This South Dade BBQ spot has been serving Miami for 60 years. Is it the best in Florida?

Summer in Miami is a hot, steamy, sweaty business.

But if you really want to experience heat, try standing next to the smoker at Shiver’s Bar-B-Q.

Owner Michael Campbell acknowledges with a grin that the temperature of the back kitchen, where the smoker lives, is more than a little uncomfortable, especially on a July afternoon with a heat index north of 100. But the smoker is the vehicle through which the long-time Homestead restaurant churns out heaping (and crowd-pleasing) platters of meat.

Smoky ribs. Tender pulled pork. Sweet, dark burnt ends. Succulent chicken. Add a wealth of comfort-food side dishes both expected (cole slaw, collard greens, baked beans, hush puppies, corn on the cob, fries) and unexpected (cheesy hash browns, jalapeño grits, a stunning cornbread souffle). Try some of the best banana pudding you’ve ever tasted for dessert, and you will understand why customers have been lining up for a table for more than 60 years.

Campbell says a few things have changed since the old days — but not much.

“For the most part, the recipes have stayed the same,” he says. “We have added some stuff. But it’s still Southern barbecue.”

At a time when high-end restaurants from out of town are crowding locals out of the Miami market, when going out to eat means gritting your teeth as you pull out your credit card, Shiver’s is refreshingly affordable, a throwback to simpler dining times, from its red checked curtains and communal picnic tables to its reasonable prices. Sandwiches run between $12.99-$15.99 and are served with two sides. Hungrier diners can opt for bigger platters, which run $13.99-$18.29. A full rack of baby back ribs is $26.99.

Eat here, and you won’t go hungry. You may even have leftovers (if not, Shiver’s operates a thriving take-out business, with the take-out window right out front). And the food is reliable enough that earlier this summer, travel site Trips to Discover named Shiver’s one of top 15 barbecue restaurants in Florida to try this summer.

Located on South Dixie Highway less than a mile from that peculiar yet magical roadside attraction Coral Castle, the restaurant didn’t start out as Shiver’s. In 1957, E.L. “Shorty” Allen opened it as a second location of Shorty’s, with his friend Virgil Shiver as manager, according to food blogger Sef Gonzalez.

In 1960, Shiver bought the restaurant, and Shiver’s Bar-B-Q was born.

Terry Mowry (formerly Shiver) worked at the restaurant for her grandfather and father in the 1970s. As a high school student, she started out as a hostess and went on to work as a daytime cashier.

“On weekend nights, we had a line around the building,” she recalls.

Mowry no longer lives in Florida, but she still sneaks a peek at the menu online from time to time.

“It was totally different when my family had it,” she says. “They had four entrees — ribs or chicken, sliced beef or sliced pork. That was it! The sides were corn on the cob, cole slaw and French fries. My grandfather had a saying: ‘You get ’em in, you feed ’em, you get ’em out.’ And it worked.”

Campbell’s in-laws, Martha and Perry Curtis, took over the restaurant in 1988. When they retired about 15 years ago, Campbell, his wife Cindy and brother-in-law Brent Curtis took over, with Campbell manning the smoker.

The smoker was one of the biggest changes for Shiver’s, which used to operate an open-pit, wood-burning barbecue. After Hurricane Andrew devastated Homestead and South Dade in 1992, the open pit was no longer allowed and was replaced by the indoor smoker (Georgia Pig barbecue restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, also praised by Trips to Discover, claims to operate the only open-pit barbecue in South Florida)

The smoker “works just as well,” Campbell says.

Andrew also led to the death of the original Shivers sign. The building itself sustained tremendous damage in the storm, Campbell said, and Curtises had to rebuild much of it. They sold hot dogs out of the restaurant after the storm, he reports, until things could get back to normal.

Campbell’s own contributions to the Shiver’s legacy are not inconsiderable. He created a special pepper sauce for diners who like a little kick to their smoked meat. Shiver’s also serves a sweet sauce, which is the most popular, and a Carolina-style mustard-based sauce. Want the best of all possible worlds? Squirt a combination of all three onto your meat and see if that’s not just a little bit of heaven.

Campbell also brought back the original cole slaw recipe and added some of the new side items, said manager Susan Fiorentino, who has worked at Shiver’s “just shy of 30 years,” so long ago that when she started, the restaurant didn’t even have air conditioning. (The task of moving around the dining room carrying hot plates has improved considerably since that change, she reports).

Fiorentino worked with Campbell’s in-laws but credits Campbell with keeping Shiver’s alive and relevant to locals as once-sleepy Homestead continues to grow.

“Michael has brought this restaurant up from what it used to be,” she says. “He’s really an amazing person. He’s done a lot. If it wasn’t for him, we probably wouldn’t be here.”

Shivers

Where: 28001 S Dixie Hwy., Homestead

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 am.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday

More information: shiversbbq.com or 305-248-2272