj Group of Hotels, having worked in London, U.K., Dubai, U.A.E. and Boston, U.S. Since he started at the property, the focus has been to bring the “luxury service to the property” by enhancing the guest experience, great attention to detail, and ultimately bringing the property to a higher level of service.

Under Dubois’ initiative, the property has also gone green and the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort was the first Wyndham Hotel to achieve the highest level of Green Certification amongst 9,200 properties.

The work has paid off. Since Dubois took over, the property has won five awards. The property was recognized as the Best Wyndham Hotel worldwide and best upscale property worldwide within the Wyndham Groups of Hotels and Resorts.

It is not a small achievement. The Wyndham brand has built hotels around the world, including in Asia and the Middle East.

The Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort actively supports the local community by participating in events such as Back to School and Santa on the Beach events.

By 2000, the hotel showed signs of aging. Consumer preferences had changed, and an upgrade was

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Three Generations of Cool Treats Attention to detail is important for all businesses, so the Chase’s set about to offer a better ice cream experience. After many years of experience selling ice cream on the beach, they sought an authentic Gelato, so they tasted the options available in the area. They selected a local, immigrant family to partner with to offer gelato at the hotel.

“I didn’t want another Hojo’s ice cream fiasco,” Chery Chase recounted. “My dad actually refused to sell Howard Johnson’s ice cream.” Her grandson, in photograph, seems to like this family tradition.

needed. What the building got was more than an upgrade; it was completely gutted and rebuilt. For all practical purposes, the new Howard Johnson Hotel was entirely new.

In 2010, a new franchise came along with the reconstructed hotel under the Wyndham brand. The hotel was then advertised as the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort, as it is called today.

The reconstruction of the hotel might have been the greatest challenge in Felder’s career as general manager.

It was such a successful transition, however, that the hotel was recently named the “Best Franchised Wyndham Hotel in North America” by the Wyndham

Hotel Group, beating nearly 200 franchised hotels that bear the Wyndham name. Although David Chase died last year, his children, Cheryl and Arnold, have maintained the business as a family-run enterprise.

Earning this prestigious Wyndham designation is just one of many recognitions Felder won over the years for his effective leadership and hospitable mood. In 1999, he was named “Manager of the Year” of the Howard Johnson hotels in Florida, and in 2004 as “Manager of the Year” among the 450 managers of Howard Johnson hotels. Y

ABOVE Back to School event on Deerfield Beach

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dining out

E NORTH BROWARD BEACHES

us with ditions, s, or ions or@ ubs. e try to urate, always idea to t before g out r dining ure.

pensive r $20)

oderate 40)

sive 65)

Pricey $65)

POMPANO BEACH And Fish Kitchen + Bar. SEAFOOD Located at the Marriott

Pompano Beach Resort & Spa, enjoy a modern take on fresh seafood. The restaurant has recently been renovated and now sports a contemporary and breezy ambiance. 1200 N. Ocean Blvd., 954-782-0100 $$

Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza. ITALIAN • PIZZA • WINGS You can

credit this place with bringing the whole “coal-fired pizza craze” to South Florida. Pizza and chicken wings — do you need any more? Try the cauliflower pizza — good and good for you. 1203 S. Federal Highway, 954-942-5550 $$

The Beach Grille. AMERICAN Delicious eats near the beach with the capability to order online. 3414 E Atlantic Blvd., 954946-6000 $ Beach House. AMERICAN • CRAFT COCKTAILS This is the perfect

place to take out-of-town guests. Snag one of the stadium seating style booths overlooking the Atlantic. Enjoy the casual and relaxed ambiance with a rooftop deck on the second floor. 270 N Pompano Beach Blvd. 954-607-6530 $$

Bella Roma Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria. ITALIAN • PIZZA

Tasty dishes large portions,. Delivery is available. 40 SW 15th St., 954-784-3696 $$

Bobby Rubino’s. BARBECUE • AMERICAN Specials and coupons are posted daily, and catering is available. The restaurant also has a large bar room where you can dine at the bar or booths.

This place is a Pompano Beach icon. 2501 N. Federal Highway, 954-781-7550 $$ Brew Fish. BAR AND GRILL Dine outside in the tiki hut overlook-

ing a canal right in Pompano Beach. Comprehensive menu and attentive staff. 200 E. McNab Rd., 954-440-3347 $$

Briny Irish Pub. IRISH • BAR FOOD Enjoy a large beer selection

plus the regular and, dare we say, unique mixed drinks. The kitchen offers an array of bar food as well as some classics like bangers and mash and fish-n-chips. The casual atmosphere is created by an immense array of nautical artifacts and oddities that fill every inch of the pub. 3440 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-942-3159 $

Bru’s Room Sports Grill. AMERICAN This spot is home to the Florida State Booster Club of Broward County. Wings and plenty of bar food is available. 235 S. Federal Highway, 954-785-2227 $ Calypso Restaurant and Raw Bar. CARIBBEAN Since they

opened their doors in 1990, Calypso has been a local favorite.

