Yardbird Southern Table & Bar in Miami Beach is now closed.
Miami’s dining scene runs hot and cold, and lately it’s been running heavy on closures. From neighborhood favorites, out-of-state luxury imports, Michelin-recommended spots and buzzy Wynwood hot spots — nobody’s been spared in the past few months. Some are chef-driven spots that barely made it a year. Others survived more than a decade before losing a lease or getting swept up in redevelopment.
Here’s a rundown of the notable closings.
Hard Rock Cafe at Bayside
After more than 30 years, the Hard Rock Cafe at Bayside Marketplace closed permanently on Aug. 19, with 117 employees losing their jobs when the lease ran out. The 350-seat spot opened in 1993 with a rotating 18,000-pound neon guitar on the roof and memorabilia that included Michael Jackson’s $8,000 studded leather jacket and a $15,000 Gibson Flying V that belonged to Jimi Hendrix. Miami Herald dining columnist Kendall Hamersly called the scene “pure bedlam” back in the day, and for a while it really was a tourist magnet. The Hard Rock Cafe at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Davie remains open.
Taquiza
Steve Santana’s blue-corn tortilla operation in North Beach closed after eight years at 7450 Ocean Terrace. The Broadmore Miami Beach hotel is being redeveloped as part of the Ocean Terrace project, and Taquiza — a Michelin Guide-recommended taqueria that started as a pop-up in 2014 — had to move out. Santana, one of the first chefs in Miami to nixtamalize, grind, press and griddle tortillas in-house, called the North Beach spot “an incredible home for us.” The good news for anyone who lives for that charred jalapeño salsa: Taquiza will be reopening in Little River at 8246 NE Second Ave. with fast-casual counter service.
Shiso Asian Smokehouse
One of the most anticipated openings of 2025 barely made it to its first anniversary. Shiso Asian Smokehouse at 239 NW 28th St. in Wynwood — Raheem Sealey’s ambitious project featuring smoked oxtail and uni on cornbread — closed, and the space is being converted into the Wynwood Event Center for weddings and corporate gigs. The Shiso team will stay on as one of the catering options. Sealey, who built his following at KYU before going viral with pandemic-era pop-ups from his North Miami home, will keep cooking at Drinking Pig BBQ in Coconut Grove.
Niño Gordo
The Argentine grill-meets-Asian-flavors hot spot that landed on Latin America’s 50 Best list closed abruptly a little more than a year after opening. Head chef and co-owner Pedro Peña and partner German Sitz debuted Niño Gordo at 112 NW 28th St. in May 2025 with a comic-book aesthetic, a Japanese-inspired sushi-and-cocktail room called Dekotora and a menu that reimagined the katsu sando with shokupan bread and did beef tataki with tuna as a Miami wink. Notably, the closure landed the same week as Shiso’s closing — two losses on the same street in Wynwood. The original Niño Gordo in Palermo Soho remains open.
Yardbird Southern Table & Bar
The Miami Beach original that helped put upscale fried chicken and bourbon on the map has closed at 1600 Lenox Ave. Founder John Kunkel opened Yardbird in 2011, was named to Bon Appetit’s best new restaurants list and eventually built 50 Eggs into a national hospitality group. The letters came off the building and a note on the door thanked customers for “years of laughter, love, memories, and support.” Ownership left the door cracked for a return — “we are hopeful this is not goodbye forever,” the note said — and Yardbird locations remain open in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Singapore.
La Latina
Edgewater lost a neighborhood institution when La Latina closed its doors after 15 years. The Venezuelan arepa shop opened in 2011 from the team behind Miami Slice — co-owners Alejandro Díaz, Alberto Zanetti and Jose Cardenas — and had recently been raising money and collecting supplies for Venezuelan earthquake relief. The restaurant said it will “live on through our sister Tina,” the group’s all-day Coral Gables café that serves the same arepas alongside brioche French toast and soft-shell crab sandwiches. A second Miami Slice location is also opening this week in Coconut Grove
Hillstone at Bal Harbour Shops
Eleven years after opening as The Grill at Bal Harbour on the mall’s second floor, Hillstone closed abruptly with only a brief note on its website: “Hillstone at Bal Harbour Has Closed.” The spot had a loyal luxury-shopping crowd, and the closing caught regulars off guard. The Hillstone at 201 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables is still open. Meanwhile, China Grill — that late-’90s/early-2000s South Beach staple — recently opened at Bal Harbour Shops.