Gluten-Free in South Florida

With an impressive though tidy wine/beer selection (plus sangria, champagne, and frozen mojitos), Coconut's is a charming little dockside restaurant on Fort Lauderdale's Intracoastal Waterway, a jump away from the crowds on the beach. The seafood-heavy menu is slightly fancier than at your average shoreside snack shack (ceviche; peel-and-eat shrimp; pork lollpops with honey hoisin glaze), so you'll see more polo-shirted yacht captains than thong bikinis here. Sunday's got an inventive brunch from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. with tasty but out-there entrees like shrimp and grits, and salami benedict. Unlike most beach hangouts, your dog is welcome here on the waterfront deck.

Fresh First is Fort Lauderdale's first place to earn the recognition of "Great Kitchen" by National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), and it caters to diets and lifestyles of all shapes and sizes. Owned by mother/daughter team Mary and Francesca Siragusa, the restaurant offers a wide variety of organic fare ranging from vegan and vegetarian to wild caught fish to free-range chicken. Everything in the spot is gluten-, corn-, and peanut-free as well as non-GMO. The menu spans from meat-based dishes like the mushroom turkey burger with local mozzarella to raw zucchini puttanesca with sprouted garbanzo beans, sprouted lentils, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, kalamata olives, and scallions in a garlic lemon sauce. Vegan chocolate chip cookies for dessert!

Havana's Cuban Cuisine should not be mistaken for Havana, the sister West Palm Beach favorite with the walk-up window. Yet this place, and its sibling in Cooper City that opened in 2010, is no less congenial. A sliding door recedes to usher customers into a room framed by espresso wood, corrugated metal accents, and plate-glass windows. It's a family-run restaurant for neighborhood folks, a welcome addition in an area replete with chain restaurants run by absentee corporate bosses. In the sabor Latino appetizer, two cigars of croquettes ooze with fresh ham salad when they're sliced open. Starchy fried yucca livens up in an herb dipping sauce. Caramelized onions garnish a heap of masa on a tamale. And a Venezuelan empanada pockets seasoned ground beef in a fried pastry, edged by hand. The ropa vieja, a Cuban mainstay of stewed beef with garlic and tomatoes over rice, is made special with a slow-cooked sofrito base. A terrific cafe con leche secures this as a spot that’s sure to stick around.