If you have lived in Pompano Beach for more than a couple of seasons, you already know the summer script. The winter crowd thins, parking opens up on A1A, and the town settles into something quieter. What has changed over the last two summers is what fills that quiet. Pompano now has two distinct centers of gravity that are worth paying attention to before the crowds return in November, and they are pulling in opposite directions on the map.
One is on the sand. The other is a mile inland on NE 1st Street. Both are still being built out, and this summer is when the seams show.
The Fishing Village is finally acting like a district
The six-acre stretch around the Fisher Family Pier has been an active redevelopment project since 2017, part of a plan the CRA started shaping in 2010. The list of tenants that opened during the build-out reads like a small dining directory: Beach House Pompano, Oceanic, Lucky Fish, Baresco, Kilwins, Cannoli Kitchen, Burger Fi, How You Brewin, and the dual-branded Hilton Tru/Home2 Suites hotel, all clustered around the pier and the aluminum-sailed parking garage.
For a long time, that list read like ambition on paper. This summer it reads like a working neighborhood. The pier itself, rebuilt to nearly double its width and elevated to handle sea level rise, stretches 900 feet over the Atlantic and stays open for fishing until 10 p.m. A $27 package at the Bait Shop covers a one-day license, rod, bait, bucket, knife, towel, and parking validation, which is a useful data point the next time an out-of-town friend asks what there is to do on a Tuesday night.
A few things worth knowing if you have not walked the promenade in a while:
- The Pier 6 Rooftop sits six stories up at 200 N. Ocean Blvd. and runs a Saturday "Tropic Nights" DJ set with Latin and open-format music. Summer hours skew late, with Fridays and Saturdays open until 11 p.m.
- The city's beachfront concession and public restroom rebuild, which broke ground last fall, is on track for a spring 2026 completion. The new kiosk will run daily with coffee and pastries in the morning and Greek-themed plates, burgers, and grab-and-go items through the afternoon.
- The free Circuit shuttle still connects the pier to the surrounding rental outfitters, which is the quietly useful piece for residents who would rather not move their car once it is parked.
The Fishing Village has moved past the "is this thing going to work" phase. Whether you go for a wood-grilled dinner at Beach House, a tiki drink at Lucky Fish with your feet in the sand, or a coffee walk before the sun gets serious, the density is finally there.
What is landing on East Atlantic next
The next wave of openings is a few blocks inland from the pier, at the Mayla Pompano development on East Atlantic Boulevard. Calaveras Cantina, which already runs locations in Boca Raton and Jupiter, has signed on for a 6,402-square-foot Mexican restaurant slated to open in 2026. For a stretch of Atlantic that has been trading on beach adjacency more than on a defined dining identity, a full-format cantina from a known operator changes the calculus for a weeknight out.
The fishing calendar also does more this summer than it gets credit for. The Bluewater Movements Saltwater Showdown, the third leg of the 2026 Pompano Beach Saltwater Circuit, runs August 13 to 16 with a $500,000 purse across the series. Boats stage out of Hillsboro Inlet, and if you live within a mile of the water, you will see and hear it. The two-day Pompano Beach Fishing Rodeo, a tradition since 1965, sails from the same inlet every May and is the older sibling event on the calendar.
The through-line here is that Pompano's beachfront is no longer a set of standalone attractions. Pier, promenade, restaurants, hotel, tournaments, and a rebuilt concession are starting to operate as a single district with its own rhythm.
Old Town is doing something different
Head west on Atlantic and cross the tracks, and the second anchor takes over. Old Town is where the CRA's Strategic Investment and Façade programs have been quietly seeding an arts-and-food district around Bailey Contemporary Arts at 41 NE 1st Street.
The most visible project in progress is The Vault, a restaurant and bar going into the old bank building at 61 NE 1st Street. The design leans into the address, keeping the original bank vault as a feature and wrapping the room in 1920s speakeasy detail, with murals nodding to the Ashley Gang bank robbery of 1924. Owner Jessica Spill-Chaples is using the CRA's façade program to cover part of the exterior improvements, which is the kind of public-private tell that usually predicts the next block of investment.
A few other pieces of the Old Town map that reward a walk:
- Bailey Contemporary Arts (BaCA) rotates gallery shows monthly and hosts docent-led tours during Untapped nights.
- Odd Breeds Wild Ales anchors the local craft-brew presence with wild and farmhouse ales.
- South Bar & Kitchen sits directly behind BaCA and hosts smaller acoustic gatherings between the larger monthly Untapped events.
Here is the seasonal detail that trips up newer residents. Old Town Untapped, the first-Friday block party with live music, food trucks, and craft beer at NE 1st and N. Flagler, runs a defined October-through-May season. It is on hiatus right now. The 2025-26 season closed out with Making Faces on June 5, and the next kickoff will not be until October. If you have been meaning to go, put a note on your calendar for the fall opener rather than driving down on a Friday in August.
The summer calendar residents actually use
Because Untapped is dark and the winter festival slate is months away, the summer calendar leans on a different set of anchors. Here is what is actually running between now and the fall.
| What | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| Saltwater Showdown (tournament) | Hillsboro Inlet | August 13 to 16 |
| The Amp summer concerts | 1806 NE 6th St | Rolling; check the Pompano Beach Arts calendar |
| Fisher Family Pier fishing | 900-foot pier, open until 10 p.m. | Nightly |
| Pier 6 Rooftop Tropic Nights | 200 N. Ocean Blvd. | Saturdays |
| Beachfront concession opening | South of the pier | Targeted spring 2026 |
| Old Town Untapped | 41 NE 1st Street | Returns October, first Fridays |
The Pompano Beach Amphitheater keeps a steady summer bookings pattern through its almost-3,000-seat covered venue. Toad the Wet Sprocket with Shonen Knife is booked for July 16, and the fall calendar continues into October and November before the winter season lights up.
What this looks like if you already live here
The version of Pompano Beach that gets sold to visitors is a single thing: a beach with a pier and some seafood. The version residents are living in this summer is a two-node neighborhood with a specific east-west grammar.
East, on the sand. A build-out that is finally cohesive. New restaurants finding their audience. A pier that stays lit until 10 p.m. A tournament calendar that treats Hillsboro Inlet as a working port, not a postcard. A concession rebuild that is going to make the swim-and-eat walk shorter next year.
West, in Old Town. An arts anchor at Bailey Contemporary Arts, a brewery scene led by Odd Breeds, a marquee restaurant under construction inside a former bank vault, and a monthly street festival that punches above the size of the block it uses. Most of it is asleep in August. Almost all of it wakes up in October.
The reason to notice both nodes now, in the quiet months, is that you can actually see the shape of them without a crowd on top. Walk the pier at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday. Drive Atlantic west of Dixie and look at the pace of construction around Mayla Pompano and The Vault. The next twelve months are going to close the gap between the two, and a lot of what defines Pompano Beach as a place to live for the next decade is being poured right now.
For residents who already know their street and their favorite coffee stop, the payoff is not that any single new opening will change your week. It is that the neighborhood you chose has developed enough range to keep you here for a different reason than the one that brought you in.
If you own in Pompano Beach and are curious what all this local investment is doing to values on your specific block, or if you are thinking about how the Fishing Village and Old Town build-outs shape a future sale, Hasnaa Boutros is happy to walk you through it. Get a Free Home Valuation and see where your home sits in the current market.
