Best Brewery (Miami) 2023 | Prison Pals Brewing Co. | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Miami | Miami New Times
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Prison Pals Brewing Co. photo

Prison Pals Brewing Co. began making beer in March 2020 without a taproom but has gone on to cement Miami's position on the craft beer map. Earlier this year, the Doral brewery made national headlines when it was awarded a bronze medal in the 2023 Beer World Cup for its Nelson Hazy IPA, a smooth and easy-drinking IPA brewed with seven pounds of Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops per barrel. It's a significant achievement for the two-year-old brewery that began as a passion project by Argentine friends CEO Juan Pipkin and brewmaster Diego Setti. Today, Prison Pals offers a growing list of experimental brews and true-to-style lagers and ales, including the La Colorada amber ale, Dorada Pampeana blonde ale, Cielito Lindo Mexican lager, and Born to Be Free pale ale. The original Doral taproom and its sister taproom in Oakland Park provide an ever-changing selection of Setti's experimental one-off brews, including Setti's smoothie series: high-ABV sour ales treated with 35 to 40 percent fruit. Among the most popular is Aloha, a nod to one of Setti's favorite smoothies in Argentina, which blends pineapple, ginger, and mint.

Photo courtesy of La Sandwicherie

It's 4 a.m., and you crave turkey and brie on a fresh French baguette or prosciutto and mozzarella on a toasted croissant. Anywhere else, you might be hard-pressed to fulfill that craving at that hour. But since 1988, La Sandwicherie has been serving gourmet and custom-made sandwiches to Miami's night owls and partygoers until 5 a.m. Originally in Miami Beach, the sandwich haven has expanded to Brickell, Wynwood, Coral Gables, and North Beach. You can choose from various deli meats, smoked salmon, pate, and cheeses on a baguette or buttery croissants to cure your midnight cravings. If you are in the mood for antioxidants, don't worry; La Sandwicherie has fresh fruit smoothies, too.

Royal Palm Grill is worth the journey to Homestead. It's located in a former drugstore that once had a soda fountain counter in the '50s. Today, it offers traditional diner food, with three-egg omelets, pancakes, and biscuits & gravy. Sometimes the chef/owner will offer some fun, off-menu items, like Cap'n Crunch french toast. Bypass the open dining room in front and head to the classic diner counter, where you can watch the specials roll out of the kitchen. It's the perfect way to start any visit to the Redlands, Everglades National Park, or the Florida Keys.

If a coffee cup filled with feathery scrambled eggs topped with peaks of Hollandaise foam and offered with points of Cuban tostada for dipping sounds like the ideal way to begin a Miami morning, then make like Gianni Versace, who used to walk to News Cafe every morning. Reopened after the pandemic shut it down, this historic café offers inventive breakfast fare — think piña colada pancakes with grilled pineapple — and trendy items, ranging from avocado or ricotta toast to chicken and waffles. For thirst-quenching, freshly made juice blends and mocktails abound, as do bubbly and bloody concoctions that hit just right before a day on the beach.

R House takes the brunch experience to new heights with drag queens in six-inch stilettos. R House owners Rocco Carulli and Owen Bale curate one of Miami's most electric experiences every Saturday and Sunday and have even refurbished their restaurant with a huge outdoor patio and rearranged the indoor dining room so everyone can have a prime viewing spot of show producer Athena Dion and her queens being fierce and fabulous. R House offers prix-fixe meals served family-style (with some vegan options) to anyone 18 and older and bottomless mimosas, mojitos, soft drinks, or sangria to the 21 and up crowd. Now more than ever, it's important to support the art of drag, and there's no more enjoyable way than by bringing all your friends to dance, twerk, eat, and enjoy the incredible talent of these fierce performers.