This gem of a restaurant is known for its fresh, wild caught fish, Bahamian conch dishes, Jamaican jerk and American favorites all served with an island flair. Check out the special board for a variety of locally caught fish with everything from grouper to snapper to wahoo among others. Plenty of land-lubber options are also available including filet mignon. For island comfort food, don’t miss one of their curries or rotis. Wash it all down with a draft beer, a glass of wine or choose from over 40 different bottled beers. 460 S. Cypress Road, 954-942-1633 $$

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WITH MRS. KOSSENFLOFFER

Casareccio Trattoria Italiana. ITALIAN What a find. This small but impressive Italian eatery is delightful. The menu changes daily. We are willing to bet you will fall in love with this place which feels like it plopped into Pompano straight from the hills of Tuscany. Reservations are highly recommended. Also, call ahead to see what they are serving. 1386 S.Federal Highway, 954-998-3642 $$$-$$$$ Checkers Old Munchen. GERMAN For a traditional German meal, try the wiener schnitzel — a lightly breaded veal cutlet sautéed in lemon butter and topped with homemade brown gravy. The spaetzle (German noodles) are a real homemade treat and not to be missed. The red cabbage is both classically sweet and sour and there are other side options too including potato dumplings, potato salad and even hot potato salad. Imbibe to your hearts content with their wide assortment of German beers. 2209 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-785-7565 $$ Chef Dee’s. SUSHI • SEAFOOD A small neighborhood place with plenty of charm. Impressive sushi rolls and a varied menu with something for everyone. 3919 N. Federal Highway., 954-582-4444 $$

Dangerous Minds Brewing Co., BREWERY • ARTISANAL PIZZA

Dangerous Minds is more than just a brewery. This spot at Pompano Citi Centre offers artisanal pizzas made from scratch using double-zero Italian flour. Their specialty is a Scotch egg which is a soft boiled egg wrapped in homemade sausage and then fried until crispy on the outside. But back to the brewery — all the beers are brewed on-site and owners Adam and Andre hale from Germany and England — two countries steeped in beer tradition. 1901 N Federal Highway, 954-657-8676 $-$$

Darrel & Oliver’s Cafe Maxx. INTERNATIONAL This restaurant is an anchor of the South Florida fine dining scene. 2601 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-782-0606 $$$$ Deep Oceanfront Dining & Bar. AMERICAN Beach front din-

ing at the Beachcomber Resort — dinner on the sand. Open for breakfast lunch and dinner. 1200 S. Ocean Blvd. 954-941-7830

$$$

Deccan Spice. INDIAN Take your pick from classic dishes like chicken tikka and all sorts of biryani and curry dishes to some Indo-Chinese twists like crunchy stir-fried noodles. There are plenty of vegetarian options too, and of course, many variations on naan. 1149 S.Federal Highway, 954-366-1847 $$ Di Farina Pasta Factory & Restaurant. ITALIAN We all know

that fresh cut pasta is superior to the dried variety we have become accustomed to. But making pasta from scratch is a process. But what if you could just pick it up nearby or even have it delivered. Dreams do come true. Di Farina offers a variety of freshly made pasta to go. And if you can’t even be bothered to make a sauce, they’ve got 19 from which to choose. The restaurant also has a full menu of Italian favorites. 1915 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-953-6771 $$

Flanigan’s Seafood Bar & Grill. SEAFOOD • AMERICAN Enjoy

a deal every day. 2500 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-943-3762 $$

Family Owned & Operated SINCE 1989 Email us with any additions, closings, or corrections at editor@pointpubs.com. We try to be accurate, but it’s always a good idea to call first before heading out on your dining adventure.

The Foundry. AMERICAN • CONTINENTAL Seating options galore, from bar seating to lounge seating and old-fashioned casual dining seating. 2781 E. Atlantic Blvd., 754-205-6977 $$ Galuppi’s. AMERICAN What could be more entertaining than watching golfers swing and blimps ascend as you sip a drink at an outdoor bar? 1103 N. Federal Highway, 954-785-0226 $ Gianni’s Italian Restaurant. ITALIAN Enjoy traditional Ital-

ian fare at this family-owned and operated establishment, serving everything from pasta to gourmet specialties like Chicken Gianni’s and fresh seafood. Don’t skip the romaine salad with the blue cheese. Pair your dish with a bottle of wine or cocktail from their full bar. They also offer daily lunch specials Monday – Friday. 1601 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-942-1733 $$

Great Indian Grill. INDIAN If you like Indian food, this place

should go on your “must-try” list. Everything we sampled (and we ate quite a bit) was packed with tantalizing Indian spices and flavors representing the many different regional styles of Indian cooking.. 2692 E Atlantic Blvd., 954-532-7872 $$

The Gyro Joint. MIDDLE EASTERN Eat in or carry out. It’s all Greek to me. 165 S. Cypress Road, 954-946-9199 $

Houston’s. AMERICAN Enjoy this contemporary eatery for

lunch or dinner. Outdoor bar and seating on the Intracoastal available. 2821 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-783-9499 $$$

J Mark’s. AMERICAN A relaxing, modern restaurant and bar

with food and service to match. 1490 NE 23rd St., 954-782-7000

$$$

Kabuki. JAPANESE • THAI Kabuki offers a full menu of Thai and

OUTDOOR DINING & TAKE-OUT AVAILABLE 1601 E. Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach (954) 942-1733 • giannisitalianrestaurant.com MON-THURS 11am-3pm & 4-9pm FRI 11am-3pm & 4-9:30pm SAT 4-9:30pm SUN 4-9pm

SNOW TIME • Authentic Bubble Tea (Boba Tea) fresh brewed daily • Naturally favored paper-thin shaven ice cream • Unique Eastern Asian Snacks • Created with only quality ingredients

Japanese entrées plus classic and specialty sushi rolls all in a hip and modern setting. 2515 E Atlantic Blvd., 954-951-6077 $$

