📍 Added in November: I’ve waited two years for Sunny’s triumphant return as they renovated their pandemic-era space (which was really just a glorified parking lot), and now they’re back! Except this time with a swanky indoor dining area and two bars. What I love about Sunny’s is the way it redefines what a classic steakhouse means in the context of Miami. Whatever you do, don’t miss the filthy martinis, the Parker House rolls, and a sleeper hit: the pork chop.

📍 Added in November: Sobremesa is a cute little wine shop in the Miami Shores neighborhood. They carry lots of wine, some funky cheeses, and a bunch of artisanal pantry items, like Rancho Gordo beans. They also hold community events and wine tastings highlighting lesser-known wine producers. It’s the perfect place to stop in on the way to a friend’s or if you’re looking for some additions to your dinner-party menu.

📍 Added in November: Anytime I visit L.A., I make a beeline to KazuNori, which is my favorite hand-roll bar. When I heard that a similar concept was opening here, I obviously had to check it out. What I found was a quaint, delicious, yet super-affordable (quite a surprise!) hand-roll bar that is a perfect addition to Miami’s food scene. I recommend ordering what I did, the “Omakai Experience,” which is essentially an omakase with hand rolls.

📍 Added in November: Off Site calls itself a nano-brewery, but it’s much more than that. Of course, you can come here and just enjoy the beer—at its core, it’s a small, bar-like setting. But in my opinion, you’d be missing out on the real star of the show: the food menu. Since I can't order the whole menu every time I go (I’m just one person!), I typically alternate among the burger, the fried-chicken sandwich, the chicken wings, and the pork rinds.

📍 Added in November: Something you should know about me is that I love soft serve. I think it’s the perfect dessert. I love it so much that I once drunkenly bought two soft serve machines off eBay (I never got them to work lol). So while this drive-thru ice cream shop (previously a Dairy Queen) is a bit far from me, I make the effort to go and enjoy a classic chocolate-vanilla swirl. If soft serve is not your thing, Charlie’s has so many other options that you’re bound to leave happy.

If you find yourself in Miami during the summer, you might feel like your face is melting off from how intense the heat and humidity can be. Thankfully, we Miamians know a thing or two about keeping cool, and one of the tricks is to order a very large icee from A.C.’s Icees. The A.C.’s truck has been around forever, parked in the same exact spot in Coconut Grove’s Kennedy Park. My order: an off-menu mix of lemon and piña colada flavors—the perfect fusion of tart and sweet.

One of the few reasons I’d consider moving to L.A. (controversial!) is for its abundance of Mexican food—I long to wake up and satiate that morning hunger with a juicy breakfast burrito. Recently, that became easier to achieve in Miami thanks to Adrian’s, a pop-up at Imperial Moto Thursday–Sunday and at the Coconut Grove Farmers Market on Saturdays. The move is to get the OG Breakfast Burrito and upgrade it to include the carne asada. You’ll leave full and happy, trust me!

If there’s one thing I love, it’s a really good hot dog. Lucky for me, Arbetter's is a Miami institution that’s been around for 60 years serving just that. It’s clear the place has been around for decades—everything looks as if it has gone untouched. I keep my hot dog order pretty simple: onions, both mustard and ketchup (controversial, I know!), and sometimes sauerkraut, depending on my mood. In my opinion, a Coca-Cola and cheese fries are absolutely necessary accoutrements.

I never really thought of fruit salad as a dish to get excited about. Really, what’s there to a bowl of cut-up, usually unripe fruit? I now realize that the problem was that I just hadn’t yet discovered Athens. It’s a simple concept: fruit, in different formats—sometimes blended, sometimes cut up, always perfectly ripe. I love the fruit salad, which contains a medley of bananas, pineapples, and other fruits topped with a fruit nectar I wish I could replicate at home.

Don’t let the hordes of tourists turn you off from stepping into Azucar. What awaits inside is a very Miami ice cream experience. Think flavors like “Abuela Maria”—the ice cream version of a classic Cuban guava paste snack—and “Café Con Leche”—Cuban coffee ice cream mixed with Oreos. Whichever flavor you end up choosing, there’s nothing more Miami than walking down calle ocho with a huge cone of Azucar ice cream.