Photo courtesy of Mitch's Downtown Bagel Cafe

When Mitch Shidlofsky relocated to South Florida from New York, the idea was to make a better life for his growing family. After operating a series of delis in Broward County, Shidlofsky created his concept, Mitch's Westside Bagels, which opened in Weston in 2002. The place would become a local institution, offering locals his take on classic deli dishes, many of which were built on fresh-baked bagels. Nearly 20 years later, Shidlofsky's son Adam joined his dad in the bagel-making arena with the 2021 debut of Mitch's Downtown Bagel Cafe. Here, the Shidlofsky father-and-son duo features an all-new spin on the traditional New York-style bagel shop, with an expanded menu that highlights all-day breakfast sandwiches built on an assortment of fresh-baked, handcrafted bagels that include gluten-free options as well as bialys.

Photo by Nicole Danna

When you ask Robert Sandler, the mastermind behind the Outrageous Bagel Company, what makes his bagels "outrageous," his answer is simple: it's the selection. His Kendall establishment boasts an impressive collection of 25 flavors made from scratch and baked fresh daily. While you can find traditional toppings like sesame, garlic, onion, or that wonderful amalgamation of all three in "everything," bagel aficionados come here for inventive concoctions, like the savory sundried tomato, fruity guava, cheesy cheddar herb, or the indulgent triple cinnamon bagels. But the DIY bagel adventure doesn't end there: Dozens of housemade spreads expand flavor potentials exponentially, including the garden veggie and scallion cream cheese to the more novel flavors like honey almond, strawberry, and decadent honey butter.

Max'd Out photo

Miami native Max Santiago cut his chops helping to open the Salty, but his drive to push the doughnut to the max motivated him to pursue his aptly named venture, Max'd Out Donuts. After years of consulting, pop-ups, and plenty of R&D, Santiago opened the bright and cheery shop earlier this year in North Miami Beach, pedaling nothing but coffee, tea, and the chef's pastry-inspired doughnuts and doughnut holes made from a proprietary 24-hour raised brioche dough that took years to perfect. While the menu offers an endlessly rotating selection of Santiago's ongoing recipe creations, there's always a vegan and gluten-free option to please every palate. You can't go wrong with his "O.G." glazed, prepared with whole vanilla bean and rich buttermilk. Come early for regular menu favorites like the café con leche roll, a deep-fried cinnamon roll with layers of espresso grounds and a glaze made with café con leche topped with a cream cheese glaze, or the key lime pie doughnut, a homage to Florida's unofficial dessert, complete with tangy key lime custard and a key lime glaze-topped torched meringue.

Photo courtesy of Caracas Bakery

Jesus and Manuel Brazon might be related, but their passion for bread bonded the father and son together with the launch of Caracas Bakery. In 2020, their disparate paths merged when they opened a business allowing them to deliver Doral's Venezuelan community with baguettes and ciabattas that combine the best French baking techniques with Venezuelan recipes. Today, alongside head chef Valentina Rodriguez, the team continues crafting some of Miami's most sought-after baked goods. The menu, which has grown considerably with the opening of its MiMo café location (7283 Biscayne Blvd., Miami), features a variety of bread, pastries, and a list of breakfast- and lunch-inspired sandwiches or small toasts served on fresh-baked baguettes with chewy slices of campesino. But it's the bakery's pastry program that showcases the Venezuelan spin. While the usual suspects like the guava and cheese Danish, apple turnovers labeled as pastel de manzana, and Nutella or pastry-stuffed cruffins are stellar, don't miss their take on the sweet, Latin American-style sticky buns known as golfeados, often accented with tropical fruits, raw sugar, or cheese. Try the popular cachitos, flaky pastries filled with ham, cheese, or both for a savory option. (Note: A third location in Aventura is said to be in the works.)

Photo courtesy of Cortadito Coffee House

"From Cuba, with coffee." That's Cortadito Coffee House's motto, and this modern-day ventanita, with three outposts across Miami-Dade, has become a sort of Cuban Starbucks. Don't worry, each location serves all the traditional coffees (americanos, cappuccinos, and lattes) but offers whimsical Cuban concoctions, like the caramel flan- and tres leches-flavored iced lattes; the Cafe Bon Bon, combining espresso and condensed milk; and the Ms. Eva, with espresso and evaporated milk. Stay tuned for a new location opening soon in Brickell.

Best Of Miami®

Best Of Miami®