City pushes for culinary district in Oakland Park

As the City of Oakland Park pushes to galvanize its downtown, a new culinary arts district – with markets, cooking schools and restaurant – is being proposed.

With the success of Funky Buddha Brewery, the city now sees a way to revitalize old buildings along Dixie Highway north of Oakland Park Boulevard. And businesses are buying in, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Stork’s Bakery plans to open adjacent to the Funky Buddha in a few months and the Urban Farming Institute at Jaco Pastorius Park will start planting crops this fall.

And that’s not all.  Allied Kitchen & Bath is bringing a designer showroom and restaurant to a block-long building in the district in March; Oak Park Project, a European-style central market, is considering setting up shop behind Funky Buddha; and Agora Market Place, an 8,000-square-foot specialty Greek market, expects to open early next year.

“It could really blossom, and that’s what we’re anticipating to happen,” Joe Feinberg, who owns Allied Kitchen & Bath, told the newspaper. [Sun-Sentinel] – Christopher Cameron