Now Open: Hotdog Opolis in West Boca

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For years we’ve heard about a hot dog place on Federal Highway in East Boca. Lucky for us Hotdog Opolis just opened a West Boca branch on the north side of Glades Road just west of the Turnpike.
It’s next to the former Grill Time, which closed recently. This is the same plaza as Bagelworks and Party City, and just east of our friends at the International Jewelry Exchange.
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The interior is nothing special. You walk up front, order your food, and sit down at some simple tables. This was a “soft opening” and the drinks machine on the left wasn’t working yet. There were cans and bottles in the cooler on the right.
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The menu has a lot of choices, with various kinds of hot dogs and sausages, as well as burgers, salads and more. If you click on the image below you should be able to see more detail.
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You can order your hot dogs boiled or grilled. We tried a few items, including a large hot dog with Korean toppings, a regular dog with mustard, and onion rings.
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The hot dogs themselves were good. We would not do the Korean style again. We just like to experiment and this one wasn’t right for us. The onion rings were nothing special and we wouldn’t order them again, especially not with a $5 price tag.
But that’s just us being picky. We’re glad they’re here and will definitely come back and try some other items.
Here’s a closer look at the Korean dog:
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Multi-Car Crash on Palmetto Park: Photos & Video

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Earlier today there was a major accident on Palmetto Park Road, between Lyons Road and Boca Rio, just west of the Turnpike bridge. Official reports on the 8000 block or near 8300 West Palmetto Park. Our best estimate of the time was sometime around 6:15 or 6:20 pm. It was definitely before 6:30 but we’re not sure how much earlier.

Several readers sent us photos from the scene and two sent us videos, which we have put together into one video, below:

We enhanced the lighting and color in most of the photos.
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We were told this was a four-car crash but as we look at the photos and video we think at least five cars were involved. We count four in the middle of the roadway and one on the side of the road (the first one visible in the video, and also below).
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Despite the tremendous damage we see to the vehicles it is our understanding at this moment that none of the occupants were killed. However, it’s not clear yet if people have been severely injured in this accident or not. If they have, we hope that they take appropiate action by hiring a law firm (hopefully they will get one with a contingency agreement). Let’s just hope they have nothing worse than a scratch though. We are still waiting on confirmtion on what has happened to the people involved. Although we are aware that they have been taking to hospital, this could just be as a precaution and it is unclear about what has actually happened.

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The accident was identified as a “Mass Casualty Incident Level 1” which is actually the lowest level of such incidents, with 5-10 patients. Level 2 MCIs involve 11-20 patients and it goes up from there.
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Of course this incident had a major impact on traffic on Palmetto Park Road and nearby roads as well including Lyons. We hope to update readers in the near future with details about what actually happened.

Big Crash on Palmetto Park Road – Photos

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There was another major crash on Palmetto Park Road near the bridge over the Turnpike. Readers sent us several photos from the accident scene. The black vehicle hit a tree in the median and knocked it over. You can see the trunk of the tree in the roadway in the photo below.
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One reader who saw it happen said:
“It was terrible a car in the median. A car going east bound totaled. A car going west bound totaled too, and a whole palm tree in the middle of the street going west.”
Another said it looked like “the black car in the tree was traveling high speed and was cut off.”
Below is a shot of the second car, also badly damaged.
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The county scanner indicated a call around 5:30 pm which fits with the timing we have on this:
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Traffic on Palmetto Park westbound was backed up a long way for hours according to several readers, and confirmed by Google Maps:
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So far we haven’t heard about any injuries. We do see airbag deployments in both cars so hopefully injuries were not too bad.
From some accounts there may have been a third car involved but we’re not sure.
More photos below:
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Armadillo Cafe Coming to West Boca

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The former Red Lantern Chinese restaurant closed quietly several months ago. In its place we’ve learned Armadillo Cafe is coming soon to Piccadilly Square.
Piccadilly Square is on the north side of Glades Road just west of the Turnpike and the north end of Boca Rio Road.

We met with chef Kevin McCarthy and the plaza owners. They’re very excited. McCarthy previously ran the Armadillo Cafe in Davie, as well as Armadillo Beach in Dania Beach. They’re already hearing from past customers eager to visit the new place.
We saw a copy of the old menu from Armadillo Beach. Judging by that and our conversation we expect entree prices to start near or over $20 and possibly reach into $40 territory. Look for a southwest style with premium ingredients.
The plaza is also home to our long-time sponsor, International Jeweler’s Exchange.
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We don’t have a definite date yet but it may open in as little as two weeks. Get your taste buds ready!
More news will come soon from Piccadilly Square, but they weren’t ready to go into great detail on that yet.

Car Split in Two on Palmetto Park Road

Several readers reported to us about a devastating car wreck on Palmetto Park Road near the Turnpike and Boca Rio Road. A video of the scene is at bottom.
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You can see the two pieces of the car in the shot below:
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From what our readers tell us, the car was on the eastbound side and hit a tree just west of the Turnpike. Traffic was backed up westbound past Powerline when we checked around 5:30 pm. Red means traffic is slow or stopped.
Update from a reader:

The vehicle was driving eastbound at rapid rate of speed and appears to have been cut off by a car merging left from the middle lane yielding to a large yellow arrow directing 3 lanes of traffic down to one lane.
From the short deep skid marks the vehicle veered left and left the roadway, hit the curb, then became airborne with the drivers side door colliding with the large tree (which was was hit with so much force it split the tree in half and caused th tree to uproot). The force caused the car to stress split completely in half – not jaws of life.
I doubt the driver survived the crash even with a seatbelt or all airbags that were deployed. Very sad. And yes I am a Crash Investigator. It might be a good idea for this person to seek legal advice, personal injury attorneys usually provide useful information in times like these.

Further update from another reader:

My step dad actually saw the entire accident happen and he pulled over and got out of his car and ran to help the boy he was gushing blood from the side of his neck closer to the back and my step father along with a few brave others managed to stop the bleeding until the ambulance arrived the kid was in his 20s and was conscious and talking when he was taken away ….

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We looked at traffic again about 20 minutes before publishing this article and it had gotten better on Palmetto but there were still problems. We also saw problems westbound on Glades approaching the Turnpike, and southbound on I-95 on both sides of Palmetto Park Road.
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The car was cut into two pieces as part of the rescue effort. Here are a few more reader photos of the scene, with the video at the bottom of the page.
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We have not seen any information from Fire Rescue or PBSO so we do not have any more details at this time.