9 Spots To Make You Fall In Love With South Beach Again

The Abbey is flanked by the Lincoln Road Romero Britto store and a Sugar Factory. But you come to this dark bar to escape the sins of corporate development while drinking great beer and chatting with strangers. The Abbey stays open till 5am nightly, so it's a great late-night option if you don't want to go anywhere near a DJ. But it's also perfect for an afternoon beer on a weekday, when it feels like a neighborhood pub. Come at 5:30pm to watch local news on mute while nodding along to Tom Petty. Or bring a laptop and get some work done. Last time we were here, we watched someone just leave theirs on the communal wooden bench while they used the bathroom. That couldn’t (and shouldn’t) happen anywhere but The Abbey.

You would think that South Beach has been completely wiped clean of places like La Tiendita, a tiny, affordable Peruvian bodega that also makes some great sandwiches. But thankfully this place persists—in the shadow of Lincoln Road, no less. Their chicken and pork sandwiches are our favorites. The chicken comes with shredded chicken, tomato, lettuce, a creamy sauce, and we’re pretty sure we saw potato chips in there, too. The pork uses a thick slab of tender pork, which goes so well with crispy potato sticks and more of that creamy sauce. It makes for a great beach sandwich, or just a satisfying $9 lunch, which is thankfully not extinct in South Beach yet.

Yes, there are restaurants in South Beach serving food that we wouldn’t wish on our greatest nemesis. But there are also places like Macchialina, where locals tend to outnumber tourists for a reason. This Italian spot isn’t just one of the best restaurants in South Beach—it’s one of the very best in all of Miami-Dade County. The simple dining room is a refreshing antithesis to South Beach maximalism. The pasta is perfect, the martinis are ice-cold, and, most shockingly, it’s all reasonably priced. Macchialina's $70 four-course tasting menu comes with so much food, you’ll feel compelled to ask your server, “Are you sure?” when they drop the check. In a city of scammy restaurants, this place couldn’t be more refreshing.

If Mac’s ever closes, we will delete this guide. Because what’s the point of South Beach without Mac’s? There is none. This dive bar has been the spiritual core of everything great about the neighborhood for the better part of a century now. It’s one of the only bars that makes sense during breakfast hours. It’s cash-only and Happy Hour runs from 8am to 5pm daily. You can still smoke inside. You’re guaranteed to have some weird conversations with strangers. The only small change that’s happened here lately is you now need a code to get into the bathroom. We’ll allow that, but please don’t touch another hair on this perfect dive bar’s head.

Sometimes falling in love with South Beach is about embracing the cliche of it all. And that’s sort of the mission statement of Brother’s Keeper. The bar is named after the first episode of Miami Vice, and it has an amount of neon and mirrors that do justice to that era of South Beach. It’s a great middle-ground bar. You can come here with friends to take shots and dance a little. But it also works for a date—grab a table, order a round of martinis (which come with a croissant), and pretend it’s 1985 and your only worry in the world is how long your perm will last. If you’re hungry, the seafood-heavy bar snacks are great, especially the coconut shrimp, another delightful relic from the ’80s.

There’s only one way you’re dragging us to Ocean Drive at 11am on a Sunday—for drag at the Palace. And while it’s open late, you come here for brunch. The show often spills onto the sidewalk. Wigs are tossed so high in the air they might hit a seagull. We’ve seen performers walk right onto passing Big Bus tours without missing a beat. It’s a glorious two hours of endless mimosas, pretty bad food, and explosively fun drag. Just make a reservation and arrive early if you want a good table. They’ve expanded the seating lately, and are now stuffing folks into crevices of the restaurant that don’t have the best view.

South Beach nightlife rarely feels mature. But this is a cocktail bar for adults. The intimate spot inside the Standard makes you feel sophisticated. The balanced cocktails are served in fancy glasses with crystal-clear ice cubes. The room is dim, sexy, and has a communal horseshoe bar that makes it easy to strike up conversations with tourists. The Standard is the best place to pretend you’re on vacation in Miami, and since we can’t go near much inside the property without spending a jabillion dollars, this bar has become our favorite place to hang out here.

This sounds like a joke. And there is a healthy amount of irony that goes into enjoying Mango’s. But this place is genuinely one of the most well-preserved slices of ’90s South Beach left, and their nightly dinner show is an absolute attack on the senses that will put a big, dumb smile on your face. You can enjoy it by coming here and paying way too much money for dinner. But the Mango’s hack for locals is to just walk in and sit at the bar. The show starts around 8pm, and if you come 20 minutes before, there's usually no cover fee. Stick to beer or straight liquor—the cocktails here are nuclear waste. But the variety show is pure, unfiltered South Beach tourist trap energy. And we kind of love it.

You don’t need us to tell you about Joe’s. Miamians have been talking about this restaurant for over 100 years, and you’ve probably gotten the memo by now. It’s still a lovely place to spend too much money on stone crabs, but the reason it makes us love South Beach is because it proves that good things can last. South Beach is a neighborhood always reaching for the next hot trend, but Joe’s is a reliable sanctuary of strong martinis, $9 fried chicken, and servers who’ve been working the floor long enough to meet the children and grandchildren of their guests. That gives us hope. And we also love the key lime pie.