Fourteenth Street is the Janis Joplin of Downtown. She came into some money, her legs are wide open, everybody's welcome, and she's down to party. Here's a new notch in her belt.
DRB Miami (255 NE 14th Street, between NE Second and Biscayne) is a bar and restaurant that just opened across the street from the Arsht. The DRB, which stands for Democratic Republic of Beer, has 400 bottled stouts, malts, pilsners, lagers, and more from around the world, and they're gonna be open from 11 a.m. to 5 a.m. seven nights a week.
Co-manager Giorgio Saumat says "We're doing a good portion of our business late at night. Our cheapest beer is $2 for a PBR, which is crap, or we have Deus, from Belgium, which is $40. We have 400 beers, wine, champagne, a full restaurant menu, and all the beer and food is broken down by country."
The owner of The DRB, the guy who put up the money to make it happen, is a mysterious dude named Lorenzo. Giorgio says "He's a very wealthy guy who doesn't want any recognition." All the tasks of managing daily operations fall on co-managers Giorgio, and Sean.
The DRB is starting a web enabled promotion that plays on its worldly theme. Giorgio says "We have this passport idea where you can use the web to track the countries you drank from, collect stamps from each country, and earn levels, badges and citizenship."
Gita Shonek (pictured at top of post), a local artist, says, "I heard about this place on Thrillist, then I saw a review on Yelp, and I love beer, so I came."
The friend Gita is with says "Years and years ago my friend used to manage this when it was just an apartment building. There used to be prostitutes outside the window. It's good this place is here, it's one of the only ones still around."
As for a beer recommendation, management suggests "Koestritzer. It's a dark beer, but it doesn't taste so dark., It's a cool beer to drink."
"We also have Kwak, Bischoff, Lucky Beer from China with the cool Buddha shaped bottle."
"The menu is still changing for the food. We gonna have our grand opening in about 2 weeks."
Log on to www.drbmiami.com for more info.