Kin Asian Street Food. ASIAN • SUSHI Enjoy everything from

inventive takes on ramen soups with pork belly and a jammy egg to original the rice bowls. The small bite options were some of our favorites. We swooned over the shiitake buns, mushrooms with pickled sour mustard, ground peanuts and cilantro all on a steamed rice bun. T 143 SW Sixth St., 954-532-4567 $$

La Perla Di Pompano. ITALIAN This small and intimate Italian

eatery offers a wide selection of Italian dishes including four different risotto dishes alone. 420 N Federal Highway, 754-2229174 $$$-$$$$

La Veranda. ITALIAN Inside or out, one can enjoy a truly special evening in the Tuscany-inspired surroundings. There is a big selection of pasta, entrées and traditional dishes, with new favorites to be discovered that the wait staff will happily explain. You can taste the love in their homemade desserts. If you’re looking to celebrate or simply treat yourself to an evening of wonderful dining, La Veranda is an excellent choice. Reservations are suggested. 2121 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-943-7390 $$$ Legends Tavern and Grille. AMERICAN Enjoy gastropub

fare including sandwiches, burgers, wings, salads and a huge choice of appetizers. 10 SW Sixth St.$-$$

Now available in Lighthouse Point!

Bubble Tea (Boba Tea)

A tea-based drink created in Taiwan and gaining popularity throughout the world.

In the Shoppes at Beacon Light 2482 N. Federal Hwy., Lighthouse Point • 954-597-6269 snowtime_cream SEPTEMBER 2021 • pointpubs.com

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Dining Out Lucky Fish Beach Bar + Grill. AMERICAN It’s places like

Lucky’s that make you happy you live in South Florida. This tiki bar by the sea (just south of the pier) offers simple eats, some top-notch people watching all with an ocean view. A meal or drink at Lucky’s is a laid back dining experience — which might just be what the doctor ordered. The menu includes classic snack foods like coconut shrimp and fish dip to tuna poke nachos. There’s also salads, sandwiches and smash burgers. You can also order to go for a picnic on the beach. 222 N Pompano Beach Blvd. $

Miami Masala. INDIAN Enjoy classic Indian dishes as well as a

few more modern ones with an Indian twist. The stuffed Hungarian peppers appetizer, while not being a classic Indian dish, had all the flavors fans of the cuisine crave. Great service by a friendly staff. Try the Indian crepe — crazy good. A daily lunch buffet includes traditional, vegetarian and vegan choices. 900 E Atlantic Blvd., 954-317-1371 $$

Mora Grill. MEDITERRANEAN This cozy yet modern spot is open for lunch and dinner. The menu includes a range of Mediterranean favorites from kebobs to gyros and more. They offer lunch specials ranging in price form $9-11 and family-style platters for six people served with appetizers, salads, kebobs, rice and vegetables for $115. 3428 E. Atlantic Blvd, 954-933-2003 $$ Nikki’s Greek Kitchen. CONTINENTAL Enjoy salads and entrées all with a slight Mediterranean influence including housemade hummus and tzatsiki, gyros, spinach pie and more. Have dinner and take a stroll — it’s why we live here, people. 1 N. Ocean Blvd., Ste. 102, (on the northwest corner of Atlantic Boulevard and A1A on the ground floor of the Oceanside One building) 954-401-3131 $$-$$$ Oceanic. AMERICAN • SEAFOOD Along with stunning ocean

views, the restaurant offers a comprehensive menu with an emphasis on seafood. The restaurant boasts dazzling architecture inspired by the great ocean liners of years past. And with sweeping views of the Atlantic, dining at Oceanic is almost like a mini stay-cation. 250 N. Pompano Beach Blvd., 954-366-3768

Pho Lavie. VIETNAMESE If you have never had Vietnamese food, you are missing out. This spot will delight you. Everything is so fresh. Go and have some pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), you’ll thank us. 3321 N. Federal Highway, 954-941-4155 $$

hick-Fil-A Plans a Second rive-Thru Lane to Ease Car Backups

owner of the Chick-Fil-A restaurant located at 2250 N. Federal hway in Pompano Beach, has submitted plans to the City to add econd drive-thru lane to ease the significant car congestion that rently occurs on the site, particularly during peak hours of the day. he Chick-Fil-A restaurant was developed with a single drive-thru e that doesn’t adequately meet demand. As a result, vehicles m the drive-thru lane have been overflowing into the shared ve aisle and obstructing circulation through the parking areas d to the businesses located on the parcel to the south. he reconfiguration of the existing parking and circulation areas accommodate a second drive-thru lane will result in the loss of r parking spaces. The existing Chick-Fil-A requires 29 parking ces, and only 25 would be provided, which is a 14% reduction. order to address the parking deficiency, the restaurant owner applied for a major administrative adjustment to allow for the uction. — Marie Puleo

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Ruby’s by the Sea. ITALIAN Tucked away in a small strip mall

near the Hillsboro inlet is Ruby’s serving classic Italian fare.

