Taste Of The Town: Matchbox Las Olas & Big Buns on Fort Lauderdale's riverfront
MIAMI - It's waterside views at two side-by-side restaurants on the riverfront in Fort Lauderdale. Matchbox Las Olas is a sleek casual, yet sophisticated spot serving up American fare. Steps away is Big Buns D**m Good Burgers, a fast casual restaurant featuring enormous burgers and more.
Both are owned by Thompson Hospitality, the largest minority owned hospitality group in the country. Founder Warren Thompson said South Florida is a perfect fit for growth.
"I fell in love with South Florida and with Fort Lauderdale about 35 years ago," said Thompson. "Once I started the company, I always wanted to bring restaurants to Fort Lauderdale, into South Florida. We were able to start that process about three years ago and now we're on a roll. We plan to have at least 15 restaurants here by the end of the year."
Thompson is self-made and grew up in a segregated school until he was in 5th grade. He believes hard work and philanthropy go hand in hand.
"Growing up in the southern part of Virginia as the son of two educators, my parents taught us at a very early age the importance of education and the importance of giving back to the community," Thompson explained.
"Our company provides over four million dollars a year and scholarships to deserving students who may not have the financial wherewithal to go to college," he added.
It's time for the tasting and Matchbox is famous for its sharable chef-crafted dishes. We began with the warm artichoke and spinach dip with mozzarella cream cheese and garlic.
"It's the ultimate comfort food," said Lisa Petrillo. "Cheesy and warm. It's like a big hug right there. A perfect way to start."
Next, popular for happy hour or 'social hour' as they say, is the arancini. It's fried balls of risotto with house-made tomato sauce.
"I've tried a lot of things. I've not tried fried risotto," said Petrillo. "I thought it was going to be heavy and it's not. It's light and crunchy and soft in the middle. All good things for social hour and more."
They next sampled the mountain of addictive, crunchy onion straws sitting on top of the nine tasty and sharable sliders, before heading next door to Big Buns, which specializes in more than a mouthful sized Angus beef burger, crazy good fried chicken sandwiches, shakes, and more.
Both restaurants are open 7 days a week.
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