It’s Friday night and I’m still working. HELLO January, hello busy season. I’ll leave this meme below, but it’s not coming…it’s here.
I did have the opportunity to spend my last couple of days of “Christmas break” in a nice warm place and spent approximately all of the hours that the sun was up outside. It was glorious and made coming back to work that much harder.
This was my second trip to Miami and it was a little sister, sister time with my baby sis. We soaked up some rays and ate a lot of food and that’s about it. We stayed at this ADORABLE boutique-y hotel called the Gale South Beach. I picked it because it is a Hilton hotel and I’m a Hilton member, but it was my first stay in a Curio Collection hotel. We absolutely loved everything about it from the decor to the breakfast to the ahhhmazing rooftop pool. One of the benefits of your stay is that you also have access to chairs and umbrellas at the beach, but we didn’t ever leave the pool.
Generally, I try to give the “best things to do,” but as I said, this trip was all food so today we are doing a “best places to eat and drink.” I won’t share the ones we didn’t love and there are TONS of places on my list (still trying to figure out how we even ate all this food).
The Front Porch Cafe
I’ve been here twice, once for lunch and once for breakfast. The food is really good and it’s not too expensive! You can sit outside right on a deck on the street. Super cute!
Lincoln Road Mall
The Lincoln Road Mall is a pedestrian street surrounded by shops and restaurants with loads of outdoor tables down the middle of the street. You can find quick bites or nicer restaurants and lots of happy hour options!
Time Out Market
I’ll spend a little more time talking about the Time Out Market because we made two trips here. The Time Out Market opened only about 7 months ago and is a food hall, home to 17 kitchens and 3 bars. The kitchens are hand-curated with well-known local restaurants and chefs serving small but delicious menus.
For starters, we were in Miami Beach for New Year’s Eve and didn’t want to do anything “too Miami-y” or too expensive. Jonas Brothers were at the Fountainbleau and Marshmello was at LIV Miami but tickets were ridiculously expensive! We found the tickets for Time Out Market that were a mere $95 each. This included a $50 TOM card to use at any of the restaurants or bars and unlimited drinks. Not a bad deal. We ate and ate on NYE and still had $40 left on the gift cards between the two of us, so we went back the next day for lunch and dessert. We tried food from 6 vendors between the two days and enjoyed every bite.
Pizza Bar
We needed a quick dinner one night while we got ready to go out and so I ran across the street to the Pizza Bar to grab a couple of slices of pizza. I almost ordered 4 and was so glad I only ordered a slice each once they came out because the slices were bigger than our heads! The restaurant slogan is “size does matter” and it lives up to whatever reputation it has for big-ass pizza slices.
STK South Beach
We went to STK for happy hour, since we didn’t feel up for a big steak dinner. The happy hour menu has quite a lot of options and the drinks were a great deal (compared to your usual Miami Beach drink prices). The food portions are small, but it gave us the chance to sample a few different things. We also splurged for the (full-price) passionfruit cheesecake with mango sorbet and it was v delicious.
Yardbird Southern Table and Bar
I’m actually bringing this back from my first trip, but the food was too good not to add to the list. Fried chicken and biscuits and mac and cheese, oh my!
Bleau Bar at Fountainbleau Miami Beach
The Fountainbleau is a well-known Miami Beach hotel so it’s a spot that you don’t want to miss. I went on my first trip and was excited to see it when watching the third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel a few months back! The Bleau Bar is right in the lobby and is such a fun place to sit and have a drink and people watch. Drinks are quite pricey, though, so plan ahead.
LIV Nightclub
If you want to experience Miami Beach, you should definitely plan a trip to at least one nightclub. LIV is one of the more popular (and to be honest the only one that I know of). I would have loved to be there on NYE for Marshmello, but as I said, tickets were through the roof! We went on New Year’s Day to see Steve Aoki and it was so much fun!
PSA for all non-nightclub goers (learn from my mistakes, y’all): doors open at 11:00, which really means 11:30ish. If there is a headliner, they won’t go on until closer to 2:00 am. Silly me thought Steve Aoki would be going on at 11, so my sister was mad at me when we got there super early. It was all grandmas up in the house with our fam! The dance floor got so packed that it was unbearable, so we walked around and lucked out on some seats at an empty table for Steve Aoki. Most of the tables were booked up, though, so there is limited seating. Drinks are also hella expensive. I think it’s a fun experience for one night though!
What are your favorite things to do or places to eat in Miami for my next trip?