2608 N. Ocean Blvd., 954-785-7700 $$

Rusty Hook Tavern. AMERICAN Located on the Pompano Intracoastal, sit inside or outside, just keep in mind that the word tavern means a local place to gather around the table. 125 N. Riverside Drive, 954-941-2499 $$ Saito Japanese Steakhouse. JAPANESE This Japanese steakhouse offers a wide variety of entrees including teriyaki dishes, tempura and sushi. Diners can choose to sit at the sushi bar or they can enjoy hibachi style dining. The restaurant has a comprehensive cocktail menu as well with 20 different kinds of martinis. 2101 N Federal Highway, suite 208, 954-945-8888 $$

Sands Harbor Patio Restaurant. AMERICAN Located in the Sands Harbor Hotel and Marina on the intracoastal, you can dine poolside or waterside, either way, you better know how to swim. 125 N. Riverside Drive, 954-942-9100 $$ Seaside Grill. SEAFOOD • AMERICAN Enjoy a view of the Atlan-

tic while enjoying fresh seafood and an iced cold cocktail. Don’t worry if you’re not a fish lover — there are plenty of entrée choices from the land. Located at Lighthouse Cove Resort on the ocean. 1406 N. Ocean Blvd., 954-783-3193 $$

Shishka Lebanese Grill. MIDDLE EASTERN It’s not easy to make a good falafel, but the ones at Shishka are worth every single calorie. There are plenty of other choices too from the classic hummus to baba ghanouj to chicken and meat shawarma. 1901 N. Federal Highway, 954-943-2999 $$ Spanx the Hog BBQ. BARBECUE Spanx uses natural ingredi-

ents and offers dine in, take out, and custom catering. 147 S. Cypress Road. 954-590-8342 $

Sunset Catch. ITALIAN • SEAFOOD Seafood, steaks and Italian favorites are served daily, and they even have their very own “wine doctor.” 101 N. Riverside Drive, 954-545-0901 $$

Table 2201. MEDITERRANEAN Everything at Table 2201 is made on the premises — even the desserts. Start with the pygros, a tower of eggplant, potatoes and ground beef topped with a cool yogurt sauce. 2201 E. Atlantic Blvd., 718-600-2236 $$ Take Sushi. JAPANESE • SUSHI Fresh, authentic Japanese fair delivered to your door? Yes, please. 2714 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954785-2442 $$ Trattoria Novello. ITALIAN This intimate Italian eatery on Atlantic Boulevard features homemade lasagna, ravioli, cannelloni and a Bolognese ragu that cooks for eight hours on the stove. 2665 East Atlantic Blvd., 954-876-1915 $$$

Umberto’s of Long Island. ITALIAN • PIZZA When a pizza is named Grandma’s Pizza — you must order it. And trust us, you won’t regret it. There is family tradition baked into every bite.

2780 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-784-7110 $$ Valentino’s Italian Cuisine. ITALIAN • PIZZA An abundance of Italian fare served for lunch or dinner. If you can’t make it over to dine in, fret not, they offer free delivery. 427 S. Federal Highway, 954-545-4881 $$ Wings N’ Things. WINGS • BARBECUE It doesn’t look like much

from the outside but it’s worth trying. 150 S. Sixth St., 954-7819464 $

Zuccarelli. ITALIAN • PIZZA This place is more than just a pizza joint. From eggplant Parmesan to shrimp fra diavolo, you will leave quite satisfied. The portions are generous and come with a fresh house salad. 1340 N. Federal Highway, 954-941-1261 $

Located at The Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort 2096 NE 2nd Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

NEW MENU

NEW MENU INCL. MILKSHAKES & SMOOTHIES Open Wednesday - Sunday / 11AM-11PM

BOOK YOUR NEXT EVENT OCEANSIDE CONTACT THE SALES DEPARTMENT AT 754-227-4304

EVENTS

Private Events Weddings Birthday Parties Corporate Events Business Gatherings

Dining Out LIGHTHOUSE POINT Bonefish Mac’s Sports Grill. AMERICAN Bar food and wide array of televised sports games with a game room for kids.

2002 E Sample Road, 954-781-6227 $

Cap’s Place. SEAFOOD Lighthouse Point’s own hidden seafood joint dating back to prohibition. Take the short boat ride over to the restaurant. 2765 NE 28th Court, 954-941-0418 $$$ Fetta Republic. GREEK Traditional Greek offerings close to home. 2420 N. Federal Highway, 954-933-2394 $-$$

Expires 10/31/21. Participating locations only.

Extra toppings chicken, meatballs & steak substitutions, extra dipping sauces and dressings, tax and delivery additional. Must present coupon. Cannot be combined with any other coupon! Prices subject to change without notice.

Nutrition information available at JetsPizza.com/Nutrition

Fish Shack. SEAFOOD This restaurant used to be a “best kept secret.” But now that they have moved into the Shoppes at Beacon Light, word is out. The Fish Shack keeps it simple, serving fresh fish and seafood prepared several ways. 2460 N. Federal Highway, 954-586-4105 $$ Le Bistro. CONTINENTAL Professional chef, Andy Trousdale serves up both classics and inventive new dishes at this little neighborhood gem. Fresh and local produce is always used and vegetarian, dairy free and gluten free menu items are available. And here’s a note to the wise; the porcini mushroom soup is worth every calorie. The restaurant also offers cooking classes and wine tasting dinners. 4626 N. Federal Highway, 954946-9240 $$$ Legends Tavern and Grille. AMERICAN Enjoy gastropub fare including sandwiches, burgers, wings, salads and a huge choice of appetizers. 3128 N Federal Highway, 754-220-8932 The Nauti Dawg Marina Café. AMERICAN Nestled in at the Lighthouse Point Marina, the Nauti Dawg is a local favorite.

