Cheeseburger Baby photo
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South Beach’s last-call burger institution is getting pushed out. Cheeseburger Baby (CBB), the 25-year-old late-night staple at 1505 Washington Ave., is closing. According to owner Stephanie Vitori, she received a sudden notice to vacate by June 27, 2026.
Keyah Real Estate Group purchased the longtime SoBe building in 2024 for $20 million. It plans to replace it with a seven-story, 238-key hotel designed by Arquitectonica.
Screenshot via Instagram/@cheeeseburgerbaby
25 Years of Late-Night Miami
Vitori didn’t start as the owner. She started out as a delivery driver at CBB in 2001 and bought the place from the original owner, Tommy Pooch, in 2004. She built it into one of South Beach’s most enduring late-night fixtures (it even won New Times‘ Best Late-Night Dining 2022). Its burger window that ran from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. fed everyone from the after-shift industry crowd to Beyoncé, David Beckham, Dwyane Wade, Lamar Odom, and Anthony Bourdain.
Vitori announced the news on Instagram earlier this week, tagging a greatest-hits roster of celebrity regulars from Dwyane Wade to Beyonce to Guy Fieri. It was a public tribute to what the place had meant, and the comments came fast.
“I grew up coming here after nights at Cameo and all over South Beach,” wrote one follower. “Some places are bigger than food — they become part of your life story.” A former staffer wrote that CBB was “one of the best and funniest jobs I’ve ever had” and that Vitori “always came through for me when she didn’t have to.”
The Last Carrot photo
A Familiar Miami Story
The Miami Beach Planning Board and Historic Preservation Board were scheduled to review the development in July 2024. The incoming hotel will include a ground-floor restaurant and rooftop bar.
But Miami has been doing this for years. The Last Carrot in Coconut Grove shuttered in 2025 after 50 years, when its building came down for luxury condos, and Shuckers in North Bay Village, nearly 40 years in, was replaced by a hotel in 2024.
Cheeseburger Baby photo
Not an Ending
Vitori is not framing this as a goodbye. “This is NOT an ending,” she wrote on Instagram. “This is a transition.”
She’s promised “big news is coming, the kind that proves you cannot stop what we built” and that the next chapter “is going to be more Miami than ever.” No new location has been announced.
CBB is still open through June 27, running from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Cheeseburger Baby. 1505 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; cheeseburgerbaby.net. Closing June 27.
