![\"Yardbird](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/yardbird.JPG\" "\\"Yardbird")
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Yardbird Southern Table & Bar in Miami Beach is now closed.<\/p>\n
Miami\u2019s dining scene runs hot and cold, and lately it\u2019s been running heavy on closures. From neighborhood favorites, out-of-state luxury imports, Michelin-recommended spots and buzzy Wynwood hot spots \u2014 nobody\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a rundown of the notable closings.<\/p>\n
Hard Rock Cafe at Bayside<\/p>\n
After more than 30 years, the Hard Rock Cafe at Bayside Marketplace closed permanently on Aug. 19<\/a>, 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\u2019s $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 \u201cpure bedlam\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Taquiza<\/p>\n Steve Santana\u2019s 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 \u2014 a Michelin Guide-recommended taqueria that started as a pop-up in 2014 \u2014 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 \u201can incredible home for us.\u201d The good news for anyone who lives for that charred jalape\u00f1o salsa: Taquiza will be reopening in Little River<\/a> at 8246 NE Second Ave. with fast-casual counter service.<\/p>\n Shiso Asian Smokehouse<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 Raheem Sealey\u2019s ambitious project featuring smoked oxtail and uni on cornbread \u2014 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ni\u00f1o Gordo<\/p>\n The Argentine grill-meets-Asian-flavors hot spot that landed on Latin America\u2019s 50 Best list closed abruptly a little more than a year after opening. Head chef and co-owner Pedro Pe\u00f1a and partner German Sitz debuted Ni\u00f1o 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\u2019s closing \u2014 two losses on the same street in Wynwood. The original Ni\u00f1o Gordo in Palermo Soho<\/a> remains open.<\/p>\n Yardbird Southern Table & Bar<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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 \u201cyears of laughter, love, memories, and support.\u201d Ownership left the door cracked for a return \u2014 \u201cwe are hopeful this is not goodbye forever,\u201d the note said \u2014 and Yardbird locations remain open<\/a> in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Singapore.<\/p>\n La Latina<\/p>\n Edgewater lost a neighborhood institution when La Latina closed its doors after 15 years<\/a>. The Venezuelan arepa shop opened in 2011 from the team behind Miami Slice \u2014 co-owners Alejandro D\u00edaz, Alberto Zanetti and Jose Cardenas \u2014 and had recently been raising money and collecting supplies for Venezuelan earthquake relief. The restaurant said it will \u201clive on through our sister Tina,\u201d the group\u2019s all-day Coral Gables caf\u00e9 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<\/p>\n Hillstone at Bal Harbour Shops<\/p>\n Eleven years after opening as The Grill at Bal Harbour on the mall\u2019s second floor, Hillstone closed abruptly<\/a> with only a brief note on its website: \u201cHillstone at Bal Harbour Has Closed.\u201d 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 \u2014 that late-\u201990s\/early-2000s South Beach staple \u2014 recently opened at Bal Harbour Shops.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yardbird Southern Table & Bar in Miami Beach is now closed. Miami\u2019s dining scene runs hot and cold,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-371246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}