Start with the tuna wontons—crispy fried wonton wrappers topped with tuna tartare, seaweed salad, red pepper mayo, wasabi and a hit of sriracha. You can’t go wrong with the fresh fish sandwich—ask what the catch of the day is. All sandwiches come with a side and, while French fries are always a delicious option, the restaurant offers a tangy cucumber salad (among other choices) that provides a nice crunch to any sandwich.

They are a dog-friendly restaurant. 2830 NE 29th Ave. (at the Lighthouse Point Marina), 954-941-0246 $$

We are open early everyday until 9pm Breakfast served all day Now offering Early Bird Specials everyday 4-7p We deliver 438 S. Cypress Road • Pompano Beach • 954.785.3646 50 pointpubs.com •

POINT! PUBLISHING

Papa’s Raw Bar. SUSHI • SEAFOOD While the fresh food is the real star, the Keys-inspired decor certainly accounts for part of their charm. The menu goes way beyond typical raw bar offerings with inventive tacos and sliders. Papa’s also offers an impressive array of sushi and sashimi. Try the Donoghue which is made of lump crab meat with spicy mayo and eel sauce and served with taro chips. And to wash it all down, they have about a zillion craft beer options and a good wine list too. 4610 N. Federal Highway, 754-307-5034 $$-$$$ Rocca Trattoria. ITALIAN A small and intimate neighborhood place. Watch owner and chef Lucy prepare your favorite dishes in the open kitchen. 2014 E Sample Road, 954-876-1733 $$

DEERFIELD BEACH Baja Cafe. MEXICAN A long established local favorite for an au-

thentic Mexican dinner or just drinks. They are known for their margarita’s as well as entrées including their bandito honey bean burritos and their many taco options. You’ll also enjoy their fresh endless chips served with two types of salsa. 1310 S. Federal Highway, 954-596-1304 $$

Barracuda Seafood Bar & Grill. SEAFOOD • BRAZILIAN This

spot by the sea serves seafood with a touch of Brazilian flare such as the bobo de camarao—shrimp sautéed in coconut milk,

saffron, palm oil and yucca cream baked in a cast iron skillet.

1965 NE Second St., 954-531-1290 $$

Café Med. ITALIAN Authentic Italian restaurant right on the

ocean with an Italian chef from Rome. Excellent service, coupled with carefully prepared dishes just across from the ocean always provides for a lovely dinner. Live music nightly. Breakfast and dinner available daily. 2096 NE Second St. (at the Wyndham Hotel), 954-596-5840 $$$

Casa Maya. MEXICAN Start with a margarita and it only gets better from there. This is not your typical Mexican joint — it’s better. Try gobernador tacos: a combination of shrimp with diced poblanos, onions, tomatoes and cilantro on a crispy corn tortilla topped with melted cheese. See, we told you it’s not ordinary. 301 SE 15th Terrace, 954-570-6101 $$

Chanson at the Royal Blues Hotel. SEAFOOD • SEASONAL

Chanson offers fine dining with an ocean view. 45 NE 21st Ave., 954-857-2929. $$$$

Deer Creek Grille. AMERICAN Enjoy the club atmosphere with gorgeous views of the plush gardens and waterfall. The restaurant offers daily lunch and dinner specials, a Sunday breakfast buffet and covered patio dining so you can dine al fresco. 2801 Deer Creek Country Club Blvd., 954-421-5553 $$ JB’s on the Beach. SEAFOOD Glorious Beach views and a private glass room perfect for business or family affairs. 300 N. Ocean Way, 954-571-5220 $$$

Le Val de Loire Restaurant. FRENCH • STEAKHOUSE The menu at this cozy French bistro includes many of the classics.

So next time you crave sole meunière, filet mignon au poivre or beef bourguignon, you don’t have to go any further than the Cove. The steakhouse menu includes a New York strip and a rib eye, among other cuts. Yet, Le Val de Loire is a French restaurant, so they offer three sauces with the steaks — including a mushroom cream sauce. Classic steakhouse-sides like creamed spinach are also available. 1576 SE Third Court, 954-427-5354 $$$

Little Havana. CUBAN Little Havana has fantastic lunch specials and most of their dinner plates will feed two. Their masas de puerco frita and their Little Havana steak are two of the stand-out menu items, aside from their zesty chimichurri. 721 N. Federal Highway, 954-427-6000 $$ Luigi di Roma. ITALIAN The atmosphere is always lively at Luigi di Roma — mainly if you arrive during happy hour! Naturally, you will find all your favorite Italian dishes on the menu, with everything from eggplant Parmesan to shrimp scampi and everything in between. You can also order take-out online.

718 S. Federal Highway, 954-531-6151 $$-$$$ Ocean’s 234. SEAFOOD Amazing views of Deerfield Beach and the pier with gluten free options available. 234 N. Ocean Blvd., 954-428-2539 $$$ Patio Bar & Grill. CONTINENTAL Enjoy cocktails just feet from

the sandy beaches of Deerfield. This casual spot at the Wyndham serves casual fare. You can stick to the classics like wings or a shrimp cocktail. Or be more adventurous and enjoy an order of volcano spring rolls stuffed with crab and served with sriracha mayo and wakame slaw. They also serve a wide va-

SEASIDE AND GRILL

Casual restaurant offering beachside dining delicious seafood and steaks.

Local Delivery Available!

Order on www.seasidegrill.com 954.783.3193

1406 N. Ocean Boulevard, Pompano Beach SEPTEMBER 2021 • pointpubs.com

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Dining Out riety of burgers and plenty of fresh salads and savory entrees.

