Miami BYOB/Local wine shops

any advice or reco’s?

thanks

Drew going there the weekend of July 10th

Usually bring my own wine when we travel there but these places have been recommended in the past. I have only spoken to them on the phone and never been . . .

Leon’s Wine & Liquor Center- http://www.leonswnl.com" onclick=“window.open(this.href);return false;
W Wine Boutique- http://www.wwineboutique.com” onclick=“window.open(this.href);return false;
Cefalo’s- http://www.cefaloswine.com” onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Check with some people on “the other board” who live there . . .

Hey-

Sorry I didn’t see the thread originally: Where in Miami will you be staying and will you have a rental car?

staying at the Ritz in Sobe, and no I will not have a rental car.

With no rental car you’ll mostly be cabbing it up and down South Beach. The Beach is not a real BYO friendly place, and almost everywhere will be charging you corkage. Smith & Wollensky never used to charge corkage, and they just opened a nice outdoor balcony overlooking the water, but I believe they’ve changed their corkage policy chain-wide. If you can BYO wine with you, you might do better than buying it down at the Beach. There’s Epicure market which is a high-end foodstore that sells wine, but I’d say that the best wine stores aren’t really up on Miami Beach, and it will get to be an expensive cab ride to get to.

Any specific type(s) of food that you prefer? I have to admit that I’m not the best Miami Beach restaurant guy but Prime 112 and Devito’s are still pretty hot now… but expensive.

Prime 112 is definitely happening. I am not sure about BYO though. I would also recommend Quattro, Sushi Samba, Casa Tua, the Blue Door, Azul, etc. BYO is kinda touchy at most of these places. They are all excellent and different. Quattro and Sushi Samba are basically in the same place and pretty fun. The Blue Door is in the Delano- loads of fun there. Azul is in the Mandarin Oriental, technically this is in Brickell but its not that far of a cab ride and a good meal. Casa Tua is my favorite restaurant in Miami.

We are going to Prime, Oishi Thai and BartonG (dont ask my wife loves it, not really for the food) and will prob hit nobu one night as well.

I was so UNDER impressed with Casa Tua.

Azul used to be great but we had a couple of meh experiences there and stopped going.

We used to stay at the Delano but it got crazy expensive, dirtier and LOUD.

Looks like we are stuck with the lists, will have to grab some bottles from the cellar for cocktail time.

thanks all

Order light at Prime 112 . . . the portions are huge.

Prime 112 will allow you to BYO but they will charge you corkage. We’ve done it a few times and they don’t make a big deal of it. I heard a good tip at an offline dinner a few weeks ago: when you get to Prime 112 and they give you the line that you’ll have to wait an hour even though you had a reservation, tell them “I’m a local, don’t treat me like a tourist.” Apparently they’ll start treating you a little better and your table will become available quickly.

Sushi samba might be fun for you instead of Nobu… but in the end they are both chains and the meal I ate at the Vegas location tasted pretty similar to the meals in Miami. But it is a fun spot.

If you want to take a cab you can always try out Michy’s (Michelle Bernstein’s place) or Michael’s Genuine which are also still pretty popular places. And there’s also Cuban food!