Sports bars, bull riding and cocktails: Dolphin Mall gets an entertainment makeover
Miami’s Dolphin Mall is getting a bit of a makeover, thanks to a massive new entertainment complex that combines popular national hot spots and a little bit of hometown Cuban flair.
From Live! Hospitality and Entertainment and Taubman Realty Group comes Vivo! Dolphin Mall, a 62,000-square-foot dining and entertainment space, scheduled to open this summer at the Sweetwater mall, which already has a movie theater and bowling alley.
The new venues will incorporate a vacant building and will be located near the parking lot at the mall’s entrance and omnipresent Cheesecake Factory. Don’t worry. That dessert-happy behemoth isn’t going anywhere. The cheesecakes are safe, even if your good eating habits aren’t.
What’s coming is the enormous Sports & Social, a dining, drinking and sports viewing establishment that includes three bars and live music and entertainment. There are arcade games, foosball tables and a 50-foot LED screen that can show simultaneous games and matches, with fan live cams, competitions and sound and lighting effects on game day.
Imagine the Heat’s Jimmy Butler laying 56 points on an opponent in this atmosphere, and sirens going off every time he scores. Almost as good as being at the arena.
For dinner, you won’t have to stick to wings (though you’re allowed to stick to wings, because there is not one thing wrong with them). Curating the menu is James Beard nominee Chef John Suley, who will oversee lunch, dinner and brunch selections. Think crispy kataifi-wrapped shrimp, cacio e pepe arancini, truffle mushroom flatbread and beef barbacoa tacos. There’s a Nashville hot chicken sandwich, too.
Next door to the huge sports bar concept is PBR Cowboy Bar, perhaps a foreign concept to beautiful Sweetwater. That “PBR” stand for a partnership with the Professional Bull Riders, the world’s top bull riding organization, an entity no one in Miami ever knew existed until this very moment.
Cowboy and country music-driven bars are hard to come by in Miami, but Judy Moore, senior vice president for Live! Hospitality, said that’s what makes the location perfect.
“Miami has a lot of amazing hospitality and so many great night clubs and fun places,” she said. “But there’s no real cowboy bar. We’re bringing the ultimate cowboy bar experience.”
Yes, that means big-time country entertainment sometimes — some of the 10 other PBR Cowboy Bars around the country have hosted such stars as Luke Bryan and Old Dominion. The entertainment runs the gamut from mechanical bull riding to VIP bottle service, with two separate bars providing the drinks.
PBR Cowboy Bar and Sports & Social open onto Vivo! Plaza, a gathering spot for events, festivals and watch parties, lawn games with picnic tables and lounge seating. The Blue Moon Garden Bar and a Miller Light Bar will serve drinks, while local hero Sergio’s Cuban American Kitchen will offer Miami favorites like croquetas and pan con lechon. Moore says there will also be a rotating series of food trucks at the plaza, too.
What Moore’s most excited about is an import from Maryland. Crush Bar will serve up that state’s signature drink: fresh squeezed juice and your choice of booze over crushed ice. This will be crucial when it’s hot, which is always.
Moore said that Vivo! hopes to lure tourists — who love the Dolphin Mall — and locals alike.
“There are so many things to do in Miami, but this is an opportunity for people living here not to have to drive all the way there for quality food and beverages and entertainment,” she said. “We’re hoping locals will come for happy hour — it’s a great after-work spot. This entertainment district has something for everybody.”
Vivo! Dolphin Mall
Where: 11401 NW 12th St., Miami
Opening: Summer 2023
