Okay, so Pirate Republic is technically a seafood restaurant and not a dive bar. However, the atmosphere is similar to what you would find at a dive bar and I have a great story to share about it.

So my family and I went to Fort Lauderdale for my cousin’s 21st birthday a few years ago. I don’t think you guys would be at all surprised to know that my family is full of people who love a good party, which is how my cousin’s 21st birthday turned into a girl’s trip with all of my aunts and the two of us.
My cousin had been once before and fell in love with the city (and a boy she met that played guitar in a band at one of the bars). She also fell in love with Pirate Republic and wanted to relive the magic on her 21st birthday.

So, one night, we headed out to Pirate Republic. We didn’t have a car, so we took a taxi down to the strip where we stopped at a couple of shops and bars before hailing a pedicab to the restaurant. We rode along the water, past the palm trees and expensive yachts docked in front of even more expensive houses. Once we got to the bridge at the end of the strip, the pedicab driver told us that that was our stop. We were super confused because we were now on this dark sidewalk away from everything else on the strip. We used the maps on our phones to show us the directions to Pirate Republic across the bridge and decided to walk over.

At this point, there were only three of us – me, my cousin, and our family friend – and we made our way across the bridge. The other side of the bridge ended at a dark parking lot surrounded by warehouses and train tracks. We could tell this wasn’t really a place we wanted to be walking in the middle of the night, so we kept it moving quickly. We finally made it to Pirate Republic only to find out that they were closed!

One of the workers was heading home on his bike when he saw us walk up. He was pretty shocked that we had just walked all the way there and told us it wasn’t a good idea to walk back in the dark. Just behind him, was another man coming out of the restaurant to his car. He was a stout man with long, white hair and piercings donned in a leather jacket. As it turns out, he was the owner of the restaurant and offered to give us a ride back to the strip. Our family friend (who is 20 years a senior to myself and my cousin) immediately hopped into the car, while my cousin and I hesitated for a minute. Many episodes of Criminal Minds has taught us not to get in cars with strangers, especially a two-door Benz with no way of escaping. It took a lot of convincing from the worker and the owner for us to finally agree to accept the ride. Luckily, he truly was the owner and as he dropped us off at the strip, he offered my cousin a free meal for her birthday the next night if we wanted to come back to the restaurant.

After we made it back to the strip, we decided to head over to this hookah bar that I can’t remember the name of. We spent all night at the bar drinking and smoking hookah. At some point, we lost one of our aunts and she was found talking to some guys who were probably younger than I was. When we went to leave the bar, she was convinced we were going to let her leave with these guys to go hang out with them on their boat…yeah, right. I had to peel her away from them and we hailed a cab back to our hotel. There were six of us all together and we crammed into a cab, despite the cab driver’s protests. We had my cousin lay across everyone else’s lap in the cab and he finally agreed to drive us back.

The next night, we made it to Pirate Republic for dinner and we had such a wonderful time. When we entered the bar, there was a stage for live music and a swimming pool right in front of it. Obviously the bar was decorated with a huge, wooden pirate and all kinds of similar decorations. We were seated at a table right next to the water the owner came out to greet us and talked with us for a little while. He told us that his friends play music there on the stage sometimes and I could feel the same type of connection that can be found at dive bars – regular customers who came for happy hour, friends of the owner and staff that came to play and listen to music, and others like us who just wanted to experience a low key evening with good drinks and good company.