Miami’s best new restaurants of 2021 are pandemic success stories: Here are our favorites
Miami’s best new restaurants of 2021 are pandemic success stories.
Some started with out-of-work chefs popping up in the wake of 2020 shutdowns. Others opened despite the uncertainty of 2021. But all of them caught our attention with what matters most: great food and a unique vibe that adds to the landscape of Miami-Dade County as one of the most innovative and exciting places to dine out in America.
The only guide you’ll ever need to: Miami’s newest restaurants
The Miami area saw countless new openings. So I wanted to highlight some of the restaurants that truly brought something different to South Florida — not just the see-and-be-seen places filled with Instagram models during Art Basel. And not just outposts from out-of-town restaurant groups that opened here just because Florida was among the most open states during the pandemic.
I’ve included some openings from late 2020 because the last 18 months have felt like one long year. And places that endured 2020’s challenges and excelled should be celebrated.
These spots (in alphabetical order) are instant favorites.
Cervecería La Tropical
This new spot is proof you can thoughtfully meld a big, corporate-owned brewery with a local heart. Heineken backed Manny Portuondo’s dream of reimagining the Cuban beer brand La Tropical in Wynwood. The wide-open brewery with a sleek dining space highlights the Cuban and Caribbean fare made by locals Cindy Hutson and her husband, Delius Shirley, who founded the gone-but-not-forgotten Ortanique on the Mile. It’s a great hangout space with good food, good beer and a local’s vibe.
42 NE 25th St., Wynwood; 305-741-6991 or Cervecerialatropical.com
Chug’s
This is the version of the Cuban-American diner that chef Michael Beltran imagined when he first opened Chug’s in 2019. After a year-long expansion, it’s an all-hours diner, where you can get his cast-iron pancake for (all-day) breakfast, a shaved eye round pan con bistec with oxtail jus for dipping at lunch, a frita-stuffed pastelito from sous chef Gio Fesser for a snack, and Beltran’s upscale take on meatloaf for dinner. Oh, and cocktails until 2 a.m. on the weekends.
3444 Main Hwy., Coconut Grove; 786-353-2940 or Chugsdiner.com
Itamae
The expanded version of their food hall stall is more of what made the Chang family (dad Fernando and children Val and Nando) such a hit. There the James Beard award nominated siblings create possibly Miami’s best Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei cuisine, including a pulpo al olivo roll made with the catch of the day and avocados, topped with dime-thin octopus slices and their signature leche de tigre and minced red onion. They were handed the keys to the new spot the month restaurants started closing in 2020 and didn’t reopen until late November, but when they did, they unleashed all their creativity in a full-service restaurant. There’s nothing else like it in Miami.
140 NE 39th St., Design District; 305-631-2664. Itamaemiami.com
Luca Osteria
Giorgio Rapicavoli, Miami’s first “Chopped!” winner, gave Miami a piece of his heart with his new Italian restaurant, where he makes comfort food inspired by his Italian mother’s home cooking. Here he is prone to combine the freshest, unexpected and non-traditional ingredients just as he did for nine years at Eating House, which he is relocating two doors down in early 2022. That means ‘nduja “sausage” made instead with marinated tomatoes, a Bolognese of long-stewed short rib and perfectly al dente pasta like the amatriciana with rendered prosciutto. It’s skilled and unpretentious food served in a fun (if sometimes loud) setting along Giralda Plaza.
16 Giralda, Ave., Coral Gables; 305-381-5097. Lucamiami.com
Off Site
Thunderously crispy chicken sandwiches and locally brewed craft beer are just the start of what makes this new Little River brew pub an instant classic. Steve Santana (of Taquiza taqueria) and Adam Darnell (of the late Boxelder craft beer bar) partnered to create a place where you can have some of the best versions of scratch-made bar food you’ve ever had, from hot dogs to pretzels, at a cool bar that will soon start brewing its own beer. They call theirs “Super Good” chicken sandwiches and it’s not hyperbole.
8250 NE Second Ave., Little River; 786-360-4237 or Offsite.miami
Rosie’s/7th Café
The Overtown soul food pop-up Rosie’s grew out of a broken dream. Jamila Ross and Akino West, partners in life and business, had to close their Copper Door Bed & Breakfast during much of the pandemic — eventually for good. The silver lining was their impromptu restaurant, Rosie’s, where they cooked out of the hotel kitchen. Rosie’s lives on as a weekend pop-up at their new spot, 7th Cafe. The Monday-to-Friday spot focuses on breakfast and lunch, with freshly baked croissants and muffins, sandwiches with house-made pastrami, melty cheeseburgers and cornmeal crusted crispy fish sandwiches cribbed from Rosie’s. Their beloved Rosie’s will open as a separate restaurant in 2022 (and we imagine it will be among next year’s best spots), but until then as a weekend brunch spot with the same chicken and biscuits with apricot-lemon jam, grits with tomato coulis and vanilla-nutmeg waffles.
1951 NW 7th Ave., Miami; 305-454-9065 or https://www.toasttab.com/rosiesmia/v3/
United States Burger Service
There’s a reason Mikey Mayta and Keily Vasquez named their Citadel food hall spot United States Burger Service: It’s a version of fast food that actually delivers. Mayta, who worked for years with Michelle Bernstein, goes to painstaking lengths to create these deceptively simple-looking burgers. USBS’s special blend of beef is ground in-house, topped with their own Priority Sauce (a mayo-mustard base with a French onion soup flavor), a fontina-cheddar Government Cheese, and served on poppy seed buns Vasquez bakes.
Even the fries require four days preparation to fry up crispy, yet meaty on the inside. Gladly pay the $1 “Southern Tariff” for seasoned fries that come with Green Goddess dipping sauce.
8300 NE 2nd Ave., Little River (in the Citadel food hall); https://www.instagram.com/usbsmiami/
Zitz Sum
Pablo Zitzmann didn’t need to put up a sign at his new restaurant for it to be filled. The 43 seats inside are full every night of the week as diners eager for his particular take on Chinese dim sum gather in a tropically decorated speakeasy that feels like a secret between friends. A year ago, many of these same diners snaked out of the parking garage of Zitzmann’s Kendall apartment building, where he served homemade orders placed on Instagram out of his trunk. Now he serves dim sum that is expertly made by a chef influenced by everyone from his Mexican grandmother to the white-linen dining room at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s in a hidden Coral Gables spot.
396 Alhambra Cir., Coral Gables; 786-409-6920 or Zitzsum.com
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