Season Reached the Strip South of Sea Ranch Lakes First. Commercial Boulevard Runs Into 2027.

On Thursday, October 15, two clocks in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea ran out on the same day. The Florida Department of Transportation gave final acceptance to its A1A resurfacing job, and Florida's 2026-27 stone-crab season opened. Within days, Even Keel Fish Shack on Commercial Boulevard had hundreds of reservations for its all-you-can-eat claws.

For a village with a few hundred homes and no commercial district inside its gate, that strip around Commercial Boulevard and A1A works as the downtown. The coast end of it is ready for season. The boulevard leading in from the west is still a work zone, and FDOT's own schedule keeps it that way into early 2027.

October 15 Closed One Project and Opened a Season

The A1A project is finished. FDOT's project page gives its limits as Flamingo Avenue to south of Pine Avenue, inside the Town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, with a start date of January 5, 2026. The $2,638,158 job milled and resurfaced the road and replaced crosswalks. It also added in-pavement lighting at the Hibiscus Avenue crosswalk, upgraded pedestrian signals at signalized intersections, and redid sidewalks, curb ramps, markings and signage. FDOT's October 16 Broward traffic report lists it as "Project Final Accepted October 15" and gives the traffic impact as "All lanes open."

The work ran about nine months, from January through mid-October, which took in the quieter summer stretch. It wrapped up just as the strip's busiest food season began.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that the 2026-27 season runs from October 15 through May 1. Its season-opening story was built largely around Even Keel Fish Shack. Seafood wholesaler Vinny Morris told the paper, from Even Keel's parking lot, that "the storm churned up the seas and moved crabs straight into the traps." He meant Hurricane Isaias, which hit the Gulf Coast about a week before the opening day.

What $99 Buys at Even Keel Fish Shack

Even Keel, at 112 Commercial Boulevard, is running a $99 all-you-can-eat stone-crab special. Co-owner David MacLennan told the Sun Sentinel that the price is the same as last year, even though "the first hauls are usually more expensive." He added a useful benchmark: "The average person's going to eat 2 pounds anyway, about 12 medium claws."

The same story listed per-pound prices from around the region at the start of the season. They show what those 2 pounds cost when you crack them at home.

Using MacLennan's 2-pound average, the same amount of medium claws bought by the pound runs about $44 to $80 depending on the seller, before any cracking. The $99 special costs less than the $105 all-you-can-eat special that Catfish Deweys in Oakland Park offered on opening Monday, according to the paper.

Prices will move over the next seven months. Wholesaler Peter Jarvis of Triar Seafood told the Sun Sentinel that diesel costs are keeping prices up, and that prices would only fall if production outran demand. For a local, the opening week sets the baseline for the rest of the season, and the baseline this year is flat.

The Road In Stays a Work Zone Until Early 2027

The finished A1A project ends where the unfinished one starts. FDOT's resurfacing and Intelligent Transportation System project on State Road 870, which is Commercial Boulevard, runs from Powerline Road east to A1A/North Ocean Drive. It costs $25,712,321, almost ten times the A1A job, and its listed completion is early 2027.

The scope explains the longer timeline. Besides repaving, it includes:

• New traffic-system devices, plus upgraded Adaptive Traffic Signal Control cameras and Dynamic Messaging Signs along the corridor
• A new mid-block pedestrian crosswalk at Commercial Boulevard and NE 26th Avenue
• Mast-arm signals replacing span wire at Woodlands Boulevard
• New LED fixtures on existing light poles and additional poles for nighttime visibility
• Upgraded sidewalks, driveways, curb ramps, markings and signage

The closure windows are what affect a dinner reservation. The October 16-23 report allows up to two lanes closed intermittently in either direction between University Drive and A1A from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and again nightly from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. The same windows apply to side streets along the corridor. The overnight window opens at 7 p.m., which is right when the Commercial Boulevard dinner crowd shows up. The windows change from week to week, so FDOT points drivers to FL511 for live conditions.

Trips from Sea Ranch Lakes that stay on A1A, going north or south along the coast, now use a newly finished road. Trips that head west on Commercial toward the mainland go through the active project.

One Door Opened on Commercial, Two Are Still Closed

The newest addition sits on the boulevard itself. QSR Magazine reported that Skinny Louie, a smash-burger chain, would open at 107A East Commercial Boulevard on October 9 at 6 p.m. Its location page now shows online ordering and hours of 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. That makes it one of the later kitchens near the beach end of Commercial.

North on the oceanfront, Sea Watch on the Ocean at 6002 North Ocean Boulevard closed for a summer renovation. As of mid-October, its website still calls the restaurant temporarily closed and promises a return "this fall," with no date given. Its reopening is the open question in the strip's dining season.

Closer to the gate, Sea Ranch Centre at 4703 North Ocean Drive is the 98,870-square-foot shopping center just north of Commercial Boulevard. Its tenants include Publix, CVS, Dollar Tree, First Watch and Pika Fusion Cuisine. Kimco's property page lists a 2,180-square-foot unit marked "Former Restaurant" and a 1,536-square-foot space as available. The grocery and pharmacy anchors are in place for the season, and a former restaurant space sits on the availability list.

The Calendar From Here

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea's events calendar fills the weeks while the boulevard work continues, and most of it takes place a few blocks off Commercial:

• Veterans Day Celebration: Wednesday, November 11, 10 to 11:30 a.m., El Prado Park, 4500 El Mar Drive
• Christmas By-The-Sea: Wednesday, December 2, 5 to 8 p.m.
• Farmers' Market: Sundays from December 6, 2026, through May 2, 2027, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., El Prado Park

The farmers' market season ends May 2. Stone-crab season ends May 1, the day before. For about five months the two overlap, and every Sunday market morning except the final one on May 2 falls within the claw season. For anyone who wants the season-opening crab celebration in festival form, the Sun Sentinel notes that the South Florida Seafood Festival runs November 8 at Miami's Wynwood Marketplace. FDOT's early-2027 target for Commercial Boulevard puts the end of that project inside the same stretch, after the first several months of the season have already gone by on a road under construction.

Seasonal owners away until winter, and anyone weighing how the Commercial Boulevard work affects a Sea Ranch Lakes home this season, can reach the team at Gilles Rais Fine Homes. We keep track of these streets block by block and can give you a local read on timing, access and presentation. Request a Private Consultation.