Photo by Jessica Vilchez
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A wildly popular Coconut Grove bakery is coming to Fort Lauderdale, and fans are already ecstatic. Beloved bakery and café, Ophelia, is opening its first Broward County location this fall. It will take a spot inside Huizenga Park in downtown Fort Lauderdale, the 3.6-acre riverfront park that reopened in January after a $15 million transformation.
It’s a major move for an operation that runs out of a retrofitted RV in a parking lot. Located at 2140 S. Dixie Hwy., it may only have a few seats under an oak tree next to the lot, but that only adds to its charm. The Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority is calling Ophelia its second concessionaire at the park.
Photo by Jessica Vilchez
What’s on the menu
Ophelia makes nearly everything in house, think breads, pastries, syrups, and cold foams. The coffee-glazed cinnamon roll is the star of the menu. And there’s also the fan-favorite brown sugar cinnamon latte with vanilla cold foam.
The rest of the menu goes from banana walnut bread with cream cheese frosting to olive oil loaf cake. Plus, pistachio crumb cake, gouda jalapeño scones, bacon and Swiss focaccia, and a guava kouign-amann. In Fort Lauderdale, all of it comes with grab-and-go breakfast and lunch daily.
Photo by Jessica Vilchez
From Stubborn Seed to a parking lot on U.S.1
Husband-and-wife chefs Ana De Sa Martins and Juan Vieira run Ophelia. They met working at Stubborn Seed, and De Sa Martins picked up a StarChefs Miami Rising Star award for pastry in 2025.
Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, she moved to New York in 2011, trained at the Institute of Culinary Education, found pastry during a study abroad in Alsace, and spent two years at Patisserie Chanson under Rory Macdonald before coming to Miami during the pandemic to build the pastry program at Jeremy Ford’s Stubborn Seed. Vieira moved to Miami from Colombia at 3 and started working in kitchens at 16, going on to Barton G, The Surf Club by Thomas Keller, and Stubborn Seed. He was executive chef at Beauty and the Butcher before running a sandwich pop-up while recovering from an Achilles injury.
They launched Ophelia out of the RV on May 29, 2025, and a line formed within the first hour of its opening.
“South Florida isn’t just Miami,” Vieira said in the announcement. “What’s happening in downtown Fort Lauderdale right now is as exciting as anything we’ve seen, and Huizenga Park is at the center of it. We didn’t want to watch this one from a distance.”
Photo by Jessica Vilchez
Who else is feeding the park
Huizenga Park reopened Jan. 22 after a five-year redo, and Fort Lauderdale Magazine named it Best Park and Best Outdoor Space this year. The DDA says it drew more than 100,000 guests in its first five months.
Ophelia joins Mr. Smash Burger, which opened inside the park in December, and Sweetwaters, the 291-seat waterfront restaurant from the Rusty Pelican’s owners, also due this fall.
Ophelia. Huizenga Park, 32 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; instagram.com/ophelia.miami. Opening fall 2026. Coconut Grove location at 2140 S. Dixie Hwy., Miami.