There is often live music contributing to the energetic vibe of this spot on the beach. 2096 NE Second St., (at the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort) 954-596-8618 $$

Taj. INDIAN This unassuming eatery in the Cove Shopping center has been quietly chugging along for years. The restaurant serves various Indian favorites, including tandoori breads, biryani, lamb specialties, and plenty of vegetarian options. The saag paneer, which is the Indian version of creamed spinach, goes well with anything on the menu. And Popeye would be proud.201 SE 15th Terrace, 954-427-0423 $$ Tijuana Taxi Co. MEXICAN Perhaps it’s the all day happy hour

(Mon.-Fri., 11am-7pm) with $5 El Jimador margaritas, but as soon as you enter, the weight of the day lifts off your shoulders.

The atmosphere is friendly and fun all around. There is outdoor patio seating available and a large U-shaped bar inside. The portions are generous — certainly enough for a doggie bag. We enjoyed the spicy shrimp tacos — soft flour tortillas filled with Cajun-grilled shrimp in a spicy chile lime sauce, topped with cilantro slaw, avocado and pico de gallo. The menu has a lot more than tacos — there’s all the Mexican favorites plus burgers, sandwiches, steaks and more. And for the little ones there is kids night on Sunday: kids eat for 99 cents from the $4.99 kids menu.

1015 S. Federal Highway, 954-708-2775 $$

Whales’ Rib. SEAFOOD Locals know it well and tourists know it from “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” Whatever you do, don’t skip the whale fries. 2031 NE Second St., 954-421-8880 $$

lunch Monday-Saturday, 8:30am-4pm. 2657 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-816-9649 $

Cafe Brie. SANDWICHES • SALADS A little gem of a place that serves fantastic sandwiches, salads, quiche and desserts. 2765 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-532-7800 $ Cafe Sportivo. CAFE Cash only, but don’t let that stop you.

They are family owned and operated with a variety of espresso drinks. 2219 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-782-6672 $

Carlucci’s Brick Oven Trattoria & Pizzeria. ITALIAN Italian

favorites and brick oven pizza at the beach. Open lunch and dinner Monday-Thursday 11am-10pm, Friday-Saturday 11am11pm, Sunday 12-10pm. 3420 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-946-3150 $$

Chez Cafe. COFFEE • BAKERY A warm and cozy place to grab breakfast, lunch or a latte. 1631 S. Cypress Road, 954-933-3453 $ Coldfish. PAN-ASIAN Sushi drive-thru? We’re in! Coldfish, serves Pan-Asian cuisine in fun and colorful atmosphere. 1750 N. Federal Highway, contact@coldfish.com Dandee Donut Factory. BAKERY • PASTRIES From the classic

old fashioned sour cream to Boston cream, these babies are just begging to be dunked. Bagels, breakfast and lunch also available. 1900 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-785-1461 $

Five Girls. BURGERS • PIZZA Check out this cozy, neighborhood joint. Five Girls offers all the classics you crave including burgers, hand cut fries and the owner’s favorite Philadelphia cheesesteaks. 2659 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-783-8889 $

Fast & Casual

La Rachetta at Whole Foods Market. PIZZA AND WINE BAR

Anne Marie’s Pizza and Wine Co. ITALIAN Whether you are looking to grab a quick slice or enjoy a much needed date night, Anne Marie’s fits the bill. Enjoy a cheesy slice of New York style pizza, bruschetta or classic chicken Francese. Anne Marie’s is also offering wine club memberships where customers can have bottles delivered locally and also purchase excellent wines at wholesale prices. One popular option at Anne Marie’s is the quattro pack — for $29.95 it includes any four 10-inch pizzas plus an order of garlic rolls. This option is perfect for families who can’t agree on the toppings. 2313 N. Federal Highway, Pompano Beach 954-590-2100. $-$$

Jet’s Pizza. PIZZA Try one of the specialty pizzas such as Philly

POMPANO BEACH Fast & Casual

Asian Deluxe Cuisine. ASIAN A new and convenient spot for some grab and go favorites. From small bites like crab Rangoon and goyza to a variety of curry and noodle dishes. 2608 N Ocean Blvd., 954-960-5060 $$

Bella Monte Italian Deli. SANDWICHES 2688 E. Atlantic Blvd.,

954-946-0333 $

Brendans. BAR AND GRILL Burgers, wings and more — you get the picture. 868 N. Federal Highway, 954-786-0033 $ Big Louie’s. ITALIAN • PIZZA A South Florida chain offering classic Italian dishes. 2190 N. Federal Highway, 954-942-5510 $

Borogodo Brazilian Grill. BRAZILIAN Open for lunch Monday-Friday 11am-4:30pm; Saturday 11am-5:30pm. 7 SE 22nd Ave., 954-782-8040 $ Broad Street Deli. BREAKFAST • DELICATESSEN Jewish style deli sandwiches, subs, wraps homemade soups, breakfast, bagels and homemade baked knishes. Open for breakfast and

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Enjoy weekly deals with plenty of beers on tap and wines by the glass. For something different, try the sweet southern swine pizza — a light and crispy pizza topped with pork belly, arugula and cheese. They have daily specials served with a draft beer for $8. And the truffle fries are great with anything. 2411 N. Federal Highway, 954-786-3535 $ cheese steak with Alfredo sauce or the BLT. 437 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-782-5387 $

Jukebox Diner. DINER Bright, classic seating, jukeboxes, and that old-school diner feel. 2773 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-960-5882 $ Lester’s Diner. DINER American comfort fare in a retro setting.

