Fort Lauderdale's Keg on Sixth to Become Riverside Market South

Three weeks ago, the Facebook page for the Keg on Sixth posted a succinct and final message: "The keg is closed."

The off-the-beaten-path restaurant at 3218 SE Sixth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale lived a fairly prolific life of about a year, giving those who frequented the airport area somewhere decent to eat and have a pint or two of not-terrible craft beer. For 2014's American Craft Beer Week, it even hosted a bad-ass Stone Brewing Co. beer-and-cheese pairing.

Almost a year ago today, we talked with owners Eddie McNerney and Richard Carmichael about the place, dishing on their burgers, fried chicken, and curried cauliflower. It even snagged Best Neighborhood Bar in our 2014 Best Of issue.

The unexpected closure was... well... unexpected.

But like the phoenix rising from the ashes, Fort Lauderdale's husband-and-wife craft beer team Julian and Lisa Siegel, owners of the famed Riverside Market, will be taking over the space and plan to open Riverside Market South at the location this summer, targeting a late June opening. With a somewhat expanded food menu thanks to the extra kitchen space at the new location, Riverside Market will offer some of its signature dishes like fish tacos and the North Fork sandwich. The space will feature more than 300 craft beers by the bottle and 28 on draft and will be open for lunch and dinner.

"Riverside Market has reached a period of necessary expansion for quite some time now," Julian Siegel says. "We have been searching for additional locations for years. We did not want a mainstream location, so it made our search more and more difficult.

"This new location, an old converted gas station, came almost equipped, as its previous use was a restaurant. The new location is not as hidden as the original Riverside, there are no parking challenges, and we will have fun adding the Riverside touches. We plan on maintaining our honor system with the self-service bottles and a cutting-edge draft selection. We will be closer to the port, the airport, the marine industry and should be ready... in June."

The new Riverside Market South will be located at 3218 SE Sixth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. The team plans to keep the world up to date with progress and updates on the new location at facebook.com/theriversidemarket.