1924 E. Atlantic Blvd., 954-783-2109 $

Lighthouse Cove Tiki Bar. AMERICAN Seaside eats and happy hours. 1406 N. Ocean Blvd., 954-784-2804 $$ Little Italian. PIZZA Little Italian Pizza is the best kind of Italian restaurant — the kind that feels like a hole-in-the-wall, but quickly grows vibrant as the large, steaming plates of homestyle Italian dishes come barreling out of the kitchen. The restaurant grinds their own sausage and bakes their own dough daily.

While the small restaurant (with only about six cozy tables) doesn’t serve alcohol, they do allow BYOB (and there’s a liquor store conveniently located right next door). Families bring in bottles of red wine to cork, creating a joyous atmosphere. The restaurant has a huge menu with stromboli, calzone, soups, salads, subs, 26 kinds of specialty pizzas, baked pasta dishes, chicken and veal entrées and all your traditional pasta dishes and desserts. 448 S. Cypress Road, 954-941-0550 $-$$ Mini Pita. MEDITERRANEAN The comprehensive menu includes plenty of salads, pita melts, sandwiches, gyros, shawarma, kebabs, falafel and a choice of entrees that includes lamb chops and mousaka. 2555 E Atlantic Blvd. 954-532-9595 $$

Nelson’s Diner. DINER Nelson’s diner, which was just pur-

chased by the owners of Galuppi’s, is a cute, hole-in-the-wall 50s diner with Elvis memorabilia on the walls, baseball flags on the ceiling, friendly servers and classic red vinyl booths. 438 S Cypress Road, 954-785-3646 $

Snow Time. This spot for treats features bubble tea (boba) in about a zillion flavors. If you are looking for a something new, different and delicious, get thee some bubble tea. Other sweet treats available are paper thin shaven ice cream and authentic Asian snacks. 2482 N. Federal Highway in the Shoppes at Beacon Light, 954-59-6269 $ Stingers Pizza. PIZZA • AMERICAN Dine in or order delivery.

They will bring your pizza to the Beach—a million minds making the world a better place. 1201 S. Ocean Blvd., 954-782-2344 $

Sunshine Bagel. BAGELS • DELI Serving up bagels and sandwiches in a friendly atmosphere. 260 N. Ocean Blvd., 954-7887498 $ The Chicken Box & More. • SOUTHERN This small spot with

just a couple of tables serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and does a robust take-out business. The shrimp and grits with scrambled eggs are a top-notch breakfast or a perfect “breakfast-for-dinner” option. The fried pork chops were delicately coated and crispy. We tried them with a classic potato salad and collard greens. The greens were stellar — they were juicy and perfectly seasoned with bits of pork supplying a pleasing heft. And who doesn’t love a marvelous fried chicken wing? If you are searching for a solidly authentic taste of comfort, the meatloaf is a must. 204 N Flagler Avenue, 954-781-7400

The Poké Company. • POKÉ If you haven’t tried a poke bowl,

now is your big chance. Build your own bowl by choosing a base of rice or greens, then add a protein such as ahi tuna or steamed shrimp, then go to town with the mix-ins and sauces.

Then top your bowl with everything from pickled ginger to tempura flakes. There are an infinite amount of choices. If bowls aren’t your thing, you can build your own poké burrito. 1154 N. Federal Highway, 754-220-8933

Tortillería Mexicana. MEXICAN Looking for a taco that goes

beyond ground beef and toppings? Not only will they supply you with fresh, unique tacos, but the corn tortillas are made from scratch daily. Who does that? 1614 E. Sample Rd., 954-9430057 $

LIGHTHOUSE POINT Fast & Casual Burger Fi. BURGERS Everything at Burger Fi is cooked to order. Don’t miss the fries and the larger-than-life onion rings.

The breakfast all day burger is topped with a fried egg. 3150 N. Federal Highway, 954-933-7120 $ Legends Tavern and Grille. AMERICAN With three locations, they must be doing something right. 3128 N Federal Highway, 754-220-8932 $-$$

Red Fox Diner. DINER Treat yourself to one of the daily specials at the Red Fox and you just might be able to skip dinner.

But if you are in the mood for some comforting diner food, Red Fox never disappoints. Breakfast and lunch served daily. 2041 NE 36th St., (Sample Road) 954-783-7714 $

SEPTEMBER 2021 • pointpubs.com

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Dining Out Packy’s Sports Pub. SPORTS BAR If you are looking for a local

New Yo r Thin C k Style rust Piz za Dine In • Take Out • Delivery* *(Minimum Delivery $10.00)

We cater ALL occasions Open Daily Monday-Saturday: 11am - 10pm Sunday: 4pm - 10pm

954-941-0550 • LittleItalianPizza.net 448 S. Cypress Road, Pompano Beach

spot to watch the game, Packy’s always seems to pack them in.

4480 N. Federal Highway, 954-657-8423 $

DEERFIELD BEACH Fast & Casual Biondo’s Pizza. PIZZA • SUBS Dine-in or take-out available. For something other than pizza, try the stromboli or the wings. 606 S. Federal Highway, 954-427-7754 $-$$ Bob’s Pizza. PIZZA • ITALIAN Pizza served remarkably close to

the Beach — as if pizza could be get any better. 2076 NE Second St., 954-426-1030 $

Burger Craze. BURGERS Top quality ingredients come together to create unique taste sensations. Enjoy juicy burgers, hot dogs, wings and more. 2096 NE Second St. (at the Wyndham Hotel), 954-596- 5949 $-$$ Charlie’s Fish Fry. SEAFOOD Hey, it’s not quite Martha’s Vineyard but Charlies is a great spot to satisfy a craving for fish and chips. There are plenty of other options — it’s almost like a quick trip to a New England clam bar — almost. 1200 E. Hillsboro Blvd., 954-573-7198 $$

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Charm City. BURGERS Try the emperor — an American kobe beef patty with aged Swiss, truffled aioli and sautéed mushrooms — a burger fit for a king. 1136 E. Hillsboro Blvd., 954-5310300 $$ El Jefe. MEXICAN For a truly inventive take on Mexican street food, this small yet bright and cheery taco joint is full of surprises. 27 N. Federal Highway, 954-246-5333 $ Gelateria. GELATO Offering more than 26 flavors of gelato.

Open daily. 2096 NE Second St. (at the Wyndham Hotel), 694428-2850 $ Michael’s Pizzeria. PIZZA Closed Mondays 1645 SE Third Court, Deerfield Beach, 954-426-1515 $ Nick’s Pizza. PIZZA Nick’s family moved from the Bronx to Deerfield Beach 13 years ago and opened Nick’s Pizza. The restaurant offers an extensive Italian catering menu, delivery and New York Style pizza. 137 NE Second Ave., 954-421-6700. $-$$ The Pickle Barrel. DELICATESSEN Get in touch with your inner New Yorker at this old style deli complete with friendly guys behind the counter filling your sandwich with enough pastrami to feed a family. 33 E. Hillsboro Blvd., 954-427-0650 $ Olympia Flame. DINER With a traditionally huge diner menu, you can’t go wrong at the Olympia Flame. For a real treat, try the turkey pot pie. The friendly staff makes you feel like a regular — even if you aren’t — but you should be. 80 S. Federal Highway, 954-480-8402 $ The Sticky Bun. DELI • BAKERY • Brunch Everyone will find

something to munch on, whether it be their flourless chocolate cake or a short rib panini with fontina cheese and pickled red onions… yum. We’re still dreaming about the BLT. 1619 SE Third Court, 754-212-5569 $

Tropical Grill Island Cuisine. CARIBBEAN Don’t be fooled by POINT! PUBLISHING

the counter service at this beachside eatery where the offerings range from escovitch snapper to shrimp curry. Grab a table

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REALTOR® , CLHMS, SRES 954-683-3969 | PatWardPA@comcast.net www.South-Florida-Properties.com

Locally Owned & Operated since 1972

Best Prices in Town!

709 S. Federal Hwy., Pompano Beach

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954-946-7356 536 S. Dixie Hwy. East Pompano Beach

Last Resort

Whoa! New Mexico

LA FONDA ON THE PLAZA

CLOCKWISE La Fonda exterior, VIP Suite, cocktails at the bar, a guestroom and La Plazauela

Head west to Santa Fe and experience old-world charm at La Fonda on the Plaza, where modern conveniences blend with authentic New Mexican style. The hotel is located on the historic Santa Fe Plaza with easy access to shopping, entertainment, the arts and local attractions.

The hotel has 180 beautifully appointed guest rooms and suites — each includes original artwork, hand-crafted furniture with a Southwester flare.

Guests can also enjoy three classic New Mexican dining experiences, including a seasonal, outdoor cocktail bar.

If you are looking to relax even more, check out the hotel spa. And if that's not enough, you can always hit the bar and then enjoy dinner at La Plazauela situated on the hotel's original 1920's outdoor patio.

La Fonda has a long history going back 400 years. The current structure was built in 1922 and includes hand-carved beams, stained glass skylights and a cathedral ceiling.

As for Sante Fe, there are several museums and art galleries. For the more adventurous types, there are plenty of hiking trails, horseback riding, fishing and skiing. Or you can see the majesty of the West on the historic Cumbres Toltec Railroad, a 64-mile trip through canyons, desert and meadows available from May through Oct. 20.

Whether you want art, culture, history, adventure, or simply to kick back and relax, Sante Fe has it all.

La Fonda on the Plaza 100 E. San Francisco St., Santa Fe, New Mexico

For more about Insider Excursions and media travel visit insiderexcursions.com.

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DAILY HAPPY HOUR ENJOY 4PM-6PM DRINK SPECIALS AT THE BAR OUTDOOR PATIO SEATING AVAILABLE LIVE MUSIC ON WEEKENDS COMPLIMENTARY VALET

RESERVATIONS: 954-944-9515 OR OPENTABLE.COM 1200 N. Ocean Blvd., Pompano Beach - Located inside the Fort Lauderdale Marriott® Pompano Beach Resort & Spa

SFIOS South Florida Institute of Oral Surgery

SERVICES • Wisdom Teeth Extraction • Dental Implants • IV Sedation • Orthognathic Surgery (Corrective Jaw Surgery) • TMJ Surgery • Dental Extractions • Bone Graft and Reconstructions Pathology • Full Arch Restoration (Teeth in a Day) • Sleep Apnea • Facial Trauma • Cosmetic Surgery • Injectable Facial Cosmetics (Botox, Fillers)

Bringing world class smiles to South Florida!

Call 954.941.2727 1800 N. Federal Highway Suite 201 Pompano Beach, FL 33062

Mikhail Daya, DMD Board Certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon